Week #80

I had so much fun whacking one quarter off the car last week... I couldn't wait to get out there and rid the RR of it's other diseased quarter panel.

But first I did a little backing up and cleaned up the welds from attaching the rear panel. I'm getting a bit better at using the cut-off to grind down the bumps from the "retro-spot welds." The biggest plus with using this tool is the total lack of heat build-up... if you keep the wheel moving! The trim holes that I had to fill across the back panel cleaned up so nice that I could hardly feel them as I ran my hand over each spot... makes for very little filler :)

After scraping and sanding off some stubborn, left over paint that the stripper and sandblasting did not get, I wiped down the areas around the
weld spots with enamel cleaner and applied a dab of filler at each spot and also at a low, pitted area at the mid span of where the weather strip goes. After I sand those spots initially, I plan on giving the edges where the rear panel meets the body a good coating of POR15, inside and out, and then give the whole kit-n-caboodle a good coat of quality buildable primer. I'm itchin' to do this so I'll probably get out there during this week.

While working on the drivers quarter last weekend, it was apparent just what a chore the whole quarter pane replacement process was going to be, and I started thinking about the fact that after all the work to do one side, I'll have to start from the beginning on the other side. To make the other side feel like it wasn't being left out... and to keep my progress close to the same for both sides, I grabbed up the tools again and cut off the other quarter along with about half way back on the outer wheelhouse. No surprises... in fact I found this car to be in excellent shape down in it's structural bowels... you know where I'm talkin'... where all the sh*t could be hiding!