Right Rear Closing Panel Completed

I finished up the right side longitudinal, and put on the rear closing panel. The fit didn't end up being as nice as the panel on the left side, partly due to the way the longitudinal was positioned, partly just do to the fit of the replacement panel. Oh well, this is all going to be painted and undercoated and practically invisible anyway. Not like the rest of the body repairs that I have to do, which need to look perfect.

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped for last week because of family commitments, as well as the fact that I ran out of welding wire on Tuesday right after I got to the shop but didn't really have time to go get more. I wasted the rest of the day by bead blasting and painting a "new" (replacement) tie rod that I got from EASY Auto Parts in California, and working on a few other miscellaneous projects. I only have about 4 or 5 weeks left until my graduate school program starts, so my free time is about to grow very limited indeed. I need to do as much body work as possible during the end of July and the beginning of August!

On Friday, I started out the day by going out to Frank Gibson's shop to get my front hood and decklid for fitting during the remainder of the body work. I placed them on the car for fun, and to remind me of how good (bad?) the gaps were. There is going to be some picking, filing, and filler involved... Before leaving Frank's place, I chatted with him for awhile on the process he used for preparing the car for me after it got media blasted. He used a wash primer after wiping the car down, and then sprayed on PPG DP 90, a black epoxy primer, which is what is still on the car. I talked to him about filler work, etc. and confirmed that it could be done either on bare metal or on top of the DP 90. I'm going to go to my local PPG dealer, get some more DP 90, and do the bottom of the car with it in a week or two with my new Harbor Freight HVLP paint gun. It is important to note that the DP 90 needs to be scuff sanded before any additional primer is applied; this is going to be somewhat of a pain in the ass.

Later on Friday I bead blasted one half of the replacement nose panel that I bought off a wrecked 356 (mail order via the 356 Registry Classifieds) about 6 months ago. Although not misrepresented, I don't think the seller truly knew what bad shape it was in. The front side looked pretty good. After scraping the undercoat from the back side, and blasting, extensive rust pitting and previous repair work was revealed. Enough problems that I'm pretty sure I don't want to put these panels on my car. I'm resigned to spending the big bucks on a replacement T-6 nose panel from one of the 356 vendors, and I'm trying to figure out which one to get.

After that little bit of investigation, I rounded out the rest of my day by cutting out a little bit more of the damage at the top of the right front fender, to examine what I'm up against there. I'm actually not that afraid of this repair, because the curve is very gradual and I don't think it will be a problem to replicate. Just have to take my time, fit carefully, and weld slowly. My house construction project continues to move forward on schedule, if not quite on budget. The foundation is complete and framing will start shortly. Here's a front view of the new garage foundation! Picture the workbench and restoration area on the left side.

More updates later this week.

Posted by pbrown at July 18, 2004 09:51 PM