Mark's (914Rubber) Project Car Options

[cary]

I've been asked by Mark to do some sheet metal/body work on his 75 2.0 Liter project car. The car arrived last Monday. But I needed to finish up a couple things on my project car and in my shop first. But I dove in this afternoon.

First task is to tidy things up after the paint stripping. Which included dropping the engine in order remove any residual media in the nooks and crannies. I was concerned with the rust prevention product that Dustless Blaster mixes with the glass media being left on and in the electrical connections. I'm a firm believer of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I dribbled some OSPHO on a couple connectors in my white car. Not good. It ate the crap out the plating.

Here's Super In Law working on loosening up the media in order to blow it off. It will need to be steam cleaned.






Project List : So Far

Replace rear panel
Replace rear trunk floor pan
Replace back half of floor pan ............... Mark I'll send you pictures
Misc. hammer and dolly work
A few misc. patch panels
R&R both jack points and posts
This is like a new car compared to my project ...............

Observations :

Suspension Consoles look great and seem to be virgin.
Same with the motor mounts
Battery tray was changed at some time in its life
Back engine tray is bent to hell .............pushed up
Hell hole is filled with caked in blast media. Stopping at Sears on the way home for a new filter for my vacuum. I'll look closely for prior repairs.
Both the lower longs look great at first glance

Needing more research :

A few rust pits on the upper right outer wheelhouse long


But we also a have fairly good sized rust spot a little further up the upper long. Right next to the suspension console.


These are both in the double walled section of the upper long.

[cary]

Rear Taillight Panel Install
Ready to go .............


So we start with trimming both the qtr. panels and the refurbished taillight panel. I've kind of been dreading this. The bottom and the middle are easy. The top channel is pretty small and thin. I've determined that I'll split the double layer inside the trunk channel for my welding points. Top layer is the qtr. panel. Bottom is the tub.
Cut#1 is removing the tail left on the taillight panel




Cut#2 - Removing the channel flange


Next task is To Get The Lead Out ............
Super In Law handles it .......... Old School torch it and pull it out with a wire brush.


This what you see under the pretty lead finish. I'm thinking I'll get the new fake lead kit from Eastwood and try to replicate it. Leaving it would create a low spot for water to collect under the seal.


Then I went about cleaning (the best I could) the insides of the panel sandwich with the air saw. Pulled out lots of seam sealer. I didn't get it all, had some come thru on my welding and contaminant the weld (pin holes).


With both qtr. panels trimmed up I could now lay the taillight panel into it's new home and take measurements for the cut out of the channel. Prior to the test fit I had cut the channel portion in half with the cut off wheel.

The pencil line is were the factory spliced them together under the lead. So they would have torch welded in the diagonal cut, then spot welded in the support corner. If they had been a little more precise with the spot welder, removing the support corner would have been a better route. But because these were hand built cars, they on occasion lay one spot weld on top of another. Which makes a big frikking ass mess trying to drill out the spot welds. Leaving you with just about nothing when your done.

Here's a couple shots of the channel cut out. Just lightly make the cut on the scribed line. Then peel if back with the wood chisel or small screw driver.



Once again being of the IE mind set. I have multiple die grinders all with different size wheels. So I can jump to different sizes as I'm cutting up against different angles.