Also started up work on the chassis again. Started fabbing up a sunroof patch panel that I'm in the process of welding in.
Started with fitting a piece of 18 ga to fill the opening the best I could
Then skinned the metal "backbone" from the sunroof and welded it to my patch panel to give it the contour I needed.
Then started welding her home. Struggled with weld contamination for a while despite the fact that I wire-brushed the shit out of everything and wiped with alcohol prior to welding. I thought that initially I was chasing a crappy ground so I tacked a grounding point on top of the skin. I'm getting there slowly though. Welding distorted the roof skin in one of the corners of the patch - so that's going to need some work once this is fully welded up. Part of the risk I accepted when doing this, but welding was the only way to seal this up 100% from the elements - lots of guys bolt in fiberglass panels and RTV around the top, but that seemed like a pretty mediocre solution to me. But hey - if I fuck it up too bad I can always order an OEM sunroof-less skin directly from Germany for $700! :) At that point I'm shell swapping.
Also started working on the engine bay. After looking at some other builds of guys that did really clean bays I decided I'm going to do my best effort at cleaning things up. A "functional shave", if you will. Not full on show car, but cleaner than stock. I'll be fully welding all the seams to help strengthen the structure of the car.
Starting on the passenger side shock tower
Bottom seam of the shock tower to frame rail welded
Top seam in progress. Fighting weld contamination in a few spots from the undercoating on the wheel well - going to have to get a knotted wire wheel to remove that before continuing.
I also welded in hardened washers where the strut hats / camber plates bolt up. The sheet metal on top of the tower is fairly robust but I noticed that the shoulders of the nuts had started to dig into it. Hopefully the hardened washers will help protect that from any potential failures, even though they're probably fully annealed by the time they're done being welded. Oh well. Welded in and ground flush:
At this point progress is progress on the chassis - I'm going to chip away at it however I can. Long road ahead of me but I'm (kind of) enjoying it. With the motor almost done I can start to focus my energies on this now.
