putting on some weight

So before I could go any further with installing the front end, I needed to put some more weight on the car. The doors had to go back on at some point so it made sense to start there. But just at the last minute I remembered that it was much easier to get the seats in and out when the doors were off, so I put the interior and the steering column back in first.

bolted on my zinc plated door hinges

and the latch bar

also installed the refurbished fender support brackets

quick pause to throw in the seats...

loose carpet and the steering column went back too (yet again...)

So now back to the doors. I did a full refurbishment of the doors a while back - in my previous garage in fact, here and here. But that's not all. Back when I shot base coat/clear coat on the trunk and gas tank with their final red, I also painted the door edges (more on this later).

interior side was previously painted maroon

masked that off...

sprayed on the bc/cc

finished door

I would have liked to have taken the time to reinstall all the side glass, but by this stage I was in too much of a hurry to get packed and move, so I bolted on the doors with the minimum amount of fuss.

laid down a bunch of tape to protect my new paint work

secured the door at the latch end

crude but effective alignment strategy

reinstalled the latch and the VIN tag using correct style push-in rivets

Next up: the trunk lid, starting with my zinc plated hinges.

bling, bling!

I described the dangerous procedure for installing the hinge springs here, and I don't have much to add...except that this time I broke my homemade tool. This set me back an hour while I made a stronger replacement out of quarter inch thick angle.

broken prototype

stronger mark II version

I used my usual in-through-the-gas-tank-opening approach to align the trunk lid and then dropped in the finished gas tank. Then it was back to packing up more stuff in time for moving.