Hello, everyone who’s reading. I’m going to try and be
better about updating this more regularly. As of now, I’m nearly done with the
passenger side of the car.
All the patch panels are welded and seam sealed, which
includes some new patches in the trunk/rear quarter area. Despite the flux core
welder, I was able to do some pretty clean (by my standards, not global
standards – I’m well aware that a professional body man would laugh at my work)
repair work on the exterior panels. The interior stuff , with overlap and less
room to use my grinder, has yielded sloppier-looking work. But, since the
interior repairs will be hidden by carpets and trim panels, it makes little to
no difference to me.
I’ve also started applying bedliner to the repaired areas.
That stuff is sticky and nasty. Can’t wait to see what it’s like when dry and
fully cured.
Over the weekend, I also received an interesting email. Around a year and a half ago, I bought some parts from a guy who lives across
town from me. Well, he emailed me this weekend saying that he’s moving out of
the area soon, and that since I was the only person to ever actually show up
and give him money for parts, that he’d like to give me the remainder of his
240D parts stash so that he wouldn’t have to dumpster it.
Well, on Monday evening after work, I woke the Vanagon up
from its winter hibernation and headed over there. I got a decent passenger
seat (red), a usable rear seat (also red), door panels (you guessed it – red),
headlights, side trim, side glass, a radio, a muffler, and probably more than I’m
forgetting.
The guy in question is a really nice guy and a student, so I
told him that I’d feel bad taking this stuff, as it was likely I’d resell a
good portion of it. It was a nice offer, but I didn’t want to pick anyone’s
pocket. As such, I gave him some money for the parts. I still got a very good
deal.
The next time I’m out there, I’ll probably start on
repairing the passenger side hood spring perch.
