Day 41 Pictures: The Rat is not looking so Tangerine anymore! The flash rust on the right rear quarter has been treated with Ospho and I am planning on going over everything with a stripping disk before shooting the primer. Of course I will make sure to treat with PPG metal cleaner and PPG metal prep as per Freddie Hernandez's 101 Thread


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Day 42: Today was a fantastic day. The "stripper" party went as planned and we ended up shooting epoxy primer on the roof and getting most of the car stripped. We were also able to shoot the FG bumper. Thank you Peter for all of your help. Thanks to "The Saint" for baking us pretzels for a delicious lunch:) Also thanks to Freddie Hernandez and the 101 series for the great instructions on how to paint.

The Rat leaves the garage once again!
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The roof ready for paint. Peter looks quite happy that we are ready for paint;)
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Laying down the first and second coat
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The final product
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Lookin' Good. Hope you've battoned down the hatches for Isaac. Stay safe! We bailed and went to Texas for the weekend. Weather is nice here but we are supposed to fly home on Tuesday. I sure hope it's not still lingering then.

Day 43: Today I was able to finish stripping both rear fenders and got some primer laid down on both. Things are starting to come together:) I am planning on having the rear wheel wells bead blasted as I know that I can't mechanically scrape everything. I spoke to the guy who did my panels and he said he has done that for several Porsches and could do it after the first week of September!! I think this will be a great time savings and the quality of the work will be better than what I can do because I can't get the wire wheel up into the narrow places. I thought about using my sandblaster but it will not fit very well either. I will most likely prepare the wheel wells as best as I can and then deliver the car for the final bead blasting. I have been thinking about re-doing the rear suspension (similar to what I did in the front) but I think that I am going to wait until I am replacing the clutch. Once the engine and tranny come out it will be much easier to clean everything up and I plan on repainting the engine tin etc. at that point.


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Thanks! We are in the process of getting ready for Isaac. Hopefully it is all for nothing. The current forecast just calls for strong winds but we will see. Have a fun weekend in Texas and hopefully the storm will be gone by Tuesday.

how long can it sit in primer in FL before there is water permeation?

Once it is in the epoxy primer it is permanently sealed. Using the PPG DP 50 is what all of the professional restorers do down here. As long as you follow the detailed instructions (see the 101 Freddie Hernandez Series) you should have no problem with moisture. I made sure to do two pretty thick coats and might do one more once all of the car is in primer. As a side note I had the stripped roof sitting all summer with only an Ospho coating and there was zero rust on it.

My wife and I went to see Batman today as kind of a pre-hurricane party. Due to Isaac we have school cancelled on Monday! During the movie I thought it might be funny to call the Rat the "Ratmobile"!!!:):)

Tropical Storm Isaac has now officially passed us with only high winds and a lot of rain. I hope all of the other Pelicans in Florida were so lucky. Since there is no school today I think I will go outside and work on the Rat!!:)

Day 44: The free day from work that Tropical Storm Isaac granted me was a great success. I spent most of the day working on the rear window seal area as there was a lot of rust. The day was basically spent with wire wheel, ospho, wire wheel, ospho repeat ad nauseum! I spent a total of 6 hours with the wire wheel getting the rear window seal area down to clean shiny metal but it was well worth it. It was reminiscent of working near the driver side battery in the spring;) I was also able to finish cleaning up the area for the stickers and above the muffler. I finished the day shooting primer over all of the clean and shiny metal.

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While I was grinding away on the lower corners of the window seal ( I was sitting on the package shelf) the mail man tapped me on the shoulder with two cardboard poster tubes. Frankly, he scared the hell out of me as I was wearing my ear protection and was intently focused on getting the evil rust. The poster tubes contained quite the amazing present from Obi Wan out in New Mexico.


