Starting a 1973 restoration, Restoring a left for dead $500 914... Options

[FourBlades]

I know you all won't believe this but it turns out my rear trunk lid has rust!

See for yourself.



Oh boy, more rust repair. I did discover one pretty cool thing though, which
you will see in a minute.



The ribs on the trunk are full of foam (that is not the cool thing). I guess it must
be there to stop the ribs from rattling or to collect water so the lid rusts out.



Cut out the foam. OK, here is the cool part. Earlier I had used aircraft stripper
to remove the paint from the outside of the lid. It took about 4 applications to
get rid of all the layers of paint, primer, and bondo.

There is a pretty big dent in the lid, which some one had fixed with bondo. They
had obviously sanded a large area around the repair. This took off the layer
of galvanizing that the manufacturer had applied (lighter areas in the
picture). By stripping the paint chemically most of the galvanizing is still there
(the dark areas).



I was looking closely at the panel while cleaning it and I noticed this cool thing:



(IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

There is a barely visible crest in the galvanizing that was put there by the
manufacturer. It looks like the initials "SWR" with a shield and a boat or
something. I can't guess what company this must be, I am sure someone
on the World knows???

John

[FourBlades]

OK, so now to fix the trunk lid. You need to remember that the edge of the trunk
is curved. Pretty much everything everywhere on a car is curved in some way.
To make a patch that fits I bent a piece of steel rod into the right shape.



Then I transferred this curve to the metal. Please ignore the first patch that
I made that you can see in the picture that is straight and does not fit at all.
Doh!



The trunk rib has a ridge in it lengthwise that I wanted to reproduce for an
undetectable, concours repair. Cough.

Using a leather bag filled with #16 birdshot, form the ridge by pounding the
steel rod used earlier to create the desired shape. Remember to use the
suede side of the bag to reproduce the wavy, factory texture.



OK, so that is all total bullshit that I made up. I don't have any bird shot
and I have no idea where that leather came from. The real way you
do it is find some soft sand (pretty much anywhere in Florida) and pound
on it on the ground.



Test fit the patch.



Weld it up. It is getting dark so we'll see tomorrow how well the repair
turned out.



So my question to the gurus is, how do you apply bondo and sand out the
waves in your panels without taking off the galvanizing? Do you prime it
first and then bondo and sand it?

John

[scotty b]

Scuff it good. Prime it, sand the rimer to get some good scratches, apply bondo. Make certain you neutralize that panel VERY WELL before you do anything. Stripper residue WILL come back and it may be well after the car has been painted !!

[FourBlades]

OK, thanks Scotty. I was going to wash it with simple green, water, and finally
paint prep. I had forgotten about the dangers of stripper under your paint.

John

[Katmanken]

Dang,

You did the trunk the hard way....

Got tired of being bitten by the sharp little rust teeth hiding under trunk every time I opened it

So, took a screwdriver, spread the fold open to expose the rust bubbles and took it to the local metal dip refinishers....

They burned out the foam, and dipped the lid in their car sized tank and it came out spotless from their electrical rust removal process...

All I had to do was bang the lid with a rubber mallet to get the neutralized rust to break loose and fall out, recrimped the fold and welded a patch into a small hole....

Poured ospho under the reinforcement to wick into the seams at the folds and primed that puppy.

Wherabouts in Brevard are you?

I went to FIT, married a local redhead and lived in Indiatlantic a half a block from the beach. And of course, did 3 years of purgatory at Harris.

Ken

[FourBlades]

Ken,

Next time I will do it your way. I am convinced dipping or blasting a rust bucket
car would save 100s of hours of tedious cleaning. Right now I am in get it done
now mode so I can paint this sucker and start putting it back together.

I live in Melbourne Beach, probably within a few miles of your old place.

Done my time at Harris as well.

John

[FourBlades]

Nothing like a tree full of primed panels. I did both doors and both trunk lids
today. I can see why paint jobs cost what they do. All the tedious cleaning
and sanding to get a good coat. It is super satisfying though when you get to
the last 1% of the work, the spraying. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)



I primed this in the morning, sanded it in the afternoon and sprayed on two
more primer coats. I have never painted a car before so I have a lot to
learn. I did get less orange peel by turning down the paint amount. I am
sure when I do the color coat it will look like crap the first few times. It is
hard to keep the gun moving the same speed and the same distance from
the panel. I also got no paint on the bottom edge. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)



I am using two part epoxy primer. Is this waterproof? Will it rust if I leave
outside under a car cover?

