So there's been a substantial lack of updates on this, for mainly three reasons:
1) Got put on night shift for a month and just could never get the rhythm right to be able to work on the car BEFORE work
2) Miscellaneous asshats who should have been (and I thought were) paid at closing on the house, actually weren't leading to tight funds.
3) The IRS decided to eff with, leading to, you guess it, funding issues.
Items 1 & 2 have been dealt with, and item 3.....well, the IRS is always effing with everyone, so.....
Anyway, I've slowly been tinkering with the thing here and there, and finally spent a solid few hours on it yesterday and actually have some progress to show
So first of all, all the strut tower covers, and the ones for behind the towers, are in, but look at that ugly pinch pinch weld, ick. That's gotta be dealt with.
Now, I have seen people weld that thing up from the backside and just completely cut that bitch out of there, but that is NOT within my skill set. Just so happens all the spot welds are within the width of a 1" piece of tape, so after laying a strip down as a guide and a little magic with the cutoff wheel, we have this:
After I had it cut, I went back with my ball peen and, using my 3lb sledge as a dolly (damn I need some body hammers) made sure all 3 pieces of metal where butted up all across it. It was then stitched it together with the mig, and hit with the grinders to even it out (and then hit with the mig AGAIN to fill in some spots that got a little to ground). No pics of that steep but you'll see the results here in a bit.
Next panel to go on is this cowl cover, but there's a slight wrinkle. It goes all the way up to the top of the cowl, blocking off the slots for the firewall seal clips. Not a deal breaker, just have to turn to my old friend again, the 1" wide tape (actually .920" but, well, rounding) and then hack it off with a cutoff wheel (why oh why did I let my dad's bandsaw get sold off)
After a few laps tacking the thing in, I think I'm finally starting to (barely) get the hang of this thing as these are MUCH prettier and more petite than the ones I was making when I started out, and NO NEW HOLES