The 25-year/250,000-mile refresh, UPDATE 5.15.2017: After first 1,000-mile trip Options

[horizontally-opposed]

So I've decided to confront a few rust bubbles on my car, before painting it (the car looked great, but I never liked the wavy sides due to poor prep and no blocking).

If you can't stomach this first photo, please don't continue... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

pete

[1970 Neun vierzehn]

Pete,
Make sure that your shop does a thorough search for rust. I thought my '70/4 was pretty nice, but the ravages of time, salty winter roads and latent moisture ultimately caused more damage than was readily apparent.

Paul

[horizontally-opposed]

Pete,
Make sure that your shop does a thorough search for rust. I thought my '70/4 was pretty nice, but the ravages of time, salty winter roads and latent moisture ultimately caused more damage than was readily apparent.

Paul

Hey Paul,

I saw your pics a while back and they inspired me to get going sooner than later. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) And now they've inspired me to pull my aluminum threshold plates. I was relieved, however, to find no rust evident on the longs, at the bottom of the firewall on the passenger side. I'm an Optima battery customer since 1991, and one who is happier than ever to have made the switch...

Your pics also serve as a good cautionary tale for rust in general... Let me ask you this: Was the rust on the back of the sail panel evident when you stripped the vinyl away? What about elsewhere? Did you have a couple bubbles here and there and decided to fix them? Or did you strip to metal and only then find the issues?

Thanks,

pete

[1970 Neun vierzehn]

... Let me ask you this: Was the rust on the back of the sail panel evident when you stripped the vinyl away? What about elsewhere? Did you have a couple bubbles here and there and decided to fix them? Or did you strip to metal and only then find the issues?

Thanks,

pete

Pete,
Although the vinyl sail panel had no blistering or lifting/loosening of material and seemed to be solid, once it was removed, it was apparent the extent of the rust damage far exceed the 3 or 4 very small paint blisters that had appeared in almost the exact same place as shown in your photo on post #5 of this thread. I'd decided to address the rust issues on the pan of the car, never imagining the extent of the metal degradation on many parts of the exterior sheetmetal.
Here presented (again) were some surprising rust issues that were uncovered when the paint was removed.