RH Front Rocker Adjustment, Rust Pile, Sandblasting

For this week I adjusted the front door to rocker gap by cutting a slit in the rocker and pushing it in about 1/8 of an inch. It sits pretty flush with the door now and I'm satisfied. The corner of the door skin needs a little of adjustment but I'll do that a day when i have the door off.

Decided it's time to try sandblasting again. My first attempt worked but it went through the media way faster than I had expected. Reclaiming and reusing the media was needed. With that in mind I started cleaning up the disaster the car project created of the garage. In doing so I laid out a bunch of replaced parts and took a picture. It's not all the pieces that have been replaced as the RH floor and sills were gone already when i bought the car. But most of the major rust has been replaced except the hatch floor and inner fender wells.....and a bit on the drivers door......and the upper corners of the dash support......and the windshield frame...and the hatch frame. Ok so I have a lot more to do. But it feels like it's most of it by volume anyway.

Sand blasting this time I made a cardboard area to capture most of the media so I could reuse it. I also sifted/screened the media before use (even the new stuff) to remove larger chunks that would clog the blaster nozzle. Oh I forgot I previously had been using fine media (coal slag).
It worked but was slow work as it would only clear a small path. Thought I would try a bag of medium. The medium was much coarser and my machine wasn't able to use it. It just clogged up all the time. Wasn't even able to use the bag up. I dumped it out and put the fine back in. And was able to get that to work pretty well. But it is slow work and goes through the media relatively fast. I like the end results though.

Also did a bunch of small tweaks to the fender to improve it's contour and remove some of the waves in it. If I can get the fenders and where the fender mounts sandblasted it'll be prime and weld on time. Really looking forward to that.

Home Made LH B Pillar Fender Patch

This week I made and installed the b-pillar fender patch for the LH side. For the RH side I had purchased one but it required so much work with the shrinker stretcher to get the profile right that I didn't think I'd loose much by making my own. So I did. Think it turned out pretty well, Also welded the patch in.

Other things completed was fitting the LH rocker panel to the car. It fits much better at the front of the door than the RH side. Did a quick profile comparison and no they are not the same. Ugh. Where is that guy that posts that he never has had any fitment problems with replacement panels? But was happy at least one side is good. As far as inboard outboard the LH as a bit of a bulge in it. Not sure if I'll cut and weld it or no. The door is original and had a few bumps and is not straight anymore. Might be just as easy to form the door to the Rocker contour.

Also welded in the rear valence brackets that are on the Right and left edges where it welds to the top. And also welded in the RH tail light mount plate. In the next week or so I'd like to move to prepping for painting the inside parts of the fenders, rockers and structure and welding them on. Everything takes longer than expect so who knows how far I'll get.

Rear Valence Welded On

 Since I last wrote I did a bit of work to the LH fender. This fiddly stuff is very taxing on my patience at times and feels like the project will take forever. Made the decision to weld on the rear valence. Would be a step forward and feel like I was completing something. So that's what I did and I was right. Feels much better having that step out of the way. Though the car looks about the same as when the valence was screwed into place. It is much more solid. I welded the plug welds from the underside of the car so the rear looks nice and doesn't need grinding.

Of course after 2 welds I ran out of welding wire. Went to the store to buy another 2 lb spool and realized I should just buy a 10 lb spool. Then found the hole in the center of the 10 lb spool is bigger and I don't have an adapter. So fabricated an adapter and am good on welding wire for awhile.

Also picked up a NOS RF fender. Spent enough time on the rear fenders that I was happy to not have to do that on the front fender. Oh it will look so nice on the car.

$3 Shrinking Disc

Finally tried my hand at a shrinking disc. Seems the going rate was $30-$60 for bought ones or many just make their own. Thought I'd try to make one. Used a piece from a chicken feeder I bought at the farm supply store for something like $3 and change. Drilled a hole in the middle for the angle grinder and voila.

Had a hard time believing it would work very well. But wow. The shrinking disc is almost like magic. Some of the warps in the metal from the heat from welding came right out easily. Getting the area around the welds flat and smooth was a bit more challenging. Especially on lap joints. I had heard they were stronger but they failed to mention using the hammer and dolly go get the joint flat afterwards is way harder :-)

Anyway spent some good time on the RH rear fender. I had seen a video where the guy used a marker to cover the area then lightly sand it to show the high and low spots. That worked pretty well though a wider marker would be good. While not perfect it is much improved. I'll put it aside for now and work on something else.