After three weekends with races, plus getting sick in the midst of it, not a lot has gotten done the last few weeks.
I did send back the stock-style rear sway bar that didn't quite fit. I plan to use an H&R Parts bar.
This weekend my schedule was finally clear enough, and I felt well enough, to dig back in. So here we go with my first attempt at a proper rust repair.
Here's what I'm starting with:
This is what I found behind it:
Here's the quarter panel after some wire brushing:
Here's a first fitting, with some trimming still needed:
I think I have the trimming very nearly done (not as seen in that picture, I worked on it more after that). It fits well enough that I could go with it, but I'll tweak it a little better before trying to weld it in.
It should be better than the fix I did on my first drag race car. It was a rusty '69 Camaro that I got for next to nothing in 1979. It had several small rust holes, but I just sanded them down, covered them with aluminum tape and bondo. It actually looked really good, and still did several years later when I sold it. But I'm sure when it was re-done later they got a laugh at the hack job some idiot (me!) did.
Meanwhile I should get my backing plates back momentarily, modified to fit the Moser rear, and I should be able to put the axles in and install the drum brakes in the rear.
I also have three more very small holes to fill in the body, just a few square inches total. It looks like someone drilled a bunch of holes very close together to try to pull out a small dent in the front of the hood. There's also a very small square missing from the bottom of one fender where I'm guessing there used to be a rust hole. What's left seems clean and solid though. Plus there's the hole for the antenna. Front there it's just bondo, primer and block sanding. It won't be close to being a show car, but it should look okay on the track.