Breaks My Heart

As an electrician by trade, I make a couple of trips each year to the Dominican Republic to do mission work for our church. When we stay in the capitol we always stay in the same small hotel. Last year, as I was enjoying the view of the ocean from my balcony, I looked down across the street and noticed, of all things, a '56 Chevy parked in a fenced complex under the trees. From my sixth floor vantage point, it looked pretty nice. And it looked quite out of place in the congested city.
Last week, at the beginning of another trip I again was staying in the hotel overnight, and noticed in the morning that the car was still there, but the tires were now flat. I also noticed that the gate was open to the parking lot. So, I grabbed a cup of thick Dominican coffee and took a little stroll across the street to take a look. For any lover of the tri-five Chevys it was a heartbreaking inspection.
The car had clearly been sitting there for a
long time. And over that time, sitting just one block from the salty ocean breeze, the bane of all classic cars, rust, had eaten a substantial portion of the car away. Mind you, I have no problem seeing an old car in a boneyard that had given up it's life long ago, but here was a perfectly good car that was--is--slowly rusting away due to neglect. Both of the rear roof pillars had rusted through and the roof has actually collapsed onto the car.
I wanted to lift the hood to see if the original engine was still there, but I was afraid that the whole thing would collapse.
As you can see from the photos, there's no rescuing this poor old girl. Really sad.

Pillar Talk Part 2

It's been 10 months since I've had a chance to work on "Old Yeller".
Last December I created a distraction for myself by buying an old house and restoring it. I knew that if I allowed myself to be distracted by car work, I would never get the house done (which would result in one very unhappy wife!) The house project wrapped up last month, but then we had a little visit from someone named "Irma" who has caused a lot of damage to our property, necessitating even more time away from my project.

Replacement welded in place

Today, the weather has roared into town for the day with fierce winds and rain, so my dear wife encouraged my to take the day and go to my happy place.
The last thing I was working on was the driver's side "A" pillar. I had already removed the outer piece from the old donor pillar, so a quick trip into the sandblasting cabinet got it cleaned up and ready to install.
Likewise, I had cut away most of the rusted outer piece on my car, so it didn't take long to grind away the few remaining spot welds. Time was spent this morning carefully trimming and fitting the replacement piece into the car before finally welding it in.

A few small holes but much better than before

This side has a few spots where rust had completely penetrated the metal, but it's still way better than the old pillar. My plan is to pump a good amount of seam sealer
into the pinholes to inhibit any future rusting, as well as to create a solid backing for a skim coat of body filler. Hopefully the project is up and running again!