Thursday, March 4, 2010

Right Side Down, Left to Go

Dateline - Feb 27 - Mar 3rd - Finished stripping the paint off of both back doors and started down the right side of the car. I was just going to concentrate on removing the front doors and doing those, but I found that I really needed to take the front wings off in order to get the door off. So I pulled the right front fender instead of the left front door, basically stripping the right side of the car.



The front wing was a struggle to remove because the last two bolts in the front of the fender were under sheet metal that had been smashed down in an accident. It took about an hour to get to them and get them loose! A lot of work!

When I pulled the fender, I found about a pound of dirt piled up in the creases! The engineering on this car hearkens back to the 1930's. Instead of welding things together, panels are screwed together with rubber gaskets to keep the water and dirt out. Well imagine what the wheel well of a car that has 40 year old rubber gaskets would look like. Yes! Rust!

Fortunately, the wing itself looks like it is in good nick, although it has a serious dent by the antenna hole that someone used a screw-in dent puller to pull out and then filled with Bondo! Not a professional job and that is probably why the Bondo cracked on the surface. I'm going to find more filler on this fender I fear!








I also pulled the front right seat out of the car and the remaining carpets. The floor boards are in some pretty sad shape rust wise, but nothing that can't be repaired with new sheet metal welded in.





I've got the wing and door stripping paint right now, so I hope this weekend to be able to get them done. Next I'm going to either pull out the front window and deal with the front scuttle, or pull the left door and fender off. I've not decided yet.