Saga de Baja part III
"It doesn't fit", "I can't get this fu**ing piece of s**t" to fit".

Darkness fell as I wrangled a front fender into place. Well it was on the car. It felt remarkably solid as well. The only problem being that neither of the ends were in the right place. The front didn't line up with the nose and hood and the rear wouldn't fit down to the door bottoms. It looked terrible.

The next day I visited with Ben at V-Dub Folksin Irving, TX. He had another pair of Baja front fenders that I compared mine to. They looked different, but not enough to solve the problem. He surmised that maybe I had the nose piece positioned wrongly.
Forlornly I returned home to assess the damage. Before doing anything drastic I offered up the rear fenders and the engine-cover. Neither were even close to fitting. So I called Mark Vin Nevada who make a few Baja kits. They offered to send me instructions for their kit to see if I was even close.

I wasn't. I had cut about one and a half inches too much off the front. Ultimately I was never going to get this particular kit to fit as the rear pieces were all screwy anyway. So I ordered another kit from Mark Vand I sit here waiting for UPS to deliver.

I am holding off trying to 'extend' the front metal until I see how this new kit fits. I hope I can make it work.
Meanwhile there were still things to be done. The area around the brake-fluid reservoir was badly rusted. So I removed the reservoir. Scraped off the worst of the rust and then liberally applied Naval Jelly. After two applications and some thorough riinsing I gave it a good going over with a wire cup brush on my new angle-grinder until it was very clean and shiny. These DeWalttools really are well made. A couple of coats of white primer and it looks as good as new. I will have the painter spray this area when he does the rest of the car.

Getting a bit too happy with the wire brush I found some more areas of rot. In both areas where the fenders join the body near the running-boards it is pretty badly rusted. I am waiting to fix those when I have the pan welded.
Right shows you one of the rust areas down where the fender, door pillar and running-board all meet.

At left you see the scruffy but serviceable interior. I am waiting to have the pan welded and solid before I make any decisions about carpets or mats. I haven't even looked under there...
So as I wait for the kit, wheels and other pieces to arrive I fantasize about what I might do with the engine. It's a bog-standard 1600 single port. I will definitely change the distributor to a 009 and add electronic ignition and maybe an external oil-filter. Beyond that I am not sure. I suppose I will tart it up a bit, but will see how it runs with it's new wheels and tires before I work out what to do next. Maybe change the trans, tweak the engine a little?

As of now, early October 1997, who knows what path the saga de Baja will follow.

I'll let you know.