El Capitan : Body Work

I knew it from the day I saw El Capitan in a suburban parking lot; he needs a body job. The rocker panels have a couple rusty spots, some of which have left little gaping holes, which is never good. So I thought a little day of scraping and buffing, and a little paint, would do the job.

Today was sunny, so I decided to give it a shot. Wisely, I decided to work on one side at a time. I made a ramp out of a piece of concrete and a couple rocks to gain better access to the underbelly of the beast, and I plugged a rotary steel brush on my drill and started peeling off the paint. Not 5 minutes later, a huge hole was already open on the bottom right, close to the rear wheel. Yikes!

It was too late to back out, so I kept grinding away, and by the time I was finished, I think there were more holes than metal on the rocker panel.

I sprayed a little rustproofing base layer, then cut some pre-shaped metal patches to cover the holes. I popped open the body putty mix and applied a generous coat of the stuff to fill the biggest gaps. You'd think after having done so much construction work and so many gypsum joints, I'd be good with a trowel.

Well, it seems I still suck.

So basically, El Capitan now looks like I spreaded pink peanut butter on it. The crunchy type.

But I remain unfazed, optimistic.

Tomorrow's a new day, and I will keep working until all the rust is gone and the holes are patched up, and I will try to do the best job I possibly can. And take my adventure photos from juuust a little bit further away :)