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The banners are roughly 2' by 4' and look amazing. Thank you so much Obi Wan! These are going to look great in the garage and are such a fantastic gift. Both of the cars look so cool and I immediatly thought of the cool ring of fame that Obi Wan and I saw at Sebring, where the Martini car raced in 71!!

The Rat will need to be renamed after this makeover...it will no longer be a rat. It will be hard to put anything back on this car that is not pristine...thus the slippery slope arrives. Nice work. Drove my son to FSU last weekend...this was supposed to be the first day of school...I'll have to call him and see if he started (Grad student math major).

Looking good, makes me want my own longhood rat... :)
Seriously, I've been watching your progress since you started and you are doing a great job on your car.
Rats turned into stallions pulling a carriage in Cinderella, save mounting the badge on the hood until the last thing and then complete the transformation.

I don't know if the Rat needs to be renamed. Old ladies down here in Florida don't change their names after plastic surgery;) Earlier in the thread I posted a picture of the Rat from Ratatouille that I might make a sticker out of for the rear window. The slippery slope has long passed. I am firmly on my sled at the bottom of said slope. Yesterday I unpacked a $700 order from Pelican that included all new rubber S trim for all of the bumpers, new rocker panel trim, new rear reflectors and all of the endcaps for the trim. I have a new headliner sitting on a shelf in the garage as well as all new rubber seals for the entire car. I replaced all of the lenses a few years ago so I don't need to worry about those. The chrome for the quarter windows and the doors is still in great shape and does not need to be replaced. Interior wise I am going to get new carpet but am going to be installing my old seats until I have the cash to have them redone. Florida State is a great school and I really like the campus. I am sure your son will have a wonderful time there.

Thanks for the encouragement! I will make sure to weld up a trailer hitch so the Rat can pull a carriage;) On days like today I wish I was closer to being finished but I am starting to see the light at the end of the "Rathole". I will make putting the hood badge on the final touch, just like they did at the factory. Maybe if Obi Wan is around he can do the honor of putting it on!

Day 45: Was able to clean up and paint the passenger side rocker and door latch area today. There are a few rust pinholes that I will address later but I shot primer over everything to prevent further rust from occuring. Florida in September 3 miles from the ocean is hell on exposed metal!!:mad:



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Looking good nice effort mate!

some people like the smell of napalm in the morning personally i prefer freshly shot paint

yehaa.........................

Strath 44,

Thanks for the encouragement. The smell of fresh shot epoxy primer is indeed sweet as I know that another part of the car is safe from rust for 40 years or so! Currently taking a coffee break from grinding undercoating and rust off of the passenger side pan. Hoping to have the pan done all the way to the rear today as well as the panel in front of the windshield and the latch panel on the drier side. Nothing like the smell of ground off undercoating in the morning:):rolleyes: Yehaa indeed!!

What are you going to do to address the pinholes? Weld them closed, or cut out a larger piece and weld in new metal?

Nice work on the car!!

I am not sure yet. I have welded pin holes shut in several places and that has seemed to work. I made sure to blast everything down to bare metal so there was no rust when I went to weld the pinhole shut.

Day 46: Today I was able to make some fantastic progress. I was able to finish grinding the surface rust on the bottom of the floor pans and cover all of the clean shiny metal in epoxy primer. I left all of the undercoating that was in good shape in place. This was a giant pain as I was on my back under the car with the grinder almost in my face:mad: Hopefully I will be spraying 3M undercoating over the epoxy primer and be done with the floor pans this weekend. The area around the rear suspension and the bottom of the rear seats will get done when I drop the engine to replace the clutch at some time in the future. I was also able to strip the area in front of the windshield and finish off the driver door frame. To do the area in front of the windows I removed the wiper assembly as it would only get in the way during painting. I was also able to paint the windshield frame and the A pillars. I also recieved the rear license plate panel and was able to paint that as well. Overall I would say it was a successful day!!!


Rat outside getting stripped. I ran the engine for a while today to make sure the Rat was getting exercise.
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Important wiring diagram for later!
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