Progress Thread The "grátis" 1966 Coupe - final sheet metal repairs

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One of the problems with being a lefty is that an angle grinder blows everything toward you. It's discrimination against the southerly-pawed.

Anyway, I got the upper cowl mostly cleaned up today and sprayed some primer and rust-oleum in there for rust prevention.

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These little 3M scotch brite roloc discs made quick work of the rust, but didn't last long before they'd get full of rust.

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All the rust and scale was confined to the surface. With the underside looking pretty good, I got started on the top since I was sick of looking at that blue paint and yellow primer.

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I'm also going to file this under things I never want to do again. This took a lot longer than I thought it would.

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Can I get away with sand blasting the rest?

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After primer and paint.

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There's at least one dent on top I'll need to address eventually.

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I also picked this up today. Brand new, never used. Normally goes for $110 at HF. I picked it up for $60.

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I'm off vacation as of tomorrow. So work will slow down again. The good news is I'm done with the biggest part of the restoration with the floor installed. Everything else will be smaller projects I should be able to knock out over weekends and evenings after work. Getting the cowl back together is the first priority. I already have the sand blaster, so that shouldn't take too long.
 
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When we cleaned up the bottom of my car we used glass beads. I put a tarp down to catch as much as possible then used a sieve to get the larger trash out. Worked great.
Thanks. Right now I’m only looking to blast the under dash and firewall area. I plan to get a rotisserie and really clean up the car once we get to Arkansas.
 
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We've been down in Fort Worth since Tuesday evening. Our little guy was born about a month early and has a cleft lip and palate (we knew about the latter months ago). He's currently not eating enough on his own and is being supplemented by a feeding tube.

He's doing well, but we're not sure how long he'll have to be down here. He needs to eat about 40ml at every feeding, but only manages to get about 5ml down on his own.

My parents and in-laws are all pitching in to help out with the other kids. However, the older two need to go to school next week, so I'm heading back up to WF tomorrow afternoon with them. The wife will stay here and her family will help watch child #3 while she's at the hospital with #4.

All in all, my squadron has been incredibly supportive and accommodating. They'd probably be fine with my staying down here until he's released, but I need to get the other two to school anyway.

Overall, things are going well. It's more of an imposition that he can't come home just yet. His life isn't in danger, he just needs to eat! We covet your prayers and happy thoughts for our little guy.
 
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Our newest addition's name is Peter. Peter is doing well so far. The doctor had told my wife yesterday that they may have to surgically put a tube in his stomach if he didn't start eating more. While we would at least be able to bring him home, we're not too keen on the idea of have a tube in his stomach.

The good news is, they tried a different bottle (there are numerous types of special bottles for babies with cleft lip/palate to help them eat on their own) and he was able to really make an improvement on his intake this morning. He was able to get 23 out of 45 ml on his own! Hopefully he keeps this up and we'll be able to bring him home soon. Then I can show him the car!

The wife and kid #3 are doing well. I'm keeping it together up here with #1 and #2. Not enough time to do any car work, though since I'm having to cook and clean up after them. No big deal, though. On the plus side, I learned how to do a decent pony tail for my daughter. It's the little things.
 
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The cowl is in excellent overall shape, however, the vent hats have some small rusted through areas in the vertical sections and the seams where they meet with the lower cowl.

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CJ sells these plastic pieces as inserts to "fix" lower cowls that are leaking around the vent hats. I was thinking I might get a set of these and use them to replace the vent hats entirely. Probably use some PBA to attach them.

@horse sence @Davedacarpainter does this sound like a good idea? I was thinking of buying the lower cowl patches just to use the vents off of them, but they're almost $70 each.