Welding, sanding and discovering

Well, today I continued my pursuit of completing the Z before we have our Daughter. Well, at least the plan is to complete everything I am going to do, which includes prepping the entire body for the final paint job and refinishing and installing the interior parts that need work. I plan to take the car elsewhere for the final paint job.

Back in the mid 90's I had a ford F-150 that I had painted. The guy who painted it is apparently still around, with any luck, I can find him and talk him into doing my Z. The F-150 turned out very good. He did a fantastic job, which I don't say about most paint jobs I see coming out of the local body shops because I'm very picky. Usually I can find multiple flaws in bodywork that are simply due to laziness. Trust me, most body shop guys can do fantastic work. It's just that they don't care, and most customers don't ever know the difference so they turn-out crap work.

Below are some photos of what's been going on:

The Driver's door with the spot welds where the door molding

used to be. I decided to take them off the car because they

are not stock items, they were likely added by the dealer.

The main purpose of the moldings is to prevent door dings.

I don't plan on parking this car where door dings are likely.

The hood. It's a bit dusty, but that's curable.

The circles marked all over it are areas that

need attention from rock chips, scratches, etc.

Areas in lighter grey are where I primed after

removing any surface rust. Next I will spray

it with rubberized undercoating.

The rocker panel below the driver's door. All the paint has

been sanded off and is ready for spot putty and primer.

It also had a bunch of spot welds where the rocker plate

was attached. I'm also removing those permanently

because they aren't original to the car either. And they

promote rust, and I don't need that!

The worst rust spot on the whole car. This is the lower

back corner on the driver's side. As you can see, it has been

sanded down and still has some pitted areas that need more

work. the little bracket holds part of the bumper on, so that

whole area is well hidden either under the bumper or beneath

it. That's not to say I'm going to skimp on fixing it the right way!