Tag: rust

Looking Good

A long week and the weekend couldn’t get here fast enough so I can get down to Mustang Maniac. I arrived with change of clothes and a packed lunch. The dogs were in high spirits and enjoying the sun running around the now spacious yard. Adam looked over the car with me and gave me my instructions for the day. Final clean up of the left side and remove the shock tower bracket that had been badly welded on. I wanted to replace the brakes with a nice smart export brace so they needed to come of anyway. I have seen some were the export brace sits over the top of the brackets and it looks a poor job. So while I was at this stage it was an ideal time to remove the first one. It was a case of the angle grinder to reduce the weld to as thin as possible then lever the old bracket off the shock tower. With the bracket off I was able to grind down the weld almost flat. I have become a lot better at using the angle grinder with finesse and can grind away quite accurately now with only the bits I want removed.

Bracket in place
Bracket removed to leave the old welds

Cleaning up the metal to make sure no rust was about and wire wool the tight spaces to leave a fresh bare surface.

With my ears still ringing from the whine of the angle grinder it was time for some peace and quiet and start the stipple of the red oxide. This was to continue to edges where I didn’t need welding and again stop about an inch in to allow welding to be done. Of course there will be some bits that I may have to go over again when the repair welds start, but that can’t be helped. I completed the complete left hand side inner fenders and the fire wall now. Adam came to give me a hand a little later so we could roll the car over ready for next week’s more of the same all be it on he other side. What a difference it makes to see the red oxide on there. The pictures here were taken as soon as I had finished, so it was a little wet in some places.

Sunday the wife wanted me to give her a hand with the garden as she wanted to get our lovely bamboos out the garden, as they were start in to go a bit mental. I came home Saturday evening to find the big bushes cut down but the stumps or shoots still in the ground. The ground was soaked by the rain in the morning so it wasn’t to bad to dig. What I wasn’t expecting was the shoots to travel as far sideways as they did. Under the loose laid patio in the corner, and to the fences. We lifted the slabs up to find a find a complex web of infiltration from the roots that was more complex than a cold war spy drama, it was everywhere. We eventually got it all up but it was a pain. Tip: Don’t plant bamboo in the ground unless you have a couple of giant pandas coming to stay to keep it under control.

In case you are wondering, I did manage to sneak a couple of hours in at the man cave while she was out. I started to clean up and strip down down the steering setup. But shoosh, don’t tell the wife! I will create a step by step process and add it soon. I can’t do a Sunday without a little tinkering on the car or car bits now can I?

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Blowing Hot & Cold

Weekend has arrived and with it a nice dose of sunshine, along with it came the pollen and misery. Hay fever is something I have learned to live with for years now. I love the countryside and the flowers, unfortunately they don’t love me. I had a nice trip to Mustang Maniac with the aircon on full blast trying to keep cool and giving myself the metal bubble sanctuary from the pollen. I arrived to see a fairly empty yard and Adam moving a couple of cars around. Holiday season for them and they still managed to finish a couple of cars. I have seen a car down there that was “restored” by another specialist Mustang restorer and it was being sorted out properly by guys. I got changed and Adam gave me my list of jobs to do on my little lady. It was a final tidy up and rust removal, then out with the paint brush for the Red Oxide again. I have left some spaces where there needs to be a little bit of welding to be done.

before
tunnel before
inner shock tower
all completed
tunnel painted
inner shock red oxide
front rad panel

There was also the issue of the body filler that was there from a couple of weeks ago too. I still had my Dewalt dual action sander (review here), with me and used that to take it down to flat and almost smooth with the 100grit disc. I left it a little rough on purpose in order to give the paint a good key to stick too. It looks pretty good around the tunnel area now I must say.

