In With Hood & Fenders, Out With The Doors And Bumper

Mario stopped over this afternoon to drop off the fenders and hood and pick up the doors. I decided that I also wanted him to paint the front bumper black, so I unstrapped the bumpers from the shelves and pulled out the front bumper. Then I resecured the rear bumper to the shelves so it would not fall over.

Mario pulled up and we opened the garage door. He brought in the driver side fender first and explained that the hood and fenders were in primer and guide coat. The insides of the fender jambs and the underside of the hood have been painted in gloss black.

Here is the driver side fender.

I helped Mario lift the hood out of the pickup and carry it into the garage.

We temporarily leaned it against the body of the car. I plan to move it back along the wall on the passenger side of the car.

I asked Mario about painting the front bumper and he said that would not be a problem. I had already painted the rear bumper with POR-15 so it is gloss black and I had not planned on painting the front bumper because it is aluminum. After reviewing pictures of the fog light openings on the front nose it became apparent that parts of the front bumper would be visible. I really would rather have the bumper blend in and disappear in the openings, so I am having him paint it gloss black like the rest of the car body.

Here I am holding the passenger side fender.

I decided that I will hang the fenders on the car in the interim, so I am setting the passenger side fender in place.

Here it is on the car. Notice the antenna hole has been filled.

Here I am showing Mario the window triangles. We discussed whether or not they should be painted body color. We decided that they should be so Mario will take these with the doors.

I asked Mario if he wanted to take all three doors. He took another look at them and pointed out the area along the lower lip that he was concerned about. After comparing both doors he decided that the donor door, although not perfect, is still in better shape.

I noticed when I was gutting the doors that there was a small stress crack on both doors at the top most rivet securing the regulator arms. I think it is from the stress placed on a door that had the window improperly adjusted. The donor door is not like this, so I asked Mario to weld the passenger door in this area to reinforce it.

Mario loaded the donor door in the pickup.

I brought out the passenger side door so we could load that in the pickup, too.

I explained that I only needed the front of the bumper painted.

We decided that it would be a good idea to hold on to the original door until Mario has a chance to check out the donor door more closely.

The last thing that Mario asked about was the hatch glass. Troy thought he had located a replacement back glass, but it appears to have fallen through. If I cannot locate one soon I will have to use the one I have, scratched glass and all.