I wanted to post my reply below that I made on my thread to the comment you made on my thread about "living vicariously" and offer as much encouragement as I can on your project!


QUOTE(bbrock @ Mar 24 2018, 08:21 AM) *

Fantastic! I'm living vicariously.


Please do!
Well my friend I would say you are meeting the challenges well on your car. Your car is coming along very nicely. Your welding skills far exceed mine and thankfully I did not have that hurdle. I shall never again complain about it being cold in my garage here in So Cal. after seeing your winter pictures. I see you started in 2017, so, far less time than I have been working on mine and hopefully it will be done in a shorter amount of time. Mine has only been off the road since Clinton was in office. Different hurdles we faced for sure but in the end you will have the pride of doing it yourself. Congrats on your progress and having the presence of mind to post the picture of fornicating frogs on your thread. Keep up the good work and I shall follow you more closely from now on.

These are often the most productive days in my book... knocking out a whole lot of little things. I have to say that I just can't wrap my mind around your level of determination. Keep up the great work, you've practically rebuilt the entire body in a matter of months and it's going to end up way better than it ever left the P-car factory.

I AM old enough to remember them

Hey Brent,
I am enjoying the thread. Keep up the great work.

Regarding your quarter panel work, I am struggling with the idea of notching my panels to get to the hell hole and sail panel (minor) rust which you have done or just removing the panel all together which would allow me to get behind and into the hell hole and sail area unencumbered. Perhaps it is just a trade-off in time between notching the panel or removing it all together.

Would like to hear if you considered complete removal previously and if you had to do it again would you do the same thing?

Thanks,
Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I did briefly consider removing the whole panel but not for long. If you use the RD sail panel patch, then you are going to have to run a long butt seam regardless. Cutting the quarter where I did only adds about 6 inches of extra seam. Now if the rust on the sail is minor enough that you only need small patches without replacing the whole sail piece, then removing and replacing the whole quarter is a no-brainier. Much easier to cut spots and re-install with plugs than trying to quilt pieces together. That was my thought process anyway.

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First a scrubbing alongside fruit fly vials in my personal dishwasher. And you thought washing car parts in a dishwasher was weird

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Chipped out the old cracked tar, cleaned traces with contact cleaner, scrubbed with isopropyl alcohol, filled holes with silicone. I think you could power a small city through those traces. Massive.

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and sealed with epoxy potting compound.

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Don't Change that Channel... No wait... Do!

It's getting down to the wire on rust repair, so time to tackle seal channel repairs. There is only one spot in the rear trunk to fix so I started there. It's a frustrating one too because it doesn't look that bad at first glance. The corrosion was between layers of the channel and would only grow if not repaired.

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I cut it out and soaked Ospho into the seam overnight.

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The biggest reason I've been dreading channel repair is because I don't have a sheer and the channel edges need to be perfectly straight and square to look good. A vice and bastard file makes an acceptable poor man's sheer for short pieces like this.

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A more confident and competent fabricator could probably save time by fabbing both layers of the channel and plug welding them together before welding in place, but I had to tackle it one layer at a time.

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There is a gentle curve in the channel so I tacked the ends of the bottom layer first and then flexed the middle to match perfectly to the original curve before tacking the rest.

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A copper backing plate on the ends made filling those easy.

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Then zapped the rest in. You can see spatter in sections of this weld. That's because I just towel dried the seam after neutralizing the Ospho with water so there was steam coming out of areas of the weld. I wasn't worried about it because that seam will get a second pass when the top layer goes on. After this pic was taken, I ground the seam just enough to square up a shoulder for the next layer to butt up against.

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Same Bat Channel!... Continued

Next was bending the top layer on the brake. I cut the blank wider than needed so I could clamp and bend easier. Then I trimmed it to slightly oversize and punched holes for plug welds. I took it to the stretcher to match that gentle curve. It took very light work on the stretcher. Easy to overdo it. Finally, trimmed to fit the bottom of the channel. Here, it's ready to go in.

