[hgs_notes]

Did some more sanding on the hatch. It's looking pretty good. I started looking over the handle area though and saw some work that needed done. With the hole in the side, and the little cover gone from below the handle, seems the mice found it to be quite a nifty little home. Turns out mouse pee is kind of corrosive. The steel plate that supports the handle was rusting and had pushed itself away from the fiberglass wall. Some of the rivets were corroded off. So I drilled them all out, got the plate moving to knock the rust off, took out the latch from one side and spent some time heaving the thing up, down, sideways, etc to shake out about half a cup of droppings and the nest. There is a little clip that holds the latch rod into the handle that was missing. I thought I'd never find one, but turns out they are the same thing they use for carb linkages, $1.00. New rivets, $1.00. Found a garage door handle at Menards for $6.00. Just need to finish the sanding/filling and spray some rattle can on it.

Also dropped my block and crank off at the machine shop. I'll find out next week if its useable. He said the cam wear looked normal and it should be ok for use with new lifters. Of course, if this was going to be a daily driver or if my budget was a bit looser, I'd put all new stuff in. But this build is what it is.

Total spent so far $430.00.