Tunes

Gotta have tunes when you work.  I got this from my friend Kevin, who got it from his friend Bob, back in 1996 or something like that.  It's got an EQ and everything.  It's boss.  I plug my iPhone into it and rock out to Tarzan Boy and Huey Lewis.  A little Zeppelin, too.

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What Lies Beneath

Here's what I have left... it's not pretty.  The passenger's side took a beating some time in the distant past, and the A pillar and firewall is a mess.

 

 

  

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Break On Through, To the Other Side

Fall... what a wonderfully cool and pleasant time in Arizona.  It's car-fixing weather!

Now that the driver's side is basically done, it's time to move on to the passenger's side.  Here's what I've got to work with.

 

 

  

  

 

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Summer Breaks

It gets hot in AZ in the summer.  I know, right?  So I don't work on the Midget during the summer.  I eventually do something about that.

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Battery Tray, Redux

I ordered a battery tray to replace the one I dorked up with my inverse polarity warp drive / welder. Getting the old one out was not fun.  Installing the new one was not fun.  But it was very satisfying to be done with it.

 

 

 

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Fender Fixes

I replaced the driver's side inner fender.  By this point I also have installed the outer rocker panel.  Bending that lip over to wrap around the bottom of the floor pan was a real pain.  I'm so lucky to get to do it again later.

 

 

 

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Still Fits...

I hung the driver's side door... still looks pretty good.

 

 

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Finishing the Foot Well

Now that the floor pan's in place, time to close it all up.

Here you can see those lovely clecos again and the replacement lower hinge all welded in tidily.  That floor pan looks nice, if I do say so myself.

 

 

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Halfway There on 5 Percent of the Work

I welded in the driver's side floor pan.  Only one half to go and I'll be 5 percent done.  Okay, maybe 10 percent.

 

   

My spot welds are improving, but not beautiful... I'll go with well-attached and make pretty later.

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CLECO-Vision

With the inner sill tack welded in place, I got the floor pan all lined up.

My computer nerd/airplane geek dentist (Matt Ford) mentioned these little spring-loaded temporary rivets called clecos that he uses to hold panels in place for riveting.  I bought a couple of dozen and the super special pliers to install and remove them, and man are they great.  You can see how useful they are in this picture where the floor pan is held in place and ready for welding.  There is no way I could have clipped or held that big panel in place otherwise.

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