Sure, NOW you're comfortable in front of the camera......Firstly,..Thanks for all the well wishes,...I know that the trade off in after surgery/therapy pain will be better than what I'm currently dealing with in the long run. So it is what it is I guess.
As a testimonial to the 'I'm not one to sit around" type, I did in fact wrap my knees, and hobble down the stairs, and out into the garage. Walking on the knee isn't the bad part,....going up stairs is the bit ch. So,......I just didn't come back up the stairs unless I absolutely had to.
The wife hears me hobbling down the stairs "Post wrap" and she says "Really? you're still gonna go into the garage despite the fact that your knee is killing you?" I swear, you love that car way more than you love me"..
Decisions,.....decisions......
I tell her that there is no contest, and the the car is a distant second to my love for her,...and with that said,...turn and hobble down the last of the stairs into the garage.
I hear "Yeah, right".....as the door closes behind me. I would've turned around and went back up to discuss it further, but my knees hurt too much to climb the stairs,..so........what could I do?
I decided to focus on what will be impossible in two weeks.
none of the holes were drilled this morning, so that is where I started. Once they were all drilled, I placed the panel in place so that I could locate the two center holes for the door bar. The "L's" on the yellow tape on top are the reference mark for the carpenters square that I used to do that.
Once I had the holes referenced, I made a threaded backer that floats on the door so that the door bar could be adjusted after it was bolted on. I bolted the door bar on, and made another reference mark so that I could locate the front mount.
This little dude is missing from the driver's door. I have a piece of 1" wide stuff that wedges against the door sheet metal and is on the back side of the where the factory door handle used to go.
You can also see that this door is butchered. Originally, I intended to stick that window motor mechanism inside, so this door was cut up to allow for that. That has changed however, so consider it door lightening instead.
With that thing welded, drilled, and threaded,.I was able to bolt the door bar on again so that I could fabricate the piece of 1/8" plate the will become the cap that butts against the dash bars. (It doesn't butt actually,..there is an 1/8" gap)
And that looks like this when it's installed.
So all that's left to do to check my work is to shut the door....so that's what I did.
And that took the better part of the day to get to this point. There is still a day left on the door bar fabrication alone to build and bend the mesh and the trim pieces that go on that bar. Then It's gotta get smoothed,primed, and painted. (probably another day).
Then the speaker box will take a day,...the center mesh a day,...and door panel upholstery is another day. When you back away from it, you add that up,..and say "meh.....it's just a week,...what's the big deal?"
I got 5 days left to do this before the knee surgery,....maybe I can get that all done,...I'm gonna try at least.
But in the end,...I'm happy with the progress today,...It's been a long time since I had a welder in my hand,....I thought I was done with that,..but I was wrong. I'm still not done with it.
So on this special edition I'll cap it with two pics,...The cynical Mike, and the content tired Mike.
That Damn Monster,..photo bombed the pic...
The monster is looking very cool Mike. I really dig the bar fabrication.
I hope your surgery goes well in all truth there my friend. You're a good guy that needs good knees.
