Week #86, 87

I still am determined to get this car sandblasted within a very short time. Before I can do that I really need to have all the new sheet metal at the rear of the car prepped and ready for installation. This week was spent getting the passenger side quarter panel and it's spot on the car ready for attaching.

As with the other side I hung the panel where it was going to be and scribed a line all the way around it. This is basically where the welding will be done. I will be using my handy dandy panel flanger to create the offset that the panel will sit in. When I measured from the scribed line to the line that I wanted to cut along on the car, I had somehow made a mistake and had to go back and trim like an 1/8 of an inch from the panel. I really didn't want to have to do that this time. Again, as for the other side, I took a piece of scrap sheet metal and "kerflunked" an offset flange on it. I used this as a guide to mark just how close I wanted the cutting line to the welding line. This time I allowed more clearance between the weld line and the offset by leaving only 1/4" between the weld line and where I was to cut. With a nice dark line showing where to cut all around, I stuck a new wheel on my cutoff tool and went to it. Within 30-40 minutes I had the final opening cut and ready for flanging. I still needed to scrape of the "undercoating" from around the opening on the inside. I had originally planned on not removing the rear window mechanisms, I would just grease them up and get them working good while still on the car. I changed my mind. They really needed a good cleaning and going through to work properly. I had taken the drivers side unit out earlier when I was fitting that side sheet metal. It came out with no problem. This side gave me problems. I snapped off the two bolts that hold the glass to the mechanism, along with the plastic insulators. Just another part added to the list of things to get. I will want to get these units up to snuff and installed back on the car before I install the quarters.

I received a few comments on the diesel fuel method of removing undercoating. I was encouraged to give the torch method a try. I did just that on the upper edge of the opening to remove the undercoating. It still wasn't fun, due mainly to the awkward position for scraping. It got done. I then flanged the perimeter of the opening on car and after a few test fits and trimmings the panel and car were mated and ready for joining.

With the replacement sheet metal 99% ready for welding I decided that the time had come... I was going to put the car up on the rotisserie... it was time to get this show on the road. The dolly that I have been using uses some of the components of the rotisserie so O needed to get the car up on jack stands and remove the dolly before I could assemble the rotisserie and put the car on it. It took me every bit of 3 hours to remove the dolly, get the rotisserie off the wall and assemble it and have the car totally supported by the rotisserie. I was plum tuckered out by the time it was done. I could just muster up enough energy to rotate the car just to see it work. I still need to raise the car a good foot on the rig to allow the car to rotate all the way around but it was pretty damn cool to be using this piece of equipment after all this time.

This week I will be making a trip to my local sandblasting supply store for a truck load of sand. It is starting to cool off a bit here in North Florida, perfect for a day of sandblasting... the timing couldn't have been better.