Body work and Parking Brake

Lauren had to work today so it was off to the races to get as much body work done as possible in only a few hours. As you can probably guess, not a whole lot really got done. I did a lot of sanding to find even more low spots which proved to be dents from who I can only imagine to be someone who really didn't like the previous owner of my '66. the entire body on this car has had damage and its been very frustrating to fix. Don't get me wrong, its been a good experience thus far, but its still annoying.

I found the most recent one right at the back of the roof more on the passenger's side and it was about the shape of a persons hand in a fist. I put a skim coat of Bondo there along with another skim coat of Bondo along the side of the roof where I found three dents.

I found these two at the front of the roof in the middle near the windshield. They weren't very big, but they were dents that needed to be fixed. Maybe someone didn't know how to remove the window molding?

I also used the air tool to smooth over the rear of the quarter panel extension area where the end caps will mount. There were a lot of gouges that needed to be sanded down and now they are!

The last time I was over I spent a good deal of time trying to find the threaded piece for the parking brake and could not seem to fine it. My dad spent about 5 minutes looking for it and found it in the place that I searched at least three times. Sometimes you can't see the forest through the trees. I pulled out the wire brush wheel and polished off the years of grime that was on it as well as the spring and then painted them both gray. 

I had to install the spring first and then slip it into the lever before I could then use the lever to stretch the spring in order for the lever to fit. Once I figured out that would be the only feasible way to install the parking brake it went pretty quick. I adjusted the setup to make sure that the lever inside came out far enough, but didn't come out too far. I might have to adjust it again once I've actually driven the car and worn in the brakes.

UPDATE 08/24/11: The parking brake spring appears to have broken at some point and simply cut down to semi-work so I bought a new spring for $7.95 and will install it the next time I'm over.

UPDATE 08/28/11: I received the parking brake spring and it was much longer than the one pictured above. I didn't take any pictures of the new spring by itself, but I did get a picture of it once I painted and installed it. The new spring isn't quite so stretched out now.