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I left the free edge long.

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After welding it in and rough grinding, I used a straight piece of 1 inch by 1/8 inch thick aluminum to flex along the curve of the trunk channel while the wife scribed a line. Sorry, no pic, our hands were full!

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I finally get to use my body file! After grinding the free edge to the scribe line with the angle grinder, I finished the job with the file for a perfect factory looking edge that matches the curve.

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Then some grinding with a cutting wheel on the die grinder (what did Cary call that? The Johnny Wheel?), and finished with 80 grit on the angle grinder on the areas I could reach. I picked up a 3/8" air belt sander with my HF 25% coupon yesterday and will try to smooth out the bottom of the channel later today. Overall, I'm pleased.

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What the Hell!!!!!????

Late in the day I worked on more prepping the car for blasting before heading to a party in town. The VIN stamp in the frunk was so caked with paint to the point it was unreadable.

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I soaked a rag with acetone and scrubbed it off. The number does not match my VIN!!!

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Is that just a part number? I thought it was supposed to be the VIN

Congratulations... you are the proud owner of a six! Well at least the vin number of a six, well ok at least the owner of a picture of a vin# of a six!?! but then again it is April 1st so we can't trust anything you post. That vin was last known to be in MO in 2009. Heres a photo from Glenn Stazak's 914-6 registry site

* also, this post on the bird site? humm... http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-car...-60k-miles.html
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Ha ha a good one..

I didn't have to do that repair.. Guess I lucked out.

Oh, you know what? I think I might have mixed up photos. My bad. Something like this seems to happen like clock work every year.

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We had dinner guests, so not much progress yesterday. But I couldn't resist sneaking out to the shop briefly after company left. I couldn't dig into anything too dirty and have been dying to try out my Durablock set and do some metal bumping. So I dusted the left quarter with guide coat and blocked it with 80g just to see what I would be dealing with. It was actually a bit worse than this pic shows because I bumped out about four low shots before grabbing the camera.

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I've marked out the spots that will need additional shrinking I think. Then I'll see what remains of low spots and try to raise them. I picked up a HF door skin kit last week to add a slapper and a couple more dollies to the collection, but the hammer has already found a use too. I really don't know what I'm doing but this is fun!

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We'll come back to that later to see how I do.

Same Bat Channel Again...
I have a slow work day today, so stole a little extra time this morning to finish up the trunk channel. The cheapo air sander I picked up at HF for about 20 bucks is just the ticket for smoothing welds inside those channels. I knocked down the high spots with the edge of a 14" bastard file (I just like saying "bastard") and then finished with 60g and 80g paper. I need to order better sanding belts. HF abrasive products are pure . But it worked, and with a teeny bit of filler, we'll never know we were there.

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Okay, here's where I could really use some advice. Maybe I'm getting way too picky, but I've come close to cutting this channel repair out and starting over. When I said "light touch" on the stretcher to match the trunk arch, I really meant it. Even my light touch overdid it a scosche and wound up with an arch that is slightly off from the original curve.

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The bottom of the channel is double-walled at this point so pretty stubborn, but I used a piece of bar stock and hammer to tap it down closer to the original curve. That caused the overstretched wall to curve inward over the channel, so I hit them with the shrinking disc which helped, but it was hard to build enough heat and the going was slow, so I reverted to the MAPP torch to heat the walls and quench them to shrink them back down, followed by working the top edge a little more with the body file to get the profile adjusted. That helped, and eventually I got things pretty close, but not perfect.

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After staring at it for way too long, I realized that a lot of the arch mismatch was an optical illusion because my bending brake left a slightly larger radius on the bend than the original channel. That was causing a shadow line that made the arch look higher than it was. I hit it with a little primer to see how it might look after painting.

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I might be able to live with that, but I'm still on the fence about it. What say ye?

I will say that no one will know notice it once everything is 1 color.

As you know, it's often tough to get the true vibe via pics but here's my $.02:

I'd put the seal on there and see what it does/looks like and be sure everything fits and functions. Assuming so, celebrate with a beer and move on!

