Resurrection post! And some progress!
In the last couple months, I've:
*Replaced the damaged links. All of them. Too bad I'll need to take it all apart again to go polyurethane.
*Prepped my broken body pieces. This takes far longer than you'd think...but just like paint or any other bodywork, the prep work has an enormous effect on the finished product. I cut off the shredded fiberglass, ground the paint and body filler off ~4" on either side of any breaks, test fitted, then cut and sanded again. And again. Then rinsed and repeated. It
really helps to have a gentle touch with an angle grinder; I use a metal cutoff wheel for everything because it works quickly, and sands resin and glass down to a workable finish that new resin/filler can stick to.
*Replaced my door. Swapped over the door pop solenoid, re-ran the power wire from the relay, and relocated the solenoid so I don't have to chop up the door handle trim again. The previous location put the pull cable inside the inside handle well, so I had notched the old one. New install is stealthy and looks stock. Also spent a 95* day or two aligning the thing...I hope I never have to do that again. These doors are retarded heavy. During this process, I also fixed something that was seriously bugging me...
*The old drivers door would bind on the front fender sometimes. The new one bound ALL the time, so I grabbed the dremel and a sanding drum and clearanced the fender by taking ~1/16" off the edge next to the door. Also took out the bad body supports and made new ones out of woven fiberglass cloth; it's a widebody thing. They keep tension on the panels by attaching to the chassis and the inside of a wide panel, usually the widest point or close to it, to prevent it from shaking at speed. I embedded a steel "T" piece in one end so I could weld it to the chassis, the other end is glassed to the inside of the panels. Which leads me to the panels themselves...
Pic from picking it up at the tow yard:
And then today, after round four of resin and filler:
Starting to look more like the car I fell in love with...so excited! And I'm starting a new job soon...pretty much, I've been underselling myself, and have gone back to telecommunications work to pay for more, better Supra parts. Let that be a lesson: my Supra kicked my ass back into gear after three years of bumming around with bullshit jobs. I needed that. :love: