I already got mine figured out.

 

Lets see it!

 

I have already, no secrets with me.

 

Firewall is starting to shape up.







and a little seam sealer for the floor....





and then some primer for the firewall....

 

and then.... it was blue!!!

 

Very pretty blue!!

 

great color choice

 

Looking real good Tom, that blue sure pops.

 

I really like that blue! Nice job.

 

Looks nice! Great color.

 

Wow looking good keep up the great work.

 

Today we worked on finishing up welding the chassis. It may seem we are working backwards, but we couldn't wait to put some paint on the firewall.





so we broke out the welding paper and covered up the fresh blue paint.


and finished welding the boxing plates.





next it was time to do some sanding, followed up by some bondo to fill in the grinder / welder divets.





then of course.... primer








Hopefully next weekend we will bag the aluminum bits and start laying down some black paint on the chassis.

 

a little more paint....


started by bagging the cab and aluminum main section of the crown vic suspension.










and the chassis is black








While we had the black painted loaded up.... it seemed like a good idea to paint some other bits.








and some black parts










in the next month or so I should be able to mask off the aluminum bits and prime / paint them silver.


Hopefully by the time I finish painting the chassis parts I will have got the engine all painted as well.


but that is another story.

 

Well before I start painting the engine I needed to remove some manifold studs.

Two of the studs are full length, one is broke off short.

 

I soaked all the studs thoroughly with PB Blaster for about a week. The stud on the front put up a little fight. A small socket would budge it. Vise grips simply slid off. I grabbed a couple nuts and tightened them down. After exerting more force than I felt was safe I heard a CRACK/POP and the first stud was spinning out.





The second long stud was not so easy. The double nut broke off and the stud broke in about half.


It was time to break out the welder an weld a nut to the stud. After a few unsuccessful tries I finally got the second stud out.




the last and smallest broken stud put up the biggest fight.


it just kept breaking the nut off..... I finally ended up with the stud broken inside the head. the last try with the welder was to build up a puddle with the welder to try and build a handle to get a bight on. I broke out the vise grips.... started turning... woo hooo... then sadness when It only spun out a few threads....


Time to break out the Taps....





After drilling out.... taping with the starter, threader and bottoming tap.... we are back in business and ready to start cleaning up for paint.