IMO, you and I are of a kind in that we worry about details like this that are likely never going to be seen. I think that's a good thing because, well, "perfect is perfect". But, again, IMO, if it's not a concourse thing, "don't let perfect get in the way of good enough."

And note that by "good enough", I mean "a nice job".

I'm coming to grips with this very thing as I get deeper into my build. In my case, it's striking a balance between developing skills ahead of working on the car vs making progress and feeling good about the less than perfect execution.

Said more succinctly: Function over form (so long as the form doesn't totally suck!)

Keep up the great work!

Oh be honest, you would have been on at least version 3 by now. Actually, I'm pretty sure you would have gotten this one spot on the first time.

Having little non-functional flaws that will be completely hidden is one thing, but on these exposed parts, my self-criticism goes into hyper-drive. Thanks Ben and Chris, you are right, this isn't going to be noticeable by anyone but me or a concourse judge. But..... I have a plan now.

I thought putting the seal on was a good idea so I tipped the car sideways to make room for a ladder to climb up to the shelf where I've piled most of the old seals. Yes, space is that tight in the garage. I didn't find the seal. Either I tossed it, or it is in the shed on the back forty. But while I was on the ladder, I looked down and got the perfect perspective on the channel. It really is just a matter of the bend radius. That means two things: 1) cutting it out and starting again won't help because I'd wind up with the same radius from the brake. 2) if I shoot that with high build primer/filler, I'll bet I can contour that line to blend perfectly with the rest of the channel. It is barely perceptible as it is, that would take me to the perfection I seek. So.... moving on.... for now.

I found that metal bumping is the perfect task when Mr. Magoo to putter on the car without getting dirty. I bumbled around for about 3 hours today with the shrinking, slapper, and hammer. I have no clue what I'm doing, but think I'm making progress. Here's where I started:



And here's where I left it today:

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I learned how to work a lot more surgically with the shrinking disc. Starting to get the hang of off dolly and on dolly technique. The goal here is to get this finished to the point where I only need a little bit of filler directly over the weld seam. I have a long way to go, but I'm hopeful.

Also, these came today. Thanks smokey

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3/8's belts.
HF, junk. Top seller on Amazon worse than HF. Smoked thru one of those in 1.5 seconds.
McMaster Carr is my go to belt. I'm going to try some 3m Cubitron one of these days. $$
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More Channeling
Got a late start Saturday. The lovely Montana spring weather left 2ft. snow drifts across the driveway, so I spent the morning plowing heavy spring snow. It's like trying to push wet concrete around. About the time I finished, the sun came out and by late afternoon, most of the snow had melted. But fear not, then a blizzard hit and dumped more snow through much of the night. By morning, the sun was out again and it was well above freezing. Then a white out with snow coming in sideways. Typical spring here - sucks.

Anyway, by noon Saturday I was out working on the car. Needed to repair seal channels in the front trunk. The worst was around the left headlight, so I started there. The vertical section was toast

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and the rot spilled over into the nose section.

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Before cutting anything off, I needed to fab both layers of that section. About a hundred trips back and forth from the stretcher later, I had a perfect fitting piece.

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And seconds after taking that pic, I cut a piece off what I thought was scrap. NO! It was the goddam piece I just spent an hour fabbing! And yes, the expletives did fly.

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The second piece took only about 20 trips to the stretcher. Then it was time to cut out the cancer.

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The horizontal piece up top looked pretty bad too.

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The top layers was a goner, but the bottom layer cleaned up pretty well - just needed a little MIG to addresses some deep pitting.

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Welding in the bottom layer was pretty straight forward. Looking pretty good.

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And then plug welded in the top layer. Good as new!

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Then it was on to the right side. It was as bad as the other side. It was corroded in the lower right, and upper left corners, but I decided to just zap all the holes and pitting using a copper backer. I did the same to rebuild the walls in a few spots.
I'll spare the details. Here is it after cleanup and repair.

