DAY FOUR: Following the above advice, I sanded the top of the pump and uncovered 6 screws. They had been painted over so I used a sharp hook to scrape away the paint around the screw heads as well as the paint gumming up each screw's slot. Once scraped, I sprayed each screw with PB Blaster. If you haven't already sprayed your bolts and screws with some sort of penetrant, go ahead and do it right now and give it time to soak. This thread should still be up when you're done. I prefer AeroKroil but any brand does the trick.

While waiting on the penetrant to do its thing, I applied a rust dissolver to both doors (Rustoleum) and rinsed after 10 mins. Then I sanded both doors again with 50 then 80 grit. Getting completely down to bare metal with my refurbished palm sander (total Dad move -- he'd always buy used) has been a challenge above my pay grade. I plan to give them one final cleaning before applying Bondo over the lizard skin.

Returning to the "lid" or "Shiddy Liddy" as I call it, 5 of the 6 screws backed out fairly easily after soaking. Number 6 eventually broke free after a second hook scraping, and I think I heard an angel singing. So far I have not destroyed a single piece of hardware from this pump, and now I've totally jinxed myself. The elation was palpable and my afterglow lingered for a good 15 seconds until I removed Shiddy Liddy and saw all the crusties. I also notice Shiddy has a gasket that checked out a long time ago. Since my goal was to replace the rubber, I suppose this counts but I'm unable to locate this piece at Gas Pump Heaven.

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