Quote:
Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20
Its coming along nicely. It's gonna be pretty cool.
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Thanks, Dale. Been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but they were pretty eventful. Kathy and I had to make an unplanned trip to Houston to attend a funeral which set me back almost a week. And just prior to our leaving, the Roadster Shop called to say the chassis for the wagon was ready to pickup. So a good buddy and I went up a little north of Chicago and trailer'd it home Thursday and Friday of this week.
In between all the seat time on the road, I started welding the liftgate to the tailgate. I currently have the 1/8 x 1/4 1018 strip done as well as tacking in some 1 x 1 temporary braces. Still need to plate the sides, but I've tested it and it works. I'll have to admit, it's heavier than I thought it would be. And that's without the glass or latch hardware in it. I'm not so sure anymore that the gas struts will hold it up. For the test, I reinstalled the stock sliding supports and they will work in the event the gas ones don't. Obviously, the factory had a good reason for using heavier hinges and torsion rods on the sedan deliveries. When I get all the welding finished on the tailgate and the latch hardware in it, I'll post a video of how it works.
At the bottom is a photo of the chassis. Right before we got to the Roadster Shop, we drove thru about 6 miles of hail. It was really banging the truck and I was sure we'd have dents everywhere, but we escaped unscathed. The clouds parted and it was about 65 degrees while we loaded the chassis. Then the front caught back up with us and we were in rain and freezing weather for a couple of hundred miles on the way home. Tail end of the "bomb cyclone" I guess. The guys at RS gave me a can of Gibbs oil to wipe the chassis down when I got home which worked great. They'd already oiled most of it prior to delivery, so there was only a little surface rust in a few places. Mainly where they used a disc sander. Overall, it looks killer. It will be in the way somewhat until I can separate the body from the existing chassis, but it's a small price to pay.