Blast and Seal - Wheel Wells

Inspired by having less than 100 days to finish my car I have recently found some time to work on it.

From Z2

I have chemically stripped all of the factory undercoating out from the wheel wells on all four corners, and sand blasted out the remaining residue.

From Z2

From Z2

Still wielding my new found ambition, I gathered my painting supplies.

From Z2

Black Zero Rust, according to "Resto Rick", should be thinned by 25% using a lacquer thinner in order to be sprayable.

From Z2

That's one part thinner to four parts Zero Rust.

Using my nifty dumping spout I fill the cup to the 20oz marker adding 16oz to 4oz of lacquer thinner.

Here is my ridiculously long spray contraption.

From Z2

lol.

It consists of an air pressure regulator and an inline water filter which keeps my shitty compressor from fucking up my dope ass paint job.

Next time I paint I will re think this setup but only because it was hard to get it under the car in certain places due to it's height.

A couple hours later, It's beer time.

From Z2

Sealed the cowl area.

From Z2

Inside the cowl area.

From Z2

Under the fenders.

From Z2

And all four wheel wells.

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

As you can see in the above photo I need to remove and repaint some more pieces from underneath the rear of the car. I will clean and seal all of the inner body panels (especially the rear in the above photo) to make it chemically impossible for it to rust for a good long while. Assuming I'm not retarded. But that may be assuming too much.

Here is a link to Resto Rick's Tips and Tricks for using Zero Rust.

I found them to be invaluable.

Door Restore

If I were to go back and do this again, I wouldn't.

From Z2

What a freaking ridiculous pain in my ass.

Getting the window and "rollup" mechanism out of the door was a f*cking nightmare.

From Z2

I was able to get everything out eventually with no real plan for how to get it all back in there.

From Z2

Removed the rear view mirror and door handle.

From Z2

And applied large quantities of chemical stripper.

From Z2

YAY!

My door is full of bondo!

From Z2

Awesome....

From Z2

It looks like I am going to have to get very good at body work in the next few weeks.
If anyone who knows what they are doing wants to come by and take care of all of this I will shovel money into your pockets.

lol not joking.

New stuff and more stripping

Just found out on New Years day that they opened up a Harbor Freight 30 minutes from me. I used to have to drive an hour.

Picked up a few new toys.

This is funny because High Life's are twist top. lol
I've been trying to find one of these forever!
Now my workbench is complete.

From Z2

Picked this Auto Darkening welding helmet for half price.

From Z2

New Grinder/Cutter.

From Z2

And FINALLY got a vise.

From Z2

Kind of a beast but its one of the few vises at HF that got good reviews. Also paid half price.

I got this Tie rod remover at HF too. It is too big but still managed to get it to work.

From Z2

Pain in the ass.

From Z2

Got suited back up and started stripping again.

From Z2

Getting the door jams and cracks I was too lazy to do the first time through.

From Z2

From Z2

Started on my Fenders.

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

This one needs some straightening.

From Z2

I gotta go pick up some body work tools. Palm hammers and such.
With any luck I wont fuck this up.

Naked Lady

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

From Z2

Floor Restore - pt.1

Last you heard I had removed the Sound Deadener from the floors and tranny tunnel.

From Z

After taking a much needed break from the floors I returned with powertools!

From Z

This proved to be very effective at removing surface rust from around the plug holes, and the crevices where the interior paint had failed to protect the sheet metal.

And what kind of floor party would it be without a stripper!

From Z

Whenever you are getting down and dirty with strippers, always use protection.

From Z

'Bout to get my FRICTION ON! :D

From Z

Ok enough stripper jokes.

Apply the milky translucent fluid to the body (ok now I'm really done) and wait about 15 minutes.

From Z

Now scrub the peeling paint with a coarse pad of steel wool.

From Z

She looks a bit raw after blasting her with my tool.

From Z

Looking pretty good so far. So I proceed to the tranny tunnel of doom.

First section goes down smoothly.

From Z

But once I applied the stripper to the side of the tunnel that had some of that dreadful tar crap left on it, it all went to sh#t.

From Z

VOM.

From Z

And.... BANG!

From Z

Like it ain't no thang.

Repeat over and over until the passenger side and tranny tunnel are done.

From Z

One final clean up and application of my new favorite chemical... PickleX 20!!!

From Z

Looking pretty clean guys!

From Z

From Z

The PickleX 20 will convert the rust that was left behind by the rust blaster wheel and keep the bare metal 100% rust free while it waits for paint. This stuff really is magical. Just read the label and look at all the stuff it does!

It even increases the strength of your welds if you pre-treat the metal.
Almost too good to be true.

Stay tuned for the next phase of floor restore.
Next post will be stripper joke free. :(