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Getting ready for next round of "fun" on the car.

I pulled the cowl vent out. That took me longer than pulling the actual engine. The fasteners are awkward to get to. But the biggest issue was tring to remove small slotted screws that are rusted in place and just want to cam out very turn.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I figure the most prudent thing to do was disconnect as much remaining wiring as I could and then bag up the harness and fusebox. The only point where all harness comes together and can't be removed is where the harness goes through driverside kick panel area and either forward to the engine bay or back to the rear of the car.

So I bundled everything up, double bagged it, and then duct tapped in closed. I basically did the same thing on my 54 when I was doing all the bodywork.




My next job is going to be patching the passenger side door. This was the side of the car that was facing the outward when the car lived under a carport in California for many years. I am sure the door cavity collected trash and whatnot, which then held in all the moisture. Which then Swiss cheesed the bottom panel of the door and the bottom section of door skin.

So, that's going to be a fun repair job.

Sprayed down then bare metal with Eastwood Afterblast, which is diluted phosphoric acid. Spray it on, wait 3-4 minutes, the wipe dry. You really don't want to let it puddle and dry.

After about 5 minutes, all the rust in the pits turns black, and it leaves s thin white milky phosphorus coating on the metal.

That will removed later with a DA before priming. But for now, it will help prevent that bare metal from flash rusting.

Firewall, dash, the area above the package tray, door jams, and rear wheel wells mostly stripped. I still have some detail areas to get into.







I was wearing a hat, my safety glasses, a respirator and ear muffs.




And I was absolutely filty by the end.




I have a ceiling mounted air filter, and the filters were completely clogged by the end.

I have a small shop dewalt "leaf blower" that I use to blow all the debris and dust off of everything and put the door when done. I ended draining a fully charged 6amp/hr and a 2amp/hr battery before i finally got all the mess cleaned up.

Because the areas were tighter and they were sharp edges, I couldn't use the eastwood tool as those edges would just eat up those stripping drums, so I used stripping wheels on a grinder......9 of them.

Messy! So much work to get all that off but it will be well worth it in the end.

Somewhere I have a picture of me sitting in the trunk of the '54 while stripping it, which was god awful. Today's picture I look relatively clean compared to how I looked when I got out of that trunk.

Also, today I was wearing far more PPE!

It was all the much in the fender wells that showered my that mess. The shape of well just throws the debris right back you from the grinder.

For me it was the inside of the fenders, many many years of gravel roads and tar had built up a huge coating in all 4 fenders. It was this time of year so all my neighbours were indoors and it was bright and sunny, so I took my angle grinder and a stack of wire wheels and donned my cold weather gear and went out on the rear deck. By the time I was done all the snow in my backyard was gray with gravel, tar and road dirt! Oh, and like you, so was I! But the inside of all the fenders were all smooth and shiny. The tar and gunk had staved off any corrosion.
A Fellow of Ancient Dirt,
Bob J.

Blue layout fluid (in a spray can) is great for finding every dent, low spot and high spot on the car.

The rear looks like a blue leopard!












Nearly all of there are lows that are so shallow, you can't feel them by hand, and the high-build primer would take care of.

But there are some deeper dents and creases. That is where the blue is very dark, and there is a shiny halo around it. When the dent goes in, it also raises a lip around the dent, like a meteor crater.

So with an appropriate dolly on the backside, your pressing up on the center of the dent, while hammering from the top side on the raised (shiny) area. But for most of these dents around the rumble seat area, the structural wood underneath either makes that impossible, or very challenging.

But I got the driverside pretty close, and I am almost there with the passenger side.

Also, I had to be carefull as there is a significant amount of lead around the corners of the rumbleseat and trunk opening, which is fairly soft.

You’re making great progress. What you’re doing is far beyond my skill level, but I sure enjoy following along the process.

Thanks Don!