Just thought I'd post this to make me feel better about spending my money and time on this little car.

I decided to revisit the engine lid repair. I was never happy with it so I decided this was the time to change it. We're getting ready to make the hinges so I want the engine lid to fit as well as it can. The pic up there is how it was left-minus the cuts. I cut out all the crinkled metal that was caused by trying to close the lid with out releasing the hood prop .The underneath repair is satisfactory so I just replaced the top skin. As you can see it's not perfect and will require a skim coat of filler. I mounted the hold down latches on the lid and placed it in position using rubber shims to simulate the correct rubber blocks. After latching it in place, the measurements were taken for the new hinges and given to cousin George( the machinist, remember?)

Today was a hard lesson on how to weld Kleenex. That is some light weight metal in this little car. I ended up using .023 wire on the lowest heat and speed and backed up the seam with copper to help avoid burn through. Finally got it done,cleaned, metal prepped and seamed sealed on the inside of the trunk. Any one with suggestions on MIG welding this light stuff jump right on in here and enlighten me---- Please! I am not looking forward to the fenders.

Today was busy with a lot of small stuff that really doesn't show up much. I POR-15'd the bottom of the inside trunk and the bottom inside of the new panel before welding them together, I seam sealed all the joints that I had cleaned off the other day and beat, hammered and otherwise adjusted the passenger side seat rails so the seat would adjust, It's amazing how far off they are from fitting correctly. Maybe the press they use to make them is worn out. Or maybe Luigi just doesn't care if it fits, it's going to America. With any kind of luck, tomorrow I'll start welding the panel on. Oh, and I removed two rusted in place broken bolts that are supposed to hold the bottom of the bumperettes on.

This is the top part of the panel that I didn't use. If anyone needs this part, it can be had cheap.

This is the hole underneath the battery that I have to repair before replacing the front panel bottom. The next shot is the repair all welded in and seam sealed. I decided to seam seal it because since it was like trying to weld tissue paper. I'm sure there are some pinholes in the weld. I hope the front panel is easier.

The 30" of snow finally melted enough that I could lower the car, push it outside and turn it around and lift it up again to make it easier to work on the front panel. You can see the rotted out part under the battery box on the right side of the car. You can also see the tape marking the cut line I'm going to use. After cutting the bottom of the panel off, you can see that it was also rotted out on the inner panel. The good side of the removed part of the panel supplied a great patch panel, correct curve and all. I cut out the rotted part and fitted the patch but did not weld it in yet, that will probably be tomorrow depending on how much snow we get on tomorrows' storm. Might have to get out the snow blower again. The real test will be to see if I have enough guts to cut my NOS front panel in half to use to repair the above hole across the front of the car. If anyone reading this has a use for the top 2/3rds of the NOS front panel, it's up for sale, cheap.
did I mention it is an NOS panel? gggggg