Month: April 2009

I got a lot done over the last few days. The weather was very nice, which helped.

I applied a coat of liquid polyester filler to the rain gutters. This stuff is supposed to be sprayed on, but I tried applying it with a foam brush. It did not go on especially smoothly, so I’ll have to sand off quite a bit and spray on another coat. The rain gutters had gotten pretty bashed up and last year I spent a lot of time working the metal closer to the correct shape, but they still have a lot of dings, especially the left side. If replacements were available I would have replaced them along time ago.

I applied the phosphoric acid metal treatment to the second rear door, and after letting both rear doors dry for a day in the hot dry weather, I painted them with epoxy primer. Over the next few days I should be able to apply body filler to a few small dings and put a coat of primer-surfacer on them, and they will be almost ready for the final paint job!

Finally, I bead-blasted all the door hinges and painted them with epoxy primer. I also ordered the special screws for attaching the hinges to the body. Once those arrive, I can mount the hinges to the body and the rear doors to the hinges, and the car will start looking more like a car again, and less like a pile of scrap…

Over the last week or so, I’ve been slowly doing some of the remaining filler work.   I’ve been busy, and the temperature has varied between too cold and too hot, so progress has been slow.  I started applying some filler to the rain gutters to get them smoother.  It was really hot and dry today, so I took one of the rear doors that I stripped last fall, and applied a phosphoric acid metal treatement to get rid of some rusty bits.  It’s also supposed to be hot and dry tomorrow, so I should be able to do the other rear door then.  As soon they are dry, I can spray them with primer.

I was on vacation for a week, but before I left I put some filler on a few places that needed it, such as the welded seam of the patch panel that runs across the bottom rear of the body. It’s cold and rainy, so it may be a couple of days before I can continue.