Waterlogged Rust Bucket

[blee]

The suspension pan came out without too much drama:

[blee]

Lots of patching and fabricating...

[blee]

There were signs the car had incurred some front-end damage in it's past. Thought really hard about replacing the whole front clip, but ultimately decided to save as much as I could. The nose seal strip, on the other hand, had too many holes and wrinkles so it came out.






That's when I discovered how much of the damage was "not" repaired...





The nose was pushed in more than 1 1/2 inches in the middle - there was no way the hood was going to latch in that position.

[blee]

This called for drastic measures... the mighty hydraulic fluid, arrghh! arrghh! arrghh!





... and beating on it with a 20 lb. mallet: much better.

[blee]

Tank support in, passenger-side battery box removed, multiple coats of etching primer, rust encapsulator, "Rust Bullet", seam sealer, and Wurth undercoating. She's not going to rust anytime soon.

[kenikh]

He lives - was just talking about your project the other day, hoping you hadn't given up. Great progress. Have you seen Bryan's (combatic) identical pan repalcement last week? Two Br(i/y)ans, same neighborhood, same project, same week...what are the chances?

[ant7]

hi Brian,
realy great work, [Hard work] looking forward to seeing the progress as it happens, should be a neat car when your done!
Anthony.

[scottb]

Subscribing. Nice work!!

[Rich Lambert]

Great work Brian!

Are you coming down to Kirkland tomorrow?

[CT Mike]

Great going. Keep it up!

[blee]

Thanks for all the encouragements. I wanted to install a new bracket I fabbed to replace the fender mount that got deleted with the battery box... In order to locate it correctly, I need the fender and bumper back on, but of course, it's never that easy. Both headlight buckets were "repaired(?)" with fiberglass, requiring more drilling, pounding, & welding.










It'll require some additional massaging, but it sure beats creating from scratch. Had I known the rust was beyond the buckets, I would not have been so brutal in removing the donor buckets. Created more work than necessary.

[blee]

Still here...
It's been a looooong 16-months since my last post, but I did manage to make a little progress. Reached a few milestones actually. I'll try to bring you up to date: first the fenders. The passenger-side headlight bucket just required a little more massaging, but the driver-side was a basket case. I decided to just cut-off the lower turn signal area and graft it onto a '74 fender. Thanks to Johnny Walker for the fender.

[blee]

As you can see, the big milestone came when the shell was stripped, cleaned, and epoxy coated.

[blee]

Passenger-side rocker:



Uh-oh. Didn't anticipate messing with the door hinge post.




Dug deeper.




Be mindful of this shelf hidden behind the hinge post panel - good thing I was taking my time cutting.

[Rich Lambert]

Brian, I was wondering if you'd given up. It looks like you're getting pretty good at rust repairs.

Actually, I was just thinking about you yesterday. Someone offered me a free 1958 Mercedes 300D that's been sitting outside for years and the first thing that came to mind was rust.

[blee]

Still here Rich. I have decided to consider this a "hobby" and not stress myself out by rushing through the process. Plus I really do enjoy the build process. Glad to hear that my name is synonymous with "rust." Thanks bro!
The old Benz are beautiful cars - too funny, just saw a slammed four-door 240 the other day too. Thought for a "second" how cool it would be to build one, then I slapped myself out of it. Don't you still have the Rover to finish?

[Rich Lambert]

Yeah, the LR is first in line. But hey, I'm retiring next week so I'll have lots of time.

[blee]

No friggin way!!! Wow, I had no idea. Congratulations dude! Then hell yah, go snag it. You know what that means:

[Rich Lambert]

It means you're going to buy me some $700 scotch?

SWEET! You can come over and drink some.

[blee]

No, it means your wife is getting that for you and I'll come over to help you drink it.
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