The fender shield succumbed to my new Dewalt angle grinder in no more than five minutes. Then I spent some time using a scraper blade on my oscillating saw to scrape undercoat and gunk from the fender apron area. Looking much better now.
I started scraping seam sealer from the trunk to see how much work it would be to replace the trunk floor. What I found was about a pound of Bondo covering up several rusted out places in the trunk, fender well, and probably into the quarter panel as well. Obviously someone went to great lengths to conceal some body rot. I was disappointed but not terribly surprised. I did violate one rule of car inspections… I looked at this thing when it was bitter, bitter cold and I didn’t really feel like crawling around on the floor and stuff for an extended time. But, most of this was pretty well hidden. Obviously there will be more cutting and welding than I planned, but it’s not a show stopper. Maybe it’s just karmic payback for the cowl not being rusted out.
I’ve been recharging the battery to see if it’s going to be junk or not. I may just take it somewhere and get it load tested. I’d love to know if this engine runs or not. There’s gas in the tank, and it doesn’t seem to be ruined, so maybe I can get it started. The tank will get drained, though, and possibly replaced… the jury is out on that. It doesn’t LOOK bad, but then neither did the trunk floor.