Overall I am really stoked about doing this.

John

[roadster fan]

I am using two part epoxy primer. Is this waterproof? Will it rust if I leave
outside under a car cover?

Overall I am really stoked about doing this.

John
[/quote]

I had a 6"x4" repair on an old truck sprayed with two part epoxy primer and after 4 years it looked exactly the same as the day it was sprayed. oh and it was on the top of the truck roof at the windshield, always parked outside in all weather.

You should be ok if you keep it covered, but your climate is different than mine (humidity (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) )

Jim

[toon1]

Scuff it good. Prime it, sand the rimer to get some good scratches, apply bondo. Make certain you neutralize that panel VERY WELL before you do anything. Stripper residue WILL come back and it may be well after the car has been painted !!

I'm using stripper also, what is the best way to make sure the panels are clean?

[FourBlades]

Jim, if your repair lasted 4 years mine should be good a week or so until I get
the color sprayed on it.

After stripping (4 or 5 applications) I washed it several times with water and a
scotch brite pad, then water on clean rags. Then I sprayed it liberally with metal
ready (until it was dripping off) and left it for 2-3 hours to etch. I washed the
metal ready off with water a few times, then used paint prep. A really time
consuming and messy process, but quiet. I did not want to make all the noise
that power sanding the whole car would have. Read somewhere that covering
the stripper with plastic wrap keeps it from drying out and might make it remove
more layers per application. Gonna try that.

Primer...



John

[al weidman]

I know you have started on your IMSA car, but please don't leave us hanging on this one. At least let us know what your plans are. You have done an inspiring job on this and I plan to get right out there on my Calif. rust bucket. I was going to use it for a parts until I saw your project. My car has some rust in the trunks and floors but that's it. You've made mine into a keeper and I am inspired to bring another one back. Al.

[ConeDodger]

I know you have started on your IMSA car, but please don't leave us hanging on this one. At least let us know what your plans are. You have done an inspiring job on this and I plan to get right out there on my Calif. rust bucket. I was going to use it for a parts until I saw your project. My car has some rust in the trunks and floors but that's it. You've made mine into a keeper and I am inspired to bring another one back. Al.

John,
If you know anything of the work of Al and/or his brother Harvey, you have just recieved high praise indeed... Great project.

[FourBlades]

Hey thanks Al and Rob. Don't worry, the Rockin 914 comes first before any
serious work on the IMSA car. I was out there this evening stripping more paint
and hope to maybe (cross fingers) shoot some color on it this weekend!!!

With the parts available or with the serious patience about any 914 that is still
in one piece can be saved. Look at Veltror's car.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

I think the Rockin 914 will live up to its name with a Raby 2270, Tangerine Racing
headers and exhaust, McMark's FreeMotion suspension, Eric's rebuilt M calipers,
Engman's long kit, etc. etc. I can't wait to get it on the road.

John

[FourBlades]

Got most of the inside and outside primed and then ran out of primer. Doh!

Tried on one of the fiberglass rocker panels just for fun. Fits well.



I have to confess that I was too lazy to strip the wheel wells of their old
undercoating. I'll make that a project for once the car is a driver.

Forgot to remove the trunk lock, dang it. At least I have loads of experience
in stripping paint off of things.



John

[jc914]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) Once again Great JOB

[stepuptotheMike]

will the chemical stripper remove the old undercoating? or will you have to wire wheel/sand it?

Mike

[FourBlades]

Mike,

Some of it is just flaking off by itself. The new undercoating I put on was easy to
get off with stripper, not sure about the old stuff. I am just over the whole
cleaning and sanding thing right now. Probably should do it now but what the
heck, this is a hobby not a job.

John

[FourBlades]

The first shot of color. Adriatic Blue:



It looks much better in the picture than it really is. Lots of little scratches that
did not show up in the primer. Assorted dust and bugs. One big bump on the
sail panel that I did not notice until there was some gloss to reflect light.



Now that I am over the initial desire to see some color on the car I can take my
time and sand this out more before trying again. The hood is actually not too
bad because I wet sanded it more than the car.

I probably should have painted the interior first, but what the hell. This is
supposed to be a learning experience, and I learned a lot of things not to
do next time.

John

[MDG]

Adriatic Blue (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[dlee6204]

Its looking good! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)