We've been trying to make some time for this again. In no small part because woodstoves are running, leaves are down, and we're starting to think about storing cars, boats, mowers etc. Time to get this thing sealed up.
We jumped off the tailgate and started working on the hatch opening. We needed to build a lower 'dam' for the gate to close against and serve as a water barrier. We grabbed another piece of 90* 14gauge and started cutting...
Basic idea was to mimic and continue the lip of sheet metal which forms the stock opening. We cut a piece of the 90 to length and made slices to build in the curvature of the artful, pininfarina-esque shape of a Volvo 945 hatch.
With the piece tacked into shape, we then tacked it to the floor of the lip pointed out towards the hatch opening.
It worked out really well! You can see in the corner we made a slice up the lower piece and bent the lip up so it's a nice continuous line just like on a stock car. The corner here might not look polished and beautiful but I'm pretty proud of it - there's 10+ pieces of cut and shaped metal just in this picture to stitch all this together. Also, welding on folded over layers of steel with seam sealer in between them makes some nasty smoke...
The finished product - a fully gasketed hatch opening, utilizing the stock Volvo gasket!
The hatch pulls up well and the gasket makes good contact all the way around, so we're ready to seal up this welding and make a latch.
Going to work on some body prep this weekend - we're really pushing to get a couple coats of epoxy primer on the car to seal it up.
Thinking longer term... we had my brother in law's Lexus sitting around the yard for a few months, which was effectively killed by the mean streets of Boston. I love love love the way this car runs so I bought it for scrap. The b230ft is a little unloved and rough running and this thing is just sooo smooooooth.
maybe... maaaaaybe
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