Now it's complete.

Before:

After:

And -- DONE!

There are still a few things left to do. I've got a punch list and I'll be working over the next month or so. I'm thinking of painting it a desert camouflage pattern.

12/06/2009 - Due date

I have to give the rental car back tomorrow so today was the big day. Between putting all of the pieces back into place and getting everything tightened up I was very busy. When I grabbed the battery to put it back in the car, I noticed that it was cracked and had leaked some battery acid. I went to Pep Boys (where I originally got the battery) to get a new one. I took it to the parts counter and joked that it was still under warrantee, but I don't think that being cracked in a car accident was covered. Short story, I got the battery for free. Woo hoo! I did have to make a bracket to hold one side the battery, but I had everything I needed to do it.

12/05/2009 - Snow!

The morning started out with drizzling rain. I fought back by erecting a picnic shelter over the front of the car.

I assembled all of the bits and pieces that go in the front bumper and put all of the plastic air dams in that channel air into the engine compartment.

I also hung the fenders and loosely hung the front bumper. I got a lot done before the sleet and snow weighed down the picnic shelter and collapsed it.

11/27/2009 - Welding complete

After doing a lot of practicing I welded the body steel into place. The spot where I had cut through, I realized that edge to edge wasn't going to work. I just kept burning through. So I cut a piece of steel and welded it over the scary weld. It worked out well.

The rest of the spots that needed welding were all overlapping so it was pretty easy to make strong welds. Ugly welds, but strong welds. Then I painted over all of the bare metal with primer.

I also put the hood on so that I could stop putting the tarp over the whole thing.

DSL is back!

I was just finishing up soldering the light and horn wires back together when the verizon tech showed up to FINALLY fix the DSL. It turned out that squirrels had made a home in the box up on the pole.

I'll be posting pics of the rest of the repairs in chronological order.

Tuesday was another big day.

At lunch John and I went over to Delaware Auto Salvage and picked up the big stuff. We got the hood, the bumper cover, the fender and the splash shield for under the fender. I forgot the headlight, so I'll be headed back over there tomorrow. After work I followed John back to the house making sure no parts blew out of the back of his truck.

When we got to the house there was a big rectangular box on the front step. It was the replacement strut. John and I unloaded the parts from his truck and I showed him what was left of the front end that we picked up last week.

After John left I grabbed the strut, my tools and the floor jack and swapped out the mangled one for the straight one. It took about 30 minutes. It's amazing how quickly things go when you have both the right tools and a clue. Though, I have to admit that the only reason I have a clue is because I just replaced the stuts slowly an methodically 6 weeks ago.

So with the metal cut and the strut replaced, I'm 2.5 days ahead of schedule.
I do need some more practice welding before I put the car back together.

In the first picture (above) you can see both the mangled strut and the straight one. In the second picture (right) you can see the chaos that is a strut replacement. I do have to say, replacing a strut is MUCH easier without the fender in the way.