Progress=Good. Luck=Not so much

I took advantage of the great weather today, and dragged the car out onto the driveway for some work in the sunshine.  I did get the rest of the trim and weather stripping off, and all that's left are two bits of emergency brake cable where it attaches to the body at the front and rear of the car.  From here on out, it should be strictly clean-up, repair and reassembly.

The bodywork needed is extensive.  No doubt about it.  But I've seen WAAAAY worse cars out there.  In fact, just about every restoration I'm seeing out on the webs is far more difficult than mine should be.  I guess we'll see.

So, I will be making one more major tool purchase, in the form of an air compressor.  I will be getting a 25 or 27 gallon Craftsman Pro, depending on whether I want one that wheels around, or a stand-up model.  The air compressor will be a must-have, for cutting and drilling panels, and finishing work.  I don't think my electric angle grinders would survive.

We'll see how tax returns shape up, and whether or not that second bonus we usually get shows up later here in the spring.  Should be plenty to cover the compressor and some basic air tools.

Below is the opposite rear quarter, where we can see some pain in the ass slathered some bondo in there to hide the rust hole.  Dear bondo-slathering Philistines:  Knock it the hell off.  You aren't helping anyone.

The bad-luck spot I was mentioning was the left-hand front corner, right next to the driver's kick-panel.  There's a rather nasty spot that goes through both layers of metal.  The inside floor I can patch with what I have on hand, but I may have to get a small patch panel for the lower end of that cowling.  We'll see when I have a chance to cut the rusted section out.

 Above is a close-up view, below is from further back, to show the location of the hole.

 And below is a view from beneath the car.  This spot is MUCH worse than the other side, but shouldn't be too difficult to repair.  You can see some smaller spots toward the bottom of the frame, which correspond to the spots you see above, on the inside.  I'll get out my trusty 4.5" cutting wheel, and zap that section out of there, and see what we got.

One thing's for sure:  The rotisserie is worth it's weight in gold.  All I have to do to get to both sides of this hole is spin the car.  Magical.