Not really… or at least really slowly. Step one of my winter plans was to get rid of the red in my engine bay. It actually drives me kind of crazy. So I started by stripping everything, with the intention of just giving it a good scrub and a coat of paint. But then I noticed that some of the spot welds from five (???) years ago had broken and separated… And then at some point Vol. 7 ended up in my DVD player… AND THEN I saw some detailed pics of Goto-sama’s green coupe. That pretty much motivated me to start stripping it all down and adding reinforcements.
Many hours in the barn have since taught me… I HATE SEAM SEALER! At times the only option seems to be to stab the wire into it, pull the trigger and let sparks and fire fly just to burn the seam sealer off so I can come back with another pass later and lay a real bead. I don’t think I will put seam sealer back on when I’m done. It will take some pretty ugly welding for me to ever want to put that stuff back on just to hide a few crooked passes.
That said… you can’t really tell from the picture… I am getting better at welding. Certainly there is something to be said for good preparation of surrounding areas, and tight fitment of new panels.
Still probably another solid 10 hrs with the grinding wheel, scuff-up pad and scraper to go though.
you’re insane. this takes ages and it smells awful!
Mutancy Alert.
Isn’t seam sealer a requirement? At least for the floorpan, right? Else you’d be dealing with water intrusion issues.
well… maybe not. I don’t think water would actually get in. The individual panels do overlap, and are painted. That said… I might feel like I’ve done a comprehensive enough job on the engine bay, that I should never have to do it again. I might re-seal it.
Getting good enough at welding to know that the guy who did it originally (not Paul!) … didn’t get any penetration at all. I really hope that I never do this again… although I suppose I need to do the rest of the car for the sake of completeness.