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Friday, July 25, 2014

First Exterior Sheet Metal

I've been sort of task jumping, but have accomplished a few things.

I installed the first exterior patch panel and the complicated door corner that had to be made from several pieces of metal. I originally bought a corner piece for a four door, as the seller advertised the shape to be identical to the two door. Not so. I salvaged what I could, but it was mostly a cut and form process, and it's not pretty. The shape is okay, but will take a lot of time to fill and finish.

I decided to paint the floor to give it more protection and scratch resistance than the soft primer was able to provide. It's not the correct white, and will be painted over with the right shade later.

 
 
The underside of the body is half painted and will wait for a cool morning to finish. I had to add some more seam sealer, so wasn't able to paint it all in one session.

When the heat of the afternoon drives me into the house, I've been researching and ordering parts. The center link is on order. Also had to order two tie rod adjusting sleeves, as the old ones were too damaged to salvage.

I gave up trying to drive out the king pin locks, so I took everything in to a shop to have them replaced. I hate giving up on a challenge, but it's not as if I can't find things to keep me busy.

I'm also working with a patterned metal supplier to see if they can reproduce the Fury spear insert, but it doesn't look encouraging. The cost of tooling up for a reproduction part that has a limited market would be very expensive, so I'll probably have to compromise the pattern, or even worse, have to resort to a vinyl graphic. My original parts are too corroded and damaged to even attempt to salvage them. At least that's not an immediate worry.

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