Hrrrmph. Well I made a fair bit of progress today but it was very frustrating. I had big panel fit problems today which cost an unnecessarily large amount of time. Such is life.
Before I got into the garage a box arrived from Paruzzi.
As expected they were two panels for the step into the cab. Even with them in my hands I could see that both panels were of very low quality and didn’t even fit with each other as they should.
I started by putting a plate in to join the cross member to the A-post.
I forgot how I did the step on the other side and didn’t think to check my blog. So I started cutting out the inner step section.
Next step was to tack the floor repair section in place. I was going to regret this later. The outer edge was way too high and ended up a couple of centimetres above the step.
For the time being, in blissful ignorance, I carried on cutting out the step.
Meanwhile the SVWT busied herself with the fresh air grill. This was a long and labourious process. With the pain mostly off it was clear that this would need replacing at some point in the future. For now it will get a layer or RX5 and then some RX10 to keep it in a reasonable state for a couple of years.
The grill opening itself, besides the layers of paint is in reasonable condition.
The clips that the retaining screws fit into will need replacing though. A layer of RX5 won’t go amiss either.
Back with the step I finally got the inner and outer repair sections in place, and after removing half the tack welds on the floor and repositioning the repair patch welded it all together. I’d spent ages trying to get the inner step repair plate to fit the outer step repair plate. It tired me and frustrated me a lot. I ended up doing about half what I had hoped to be able to do today.
I finished the day off with a skim of filler on the underside of the front door, some more filler on the back of the driver’s side front wheel arch and some flexible seam sealer on the join between floor and side panel. It gave me a slight feeling of having achieved something.
Tomorrow, I will start with the floor making some patches to connect the wheel arch to the cab floor. As with the driver’s side the bottom bit of the front wheel arch was very rusty. I discovered a couple of holes under the front seat that I will patch and one closing plate is needed around the A-post. Then I will tackle the rear N/S wheel arch which is as bad as the one on the other side (was).
Mama writes:
I think frustration is as tiring, if not more, as the real physical work. And the pressure of time… I pray that today your day may be easier. I admire Damae's skill and dilligence and energy too… "Just a little more…" as Jelena used to say to me when I was looking for a bench to sit on every couple of hundred yards, when walking was exhausting after the op.
Mama writes:
What I fail to notice consciously was that you can drive the car, since you turned it around! Hurray!
Yes it has been turned around several times in the last few years. Everything seems to work and now I have put back the missing nuts from the exhaust the engine sounds nice too. Idles well without to much tappet rattle.