July 12, 2010

6-29-2010 to 7-12-2010

6-29-2010
I found out something very interesting today. The truck bed liner I applied to the cleaned up floorboards had finished drying and I was spraying paint on them from a rattle can. Not only was the Walmart spray paint on sale and covering well, the fumes were sufficient to stun the many, many wasps that flew out from their nests up under the dashboard. This allowed me escape from the garage , running like the little girl we all become when attacked by stinging insects.
Bug bomb time.

I picked up the checkerboard fabric that wife picked to cover the interior panels with. It is a sort of black on black checkerboard where you see the little squares more as texture differences than color differences. I picked up the masonite for the panel backing last week so all I need is some spray adhesive and thin foam rubber for the backing and I can get all the interior panels made.

7-12-2010
Got back to work on the Spit after my great Ohio trip with my 9-year old son. I really got serious last night and got the entire driver side floorboard and kick panel rust outs repaired. I had already torn out the “repairs” made by the DPO and cut out the rusted metal from the floorboards. After wire brushing, grinding, cleaning and coating the area with rust converter, I then took some sheet metal and cut out the appropriate-sized patches, hammering the curves into some of them with a good old fashioned hammer and block.

The rust in the outer and inner sills was worse than I thought so I took a bit more time to be sure to get as much of it out as possible. I coated everything with rust converter, actually pouring it into the rockers to make sure everything got hit with it.

I then put the patches in place and riveted them in position and then out came the mig welder. I have never welded but I must say that after I was all done, I pretty much concluded that I am a really shitty welder! But it worked so no biggie.

After everything was welded in place and the welding slag cleaned off, I laid down the first layer of fiberglass and resin on the floorboards. I also covered the new replacement metal on the rotted section of the outside footwell. Then I went to bed after a very long shower.

This morning, I laid down the second and final layer of fiberglass and shot a few coats of truck bed liner over it. I also got up under the car and shot a few layers of truck bed liner on the underside as well. I’ll follow that up with a few coats of rubberized undercoating on the underside and a few coats of paint on the topside.

I’ll do the same basic procedure on the passenger footwell that is rotted out and then the major rust-repair will be done.



I pulled off the gigantic rubber front and rear bumpers for the chrome bumper conversion. My friend Kevin found me some old GT6 bumpers for $50.00 even if there is no chrome on them at all, they’re worth the price. I’ll see if they have over riders, if not, I cut off the integrated ones from my old rubber bumper and I’ll see if I can make something out of that.

The rear swap looks like it’s fairly straightforward and I’m told it is. The front swap, however, looks like it will be a bitch! I pulled off the foam energy-absorbing blocks and then drilled out the welds on the center support bracket…that was a bitch. Once I got that off I took out my Porter Cable sawz-all and cut the welds on the two angle brackets under the center bracket.

It looks like I’m going to have to cut off most of the over-rider support structures to fit a chrome front bumper. I can’t cut all of it off (the seemingly easy approach) since the hood pivot assembly is inside those huge hunks of metal. This should be interesting.

Now that the majority of the rust repair is done, tonight I’m going to put down a layer of dyna-mat vibration insulation throughout the cockpit then a layer of the mylar bubble-wrap-type thermal insulation. I bought a roll of black carpet to re-carpet the interior. All of the interior panels need redone and I have the materials for it but I just may wait for wifey to get back from Alaska so she can have some fun too.

On the to-do list tonight is replacing the cap, rotor, plugs and wires. I’m also going to pull the carb off tonight and finally attempt a rebuild. With any luck the Spit should be running by the end of the week…but it’s more likely that I’ll be bitching and moaning and having to find somebody who actually knows what they’re doing to help me.