With the Scion stripped down in the rear and our game plan laid out, the time came to hit the junkyard. Battery tools were packed and more than enough hand tools were packed to ensure an effortless chop job on the unfortunate yard car we hope to run across. Our first order of business was to get the hatch off. As with the old hatch, this required the both of us to do safely so my own members don't get damaged in case of an accident. Once the hatch was off, to give this hatch and its huge glass window a good chance of making it home in one piece, I used moving blankets, a bath towel and some old automotive carpet we took from the yard to cushion the trailer when we strapped down the hatch.
Unfortunately, the junkyard hatch was missing the panel that contains the switch that is used to release the latch mechanism. While this isn't that big of a deal and really something that couldn't be factored in given the fact that it was the only hatch available at the yard, I was able to rest easy with the idea that the old hatch's switch panel was still intact. I'll be able to pull this piece and install it on the new hatch, along with the spoiler I installed on our old hatch a while back. We also got lucky in the fact that the taillights on the car were also not damaged, save for one of the units having broken tabs at the bottom where they hook under the bumper skin. The main thing was the three studs that hold the piece to the body, those were still intact and should be sufficient to hold the light housing in place. The skin of both housings were intact and looked almost new. These may have been aftermarket housings used to dress up the car they came off of. Now they will help dress this car up. We pulled the bumper skin, which was a light gray, so we'll have to spray this piece down to get it to at least sort of match the rest of the body. This will be accomplished with some rattle can paint, at least until I do other body repairs that would facilitate a full paint job, where I can then address the po' man's paint that will be done to the bumper skin as well as the hatch. In the meantime, along with the bumper skin, we got a foam pad that was still solid, save for one of the mounting nipples that protrudes from the pad and inserts into the metal bumper member. While this will make the foam piece unable to sit snugly on the metal bumper, I will just have to improvise to hold the foam pad in place so it doesn't have any play even under the bumper skin. I didn't need the metal member since our old unit was intact, but the member still had to come off in order for me to cut out the inner body panel section. As with the old, damaged body member on the car, the junkyard car got the same treatment with the angle grinder and reciprocating saw, with me cutting the section of rear body out, taking the time to cut out a little further from the same lines I cut on the old panel. I wanted to make sure that there was enough metal available so I can make adjustments as needed and trim only what's necessary to ensure that the new panel fits exactly as I need it to so when its welded in, the hatch will close properly and all the other body components will fit as they're supposed to. With everything we need for the repair sourced from a single car at the junkyard, we can move on to getting this repair done and getting this car back on the road since this is a money making car and our time with the rental is limited. Once that goes back, the Tracker would end up having to be the money maker if my repair work takes longer than I anticipate, which it shouldn't since this appears to be a pretty simple job, all things considered. We'll get it done.
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