Sunday was lazy day as I was having feeling sorry for myself with the hay fever thing – did I mention that? Sympathy vote being looked for here by the way. Seriously I decided to clean the heater controls from the car that blow the hot and cold about the car and demist the screen. The chrome was pretty poor looking and the cables not working very well. I took the whole thing apart and cleaned it while sitting in the garden subjecting myself to more pollen. The lever mechanism was degreased and all the chrome was polished. The only thing there was an issue with was the grub screws that tiny that hold the knobs on the from of the levers that allow you to remove the chrome plate. All were fine except one that was tight and I didn’t want to round the grub screw off. I cleaned the grub out with a needle that allowed the Allen key to fit all the way in and it cracked free. The results are pretty good I must say. I have posted the full walk-through process here or click on the quick link at the bottom.

The before shots of the controller looking worse for 48 years of grime.

After the clean up all looked pretty good.

spring clip to remove the levers if required
before assembly
assembled
all cables in place

Quick Links:

Tools review – Dewalt Randon Orbital Sander D26453 or click here for the hyper link

Photo Menu – Inside the Car – Heater Controller Recondition or click here for the hyper link

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Seeing Red

Every four years my life is made a misery so I am going to drop the “F” word – Football, there I have said it. All around the world people are going mad, they take days off work to watch football, they attach things to their cars like cheap plastic flags or vinyl stickers of their world cup team. People have football match parties, the television is infested with it, newspapers are riddled with it and the radio is full of it. So you may or may not have noticed that I don’t like football, I don’t want to see football, I don’t want to play football and I don’t want anything to do with football. Now I do appreciate that football is a passion, it’s even patriotic and this particular event thankfully only happens every four years. But, for people like me it’s horrendous, I just can’t get away from it, it does my head in. There should be a least a couple of channels on the television that are football free, not on the news, not in adverts, nowhere, nothing, zilch. My Bluray collection is getting a few re-runs that’s all I can say. Like all things, there is a silver lining to this very dark cloud that hangs over me, I can go out when football is on and I can park in a super market that is now occupied mainly by ladies getting away from the football I guess. I get funny looks as if to say, does he know the football is on? The roads are quiet, restaurants are not very busy, but the pubs are full. Before every man threatens to unfollow my blog and the ladies get the hump because I suggest they don’t like it, I just want to say; please spare a thought for the people who don’t like it. However, I wish all your football teams the best of luck. Does the fact that I am a male and I don’t like football make me weird? Come to think of it, don’t answer that!!

It’s Sunday night and I am writing up my blog, what happened to Saturday and today? Saturday I went to Mustang Maniac to do some more work on my car. Their yard has been cleaned up and looks a lot better and that was the general opinion of the few people I was talking to there as well. I can say that my car is starting to progress a little. The welding is still to be done when they get some time. In the mean time Adam told me to I could clean up the panels on one side de-grease them and get some red oxide paint on there. The trick is to stipple it on, the stuff does not want to be painted on and looks odd if you do. I have done a few bits and it looks so much better. The rear right side wheel arch has been half done as we may need to replace the outer arch but we need to get the quarter panel off to check. The painting took me ages to do and was strangely therapeutic! I could even see the red changing colour as it dried. So I really did watch red (well sort of dirty orange in fact) paint dry! Next week I suspect I will do the other side.

Sunday I went to put stuff in the man cave and it was a real mess. As it (football), was on I decided to tidy it up. Now I can get in there and even have more storage space. Well, that is until the wife puts some more gardening stuff in there!

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Fill Her Up

The weekend was back to normal and I left home with thunder, lightening and torrential rain to accompany me on the way down to Mustang Maniac.  I was about three miles away when the clouds broke and the sun started to shine.  As ever there was people in the office buying stuff and picking up some orders. I decided to leave Adam to it went to see my car again. There she was feeling neglected and that soon changed as I got my overalls on ready for some work. Al was on hand to give me some professional training on filler and how to apply it. The sills needed to be bare metalled as well. Al looked over the welds and mixed up a big wad of filler, he spread over the large area and it looked dead easy. I have applied filler in the past but not on such a large area, so I was going to give it a go. I mixed up a wad and applied it, it wasn’t as neat as Al’s effortless application, the more I tried to make it neat the worse it got. The secret is to apply it and leave it, “don’t be afraid to put some on”. In a way if it looks a little rough it’s not to bad but it just means it takes more rubbing down. As long as the filler is over the low spot then it should be OK. That’s the difference when somebody who is good at what they do let’s somebody else try it. It’s a skill that takes time to master but I will get there.

