No more breeze...

With my blower assembly out of the dash I thought I'd check the foam around the connections and closure mechanisms.  Welllllllll, it disintegrated.  All of it.  Gone.  Bye-bye.

So I cleaned up the areas and installed new foam.  Should be good for another 33 years now ;-)

Did a small repair with one of those UV light pens and it worked amazingly!  Actually held the unit up by the small piece with no issues right after doing the repair.  Makes epoxy seem, well, less awesome.

Then we (me and the boys) dismantled the rest of the original Cruiser doors.  Lots of good parts and pieces to keep for decades and decades...

Grill it up...and stuff.

Got around to repainting the grill and emblems.

Also painted the window trim (was chrome) a nice gloss black.

Started setting the door hinges in place so I can hang the doors, tighten the hinges, and then seam seal the hinge tops and sides... something that has to be done once the doors sit perfectly in their place.

Painted the door handles too...

Oh, the gravel guard on the rear quarters and front of the hood got a second coat and all the tape/edge pulled off.

PS: In case any of you were wondering, yes, yes it does take a great deal of time to do a project like this, especially when it's your first time!

Sidetracked with little stuff...

I haven't been able to find anyone who is available to come and help me "perfectly" fit my firewall onto the body as this is very important for window fitment and a good seal apparently.

However, there have been a number of other smaller things which needed to be done eventually, so here's some pics of random things I've been doing these past few evenings.

Old meets new...

This is a bit of a milestone evening as I was able to swap locations of the frame and body (from shed to shop and vice versa), and then fit the old firewall (LHD) into the new body (which was RHD).

The fitment is encouragingly good, but there are a few fine adjustments and repairs necessary before it can be welded into place.  This moment was one that I've been waiting for as it will require the assistance of a professional so I'm hoping that John from RADD will be able to give me a hand...just another extension of his generosity towards this project!

Frame and misc painting

The rear portion of the frame has now been re-supported, which includes:

- Inner frame rail support drilled for body mounts and spring perches.  This is 3/16" plate and the hardware for the body mount brackets and spring perches holds it in place.
- New body mount brackets bolted up with lock tight and tops welded to frame.
- Spring perches installed with new bolts/nuts/lock washers and lock tight.
- Inner frame rail boxed in with another piece of 3/16" plate, with access holes for hardware.
- Rear frame painted with gloss black and then asphalt rust proofing.

"Mouse holes" drilled into lower frame for flushing out the frame of debris and easier to add rust preventative products into the inner frame.

Drilled and fitted new bottom battery tray pieces.

Painted air intake, fan shroud, fuel tank straps, battery tray pieces, and a couple relays that live in the engine bay.


This now means the frame is essentially ready to have the body dropped onto it!

I now need to marry the old firewall into the new body and then it can be dropped onto the frame!