Progress report, Junkyard Dog

[detmatt1]

The only thing left holding the whole cowl section in after yesterday are the base of the a-pillars. I spent a couple hours immobilizing and leveling the steel rack the car is attached to and braced off the roof section with falsework to make sure it doesn't pop out of place when the cowl is cut free. I also went ahead and documented the location of the front framerails so that I can be sure they don't move through this process. should have it out today and I'll ad some pics later I just realized I left my camera out in the shop.

 

[detmatt1]

Here are the pics of the bracing I added to support the roof structure, they are among only a few precautions I took to make sure that nothing moves during this process. I have one more a-pillar to drill out and it will be freed up, I should have it out tomorrow and I'll post more pics after. :grin:

 

[Donny]

that's a lot of bracing in there! Looks like my Kindergarten jungle gym monkey bars! You going to yank the roof skin off?

 

[detmatt1]

that's a lot of bracing in there! Looks like my Kindergarten jungle gym monkey bars! You going to yank the roof skin off?

I don't remember hitting my head climbing in and out of the schoolyard monkey bars as many times as I have climbing through these. Roof skin is fine on this car, I wouldn't have bought it if it needed a new one!!:rolling:.
I just had the urgency turned up on getting it to the media blaster, looks like I'll be going out of town for business for 3 weeks in May sometime and want to have it blasted and at my buddies body shop before I leave. I was planning to do ALL of the metal work on this, my first full resto, myself, but it is very tempting, in the name of forward progress, to have some work done on it while I am gone. What would you do??. BTW I am going down to the Carribean to work a job that I have had going down there for 3 years, but it has been a solid 2 years since I was there last and I am pretty stoked about it!.:grin::grin::grin: Here is a pic of the project the last time I was there, from what I understand, not much has changed on it since then. The job was put on hold buy the island's building department for a year and when they lifted the hold they had to fix all of the zoning violations. The architect hadn't submitted a plan change in over 5 years and there had been lots of changes, they finally got sick of her B.S.. They were going to make her move the 3 buildings back 9', me and 3 other guys and a crane erected these 3 years ago and I'm here to tell you they would have been a bitch to move!. The architect talked them into letting her fill 1 of the 2 pools in front of them and planting some trees on top of the filled in pool. I can't wait to get back there, what a beautiful place to work!

 

[Donny]

Wow, we have more in common that just MOPARS! Jeesh, the Caribbean? I used to live there; Antigua, Barbados, St. Maarten, and St. Vincent. Where's the pics taken, what island? If you have a 3 week window to get something media blasted, for me, that's just barely too long to have a car in my shop taking up space. Make sure you see the car before it's put in primer; way too often my peers in this business cover up with primer what they DON'T do, this is why I tell people to get it painted elsewhere, so far this business model has been working very well for me.

 

[detmatt1]

Wow, we have more in common that just MOPARS! Jeesh, the Caribbean? I used to live there; Antigua, Barbados, St. Maarten, and St. Vincent. Where's the pics taken, what island? If you have a 3 week window to get something media blasted, for me, that's just barely too long to have a car in my shop taking up space. Make sure you see the car before it's put in primer; way too often my peers in this business cover up with primer what they DON'T do, this is why I tell people to get it painted elsewhere, so far this business model has been working very well for me.

After the media blaster it goes to my friends body shop for the primer, he's got my back. I will be on Mustique, I can see St. Vincent from the jobsite!. What were you doing down there?.

 

[moparstuart]

I have a customer here locally , he ownes taco bells and pizza huts in st maartins . I sell him motors and trannys for his delivery vans . They burn them up on the hills down there . He ships them on his food containers out of florida .

 

[detmatt1]

Cowl is out!. Looks crazy doesn't it?:grin: Huge precautions before I did this!!!!

 

[69 Runner]

OK. I made a reference to your project cause someone wanted me to post pics of Agent J. J ain't that bad

 

[Donny]

Sint Maarten has little hills, not too many, they have 'em, but, not too many roads go up them, if so, they are not that long. The French side is awesome, that's called St. Martin. I was also living in St. Vincent, up in Georgetown under the volcano for 6 months, it was great, kind of remote, but awesome indeed! I was a Mormon missionary down there, that was a long time ago too brudda!

 

[Donny]

Oh yeah, your rocker panels look good and solid, amazing! Mine were not too amazing on my GTX.

 

[74sundance]

That's NUCKING FUTS!!! or maybe you are???? lol Keep up the good work

 

[detmatt1]

Oh yeah, your rocker panels look good and solid, amazing! Mine were not too amazing on my GTX.

The only bad spot on the rockers is the top of the passenger side under the forward door jamb and it will be an easy fix.
Doing missionary work you probably didn't make it over to Mustique, which is just the other side of Bequi (probably didn't spell that right):grin:

 

[cultphotos]

Impressive work!

 

[Donny]

I bet 'cha it looks the same under my Satellite A Pillar lowers too! Well, no, never made it to Bequia (sp), but when I was in Sint Maarten, we took a day over in Anguilla and ran into Chuck Norris! One thing about being in the Jungle of Northern St. Vincent, heading into the Jungle to wash clothes, you never know what lovely smooth skinned young sexy girls are out there doing their clothes! Oooohh la-la!!!

 

[Clay Dots]

nice progress there, keep swinging away at it. best wishes!

 

[tantop]

got some serious metal work going on there dude !! keep the pictures coming , love looking at this kind of stuff

 

[detmatt1]

got some serious metal work going on there dude !! keep the pictures coming , love looking at this kind of stuff

Thanks new guy!, I'll be back at it today. I have been working on putting new carpet and having new Legendary skins put on my father's `71 Challenger convertible. Spent the whole day yesterday restoring his seat tracks.
Today it is back to metal mania with the "JUNKYARD DOG"!.:grin:

 

[detmatt1]

Had to do some home media blasting, Donny you'll appreciate this. Anywhere I have done any welding or assembly work prior to the professional media blasting I am working towards I like to spot blast so that there is no rust in the joints. I then clean the metal well and spray it with a weld through primer. Being that I am putting this new cowl on and then reinstalling the inner fenders, I had some spot blasting to do. Here is how it looked.:grin:
I also did some further prepwork on the replacement cowl this weekend and restored the seat tracks from my dads `71 Challenger convertible. I am having new seat covers installed on his seats and will be putting new carpet in it too this week.

 

[Donny]

Looks good! I love looking and reading stuff like this!