1972 Duster, 340/4, black on black (the endgame)
Time for an update. No, I haven't been neglecting the car-just the thread :yawinkle: It's been about priming and wet sanding and that's just not all that interesting.
But.
The subframe connectors showed up Friday. I blasted them and burned up some epoxy primer on them, if anything just to get something in the inside to protect it from the elements:
I got the first one in Friday night:
That piece of steel in the foreground is the torque box.
I reworked the connectors (of course). They're designed to connect the front and rear frames, but in doing so they would've "Veed" toward the front. The rear frames are 4" further apart than the front. Since I didn't like the idea of having them in there like that I cut them to run straight from the rear rails. They ended up getting welded into my torsion bar mount reinforcing plates so I'm pretty comfortable that they'll do the job.
Here we are, welded in (along with torque boxes-good thing I waited), blasted and primed:
Another nice thing about this is the outer seat mounts are welded to the connectors, further reinforcing them too.
Tomorrow and next weekend will be about repriming the doors and quarters and working over the hood. The hood is trash. I tried to be the hero and blasted the rust off the inside but of course it warped the hell out of the outside. It hit me last night however that I could get some factory style scoops for it which will hide the worst of it. Someday down the road maybe I'll run across a straight(ish) hood and I'll replace it then.
By next Sunday I should have the beast ready for paint. My target date to start spraying black is the 18th. I'll have a 4 day weekend and should be able to get it all.
Ken
Time for an update. No, I haven't been neglecting the car-just the thread :yawinkle: It's been about priming and wet sanding and that's just not all that interesting.
But.
The subframe connectors showed up Friday. I blasted them and burned up some epoxy primer on them, if anything just to get something in the inside to protect it from the elements:
I got the first one in Friday night:
That piece of steel in the foreground is the torque box.
I reworked the connectors (of course). They're designed to connect the front and rear frames, but in doing so they would've "Veed" toward the front. The rear frames are 4" further apart than the front. Since I didn't like the idea of having them in there like that I cut them to run straight from the rear rails. They ended up getting welded into my torsion bar mount reinforcing plates so I'm pretty comfortable that they'll do the job.
Here we are, welded in (along with torque boxes-good thing I waited), blasted and primed:
Another nice thing about this is the outer seat mounts are welded to the connectors, further reinforcing them too.
Tomorrow and next weekend will be about repriming the doors and quarters and working over the hood. The hood is trash. I tried to be the hero and blasted the rust off the inside but of course it warped the hell out of the outside. It hit me last night however that I could get some factory style scoops for it which will hide the worst of it. Someday down the road maybe I'll run across a straight(ish) hood and I'll replace it then.
By next Sunday I should have the beast ready for paint. My target date to start spraying black is the 18th. I'll have a 4 day weekend and should be able to get it all.
Ken
