January 2003: Final Tweaking Of The Tub

January marks the two year point on this project. The painting steps of the project are almost completed. We have taken the coldest months of the year to finish the prep work and get ready to put on the last gallon and a 1/2 of the color onto the tub.

Left rear view: there is a bit of final skim coats being put on the exterior. The bits of white tape indicates a visual spot check has been made of any defects left on the tub itself and the last minute sanding will take place in that area.

A few more spots on the right hand side are being smoothed out prior to block sanding. The lower trim holes are being eliminated so these areas are in the final tweak stages.

The inside is pretty much done. This area will be painted first, along with the underside of the tub, trunk and engine compartment.

A close-up showing the clean look of having the steel completely stripped of all original paint and primer.

The area that was modified on the transmission tunnel was spot undercoated before painting.

The front end is done, except for a few quick spot sanded areas. This area has been completely made over with new steel in the core support and two new fenders. This should look awesome when painted.

The firewall areas have been undercoated now. Seam sealer was applied to areas to keep water out.

This area has come a long way from the original condition prior to media blasting. It's very clean.

The fuse box area can harbor rust in the future. This area has been sprayed with inner body rust treatments prior to final painting to eliminate as much as possible the fact that "rust never sleeps".

Undercoating has been applied to the underside of the front spoiler lip edges. Inside panels have been sprayed with the treatment of the fuse box as mentioned earlier.

For you taking notes, this was used on the fuse box and other areas to minimize growth of rust in hard to paint areas.

Driver's side fender well is complete with undercoating. This will be painted to match the rest of the car when completed.

On top, the sunroof area is about as clean as you could ever want it. The panel has already been final painted. This was the part of the car I always hated - it looks like hell on just about any original car that has seen rain up there - it's hard to keep clean over time due to the channels left for water to move around on.

The area under the dashboard looks ready to go. I'm not too worried about replacing the heater box when you have all this area to put back like it was.

Final tweaking of the c pillars. The rear deck lid may or may not have speakers, I'm undecided. If it does the holes are already there. The inside back seat areas have been sprayed with inner panel rust treatments.

The view inside the trunk area. Some of the fluid you see is from the inner panel rust preventative.

Darrel is treating the inside of the panels where paint doesn't always find its way with rust treatments.

X marks the spot where a hole saw will create access holes to securely tighten the rear bumper of the euro style bumpers. The original bumper holes will be bolted shut and sealed up to prevent water from entering those areas.

Lastly, the white stuff is chip guard which will give a nice texture similar to the original treatment on the car. The black is a sound proofing material being applied to the back side. The battery tray will be located here so this will be mostly covered up. More on that setup next month, when final paint is applied.