This weekend I had a little extra time for my project. After my pal Sam and I put together a plan for the welding and paint, I decided I was going to start taking everything apart, preparing the car for the welding, body and paint work. I spent a little more time in the back scraping off the sound deadening material from the firewall and shock towers. While the towers are not desirable, there is still quite a bit of base metal there to work with. After doing this for a few hours, I went to the trunk where my son and I removed the gas tank. This was harder than it sounds. The screws holding the gas tank to the trunk pan were rusted up and were a little hard to break loose. They are attached with a welded nut (for lack of the better word). I didn't remember to use the Liquid Wrench until after breaking the first nut away from the body. Once that happens, have fun getting a pair of pliers in there between the bottom of the gas tank and the rear tire to hold the nut into place (speaking from experience). After that the tail and marker lights came out, as well as the trunk lid.

Part of my day also went to ensuring all of my parts were organized. Labeled baggies with all the screws, bolts and connectors are sitting in order on the work table. My work table is 8' x 4' and was built specifically for this project; keeping in mind that I would need a large work area to lay parts out.

As I was taking the tail lights out, I remembered back when I was a kid installing stereo systems. Black tape was a real no no. I always wanted to do it right using wire connectors. Apparently the person who owned this car previously had never heard of those. I discovered quite a bit of black tape between the tail lights and rear markers. It also reminded me to take my time and make sure this project is done right, rather than just throwing it together with black tape.