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Like the other side, the top layer of the horizontal was toast. Actually, it was pretty much gone. That was pretty easy to replace.

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There's more rot up that side channel and below the cowl. Stay tuned...

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The Tale of an Amazing Vendor - shout out to PMB
This set of brand new OEM green lines arrived from PMB today. I feel a little guilty about them. I actually ordered a set of OM steel budget lines back in November thinking I might install the long line in the tunnel while it was open. My plan was to paint the cheap lines to fake the OEM look. But the lines were put on backorder. Just after Christmas, they emailed to let me know that first half of the shipment from the vendor had just arrived, and mine would be in the second half arriving soon. But it didn't. I contacted them last week just to check status - I'm in no hurry. I learned the vendor had sent SS instead of the kits that were supposed to be OM steel and I was offered my choice of green lines or SS with no upcharge. Amazing - and above what was expected and I told them so, but that a set of green lines would save me having to paint. It is really over the top generous and a good example of why they are such respected vendors.

Some may be wondering why I didn't opt for SS. Honestly, I think SS brake and fuel lines are overkill for a street car that is going to be much better maintained for the rest of its life than the first of it. These lines will well out last me and have the right look. Anyway, here they are; sorry, but I'm not taking them out of the bag until they are ready to install.

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The Saga Continues...

The gods seem to be conspiring against me for car progress. Thursday morning I was looking at bare gravel on my driveway and the birds were declaring spring had arrived. Perfect time to get the tent garage erected over the weekend and get some serous blasting done. I managed to squeeze in time to fab and weld in the little reinforcements for the rear sway bar and do a fair amount of grinding on the trunk butt seam while I was back there. Cut these out of 16 gauge with aviation snips. Thanks to Steve for getting me the correct thickness and dimensions. You need a strong grip to cut that thick of steel with hand snips. Luckily, I have a freakishly strong grip. No, not because of THAT It's actually more weird. I spent many days since childhood flipping over huge rocks looking for critters. Yeah, this is the sign of a true nerd.

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Oh yeah... the reinforcement. Here you go.

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Then Friday morning, we had this...

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It was a bit of a Donner Party situation. Only the 3rd time in 15 years up here that the roads were impassable with 4WD and a good set of snow tires. It took until about 1 pm to dig out enough that I could hook up the plow and clear a path so Elizabeth could get to work. Believe it or not, I was able to plow without putting chains on. Barely, but I got it done. Blizzak are amazing tires. April in Montana - gotta love it. Come on out Dion, it's a paradise! Needless to say, the tent plans were foiled.

And more obstacles. A work project from hell kept me chained to my desk most of the weekend. I was able to sneak down to the car a few hours at a time while my computer was busy churning data.

Back to the seal channel repairs. Here's what I tackled this round:

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The channel walls looked good, so I decided to just cut out the bottom. That way, the repairs will be buried under the seal and everything visible will remain factory fresh.

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There's a bulge in the fuel compartment where it meets the cowl that creates a double-walled affair under the channel. Giant PITA for welding in a new bottom.

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I tried to weld as much as I could from the bottom side because the channel interfered with the welder nozzle and there as too much stick out. That's where my inexperience showed. I had to crank up the welder wicked hot to get a good stick with the nozzle out that far. The upshot was mostly really clean looking welds interspersed with turkey shit. Here's the top side after rough grinding just part of it with a cutoff wheel. Notice the clean, unground welds on the outer edge. The Turkey shit starts on the inner edge just beyond the ground stuff. That's where the bulge blocks access from the bottom.

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And here's the same deal on the bottom. I've just knocked off the tops of the turds here.

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And the final cleanup. A bit of FG filler on the top, seam sealer on the bottom, and we'll never know it was patched.

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Probably won't get much done this week. Got to travel out of town for the project from hell.

Wow. Great job on those channels! That looked tedious. Well
done Brent. Like Chris stated earlier about the laying the rubber strip in & or laying the boot lid (sorry trunk) down to see how it profiled. Looks like it turned out brilliant. I’ll be playing with that soon enough when I get my left rear console sorted.

