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Off With It!
The air chisel is
being put to good use these days. It's nice to take stuff off
as cleanly as possible so as to see how the new stuff fits in.
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Silliness
I've been entering
the car 'Dukes of Hazzard' style for the first few days. My back
and the car's rear floor have been taking a beating though, so
I've decided to raise the car and slide underneath.
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The Old Firewall
As far as I can tell,
the best place to begin is up front. The firewall and the rear
supports hold the heater channels in place and thus support the
whole upper part of the car. Replace front and back, put in the
heater channels and away we go....sounds easy.
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The New Firewall
We won't even talk
about removing the old firewall. It was a real test of courage
and persistance. Much cursing was involved and of a bit of blood
was shed. The new one welded in pretty easily.
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How It Went In
Lots of clamps, a
bit of time and using the old metal as a guide; these were the
tricks involved in positioning and welding in the new piece.
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To the Rear
The trick here was
the careful removal of the old section and careful installation
of the new. As you can see, the outside edge of the rear brace
has nowhere to mount at the moment. Lining this up has me a bit
concerned.
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Next Piece
I decide that in order
to align the previous piece, I needed to put in the next one.
This is the outside rear quarter panel, the old one was still
in place, but rusty, so I'm pretty sure I have this one placed
properly.
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Getting It UP!
Working on the lower
end of the car was turning into a real back-breaker. With the
help of a few strong neighbours, I tied the body to the roof
with 3/8" nylon rope. I then supported the car from underneath
for safety.
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Spring Is In the Air
After some frustrations
with the bug, I decided to turn my head around by bringing out
my 1973 camper. It's a great feeling firing up the old bus for
the first time in the spring. I'll do an oil change and a quick
lube job on her before serious spring driving begins.
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