Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Day 135

Today I was able to get the glazing putty taken care of for all 4 fender tops.  It went on very easily and is much easier to sand than the filler!  I still need to do the bottoms, I applied the putty, just need to sand it.

I also took my running boards and used my vise to crimp the outside edge more.  Someone suggested it on a forum and so I did it.  I don't think it made much of a difference but made me feel good.

Tomorrow more sanding and onto the body!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Day 134

No pictures today but did get some work done.

I fit the front and rear bumpers and they lined up well.  No major problems.  I did find that I missing four spacers (I had 4 already) for the bumper brackets.  That may explain why the bumpers were hitting things when previously installed!

I also finished the body filler portion of my body work.  It all looks decent enough to continue on to glazing putty.

I got the driver's side door leveled out.  Makes me wonder if the passenger door will also need that much work. I think I'm going to skim coat some glazing putty on it to just make sure.  Or maybe spray primer filler and just see what happens.

I spent the most time today finishing up the rear passenger quarter panel.  If you'll recall, it looked like this.


And then I fixed it like this.



And I don't have a picture, but I had to get the bondo sanded in such a way that made the gap between the fender and the panel look stock.  It took a while!

Hopefully get some things done tomorrow too.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Day 133

I had to be up early for work today (5am, yawnnn) so I wanted a small project that wouldn't take too much time or brain power.

Spent a couple hours putting the running board mats on the running boards.  Relatively simple process with a rubber mallet and a block of wood to crimp the rubber in and then fold the inside edge over another lip.




Of course the parts were German reproductions so the fit and finish was pretty good!

Tomorrow hopefully continue the bumper fitting and final body filler.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Day 132

Well it has certainly been a while.  In fact almost a month.  Looking back this was probably the longest hiatus I had from working on the car.

Part of it was I had been working quite a bit.  Solid weeks in fact with only a couple random days off here and there.  When I have long weeks like that its hard to get all my normal errands done and mess around in the garage.

The other part is just realization it has been 2 years since I started this project!  I've made a lot of progress but sometimes its hard to see the light (6 volt of course) at the end of the tunnel.  Sometimes it is difficult pushing myself to go out into the garage.  But once I'm into a project I really enjoy it.

Anyways, while working I was able to spend some time in Monterey and drove the PCH.  It sealed the fate of my next project, a camper bus!  Or a 54 rag top.  Or....




I also discovered a vacuum leak with my intake manifold which is a real pain because the entire shroud had to come off.  Come to find out, because my heads had been worked on the intake manifold is actually a bit too wide for the engine so it didn't seal properly.



The extra powder coating probably didn't help either.  I put some RTV on the leaky side and we'll see if it comes back.

And finally, today I got the majority of the major body filler work done on the body.  Everything went along pretty well.  I also mounted the fenders to the car to make sure they lined up.



Next I am going to mock up the bumpers to see if they fit OK.  I think there may be a bit of tweaking because the front bumper was tapped at some point in it's life...we'll see.

I also started working on my driver's side door again and got a skim coat of filler on it.  This picture is actually of my second coat to get the low spots.


Caroline is finally moving back in!  So along with that, I straightened up the house a bit and got permission to use one room just for me in the entire house.  That did mean I had to organize a bit more.  So I bought some of the same shelves I have in the garage.




Ta-dah!  Nice and clean.  And organized.  And all to myself.

Now if someone else would just clean up their mess...


Bumper fitting and glazing putty next!