Thank you, Wayne. Yeah, if the back was flared out any more, the taillights would have had to come out some. I think I'm at the limit of pulling off what I did :)

Now that I am looking at it closer, the way the taillights are, almost looks 67 GTO-esque

That's Ok, it's still a Pontiac :)

I made some progress this weekend on the inner fender. It's pretty much wrapped up, and the next project will be the trunk extension. Everything was going great until around 3 something this afternoon when a neighbor called the cops on me to complain about the noise. Apparently, there's a "no power tools" ordinance in my town- which is geared towards construction. The officer was very friendly and seemed to like my project, explained to me that a project like mine is a grey area as it's not really construction, so the complaining neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, would have to press charges and take me to court. bleech....

I also ran out of welding gas, but, at least I was able to get through the day. Coincidentally, I'll be busy the next month so they'll get their quiet, just not for the reasons they think... Pics attached.

Wow getting a lot accomplished there. :thumbsup:

Did you jump on the survivor?

No. Not yet at least. I have been unsuccessful in convincing my wife why I need two identical cars. The good news is the car is not actually listed for sale. (It belongs to a coworker of mine who's had it for some time.) So there is no pressure of "missing out"...

Wow, it's been a month since I've posted. Where does the time go?? Oh yeah, 2 weeks overseas for work and a vacation tacked on afterwards.

Anyways, last I left off working on the trunk extension for the passenger side along with a recessed battery tray (idea courtesy of Wayne, thanks!). On the day I left for China, I started building a basic box slightly larger than the dimensions Optima has on their website. Only I didn't leave myself enough material so I had to add a bit more. (Math never was my strong suit)

I was able to get back in the garage yesterday and add the bottom to my battery tray, as well as recycle the last of my original tail panel- I saved the pieces in between the tail lights. I used these as supports for the bottom of my battery tray box. I also made a frame rail brace, and boxed in the frame in that area. I also worked on trimming the trunk extension panel to make room for the battery box.

Of course, my Eastwood welder pooped out on me (will deal with that this week), but I still have my Miller so I continued working with that for the day. Hopefully I can get more time in next weekend.

Just a quick update, I got a little work in today (This weekend was busy attending the Hot Wheels double dare loop at the X-games. BTW pretty cool if you haven't see it: https://www.youtube.com/user/HOTWHEEL...?v=c6PQ49B5Gpw ) by attaching the battery box and getting the truck panel welded in. I still have a bit more welding and one patch panel to add on the back side, then I can clean it up and move onto the next project...

Its looking good, a lot of nice progress sense I last checked in.

Thank you. Yeah, I was given this cool idea to recess the battery into the trunk.... :)

Yeah i agree the bird is looking good...