Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[J. Robinson]

Earl - Yep, teachers go back to work on the 5th, kids on the 6th. And yes, I am at the point where visible progress is not obvious, but a million little things need to be done...

Don - Thanks. Yes, the thrash has begun. I didn't get much done this week; we've been going places with some friends. Monday we went to Garlits Museum and that place always gives me a little inspiration. I checked with the Sleep Inn next door and they are booked solid for Mar 21st weekend. I need to find someplace else or it'll be another one-day trip. Where are you staying?

OK. It's not monumental progress, but at least it's a step in the right direction... With the help of my son, I stood the body up on its firewall so I could prepare it for reinstallation onto the frame.

With the body in a vertical position, I was able to bond the turtle deck to the body. I accomplished that by removing the six bolts I had holding it in place. After scuffing the bonding area of the body and the lip on the turtle deck with 40-grit, I reinstalled the deck with the bolts left loose. I mixed up a batch of body filler with only a small amount of hardener (so it would harden slowly), squished it between the body & turtle deck with a spreader, and then my son and I tightened the bolts. The last thing was to scrape of the excess filler where it had oozed out. In about 30 minutes the body filler had kicked and the two pieces are now permanently bonded together.

With that done, I used my D/A sander with 80-grit paper to scuff-sand the entire bottom of the body. Then I masked off the appropriate areas and spray-canned it with rubberized undercoating. I like rubberized undercoating for doing the underside of floors because it has a slight texture with a semi-flat lustre. It covers scratches and blemishes and the shiny paint of the frame looks good against it. It also provides some sound deadening qualities. Anyway, the first pic below shows the bottom of the body after sanding and about half of the undercoating applied. The second pic is after the undercoating was applied and masking removed.

After allowing the undercoating to dry for about 30 minutes, my son and I tilted the body back down onto the floor, hooked up the chains and hoisted it up. With him and me holding the body in the appropriate position, my wife rolled the chassis underneath and we set it in place. So far, so good...