metaruss

Got some custom brackets welded to the front of the frame rails so that the new beams inside the core support have something to bolt to.  Yes, bolt…no dinky welds on the edges of tin foil sheet metal.  I can’t believe these things stay on for as long as they do.  I noticed some cracking on the CSX near the spot welds, just like on my old Shadow.  I painted it all with POR-15.  The frame rails are inside being prepped for paint as well.  While I was painting, I painted the inside of the floorpans with POR-15.  What’s that?  I already did that?  Yep, it’s true.  For reasons I don’t fully understand, the paint on the inside of the pans (only) bubbled up and delaminated from the new metal.  I followed the directions and did all the right metal prep, but the surface of the new metal was very smooth which seemed to have effected the bonding strength of the paint.  I also did the first coat of that paint with an older can of flat black and did the second coat with newer gloss black.  Perhaps that was a factor.  I hit the metal with a 40-grit sanding wheel on the angle grinder.  I suspect that it won’t happen again.

I also built up the adapter harnesses that I need to install the ATC system.  I have the heater/AC out and the ATC parts are all installed on it.  I completely failed to notice the respirator for the passenger cabin air temp sensor in the donor that I got the ATC from.  Apparently it’s behind the instrument cluster somewhere.  I managed to identify the thermistor type of the sensor based on some diagnostic data I found in the 1987 and 1991 FSMs.  A small computer fan, a little RatShack project case, and some tubing later, we have one respirator.