My girl likes your pup:

Beautiful girl! Shiba Inu? Love that color... or is that colour?

What an incredible amount of work. Keep after it as you're getting a great result.

Hehehe , She’s a Norwegian Elkhound. She’s all about snow.

Hi jack over,
Nice progress mate.

I forgot to mention that I picked up a box of these sanding belts for my air file at the local paint supply for $20. I was going to try the McMaster-Carr belts Cary is using but didn't want to wait. These belts are WAY more economical than HF POS belts. HF belts are ~$1/belt but come as an assortment including belts you rarely need. 3M are $2/belt but you get 10 of the grit you want and each belt lasts 5-10 times longer than junk HF. I've used the crap out of my first belt and it is still serviceable. Well worth the $.

More @#$%ing Channel

I had one more large section of channel to repair in the front trunk - the passenger side under the cowl. Severe pitting and many holes. I'm not gonna lie, this piece was a giant B.

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First I had to remove the little bracket under the cowl.

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Bent a piece of angle and took it to the shrinker.

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It really didn't take long to get from this.

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to this (you might have to look close to see the patch piece is nested under the original.

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Then the cursing started. Bending the piece caused the 90 degree bend to flatten to more like 80 degrees. That wasn't hard to bend back, but doing so introduced a twist that made fitting and trimming the piece a real PITA. I had to tack the end toward the middle and work my way out toward the end, tacking as I went and making sure the channel width was correct. It was an f'ing pain.

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By the time it was tacked in place, I had gaps the size of the Grand Canyon to fill.

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I used a copper spoon and tried to weld as much as possible from the back side because it would be easier to grind. No easy, just easiER. Man what a horrible place to work. Barely enough room to fit your head with a welding helmet on and twisted in the most godawful contortions. At one point, I managed to weld a big booger onto the copper spoon, effectively sticking it into the gap. I didn't even know that was possible and had a helluva time getting it loose. I was genuinely in a foul mood. Eventually, I got the damn thing welded in.

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It looked like shit, and grinding was just as much fun as welding. Did I mention the foul mood? It did clean up pretty well. Then I used tape to mark a straight line to trim the free edge to. Brought it down close with the angle grinder.

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Then finished with the body file.

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It did turn out nice though. I need to find something I can fit into that channel to use as a dolly to tune up that edge. As with the other channel, just a little filler and block sanding should finish it off perfectly.

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The Big Tent

What a difference a week makes. Last weekend we were under two and a half feet of snow. This weekend, our side of the mountain was bare. After taking Ibuprofen to kill the pain from the contortions of yesterday, I set up the tent garage.

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Just getting that blasting cabinet out of the garage has helped free up space.

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While I was enjoying the sunshine, my neighbor across the road on the north facing side got his pickup buried in at least 4 feet of snow. I would have helped, but I don't own any equipment big enough to help unstick that. Even another neighbors tractor couldn't pull it out. I'm glad I live on this side.

That curved channel repair... I feel your pain, my brother! Well, not really since I didn't do the work... I have a bit of channel rust to get after, too, so thanks to you (and Cary) for the detailed coverage.

And I highly recommend:
- deep breath
- cleansing exhale

It's funny just how much we rustoration/fab folks all have in common. Hearing about your "foul mood" while you're working through a frustrating repair that requires a contortionist's flexibility? I'd laugh out loud if I hadn't been there and knew I'd be there again soon.

I expect you're doing it but a friendly reminder: Step back every so often and look at the big picture and the absolute TON of work you've accomplished! Heck, only a couple more snow storms and you'll be done!

In any case, you're entertaining the crap out of us so thanks for that!

Speaking of snow storms... Yesterday it was in the 70s. The cranes were trumpeting and the first frogs emerged from the pond. I'm glad I got the tent up because this morning, it looks like this.

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Oh, and I kind of fudged the story from over the weekend. In reality, the channel got done in two stages with the tent going up in between. Part of that stepping back and taking a breath you spoke of.

