Week #29 thru #32

When we last left you we had test fitted the new re-pop filler at the rear glass. It's fit was excellent. Broke out the quarter inch drill bit and proceeded to drill holes for spot welding along the lip that meets the package tray, the right and left edge that joins the quarters, the horizontal surfaces that overlap the trunk lip, the areas that touch the brackets that come off the inner wheel housings and the portion of the lip that attaches to the braces that come off the package tray. A quick "cleaning up" of the "flashing" around each hole and then a re-fit to mark where each weld will be on the supporting members. after each spot is marked, off the panel comes again to clean up each weld location. Can't have any rust, paint or crud there if you want a good joint, and it's too late if you weld a few spots and then realize you missed, or didn't look at some ahead of time. I mark each spot with a magic marker and then remove the mark with a grinder or something... whatever the minimum tool required to get the mark off. Back on with the panel, this time for welding. Welding those first couple of spots is nerve racking for me... worried I'm doing something wrong... I don't know... like I got it in upside down or something and I wasn't seeing it.

Well, it wasn't in backwards or anything, everything went great. I started with the hardest areas to reach... the lips that mated with the quarter panels. With hardly enough room for me, my hand, the welder, my head and the welding helmet, these welds were a "one at a time" procedure. First I would twist up to see just which spot I would do next, a hold the "gun" where I was gonna weld. I'd weave my way back out, put on the helmet, emotionally prepare, and with one quick motion, dive back in, get the weld and pull back out. Oh... forgot to say... these welds were made from the quarter panel side... you can't access the trunk side!

Did I mention that this rear panel alone required 68 "spot" welds.

Where this panel meets the quarters up at the window channel itself was brazed or something from the factory to help seal off the gap between the two. I welded these areas up, along with the similar areas at the lower, trunk lip overlaps. The only thing left to do at this panel structurally was to replace some "supporting" pieces that connected the window channel lower corners to the package tray area. These areas were rusted out pretty bad. I just welded in little angle shaped pieces to hopefully replace what had rusted away. It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever welded.

You can't imagine how great it was to step back and see a solid window channel all the way around on this car. Yea, the "spot welds" needed to be cleaned up a little and a little spot putty here and there, but what a hurdle I had passed.

I'll use Marine-Tex to smooth out the shape of my hand made corners and paint the whole underside and welded areas with POR-15... No one will have to go through this again... not on this car anyway!