Quote:
Originally Posted by mhanyok
This thread is incredible. I'm in awe of your skills, effort, and attitude. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride!
|
I really appreciate the encouragement. Some of the threads that I've been reading through here over the last few months here have been very entertaining and/or helpful, so I'm hoping that I can provide some entertainment or insights for others (even if it is just my future self).
I made some progress this weekend that I'm pretty happy with. As I was comparing to the existing lateral panel, I'm wondering if the intent of RD was to be able to use the inner longitudinal piece without the panel that I fabricated. They provide a flange on the seat mount bracket that extends to the floor, whereas the factory part doesn't - requiring the panel that I made to support it on the outside. I wasn't able to get photos to show what I mean, since the driver's side is still mostly covered and the passenger's side was rusted to oblivion, but I'll try and remember to get a phot later.
I treated and painted where I could reach, but everything will get hit again before it is sealed up, to cover the back of the welds.
I was finally able to get the corner and bottom of the door post on, although there is still a gap to fill between the RD piece and the piece that I made to wrap around the corner. I don't really like having to quilt together several small pieces, but don't see an alternative.
When I was welding the diagonal seam of the corner piece, I was getting a lot of contamination from burning paint (and whatever else was in there) and had to grind out and redo it. I may do some isolated sand blasting to try and clean out those crevices in any similar scenarios in the future, but I don't know if it would really help if I can't reach to nooks and crannies.
The front and back halves still need to be joined up and the bottom of the heel panel, but I'm going to drag the doors and roll bar cover out and try to check the alignment of the window to where the seal would be before making those welds. I'm a little suspicious of the factory manual dimensions for the Targa opening, so I want to verify that I have enough space to fit the top, without having a gap at the back of the windows.