Disassembly and Paint Stripping
Work is progressing quickly. The body has been halved and both pieces have been separated from the frame. The restoration has now taken two paths: mechanical and body. On the mechanical side, everything (engine, transmission, rear axle, suspension, etc.) has been removed from the frame and we have begun to rebuild these pieces. While it's still a bit early to fully asses the condition of each component, we found the engine and cylinder head to be in very good shape, with just a bit of corrosion repair necessary in the cylinder head. The intake manifold showed some advanced corrosion, however, but this has already been repaired and the manifold sent off to the polishers.

On the body side, we're finishing up removal of all paint and filler from the front half of the body. We usually do this in-house with a chemical stripper prior to having the shell media blasted. Even though our chosen blasting method is pretty benign and will not work-harden the body, we figure the less pressure to which we subject such aged sheet metal, the better. Because the car is, for the most part, still wearing its original paint, the stripping process was easy. All the blaster will have to do now is remove the remaining paint and rust scale from the various nooks and crannies (not to be confusedwith cracks and crevices). Aside from the aforementioned repairs to the areas under the head lamp and side lamp pods, there are a couple of other areas that will require attention: The car took a fairly hard hit to the right front corner, but the subsequent repair was of high quality and requires little further attention. Some of the bulkhead support tubes are a bit rusty, but we can repair these fairly easily as the rust is not bad enough to necessitate complete replacement.

Next Installment: Disassembly and Paint Stripping continues...