Finish up the rear teardown

After the mess of getting the fuel tank out, all that's left in the trunk is the trunk lid, the taillights, taillight wiring, rear ribbed panel, rear bumper, rear valence, and on and on....it turns out, when you take a car apart, there are a lot more parts that you might think. But, I took my time and tried to shoot pics of all the pieces. I'm also learning that I need to review my pics a little more before I call them good. I now notice the shots that are fuzzy and yellowed. It's too bad I'm quite a ways past this point, so I'll just apologize now for these early pics. 

So we start at this point. Still not too far gone.

The bumper is held in by a bracket on each side, two bolts each. At the far right, you can see one of the special spacer/nut combos that are holding the ribbed panel in place. Seems I forgot to get good shots of that coming off. I'm learning...

After the brackets are unbolted from the body, my Apprentice pulls the bumper off the car...

...but don't yank that wire that connects the license plate light!

Blam-o! Bumper is off. 

The license plate light. This is a great example of a piece that will get stripped down, cleaned, rewired, and reassembled..it's an afternoon project all in itself.

There's a licence plate pad held on by a couple screws. I need to look this up and see if' it's supposed to be here, because it looks a little out of place.

Here's my Apprentice removing the screws that hold the rear valence in place. There's a hidden bolt on each side as well.

Ta-da. Rear valence is out. See, anyone can take a car apart....

The wires to the back-up lights in the valence had been cut long ago. And like most stuff on this car, taking it apart reveals lots of crud and reinforces the fact that my original plan of a rolling restoration was a terrible idea

Next out are the quarter panel extensions. Just a few nuts on each and (in theory) a screw on the outside. Ours are in pretty iffy shape. And like the front headlight buckets, they're made of pot metal, which I'm pretty sure limits repair options. 

Yoink!

And finally the trunk lid. Look closely and you'll see two bolts per hinge and a wire for the trunk lamp. One of the nice surprises about the fastback is the trunk hinges are coil springs instead of torsion rods. Not having to mess with torsion rods decreases my odds of puncture wounds and bleeding on the garage floor by 35%!

The only real items to strip off the lid are the trunk lock latch and the lamp.

And here's the trunk lid off the car. I'm surprised to see no paint under the hinges. Also, no jacking instruction stickers. Factory work or replacement? Hmmmm.....

I said earlier that Vintage Burgundy is a polite way of saying 'purple'. Here's the lid in the sun next to my actual red Saturn Vue (RIP - Rest In Parts)... Friends, that's purple.

Ahhh, that's more like it. Stripped to parade rest. 

Next up is the dash teardown, and then it's time for some tool shopping. It was hard to figure out what I really needed to get this job started, so I'll share the details of what I ended up with and why.