Rear Arpon Assembly

The time has arrived. I promised myself that I would start back on the bug when the baby girl, Katie, turned 6 months old. Almost to the day, I dragged myself into the garage and tried to figure out where I had left off. I really knew where I had to focus my attention to, but I felt if I put my thoughts onto paper it would help.

The next major phase, is the rear apron. I had to call in reinforcements again......Jon Turner extraordinaire. I needed some guidance while I admit that I'm feeling more and more comfortable with this kind of work as the project continues. So the first step was to cut out the problem area on the apron without losing the historical integrity and structural integrity. It was hard to cut out with snips so I bought a pneumatic circular saw to make this cut go fast. The reality is I just "need" a new tool. After I cut it out I took some snips and cleaned up the edges.

 

The next step was to take the new apron I bought from Wolfsburg West. It seems ridiculous to hack it up with snips only to be left with just about half of what you started with. However, it does make sense. I was able to carve out the extra part so that I can piece it all together.  Of course the next day my hands felt like

someone had punished me like some Fraternal Ritual  by slapping my hands with a 2x4 until I cried.  It was worth it.  I then popped out all the spot welds to take off the weather stripping seal since the original is far thicker and is still in good condition.

Now I took the clipped piece and fitted into the rear apron cut out.  I had to make a few extra snips here and there to make sure that it would slip in nicely.  There is overlapping metal where the rear is welded together.  I popped it open slightly so I could slide the new apron into place.  With some gentle persuasion it slid in so easily.  Probably the one thing that has gone smoothly so far!  I took a rubber mallet and gave it some taps and it looks great.  I still need to take off that crappy black primer that they ship the parts with and weld the new piece in permanently.