Alright gents, time for another update.
I know it’s pretty quick on the heels of the last, but after the colossal undertaking it took to do that one, this’ll be the first of (hopefully) weekly updates from here on out.
Overall it was a pretty slow week, but I did get a few minor details looked after and crossed off the list. Last weekend I hit all three of the biggest auto wreckers in the city and while I didn’t score anything of particular interest, I did manage to scoop up 4 really nice and super soft door bump stops. The ones I had still left on the car were rock hard and missing at least half of them.
A little cleanup, and pop them in place:
The other major accomplishment for the week was getting the lower section of the fender block sanded out and the flush mount marker light fitting a little better. It was a tad tight fitting with the additional paint and primer on it, and I wanted a little wiggle room so I don’t chip any of the edges. No pics here as there really wasn’t anything to see.
Back inside the door edge, I applied a little trick I’ve been contemplating for a while now to the spot inside the door that the door popper/seatbelt retractor rides on. Hard spring loaded plastic and fresh soft paint rarely play well together, so to avoid the inevitable damage this would’ve caused, this is what I came up with:
Many years ago I worked with what is now a very good friend of mine in a truck accessory shop. You know the kind, running boards, bed covers, that sort of thing. We used to do a ton of rolling bed covers, and there were almost always spare stake pocket covers left after the install depending on the truck. While I had long ago pitched my stash of these leftovers, I contacted my friend Dustin in Swift Current and asked if he still had some kicking around.
Thankfully he did, and dropped some in the mail and shot them out to me.
These little devils are really thin black anodized tin covers with a strong adhesive on the backside. This is what they look like (door handle incorporated into the pic for a size reference):
I took one of these pieces and trimmed it down to size...
...then simply removed the backing from the adhesive and stuck it on:
Because it’s tin, it will last a very long time before it ever needs replacing, doesn’t look out of place, and provides protection from the door popper scratching the hell out of the inside of the door. It’s essentially just a sacrificial plate, and so far it’s working beautifully.
Onto other things, after restoring the colors to the backside of the marker light indicator, I decided the front needed a little refresh as well. I simply popped the lens out and gave the front side a couple coats of rattle can clear. It’s tough to tell in this pic, but it actually made a world of difference:
Skipping ahead to today, it was garage day at my place this weekend. Mike came over, and I turned him loose on the AstroRoof outer metal pan. He got all the rest of the underside all stripped down and cleaned up, then turned his attention to repeating the procedure on the topside:
While he was tackling this, I devoted my attention to masking up the front fender for its (hopefully) last application of high build primer. Here it is masked up and etch on the bare metal spots:
Of course, once that was done, it got 4 full coats of high build:
To round out the rest of the day, I jumped in to give Mike a hand and started working on stripping and rust busting the rear inner support structure for the outer AstroRoof pan:
After a brief break and a bite to eat, I’m back out in the garage again. I unmasked the fender, and stood back to admire my handiwork:
Good stuff. 👍🏻
This is actually a major milestone for this year as wrapping up this last little bit on the fender concludes the bodywork on the passenger side of the car! Sure, there’s a little bit left to do on the trim and door handles when I get them back, but’s that’s minor.
I’ll be spinning the car around to face the other direction at some point this week because the driver’s side will be next fairly soon, but for now all attention will be focused on completing the AstroRoof.
That’s all I’ve got for now guys, thanks for checking back on things!
D.
