"Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."

I now know this to be true. Just look at these pictures:





This is the floorpan under the driver's (my) feet. I knew I had seen some rust under there, but had not really delved. I was in denial. I already knew since I pulled the rear seat last week that there was some rust in the driver's side rear seat floor pan. But today I was pulling the plastic cover that runs along the bottom of the door jamb in order to get at the wiring harness for the taillights and started seeing the rust. And the more I looked, the more I found. I peeled and chipped off the rubber coating of the floorpan to reveal holes. Not quite Fred Flintstone, but give it a few years. And just when I think I've found it all...




psych!



So each time I do something on the car I make more work for myself. But as you may start to notice, I can be a terrible perfectionist about some things. Not everything...those who know me know that I can definitely do a half-arsed job on certain things. But when it comes to tedious tasks, something about my brain likes to find more and more to do. Plus, if I see something there (at least with my car), it will drive me nuts knowing I didn't do anything about it. So, bad for me, good for my car.

I also have a huge tendency to set out to do one thing and end up doing another. Today I was going to try out my new cheapo hammer and dolly set on a few dings on the car. Really I should be practicing on a scrap piece, and probably still will, but I figure I can't hurt things too much if I just tap lightly (I can just picture the grimaces of the experienced body guys reading this). Anyway, I did a little of that on a couple of small dings and I think I actually might have made them slightly better. But I got distracted looking at the rear window seal which needs to come out (one of the things I'm afraid to do, and with good reason), which got me looking at the inside of the seal, which I noticed holds in the head liner at the back of the ceiling, and then my eyes wandered down to the aforementioned plastic cover that runs the length of both doors along the jambs. I had had difficulty pulling it up before and I'm always afraid to pull too hard on things for fear of breaking them. But I got under the edge of it with a chisel and started prying, and *pop*, it started to come up. Turns out it's just clipped onto a metal ridge. The only other things kind of holding it back are the vinyl-covered plastic (or metal? i don't remember) piece on the center post and the fabric covered metal strips that are crimped onto the back of the back door jamb and the front of the front one.

Ugh, that paragraph got out of control. So, after pulling that plastic piece out, I started pulling the carpet that's stuck down with adhesive along the length of both doors next to the floor pans. This is when I really started to notice the rust. Guess that whole side is going to have to be replaced. Which means more money to the welder. I already didn't wanna have to pay that guy for the quarter panel. But all in all it'll be cheaper than renting a TIG welder and then doing it wrong myself (as much as I wanna try to weld).

Anyway, in my zeal to get a real good look at the floor, I pulled both front seats out. Right after I got both pulled, it started to shower and I had to rush to get my floor mats and sheepskin covered seats into the basement. That concluded the outside portion of my day.

I came in and started prepping my replacement deck lid (trunk lid) for a final self-etching priming. Did a quick soap and water wash, then after it dried, I did a solvent wash for good measure. Don't think that's as crucial on the self-etching stage, but I figured what the heck. Between steps I started cooking dinner (Thai green curry with chicken..mmmm). I had most of it sprayed but had gone back over some surface rust with the grinder to get the bulk of it off. The rust has left some pitting on the underside of the trunk along the edge, and then a little where the emblem and deck badges were on the outer side. So now I'm going to try my hand at body filling.

As I think I mentioned, I splurged for the Evercoat Rage Extreme which is supposed to be excellent. It adheres well, sets up quickly and sands very easily. Shouldn't be too tough, but I figure it's good that I"m starting out on the underside of the deck lid. Not too terribly crucial.

So, all in all, kinda tough day as far as adding things to the list. On the upside, I found $2.47 in change under the driver's seat. I knew there was some under there! That's a half gallon of fuel (sigh...).

Well, I'm off to mix filler. Wish me luck. Til next time!