After a month hiatus I’m back in the work shop. But before that, yesterday
was a beautiful day here in SE Mich. so we went for I nice drive with the
“hood” down. The winter rest must have been good because she was ready to
go, even minus one rear “wing”. We have a lot of lakes in this area so lots
of nice curves on fairly smooth paved roads. The 15 inch Monolita steering
wheel I installed last year was great with the extra thigh room. The carbon
steel twin exhaust was at its best, with a great resonance at certain rpms.
Finally convinced my wife that once this sheet metal work is done we are
going to take the cat on a long trip.
Meanwhile back in the work shop, found lots of lead on lower right tonneau
in addition to the previously discovered rust. Seems a shunt occurred years
ago and since that area is hard to bump out it was just filled with lots
(3/8") of lead. The mating bumper bracket was quite a different shape than
the left side, assuming from the same shunt. Fortunately a list monitor has
a spare he is willing to provide. Took my new electric grinder with a cut
off wheel and sliced off remains of original spare tire tray on both sides
adjacent to the inner fender flange. Then used some Norton coarse pads to
brighten the remaining flange metal to expose the spot welds. Was able to
grind the welds down and get the flange strip off right side. The outside
(3/4") edge of the lower tonneau has a sheet metal patch brazed in. My
local body shop advises that nothing will adhere well to braze and that it
should be redone.
The original tire tray appears to have studs for attaching the fuel tank
panel rather than holes. I will polish the top side up tomorrow and take a
better look. Also, the inner fenders appear to have been originally painted
black instead of body color. If anyone is still with me here and has any
comments on the black color or studs I’m all ears (eyes?).
Tomorrow I will tackle the left side, including removing the 2 body bolts
that have become very attached to the aluminum shims.