Intermittent progress on the wagon continues. Kathy had a bit of a setback last week. The surgeon didn't quite get enough of the tumor on the first go around, so she went back under the knife on Friday. He seemed confident this time that he'd removed enough margin for her to proceed with the radiation after she heals up. Added a week and a half to the plan, but better safe than sorry. She's doing great, though. Meanwhile, I've been doing some small stuff when I get the chance.
The windlace/kick panel holders were in pretty good shape except for the channel that holds the windlace right at the bottom. I was going to order a pair until I found out they cost $300. Whipped out the shrinker/stretcher, spot welder and some scrap sheetmetal and proceeded to repair them instead. A few hours of time and no hole in the wallet.
However, I couldn't stand the rust repair I did on the lower section of the tailgate. So I caved in and bought the reproduction tailgate skin and cut it in half to patch the area a bit better (hopefully). I'm not a big fan of butt welding long stretches of sheetmetal, so I spot welded a backup strip on. It will act as a lap joint. I could have used the bead roller to flange the new piece, but this seems to work better for me. I'll spot weld the new piece to the strip and then MIG the seam. I used panel adhesive to close up the hinge openings to avoid any warpage. Some hammer and dolly work and the patch should good to go.
I also dropped the gas tank out. It had a pipe plug in the bottom to use as a drain, so I got all prepped and carefully opened it up with a five gallon bucket under it. Much to my surprise, less than a quart came out. No wonder it died making the turn into the driveway when I drove it home. I'm embarrassed to say that it never occurred to me that it could be out of gas when it wouldn't stay running. Auto repair 101.
