Nothing of interest here

[Homey15]

Very clever job of getting the wood against the firewall to move the metal. You have made tremendous progress on a tricky job. Good work!

Thank you sir!

Yeah, some serious straightening herein. Love it. What’s your thoughts on keeping the heat at bay when/if you grind those panel welds flush to keep from reversing your “(don’t ) ratchet strap pulling and BFH hammering?”

...slow and steady is your friend on both welding and grinding as it pertains to body/sheet metal work. If you're not that patient you can use compressed air and a blow gun to keep the metal cool. I use 2 and 3" 36 grit roloc wheels on a 1/4" 90°angle grinder for my grinding duties. they're magnitudes better than a 4" electric for controllability and precision. To more directly answer your question- I probably won't. Ultimately I'll put quarters on it to get rid of all Po's butchery/still present rust holes. In the meanwhile I will rock it as is, and call it "character"

 

[Homey15]

Friday March 4
Set the hardtop back on the b pillar pull was perfect the top drops right into place now. I still wasn't happy with the gaps on the left cowl so I pulled the pedals and booster for better access for some additional BFH finesse. Also wasn't happy with the door fitment so did some more pulling on the A pillar

 

[Homey15]

Fri mar 4 cont'd.

Was MUCH happier with the panel fitment. Did some more misc. Metal straightening. Digging around for tools and found this dusty ass bottle of wild turkey in the shop that's got to have been there 5 years so I opened it up and mixed myself a drink in celebration of doors that close.

 

[Homey15]

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[Homey15]

Pulled misc brackets and the locked up steering gearbox. Spent a good portion of the day getting bolts broken loose and ran all the way out and then back in on everything from under hood fasteners to fender bolts to underbody heat shields and line retainers. That many less I'll have a problem with as I need them in/out later. Twisted one battery support bolt but was otherwise successful.

 

[Homey15]

Still fighting the fuel tank strap bolts they're being a real pain in the ass. They're both broke loose and will make several revolutions now before getting hard to turn and needing ran back in. I wanted to get penetrating oil on the top side of the threads so I eyeballed it and made a couple holes, they landed pretty close. I'll use these holes to rustproof this support cavity later and plug them with Christmas tree fasteners. The tip of the screwdriver is where the bolt actually is, measurements in case anybody else is inclined to do this they can land closer to dead center than I did.

 

[Homey15]

Didn't get any wrench time today but had a banner day for parts acquisition. Rolled out at 8 this morning for a RoadTrip to lincoln ne for all of this goodness for a grand. Big THANK YOU to @GreggL not only did he give me a amazing deal, but he was a hell of a nice guy. Even spent a good half hour helping me play cruiser parts Tetris in the back of my Tacoma. Got a bunch of stuff I wanted but thought cost prohibitive and other items I would ultimately need to have but wasn't even looking for yet. Awesome!

 

[Homey15]

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[Homey15]

And of course the hood that sparked the whole trip.

 

[Homey15]

Was supposed to make a separate, smaller road trip this evening for a set of OEM steelies/tires and hubcaps then this happened so will try again tomorrow after work. Glad we made it to and from the Lincoln trip before this hit.

 

[Chungas Revenge]

Fri mar 4 cont'd.
Digging around for tools and found this dusty ass bottle of wild turkey in the shop that's got to have been there 5 years so I opened it up and mixed myself a drink in celebration of doors that close.

TLC karma.....

 

[Homey15]

I couldn't take it I had to bolt up the hood to see how bad the front end sheet metal alignment was. Of course it looked ok just sitting there but bolted down could be an entirely different story and I had to know. With absolutely no other adjustments I threw in a couple hinge bolts per side and I was very pleased to find this

 

[Homey15]

Yet another bonus surprise of the haul. I do believe I I'll go ahead and use the "new to me" one. Also now have the missing duct between the blower box and heater box. At this rate, I'm gonna mess around and have a semi-complete, johnny cash "one piece at a time" style, piece-of-shlt cruiser. Exciting stuff.

 

[middlecalf]

Ok, now you’re just showing off !

If I may ask, what part of Kansas are you in? I spent 9 years in Wichita a few centuries ago. Don’t remember snow, but definitely ice, and one tornado.

 

[Homey15]

Ok, now you’re just showing off !

If I may ask, what part of Kansas are you in? I spent 9 years in Wichita a few centuries ago. Don’t remember snow, but definitely ice, and one tornado.

Sorry, I couldn't resist haha. I'm in the Manhattan area. This is the most snow I've seen on the ground at once all winter I'd say we're currently at 4"+ and we set a record high temp of 81 on Wednesday. Crazy. I spent a year in hutch at tech school, (also many years ago) which was much closer to your old stomping grounds. Don't remember much snow there either, but some crazy thunderstorms and torrential downpours

 

[middlecalf]

Crazy weather for sure!

Go Wildcats, yes?

 

[Homey15]

Crazy weather for sure!

Go Wildcats, yes?

Meh, if that's your thing. Seems like for lots of people it is, I've just never cared. Time better spent in the garage in my opinion but to each his own.

 

[Homey15]

Today's wheel recovery mission was much more successful. Saw some interesting signs along the way...

 

[Homey15]

True to it's namesake it was a pile of crap I wouldn't want to have to drive every day...

 

[Homey15]

But at my next GPS mandated turn, things started looking better