Body Metal Prep

Paint Removal / Bare Metal

The bodywork was another aspect of this project that got a bit out of hand. As you can see in the picture below, the original paint was actually relatively good....Or at least it was from a distance.

Closer, it was a sea of microblistering and stonechips. It looks like the car was coated with a protective laquer at some point, which had reacted a little over the years. Not only was this only going to get worse, but it would also be a nightmare to blow over. Based on that, Gareth took the decision to bare metal it. I'm glad he did, as it meant the car was in about 95% bare metal by the time I bought it

The majority of the paint removal was done with a nylon fibre abrasive disc, used with a drill. Much like the Oakley ones from Screwfix. They actually have two versions available, which are around £12 and £6. The £6 is actually very good and lasts a very long time. I would recommend getting a cheap drill to do this with, rather than using your expensive DIY one. The sideways force won't do the bearings any good, and cheap drills are available for below £20. All in all, around £35 for the tools to remove the bulk of the paint on the car isn't so bad!

Anyway, after a weekend of work, the car went from looking like this:

to this:

In stripping all the paint off, it became apparent that the near side door had been dinted and filled at some point. Not great, but the only damage & repair found so far (excluding the dash)! The dint was about a quarter of an inch deep, right in the middle of the door skin:

Gareth spent some time with the hammers and dollies beating this out a bit. It's not finished yet, but it's a lot better than it was.

I've also got hold of a replacement rust free door, just incase I can't get this one perfect. The replacement does have a few small dints in it, but nothing in the middle of the door skin. I'll decide what to do at a later date.

Alterations

One of the areas that had often hold nasty suprises is the bonet and decklid seal clips. They will look perfect when in place, but if you remove them, they will be hiding quite a lor of surface rust or rot. These are some perfect examples of that:

Removing them is very easy too. They usually require a very gentle plying with just a thin flat bladed screwdriver, and nothing more. Gently lever the seal up from behind, and the spot weld will just pop off - Do be careful though, as you don't want to damage the surrounding metal.

Once the clip is removed, the remaining spot weld can be ground back with a flap disc. You can then either replace the clip with a new item, or do what I'm doing, and leave them off. The decklid  and bonnet seals can be replaced with one with attached to the decklid itself. The only thing missing will be the part of the bonnet seal that runs accross the top of the bonet, but due to the shape of the panels, there should be no reason for water to enter the car there