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Got a few hours in today, and Klaus did a whole bunch of work this week on the thresholds, wheel arches, passenger side A pillar and one little patch on the drivers side floor. The body is looking pretty good, and I am starting to feel like things are moving forward. (I guess getting help really makes the difference!) Here a before and after shot of the the rocker panel. Sorry for the cell phone picture.
I spent the day removing the old exhaust, fuel line, brake lines, master cyl and the pedals from the chassis. I wonder if I am going crazy with cleaning and painting all these chassis parts! At least the inspector from T?V will be impressed when I go for the vehicle inspections! Next weekend hope I can get the brakes off all four corners and then it will be chassis cleaning time.
Klaus, Gregor and I are in a local car club which also has a chapter in Canada. 'The Reapers' It is a little more hot rod oriented than oem packard style, but the guys are nice, and we US car guys have to stick together
http://www.reaperscc.de/

Getting the cross shaft out of the brake and clutch pedal was a real pain with years of dried and crusted grease...
Another day, a few little packard steps forward

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Doors sandblasted, preped and primed! They will sit in a quiet dry place for a little while....Have to round up a few guys and a trailer and bring the body for sandblasting in the next couple of days. Rubber parts all ordered from Steele in the meantime.
Cleaned and POR15 painted the washers for the body mounts. Have to replace a few of the body mount bolts/nuts due to rust and 2 that I broke.

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Another sunday afternoon in the garage. Got the front brakes off, and some small parts cleaned up and ready to start por15 process on brake and clutch pedal linkages....Spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the shop and looking for the drum remover to get off the rear drums. Argh, even more frustrating, I found half the puller, but not the other half!....Got the body on a trailer and that will go to the stripper/sandblaster tomorrow.

Got the last parts off the frame yesterday, front suspension is all off, and the rear axle and leaf springs are out. Even though the nuts/bolts were nice and rusty, some treating with penetrating oil, wire brush and then an electric impact wrench got everything off without breaking any fasteners! Only problem is that the sandblaster who did my doors and body, can only handle parts up to 4 meters long, so I guess I will be using the angle grinder to clean up the frame as good as posible. Honestly I am not so excited about the dust and dirt associated with cleaning the frame, but oh well. I'll tough it out. Plan to remove as much rust from the frame with the angle grinder, then rust treatment, then a few coats of black chassis paint.
During the week got a few parts from the brake and clutch pedals cleaned and painted and put on the shelf...

I went to a 'winterfest' from a local hotrod club 'The Draggens' saturday night...some cool customs there, and nice people, but I felt like the scene from 'pee-wee's big adventure' where he walks into the biker bar! Not the ususal hoity-toity crowd of Munich. Good times
Pics of the bare frame, and the body as it went off to the sandblaster.

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Mike,

You are making great progress.

If you have access to an air compressor, then a portable sandblasting rig like this one can be really handy for getting at areas you can't reach with your angle grinder.

Before you do any grinding, using heavy duty oven cleaner and a power washer will take a lot of the grime and grease off. Just spray on the oven cleaner, let it sit for 10 minutes, give the area a quick scrub with a wire bristle brush, and then power wash off.

Also, I would recommend, if you can, doing your angle grinding outside and wearing a high quality dust mask.

Cheers,

Tom

Thanks a lot for the encouragement! It means a lot. I know I've done a lot over the last few months, but still have a ways to go. I'm seriously thinking about stepping up and getting a good compressor, a blasting gun, and also a hobby size sandblasting booth for the garage. (About big enough to fit a wheel in) I spent an hour cleaning and derusting small parts last night that I could have cleaned in 15 min with a small booth.... That would speed things up and make my results better on the frame, and all the small parts....We'll see. Need to psyce myself up for the expense...
When working with the angle grinder I have been wearing a mask, goggles, ear protection and a suit! I almost feel like a robot since most of my senses have been isolated!
Looking forward to the weekend when I can get some work done again!

A blast cabinet will make a huge difference for you. I highly recommend it. In the US they have cheap ones at Harbor Freight that do a fine job. If they do not have such cheap units where you are, maybe a used one is available.

Good old Harbor freight....Yeah we don't have that here. This is what I am looking at. 300? is about 400$

StrahlKabine

Bringing the parts to the sandblaster and doing them myself or having them done there is also going to be some pocket change and also time....
The compressor in the garage gregor and I share is not enough for this (single piston) but the garage next door has a twin piston compressor that I could borrow, and then in a few months perhaps I buy my own 'kompressor'

Was in the garage yesterday and got the top side of my frame cleaned with the angle grinder...still a bunch to do. A '65 or so malibu came in from a freind, so I spent a few hours helping to pull a small block chevy. Fun distraction to work on a car that runs and drives for a few hours. Going shortly to POR15 a few parts this evening in the basement...
The body is finished with media blasting and I should be taking it to the painter for primer.

Pulled the trigger on a compressor, portable sandblasting gun, and a the parts balsting booth. Wow, getting serious. Will be a good addition to the garage, and I will be able to process (clean/derust/paint) parts a lot faster. Will also plan on priming and painting black the undersides of hood and fenders so hope to re-coop some of my investment with that....Will have the compressor and sandblasting gun this week, so may be able to get the frame cleaned up in the next week or two....Am excited to get my new tools!
Have to look around and see where I can buy 'one time use' media to blast the frame.

Mike,

Coal slag/bioler slag media is great for blasting frames. It is very aggressive and tends to be cheaper (around here) than other media.

http://www.sandmasters.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=68

Cheers,

Tom