Deck lid clean-up

This past week I have been stripping the deck lid amongst other odd jobs; such as improving the lighting situation in the garage because the days are getting increasingly shorter! As with the front wing the deck lid had been taken back to bare metal previously and left without any protection (I still don’t know what possessed me to do that!). Surface rust:

Freshly stripped:

....and primed:

As previously noted, it is all in good shape apart from one small area that will require a repair patch. I also want to weld up the three badge holes as I know that these are not original. 

I will also be switching the number plate light from the early ‘popes nose’ type back to one that is correct for the year.

The back of the panel took quite a while to sort out because of all the hard to reach areas:

Miscellaneous chassis parts

I have been feeling under the weather all this week, so i've not getting much accomplished. Having said that, I have still been popping down the garage and spending a couple of hours each evening on cleaning up some of the chassis parts. Here we have a comparison between an untouched spring plate and one that has just been cleaned and primed:

 and here is the right side stripped using a flap disc and wire wheel:

 

 A few more parts cleaned:

.....and primed to keep them fresh:

......and hung to dry:

Fixing my old mistakes

I have now ordered a sturdy pair of Wolfsburg West floor pans and a few other miscellaneous chassis parts. Whilst waiting for them to arrive (think the store are waiting on a new shipment from the States) I decided to tidy up a few old errors that I made when I was young, foolish and uninformed. Basically all the parts that I hastily stripped at the beginning of the restoration I had stupidly left as bare metal. I don't know what I was thinking and it doesn't take a genius to know what happens to exposed metal over the years:  

This would be perfect if I was going for a 'rat look' bug, but I am aiming for something a little more refined! So, out came the wire wheel and various sanding devices and after a few hours I had the panel stripped back to fresh metal ....again:

I then applied a liberal coat of primer to prevent the surface rust reappearing:

 

Now I just need to do the same for the rusty decklid and bonnet *sigh*

Nooks n' Crannies

After a short break I have been back at it with gusto! I started by stripping the top side of the chassis which was a lot trickier to do than the bottom because of all the nooks and crannies at the rear end:

I found my little Dremel tool to be invaluable in the tight areas, but I had burnt through my small supply of attachments in no time. So I ordered a ton of the small barrel sanding bits and some grinding stones (the orange ones), which arrived the next day:

I struggled initially with the frame head as the angle grinder mounted wire brush just seemed to burnish and smooth out the corrosion rather than revealing the good metal beneath. So, I switched to the flap discs (why didn't I think of this sooner!) and my detail sander which made short work of it! 

I also smoothed out the tunnel lips that support both floor pans, firstly by grinding down the old spot welds and then sanded smooth with the Dremel. I took a reference shot beforehand of the spacing of the old welds so I can replicate a similar spacing when I fit the new floor pan sections:

Next I turned my attention to the sorry looking rear floor pan cross braces. The bottom edges were a right mess, but I was keen to save the support strip that mounts onto the u-shaped bracket. It was kind of hard to see in this state if there was actually anything of it left beneath the underseal and patch repairs:

After giving the area an intensive wire brushing and a gentle grind with the cone attachment in my Dremel this is what I was presented with:

What a state! Can you actually call that welding?! Unfortunately there didn't seem to be much support strip left so I will probably cut it all back to the u-shaped bracket and fabricate something equivalent from scratch. The other side was slightly better, but still far from great:

I decided revisit these troublesome areas at a later date in favour of pushing on with the removal of the cross braces. After careful measuring I made my initial cuts:

The ends that attach to the tunnel were seam welded down the sides and spot welded on the top. I adopted a similar approach to what I developed when I tackled the bottom plate, i.e - thin down the seam weld with the grinder until the joint is weak enough to pry apart:  

Once the process had been repeated on both sides I finished up my obsessive sanding mission and rolled the chassis outside ready for primer:

....and here is the whole thing sealed with a coat of metal primer to prevent any surface rust creeping in whilst I spend the next few months repairing the pan. Feels good to see such a fresh looking basis for the rebuild:

Shiny, shiny metal!

I have to dedicate the next couple of weeks to some personal work, so my garage time is going to be severely restricted. So, I thought I would go for a 'quick win' and strip back the entire underside of the chassis before I slack off. This knotted angle grinder wire wheel was the best method that I found for taking off the thick underseal crust:

An interesting view of my workspace filled with a dense atmosphere of dust. I really like the shards of ethereal light hitting the pan! I decided to set-up a better system for dust extraction at this point as my satuarated mask could only take so much:

After a few hours of messy but fun (honestly) work I had everything stripped and thankfully it all appears to be rather solid:

However, I did come across some ugly welding on both sides of the transmission mount. Although this part of the car will never be seen I will probably clean this area up nonetheless - after all, I will always know that it is there!:  

The only area that is a little shabby is just at the front by the Napoleon's Hat. Nothing too major - just some pitting and a few pinholes: 

Looking fresh after a lick of metal primer:

Bump n' Grind n' Prime

Nothing major to report this week, just been doing a lot of precision grinding to clean up the excess metal from around the bottom of the frame head. Those old seam welds certainly take some time to grind flat! I then wire wheeled the whole area back to bare metal using a combination of drill attachments. Here is the result of my careful labour:

A close-up of the front lip after grinding the welds down so that the steel is back to original thickness:

 

I grabbed an old spray can of metal primer off the shelf and gave it a liberal coat to prevent any surface rust creeping in whilst I strip and repair the rest of the chassis. I will eventually clean off this paint and replace with something more appropriate - It should do fine for now though:

 

Bottom plate removal

Using a wire wheel attached to an angle grinder I cleaned off most of the dirt and surface rust from the frame head. This allowed me to see what I was really dealing with in terms of the metal work condition. Thankfully the frame head looked fairly solid despite being pitted in places. The same could not be said for the bottom plate which was in a sorry state. I agonised for a while as to whether I should try to patch it up or simply cut it out and replace with a repro panel. I choose to cut it out and replace as it was the more thorough option. The added advantage is that with it gone I will have better access to the front of the chassis tunnel. In the near future I intend to clean out all the accumulated rust flakes, dirt and grease from the inside the tunnel and then treat it with Waxoyl or similar to seal evering up. Anyway, I started by cutting around the spot welds:

I then switched to the angle grinder and ground down the seam welds along the front edge. It was quite a long process, but I was deliberately going slow to ensure that I did not damage any metal that I wanted to save:

 

 

For the smaller areas and tight corners I used a Dremmel, which I found to be surprising capable:

Here is the bottom plate starting to come free. Note the area at the top of the image that I separated by 'thinning' the metal of the unwanted bottom plate until it could easily be broken free:

So, after a few evenings of intensive cutting and grinding the bottom plate was off:

A comparison between the old panel and the repro one that will eventually be welded in:

I have heard other people mention that taking off the bottom plate is no easy task and they were certainly right! It takes a lot of persistence and at times I felt frustrated, but I resisted the urge to cut corners (both metaphorically and literally in this case!). I am feeling pretty good about the result as none of the metal that I am trying to save was damaged by the clumsy use of power tools. Slow and steady wins the race! 

Now I need to grind down the rough edges, clean everything up and straighten up those flanges....