12/20/07 – Winter Update
OK guys.
Here's what's up.
The car is now sitting on a lift in my new apartment. In the past week or so I have completely removed everything from the chassis, with the exception of the doors, trunk lid and steering column. I removed the front and rear subrame to powdercoat them1, along with the control arms, shock tubes, etc etc2. (removing the rear wheel bearings and hubs was quite an epic process, requiring fabrication of tools and MUCH coaxing) Once they have been blasted and painted, I am going to scrape off all of the undercoating with a torch, scraper and wire wheel.3
Taking it to the blasters was a MASSIVE misadventure. Essentially I got storage for the car for the price of them blasting VERY little of the car... except the WINDSHIELD. It had some slight burn marks in it before from welding, but now it's totally ruined, as there is a 6" diameter area that somehow got blasted. Whatever.4
Now that the subframe is off I see a few areas that need some attention about rust. Initially this project was going to be a budget build, but obviously has spiraled out of control... At this point in time, I wish I had spent another couple grand on a shell, so I wouldn't have to deal with the issue of corrosion, but hindsight is 20/20... such is life. The integrity of the vehicle is not compromised, it's mostly aesthetic, yet a pain in the ass nonetheless.5
Once I get the subframes coated and reassembled, I will snap some pictures and update again.6
It took me a while to get back into the groove of working on this. I remember thinking how shitty the car looked and it was impossible to see where I had spent COUNTLESS hours when all I had was a rolling shell… It will all be worth it though. I just need to keep pushing and not get distracted by summer.
(1) SAFETY ORANGE! I have to recoat the rear subframe, though. I forgot to weld on my camber adjusters. Getting the rear subframe out was a nightmare. Glavanic corrosion really took hold on the bushings.
(2) Black
(3) Or I will pay 800 dollars to have it blasted off. I tried scraping the heavy stuff off but it SUCKED.
(4) Jesse made this up to me later.
(5) I’m just glad that all of the rust is finally taken care of.
(6) I still need to take some pictures of these parts.
