Weather

For a week, it's been clear that a five- to six-hour 'heat wave,' with temperatures over 65 degrees, would arrive midday on Sunday along with a break from days of rain. This allowed for some painting to be done before the cold rain returned.

A pile of parts that has been accumulating was media blasted and etch-primed before being primed and painted.

The seat bottom was especially great to see painted after it started out so rusty and damaged. It's come a long way and is now ready for new springs and a second coat of black paint.

Once a new front bracket is welded to the inboard seat rail, it can be blasted, etch-primed, primed and painted.

Painting with automotive paint and an HVLP paint gun is, as expected, a very difficult skill to learn. Among several tough lessons is how to avoid missed spots on parts while painting. Upon inspection, there are several spots that were missed and they're difficult to see while painting.

It's a good thing that another round of painting is needed so these spots can be painted fully.

The left bumper gusset was modified — a nice way of saying it — probably by a person making some sort of collision repair. For some reason, the two bolt holes used to attach it to the frame were enlarged with a cutting torch, so some time was spent welding up the damage.

A deburring tool will allow the holes to be reformed to their original shape. A NOS part was located, but this will be OK. It won't be perfect, but the large toothed washer that the bolts use will cover much of the repairs and it should look fine.