{ “ Did I mention the foul mood? It did clean up pretty well. Then I used tape to mark a straight line to trim the free edge to. Brought it down close with the angle grinder.” }


Hahahahahah I was laughing out loud regarding the foul mood!
Oh how many times have we been there. Thanks for putting it in writing.
Sorry bout the snow again.
But wow nice work. I wish my compressor could handle the air tools.
That angle grinder is so much more compact than the electric stuff.
Hats off to ya for that channel work. It’s brilliant.
Keep at it!

Okay, I've toyed with going into tools more but decided not to. But now you have forced my hand So here's a little of what I've learned about tools that suck, and tools that don't.

Tools that Don't Suck

Mini angle grinder - Hands down that grinder you mentioned tops the list. I can't imagine doing this project without this bad boy. It is a cheap, $15 HF jobbie. Being HF, quality control isn't good and the first one I bought didn't work for crap. I exchanged it for another (same model) and it has run like a champ ever since. Love this tool!

3/8" belt sander (air file) - I came to this one late and wish I'd bought it much earlier in the project. Boy what a fantastic tool for reaching in where nothing else goes. Again, cheap HF and I had low expectations because found several bad reviews on youtube. But they were a few years old and I've noticed on other tools that HF has addressed issues complained about on youtube. Maybe coincidence, but my file works great so far as long as you put a good quality belt on it.

Makita grinder - I have abused (and I mean ABUSED) this little 4" grinder for over 30 years now and it just keeps going. The real standout is that you can still get parts. I think it is criminal how tool companies have been bought up and chopped into pieces, leaving owners of otherwise good tools with no access to replacement parts. Even sacred Delta has been fed to the dogs. Makita seems one of the rare survivors that still offers parts for old tools. Again, can't imagine this project without the grinder. My only complaint being that it is a 4" which I prefer, but is a size that has fallen out of favor over the years which leaves you having to cobble adapters to use 4-1/2" parts on it. I've several times decided to just add a 4-1/2" to the arsenal to save time changing attachments, but then the CSOB within kicks in.

Tools That Suck
DeVilbiss air compressor - I bought my 60 gal./5 HP unit barely used on Craigslist and thought with the DeVilbiss name, it would be good. Turns out it is just a rebranded Porter-Cable and I've had such horrible luck with that brand's woodworking tools that I've sworn off of it. This is an oil-less compressor and the basic design is fine, but all the ancillary pieces are cheap crap. I immediately had to replace several fittings that failed. The biggest PITA is that the cheap pressure switch has no adjustment for cut on and cut off. The cut off is set too high which leaves the compressor running on and on as it fights to get that last 1 lb. of pressure. I need to modify it so I can set it one pound lower which would cut the time it runs by 2/3rds.

Air chucks - I can't stand air chucks that leak, but where do you find good ones? I've tried several from local sources, they all wind up hissing after a few weeks of use.

Kobalt air tools - I've been very impressed with Lowe's Kobalt brand hand tools, so when my ancient Campbell-Hausfield die grinder finally crapped out, I though the Kobalt would be a step up from HF for a tool a put a lot of wear and tear on. I hate this tool. A major peeve of my are safety triggers that don't work and ultimately make the tools dangerous. This die grinder fits that category. The stupid trigger binds and makes pulling the trigger a two-handed operation. Dangerous. It also makes it impossible to smoothly modulate the tool speed with the trigger. I need to rip that safety trigger off. Also, the tool's design makes it difficult to use without blocking the exhaust air with your hand. There goes the power. It gets the job done, but I hate it.

HF air tool oil fogger - It works about as well as you'd expect for the price, like a wet dog turd. It is impossible to adjust to get a "fog." It either doesn't feed oil at all, or it just dumps the oil into the hose to be spewed all over your face, cloths and work. Worthless.

I also splurged today and bought a compact 7000 lumen LED work light tree. I really like the design and am pretty sure it will wind up in the tools that don't suck category. It replaces my old halogen tree that most definitely was a tool that sucked. Whew! Feels good to get that off my chest.

