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Body Bondo find

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PATR8

PATR8

Jedi Knight
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Well as we are working the 8's body to get it ready to paint we were stripping a few suspect spots. One spot had all the signs of a bad rust spot followed up by a poor putty job. Good news is that it was just a dent that they had drilled holes and pulled out. The putty job probably was not a bad job 5 or 6 years ago when they repainted it the current re-sale red.

There were a few paint bubbles and I took in the original antenna off my 8 to replace the awful Pep boys special that they had on it. I have taken the rotors to get a once over at the local brake shop and I really really want to buy a set of the Wilwood brakes (come on Santa, I have been real good)

I guess my wish list would be:
1. Wilwood brakes
2. A NICE looking Roll bar
3. Strut supports
4. A new set of seats or mine recovered

HMMM a few more months of tax free time oveseas and I would come home and have it all sitting in my garage waiting to put on. BUt I am in no hurry to head back over during the school year
 
Well here is the 8 starting to scuffed up, some of the small dents with a little putty to smooth out after we pounded them out. Look close in front of the rear wheel you can see the dent I wrote of with teh poor putty job. Were had to wire wheel it to get all the rust off from where the PO had drill the holes to pull them out and failed to close the holes. Overall I was pretty pleased with the body
 

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do you pull the headlamp buckets to paint? I'm getting the urge to strip down my fhc and repaint it, take care of some previous owner body work, etc.
 
Here is a photo of the roll bar I got from TSI installed in my DHC. The top clears the roll bar when up, and the cover stretches around the braces.
 

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Here is a guage set I added for Oil pressure and Oil Temp. My FHC has my 2meter radio hard mounted in this position. It doesn't obstruct my view and I don't have to take my eyes of the road to view channel number. So I thougt that this is a good place for guages also.
 

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We are pulling the light brackets, hood, and boot lid and a few other parts. the body guy said it is easier to do the scuffing while together for the big stuff, then we will pull the parts off and finish.

Do you have a straight on or behind view of the rollbar? IS there padding for the Bar?
 
I'll get some more photos tomorrow or so. It didn't come with padding, but I am sure that one of the sand rail shops in town has some. I also had plans on mounting an antenna bracket on the roll bar for my ham radio antenna, but I think I get better bounce with a mag mount off the boot cover.
 
I have come to realize I really need one to keep the body twist to a minimum. I am not sure what type of roll bar I want but I know what I do not like, makes it tough, I am not an engineer who and drawl one and then make it either. I will start with the strut supports and Wilwood brakes and spend the winter looking. I do like what I see of yours so far. I was thinking that the padding may make it what I want.
 
I took my clock out of the dash and mounted my oil gauge there. I do like the gauge set up you have but I think I would be distracted by its location.
 
some additional roll bar photos, and a photo of the auxilliary fuse box I put into the battery tray. This makes more sense than the marry point in the stock battery cable. In the TR8's it's behind the right kick panel and un-fused. This way I can separately extra circuits and relays.
 

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I like the fuse box idea, I can not beleive I never thought of it, Gold Star for a great idea. I am still undecided on the roll bar. I know I need one, I just have not seen that one that make me want to whip out the credit card and call as soon as I see it like the Wilwood brakes did (I have still resisted sucessfully so far)
 
I got the fuse panel off a mazda pick up at the wrecking yard. I paid my entry fee and wandered around until I found one I thought would work. You could probably get a gm one and mount it on the fire wall instead.

somebody once suggested that I weld braces between the frame sections to add stiffening. That seems like a lot of work to me though.
 
Oh, I also mounted a sheet metal panel behind the rear panel of the passenger compartment. The rear panel is only apholstered fiver board. I got that idea from wife's mustang when I put a metal panel between the rear seat and the trunk. On the mustang it was supposed to be a safety retro fit to separate the fuel tank from the passenger compartment. A heavy enough panel may stiffen the body without adding a roll bar. No photos on that though, I would have to take out the interior to get one.
 
I remember seeing a show about the Mustang having Pinto like properties and their kids was burned. They were sue-ing Ford for $101 million. THat is an excellant idea, I have a very good sheet metal guy near here too. You are full of good ideas
 
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