Bodywork! Ugh….

By Jay Roeder

Hi everyone and welcome back! Life has definitely not slowed down any around the Roeder household and we just recently found out that my wife, Amy, and I are expecting a brand new shiny baby girl in February! What is interesting about this is that our now 3 ½ year old son, Michael, has been predicting he was going to have a sister ever since we told him Mommy was going to have another baby! He never once wavered in his prediction either!

One of the issues I had on disassembly was an axle retaining bolt that for some reason decided it would rather stay in place. I ended up cutting the head off it with a die grinder and a cutting wheel. It was not cross-threaded either. Maybe the direct threaded holes aren't the way to go?

So, life is going to get a considerable amount busierrrrr this winter and I have a lot to get done! But, I am a LOT closer now than I was this time last year and I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. Lets just hope it isn’t an oncoming train! On to the ‘taters.

In the last article I finished up a few detail fabrication items and this time I am going to talk a little about final disassembly and one of my least favorite jobs to do, body work. First, the disassembly. It actually seems a little hard to believe I am taking things apart for (hopefully) the last time as I prepare for the body work, paint, and powder coat. This has been a looong project that was started in the Fall of 2007 and I am jonesing to go racing!

The disassembly is as simple as it sounds and I knocked it out in about a day. As usual I discovered a few areas I want to touch up my handiwork before the various coatings are applied but overall it went real well. I did decide to remove the entire front cross member, in three pieces, and they will get powder coated.

Before I removed the two outer factory pieces I drilled a locating hole into both pieces to make it easier to reassemble later and have the front geometry pretty close to begin with.

Amazing how dirty a drag car can get in 15 years. It's all coming apart and getting a makeover!

Without doing this the cross member could be installed crooked in the chassis and make it more difficult to do a four-wheel alignment, which will get done eventually.

I also tackled a project I have been avoiding for some time and decided to weed my way through the factory wiring harness that feeds the power windows. Yes, I said power windows! I have spent many a day sitting in the staging lanes in 90-plus degree heat and humidity just wishing that someone would stop by and open the passenger side door for me to no avail. I’m taking matters into my own hands! The factory buttons are there and so is the wiring but they haven’t worked since 1995.