And just as I typed that, the sun popped out and it stopped snowing. It only dumped a foot of wet concrete today. Must be spring!

Brent, how long are the belts you use for your belt sander? I bought one from the Canadian version of HF (Princess Auto) and I love it but the belts suck. I looked for better quality but they seem to be 13" and my sander needs 12-9/16".

Ouch! Mine is 13" and I wound up getting the 3M Cubitron belts which aren't cheap, but last a very long time. I haven't seen the size you need.

Decided to roll the car into the tent last night to finish prepping for blasting and free the garage up for a good cleaning. Last year, I left the end of the tent near the garage door off and put the tent door at the opposite end. Hopeful that I'll be painting, I wanted the whole tent closed in so installed the tent door at the garage end.

Oops!

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Then I started rethinking my earlier decision that it was important to be able to flip the car completely upside down on the rotisserie. Luckily, I'm able to flip it enough to slide the car through the door with absolutely zero room to spare.


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Now the last of the undercoat and seam sealer can come off. Check out that fancy light!

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Had a Blast Today...
... but not particularly fun.

Met my first World member today! dr.tim stopped by from Butte, America for a visit. Really fun chatting with you Tim. You are the first person to see this crazy project who "gets it." Great to know I have a local expert to help tune my carbs.

After Tim's visit, it was back to work. Spent some time working on removing the last of the undercoat and seam sealer. And if there is any question whether removing the sealer is necessary, I found stuff like this lurking under sealer that looked to be in great shape.

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I'm using both a needle scaler and air scraper. The needle scaler works great on thinner areas of undercoat that are pretty dry and somewhat brittle, but is worthless on thicker undercoat or seam sealer. The scraper handles the stuff the scaler won't touch. Both work best on undercoat that is cool or cold but seam sealer needs to be heated up. Today was the first real summer day in the Montana tug-o-war that is Spring. It got hot; too hot in the tent to scrape undercoat, so I switched tasks.

I want to strip the trunk out, especially under the headlight buckets so I can rust treat and prime before welding the reinforcements back in. So I set up to media blast. First, I had to remove the last non-welded-on part from the chassis. Not really worth a pic, but a ceremonial moment, so here it is. The little plastic screw anchor under the dash. BTW, these tap out with a hammer, but have a hand on the other side because they shoot out like a bullet. I heard the first one ricochet about four times inside the cockpit before hearing the dull thud of it hitting the tent wall. Glad it did because at least I had a hint where to look for it.

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Now to the fun stuff. Here's where I started; donor trunk was originally Alaska Blue Metallic I think, then resprayed to something like Bahia Red maybe.

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I really don't understand why people complain about media blasting. It is a perfectly horrible job. It was about 90 degrees inside the tent. Sweat dripping, crushed glass flying, blasting hood dusting AND fogging up, and is there anything more comfortable than a P95 dust mask? Good times! But here's what it got me.

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Now look at that photo again. I've read that silver metallic is one of the hardest colors to spray and I guess I'll have the joy of finding out. It also has to be the hardest color to strip. The upper fenders, bulkhead, and most of the outsides of the light buckets have not been blasted, but you have to look to notice. Now imagine trying to tell the difference peering through the peep hole of a dusty/fogging cheap blasting hood. Would love to have one of those thousand dollar, air supplied hoods, but that's just ridiculous to think about.

and finally...

Lucy... your frogs have been fornicating again...

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Short day today. I should tidy up some of my messes before dinner guests arrive. I didn't manage to get in some more blasting. Hit the lower areas of the fuel compartment. Not fun work but I will say it is gratifying.

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I've read it isn't necessary to get every spec of rust out because rust converter will take care of it. I have these flecks of black oxide where the metal had some pitting. It is very resistant to blasting. I'm thinking this will be okay since I'll be spraying everything with Ospho equivalent. Other opinions are welcome.

