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June 23, 2005
6.5 Hours

Trunk Do-Over

The headache that is the trunk continues to plague me. Two nights ago, I tried to repair a cut out area in the trunk corner, thinking it was an easy fix. The metal around it was solid, the patch was sharp and fit well, it should have been an easy 1-hour job. But, as is my tradition, I screwed myself by grinding the welds too much. After trying to chase my holes for a few minutes, I gave up, frustrated and overheated. This was notable as the first time I've verged on losing my temper while working on this project.

I decided to fix the rectangular hole on the right above the round
drain hole.

The patch fit well and went into position easily.

But with a little grinding, I ended up with a bunch of holes. Crap.

So I started all over this evening, cutting out the previous patch and making a new one. Then I carefully welded it into place and ended up with better penetration and flatter beads than the first one. So far, so good...

Second patch welded into position.

Then a little grinding. I took it easy this time, trying not to blow through the surrounding sheet metal. I haven't decided how I'm going to hide these patches, either by leading over them or using some kind of undercoating (lame, I know), so I try to make them as neat as possible. But I've finally realized that a little bead is better than a lot of holes. I'll figure out how to live with it later when I'm ready to prime and paint the underbody.

Final patch still has signs of the weld seams, but it's better than blowing
through. I'll figure out what to do about it later. At least the patch is solid.

One other thing: I just bought a second house. Though I'm gainfully employed at a very good job, I've long thought about working for myself and getting out from behind my desk. This house I purchased is my first step towards that--I hope to have it fully renovated and sold by Christmas with a tidy profit in my pocket. The down side of this is that I plan to do this while keeping my day job (for now, anyway), so in the coming months, you may see a slight slow-down in Buick progress. The upside is that I should be able to put a nice chunk of change in the Buick fund and work towards having more free time, not less. We'll see how it goes. Perhaps I'll start a web site for house renovation to match this one...

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E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net

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Last modified on 07/04/2005

Thanks, Fidget!