Body updates (Originally posted 8/29/10)

Now that the car moves under it's own power, it's time to start doing some of the other big stuff.

For those following along, the car had some cosmetic damage to the drivers door and rear quarter panel. Since there was a nice big hole cut in the quarter panel, the only option is to replace the whole thing. So, ordered up a new panel from Mazdaspeed Motorsports. It comes complete with the gas filler hole already attached, so that makes things a little easier.

First up is the removal of the old quarter panel. These panels are spot welded to the rest of the car, so I purchased a spot weld cutting tool. It's basically a really small hole saw that cuts around the spot weld. Once you've done this with all of the spot welds holding the panel to the car, you can easily remove it. Next up you then have to grind down all of the raised portions. This doesn't necessarily sound that hard, but with there being approximately 40 spot welds holding the panel on, it's very time consuming. As it turns out, the quarter panel also is held on with quite a bit of seam sealer, so it was a little more challenging than I expected. Since I only have a battery operated grinder, I'm spending a lot of time waiting for the batteries to recharge. Hopefully I'll be able to get this all finished up tomorrow or Wednesday and be ready to start fitting the new panel.

The other exciting news is that I ordered up a pair of carbon fiber doors. I needed to replace the driver's door anyway, and the passenger door had a few dings from it's high mileage life, so this seemed like a smart way to go. They are supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'll be sure to document this awesome development and post it!

Once these items are all in place, the car is going in for it's rollcage. Again, pictures will be forthcoming.

Stay tuned, it's starting to get exciting!