Things are not going weld

Spring is here in Central Florida, and it's only a matter of time before the temperature starts rising and working in the shop gets uncomfortable. We've been trying to get as much sandblasting done before it gets too hot to wear all of the protective gear for any length of time.

Things are looking OK--at least on this end

At the same time, We're welding in our patch panels and floor pans so we can get some primer on this bare sheet metal before the humidity erases all of our hard work. When we cut out the old floor pan, I decided it would be a good idea to at least coat the insides of the frame and all other metal parts that would be sandwiched in by the floor pan, so that the possibility of future rust would be lessened. To that end, I purchased a rattle can of weld-thru etching primer and coated all of the bare surfaces that were to receive spot welds. That was a month or so ago, and I felt pretty good about my decision---until this week.
We began fitting our new drivers floor pan in and almost immediately realized that our welds were not holding everywhere the primer was. I began racking my brain trying to remember if the primer was in fact weld-thru. The spray can was used up a while back and thrown away, so I have no firm evidence today to confirm my suspicion that the primer wasn't truly a weld-thru product. All of the spot welds I've attempted along the inner rocker and down onto the framing under the driver's foot refuse to hold. The floor pan has been butt welded along most of the inside edges, so I really don't want to cut it out to try and sand off the primer. I've been using a wire wheel on a drill to buff off as much as possible where I can, but it's been an

Things are going horribly wrong on this end

extremely frustrating week. I'll get one good weld, then the next three will pop off. I'm afraid I'm just going to have to abandon the idea of neatly spot welding on the inside of the floor, and resort to tacking the frame to the floor pan from below. I had planned to use liberal amounts of seam sealer along all of the underside joints anyway, so I hope to be able to hide my sloppy welds like that.
Daniel has been extremely patient while I struggle with this problem. He dutifully pulls parts out of the shop and continues to sandblast while I curse and bang my head in frustration. We've got a good rotation going whereby I blob on a chunk of metal with my welding, and he comes behind me and grinds off 90% while I work on another area.

Something to smile about!

The Spring Swap Meet is here this weekend in Daytona, so we made a morning of it yesterday to get a little retail therapy. A couple of weeks ago we determined that both front fenders for our car were unsalvageable, so we had a shopping plan and a handful of cash to work with. We weren't disappointed, as our search for new front fenders came up with two good replacements for our car. The white GT350 fender in the photo is in perfect condition, and we figure it's probably an aftermarket product, but since it came off a nice donor car, we're confident that it will fit properly. The one we picked up for the drivers side is a new reproduction, but it had a little ding in it and we got it for $80, which makes it worth the gamble.
We both realize that we need to see some progress before frustration and depression overtake us. The battle continues!

Sand, sand and more sand

Daniel gets a good angle on the rear window

The lack of posts is not indicative of the pace of our project. The weather has been great, and Daniel is finally realizing that his 16th birthday is much, much closer than far away. Suddenly, the desrire to work has increased ten fold!
Unfortunately, to counter that desire, I've had rotator cuff surgery so I'm working with one arm, which slows me down to virtually a standstill. Daniel has stepped up though, and put in two solid weekends of sandblasting to try and get the body completely done. Daniel's brother T.J. also visited us from new York and lent a hand one weekend to help tack in a floorpan. We're trying to take advantage of the last few weeks of cool weather before it gets unbearable under the blasting hood from the Florida heat.
As we strip the old layers of paint and bondo off, we're getting a better picture of the abuse our little car has suffered over the past 40+ years. I'm pretty convinced that the rear took a pretty good hit at one time, because there's some odd (but minor) buckling at the back edge of the rear windows. Nothing we can't fix, but definitely not original!

Prepping for the floor pan

The rear passenger quarter has seen a lot of attention in the past as well. I think there was at least four different layers of paint over various bondo patches.
We decided, instead of methodically working from the back to the front and patching as we go, to just blast the whole body and get the messy work out of the way. This was decided after I spent two whole afternoons vacuuming sand from nooks and crannies in the interior, then blasting again and negating all my efforts. Now we plan to get the interior of the body blasted, super clean it, then seal it up with tape and paper while we complete the blasting on the engine bay and underside.

Roof work

Posts may still come slowly, as I can only type with one hand (meaning one finger) but work will continue and I appreciate anyone out there who keeps checking in.

T.J. pitches in with some welding