A quick update on progress

My last post was on October 25! It is now November 17...almost Thanksgiving. The weather has definitely turned the corner to colder days. We've had a fair amount of rain over the past few weeks as well. It makes it hard to get motivated to go out into the ramshackle carport to fight with the parts I can't get to budge.
But, I managed to get a few hours in, here and there, during my days off.
The struggle with the distributor went on for several weeks. It resulted in more trips to Home Depot and Harbor Freight than I had hoped, but I finally found the winning combination: brute strength and a mid-sized pry bar.

It was a moment of sheer joy when that thing popped out. I was happy to have been warned that the distributor in my car did not have gears attached...that the end simply looked like a flat-head screwdriver. If I had not known that before removing the part, I would've thought I had broken the end off!

Once that was out of the way, I was able to loosen all the bolts on the intake manifold. I have not taken it out yet, however. I have a list of things I'd like to have done before the snow falls and/or working conditions are less than ideal.
So, even though I'm feeling good about moving forward with the engine, as far as removing parts and cleaning out the gunk, I'll likely be saving that for Spring.
In the meantime, I made the decision to forgo welding the trunk. The hole was fairly large, and definitely a welding job for someone in the know, but I just did not see myself attaining that skill (or equipment) in a timely manner. Instead, I chose to use a resin/fiberglass patch.

I had already done some patching over the small holes with Bondo body filler. It is unfortunate that I didn't think to just go with the fiberglass from the start, but I am hoping the overlapping of fiberglass over filler won't be too problematic.

I still have to get out there to sand and see how it looks, since the day I did it, I ran out of time doing other chores. ugh...life.
With that patch ready to sand, and then the trunk ready to prime (and possibly paint, in the future), I can finally get the new fuel tank in and tie up the fuel lines. With that done, I can finally finish hooking up the new brake lines and finish the front brake conversion and re-assemble the rear drums. The new shocks can go on, all around; and, I can get the tires mounted and ready.
Spring can be all about getting the engine and exhaust squared away and with any luck, it'll be on the road by summer.
Now, I'm not counting my chickens, by any means, but I'm finally at a place where I feel like I'm moving steadily forward.

Shifting Gears

Today's post isn't about the Barracuda project.  Today's post is about my Chevy Cavalier.  The car I have had for 12 years.  For the past few years (I can't be sure of the exact time frame on this one), there has been a leak in the trunk.  Nothing major...nothing an old tee shirt couldn't soak up.
Well, last night, I had a passenger and we each had a bag of stuff to transport with us.  As I reached into the back seat to make room for our bags, I noticed that the back seat was soaked!  I immediately figured the leak in the trunk must actually be a leaky back window seal, and that I would have to have that replaced.
Today, I discovered a that it is a whole different story!

Yes, that is a puddle of water that my spare is sitting in!

As I felt around my trunk to try to figure out where the leak was, I lifted the cover to the spare tire.  I could see water...nearly an inch of water!!  I got out the shop-vac and got rid of that and proceeded to poke around and lift the felt trunk liner to see how bad it had gotten...and hopefully to find the water's entry point.

Looking 'out' of the trunk, near the driver's side tail light.

There was a rusty hole just behind the bumper, next to the driver's side tail light.  How the hell was I going to patch that up without taking the bumper off?  I started taking screws out and removing the trunk liner and decided that I could take care of it from the inside.  A friend of mine gave me an Auto Zone gift card for my birthday, so I will be using that for a patch kit.  But, I am not up for it today...I'm back to the old tee shirt method of stopping the leak for now.  I can't wait until my teacher takes a look at that in class tomorrow night!