Today the new filter + regulator assembly for my air compressor arrived. The old regulator had gotten jammed or something and was bleeding pressure off from the tank side rather than the air line side. That's obviously no good. The filter on this new setup even has a trick float that drains fluid automatically. It's also got a sintered bronze filter instead of the crappy paper one that was in the old filter.

I pulled the old rusty fenders off and banished them to the scrap pile. And then, I found more rust! This time on the outside cowl extensions.

There's really only two good things that can be said about this rust:

1. Replacement pieces are available (and cheap)
2. There's really nothing left at this point to be rusty, because I will have replaced about 80% of the car.

Anyway, I guess it's time for me to make another trip up to Classic Industies to pick up some more replacement parts.

What's this, the roof fell off!

Well, ok, maybe I cut it off. Overall the structure underneath is about like I expected. Lots of dirt and some surface rust, but nothing a coat of POR-15 won't handle. However, under the rust hole that was in the roof, I found some major damage.

Wait--it gets worse--the rot from that hole in the roof extends through two inner panels. The top one won't be a big deal to repair, but the one underneath actually forms part of the support for the a-pillar. It's also a complex shape so patching it won't be simple.

A marathon session today. I got started at 8am, and began by painting the inner structure with POR-15 (I had prepped it for paint last night). Then I went to the welding supply store for some more MIG gas, some cutting wheels, and a new pair of gloves (I only get a couple weeks out of gloves before I've shredded them).

Man, tonight was one of those nights.. I'm having problem with my air tools (I think one of my hoses is clogged with something), I kept getting tangled up in cords, couldn't find things I had just set down, and the damned body panels weren't cooperating.

The lower trunk extension replacement panel on this side doesn't fit quite as well as the one on the other side did, but some minor trimming should fix that. Things also may be better after I replace the bottom edge of the wheelwell.

I also managed to get the undercoating on entire inner wheelwell wire wheeled off. I've decided that if I ever end up running a shop that does this kind of work, removing undercoating will be the job I give to new guys. It *sucks*. There's just not much good you can say about being pelted with flaming chunks of undercoating, dirt, and tire rubber.

Tonight I got the rest of the doorjamb portion of the quarter panel off, as well as the drip rail. If you're counting, that's 75 spot welds just tonight. Thank god for my air drill--I probably would have destroyed an electric drill by now.

Then I torch + scrapered the seam sealer off the trunk filler panel joint. Removing that panel is tomorrow's task, and depending on how much time I have left/how well it goes, I may start stripping the undercoating off the inner wheel well (oh joy).

I got most of the spot welds on the RH quarter panel drilled out tonight. Things were going great until I nearly cut my thumb off with the grinding wheel, and my droplight broke. Oh well. Sometimes you cut the rust out, and sometimes the rust cuts you.

I still need to cut the driprail panel off and drill out all the spotwelds in the doorjamb area--I'll do that tomorrow night, and also hopefully get the trunk filler panel out.

There's less rust on the wheel housing on this side, so patching it should be simpler than the driver's side was.

I'm feeling lazy today, so I did some low effort work: I started cutting the RH quarter panel off. I used my hand shears because I wasn't in the mood to make a lot of noise and sparks.

I found some interesting buried treasure in the old quarter panel. Arr matey! There were two bolts and a turn signal marker lens down in the bottom of the quarter panel. Now, this isn't really surprising, as I dropped one of my sockets down there while removing the bumper. It does, however, explain why the car was missing one when I bought it.

I had an extremely bizarre dream last night, involving a Car & Driver tuner shootout where I had to replace the quarter panel on the Firebird before I could go out on track. I was doing this work at the bottom of a well. I should seek help.

Anyway, I woke up this morning at 6am and decided to make my dream a reality.

Last night I painted the inside of the replacement panel with POR-15, and this morning, after futzing around with fitment, I punched holes for plug welds (using my fantastic harbor freight pneumatic hole puncher), and sanded the paint off the weld areas.