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I’m no expert Brent but I’ve run into the same situation. Laid down the rust converter after trying to get into the crevices with sandpaper or equivalents. Then primered appropriately. Having some faith in those chemists out there that make these products.

Looking very good mate!

You should be fine with the rust converter as long as you follow directions. In some places on my car I used both rust converter (phosphoric acid) and a rust encapsulating paint. The one I use is called master series, I like it better than POR-15.

Looking great btw, keep up the good work.

The rust converter you are using is the same as what I am.. I don't really get the idea of putting water over the converted rust other then to get the chaulky stuff off.

I am going to have faith as it is starting to get humid by us and need to cover it up with primer before all is lost.

The water is to neutralize the acid so your primer adheres. On everything I've treated, the stuff stays kind of shiny and sticky until the water goes on to neutralize it. Then it converts to the phosphorous coating with a chalky surface that I knock off with a scotchbrite pad. So you can treat and leave it without neutralizing for a long time, but you have to neutralize before paint. Many say if it sits long, you should reactivate the acid with a light respray before neutralizing.

So what are your thoughts with humidity in the air will also work as a neutralizing agent no?

Remembering my time in humid Kansas, I could easily see humidity converting the acid to the phosphorous compound. I don't know that I would rely on it to completely neutralize the acid though. I can't tell you how glad I am not to constantly deal with humidity anymore. I have metal that has been bare for a year now and still just as shiny as the day I took the paint off.

Likewise. It was good to catch up with a 'local.' Your car is quite the project.. and your persistence is remarkable.


Also: I'm no carb expert, just a graduate from the school of hard knocks.

Felt a little like I was chasing my tail this weekend, but I guess progress is progress. I continued with blasting. Got the steering rack area cleaned up.

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I also hit the crusty areas of the engine bay. Kind of haphazard and there is more to do in there, but I've been staring at these rusty surfaces for over a year and it's a psychological lift to be able to walk around the car and see mostly clean metal.

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The objective is to get these trunk reinforcements back on. They are the last parts I've been tripping over that need to be welded on. Trying to prep under the healidght buckets for primer first.

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It's been challenging. After blasting, it was clear the piece of original trunk ear under the headlights that wasn't replaced was badly pitted and swiss cheesed.

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Ideally, this would have been replaced when I replaced the frunk floor, but that part of my donor piece had been crunched and didn't seem repairable. Just to be sure, I dug it out of the scrap heap thinking maybe the skills I've acquired since then might allow me to salvage it. Nope. Still trash.

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I decided to try migging the holes and pits. I needed to figure out a way to fix a copper backer on to weld the holes shut. I cut a length of copper pipe, flattened it, then bent it so it would fit in the space. Next I drilled a couple of small holes and threaded a piece of mig wire through them.

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After threading the mig wire through the swiss cheese holes, I was able to pull the copper backer up tight against the hole with one hand, and weld with the other.

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It worked pretty slick. After a bit of careful blipping with the welder turned down low, I had all the holes filled. Then I whacked at it with the tip of a screw driver to find any additional weak spots and hit them too.

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After a bit of grinding, it was nice and solid. Crappy picture because of the shine, but it looks good in person.

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Then I got a nasty surprise. On closer inspection, I found I hadn't gotten under one of the buckets blasted clean, so the car will have to go back in the tent for more glass blasting. But worse, I found a nasty patch of rot under there. This is covered by the bumper bracket on the outside so went unnoticed. I'm not sure how i'm going to deal with it. It is a horrible spot for access. First step will be to media blast it so I can better assess.

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Hey Brent, would you like me to bring you a driver's front 1/4 piece with headlight bucket and fender back to halfway thru the wheel well? This is a pay it forward part that I got years ago and need to pass on to someone else. It's not pristine but I think there's some usable segments.

Hey Marc, You are turning out to be the savior of this project! Yeah, if that bucket section is intact, that will be just the ticket. I wish I'd found this before the car was on the rotisserie though. It's going to be interesting to say the least. Looking forward to your visit!