Delayed Update
Unforeseen happenings have put me a bit behind schedule. I haven't been able to get as much done as I had hoped I would, but I have made some progress.
Since my last update I've done some reinfocing on the doghouse. The bottom edge of the grille has always been pretty wobbly which kind of bothered be so I welded on some little angle iron.
In the above picture you can see the main bottom piece. Also featured is my new grinder (part of my delay has been my grinder taking a dive).
I made smaller pieces to wrap around the bottom corners as well.
With all the pieces welded in, the whole doghouse seems a lot more structurally sound.
Also, I finally got around to capping the body mount covers. To do this, I pretty much did the exact same process as with my bumper. I made a template and cut out the shape with a tab on the inside edge.
The tab goes inside of the doghouse sheet metal where I welded it before laying a bead all the way around on the inside.
After it was welded in, I used the grinder to remove the excess metal that I had hanging over the edge.
Once the body mount covers were capped and trimmed, I finished tacking the expanded steel in place and began priming.
The above picture shows how I went about it. I just used a couple rope ratchet thingies and hung it from a rafter.
I'm just using rattle cans for the priming.
It's pretty cold in my area so I've just been going one section at a time; hit with sanding disk, prime, and let dry with heater/halogens. Lather, rinse, repeat, heh.
This next picture shows a finished body mount cover.
And that's where I'm at right now. I'm exactly half way finished with priming the doghouse. I'll finish that up tomorrow... er, today I guess. I should also be able to hammer out the other fender/turn signal bezel as well. Then, if all goes as planned, on Monday I'll make my fender flares.