Day 5 ~ Fail

Well for all the good that went on today, the title still kinda sums up my day anyway. I'll muddle in the woes first and then highlight the progress I made anyway. When it rains, it epic fails I say.
  First sign of impending doom: I removed the dash cover just to be on the safe side for the rough cuts up front and got all the wires except for the keyless entry receiver and snapped the receiver. Oops. I might have known and watched for that had I had the Bentley Manual I ordered some time ago. Grrr. Still waiting for them to ship it. That's the last time I try to save $2 going with Amazon's free shipping super slow sucker saver. Oh well. That's really the first snag I've run into so I guess it's not that bad.
  Next I get all psyched up for my call to confirm final location of my rough cuts (just really giving feedback with Mark to make sure the build pics and instructions given so far are understandable enough to proceed), and wouldn't you know that in all the organizing I did to my garage lately I seem to have misplaced my un-opened box with the reciprocating saw (saws-all). Frustrated and unable to find it, I called Mark anyway and verified what I needed to. Then I decided I couldn't settle for no cutting today, so I grabbed my trusty port-a-band saw. I figured I could at least get the 4 A and B pillars cut and remove the top by cutting from just behind the B pillar top to the rear corner of the sunroof opening (an UNNECESSARY cut if you're doing the build ~ I just wanted to get at least a section off). Long story short, the band saw failed and tore it's drive wheel up just due to age of the rubber. Figures today would be the day. Not to be outdone by fate, I decided to continue with my hack saw since I had nearly 3 cuts finished of the 6 attempted. ((by the way I'm not counting time for the shenanigans I pulled maintaining my bandsaw and making the 2 upper cuts)) Thankfully in order to keep me from working ridiculously hard for no reason (just postpone the cut for a day dummy), my last hacksaw blade snapped.
  Okay, that's it! I'm going to remove the rear glass so I can cut the trunk surround off tomorrow. Since I've had to whine about cuts and pokes every day since the windshield episode (and the wasted time cleaning up the mess all the time), I tried cutting the seal on the glass. I did a pretty good job on most of it, but couldn't get a corner and decided to try to pry it gently. Gently not working . . . upgrade to firmly . . . BOOM! The good news is that the rear glass (unlike the front) is safety glass that crumbles into a million 1/8" balls instead of trillions of shards. Anyway it doesn't take long to clean up the rear window and there's no dash with pockets to catch the mess, so I actually recommend just smashing the rear window, but I still recommend a clean removal of the front windshield.

Enough with the failing already! What went right today? For starters, I got to talk with Mark about all sorts of stuff today, so I'm stoked and ready to rock now. Always a + to talk to the man with the plan.
I removed:

Front and rear doors (got the special tool as a 4 pack at O'Reilly Auto Parts for $6! It's the 12-point "triple square serrated" thigamajig)
Dash cover
Rear glass
Rear bumper
Front bumper
Radiator/condenser coils & headlight bracket
Front seat belts
Radio stack
Gauge cluster
Coolant overflow bottle

I also got to label all the connector groups in the dash for future reference. And I familiarized myself with the rough and final cuts so I'll be able to make headway on them when I borrow the recip saw from work this weekend.
  I still need to remove the fuel tank, exhaust, fuel and brake lines, and any nearby wiring underneath to make room for the rear cuts. Now that I'm not going to be doing any more work on the motor, I can go ahead and remove it too. I'm kinda antsy to get the rough cuts done before I spend a bunch more time removing the engine and labeling all the stinking wiring and hoses. Final cuts up front will have to wait until I've pulled the motor, but I'll be eager to get the rough cuts and maybe some finals done this weekend.

  Oh, and another good thing just for fun today . . . I keep forgetting to pay Mark when I tell him I want a shirt. So go figure I haven't received one yet. No matter, I'll just make one for now. lol