Al’s applications looked neat and applied in about one minute flat.

My attempts were there but not as smooth and took longer. When it starts to look messy and drag its the filler going off, so it’s best to leave it alone at that point, then apply some more fresh filler if you need to.

The sills had to be bare metalled as well to check for any damage due to the dreaded rust. As the sills were galvanised as standard when new they looked remarkably good. The sills only showed a couple of issues right at the ends of the rear wheel arch, and a small pin hole at the leading edge on one side. Usual story – stripper, rub down with some coarse wire wool and repeat as required which gave some good results. These pics of the sills are before I drilled off the sill clips which hold on the chrome sill covers. Once the heads were drilled off I then punched through the rivets in order to make the rubbing down easier.

before removing the sill clips

The pics here are during and after the paint was removed. Those who are eagle-eyed will spot a ring on the sills in black marker pen. This is to mark up areas that will need a little mig welding work to secure. I went round the car marking up any areas ready for the welding before I miss any bits, again.

first stripper
second stripper
leading edge needs a tiny mig weld.

One of the jobs in prep for the welding was the seat belt anchor points that had broken welds. I was unable to get the bolts undone from inside. When I checked the outside with Al he showed me an eye opener. The lunatic who done some work previously on the exhaust had welded some bolts to the end of the anchor bolts. Why? Simple to hang the exhaust from rather than make proper brackets. This seems to have been common bad practice, but not to the extent to weld another bolt on. Amateurs to put it politely. This meant that there was no way they were going to be undone. So it was down to the last resort angle grinder to cut the welded bolts off. Once they were cut, they undone from the inside no problem and the rotten old seat belts were finally removed.

bolts welded to the end of a thread
old seat belts

I was hoping to get the welding started but quite rightly so it was decided to fill the floor pans now while it was easier before the car was the right way up and have to apply filler upside down as it were. Maybe next week for the welding? It really is worth looking at the before and after pictures so far. I have put a quick link at the bottom for the full story or click here.

Sunday I have finished the chassis cross brace which was a little dented and rusty in a few places. The whole thing has come up very well. Last week I rubbed the old paint of, got rid of the small surface rust that looked worse than it actually was. I then applied the filler and this week I rubbed it down, red oxide primer,  and mat black top coat. I may apply a coat of silver at the ends the bar for a little detail. But I will think about that, after all nobody will see it – except me!

dented chassis bar
bare metalled
filled
DA sanded
red oxide
satin black
second coat

Quick Links:

Under seal & floor Pans the story so far click here or go to Photo Menu – Under the Car and Chassis – Under seal & Floor Pans

 

 

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Grind Down

Weekend arrived and I eventually got down to Mustang Maniac mid morning. Logistical issues that are too boring to go into right now. But I got there that’s the main thing. I had a look at Adams new addition to the fleet a nice ’65 GT350 in white with blue stripes, he started it up and I now know what I want my car to sound like, loud and a deep rumble. I was standing there like a school kid when  he opened the door and said get in. OMG, I was giggling like a school girl and I just wanted more. I do believe we lost a little traction in first and second gear going up the road, I suspect the roads were a little slippery that’s all. I have never been so excited in a car in all my life, the ride and noise was everything I hoped it would be and much, much more. What a car, what A car! After I had managed to wipe the silly grin of my face I got down to some work. The poor welding had to be ground down to as smooth finish as I could get it. I have now mastered the angle grinder technique and pleased with my days work. I have a few before and after pictures below. The smoothed out section may need a few more spot welds on it and ground again as a few sections were missed. I managed to forget to take my earplugs down to Mustang Maniac, so I had to improvise. I tore a couple of fingers of the latex gloves, put a small nut inside, wrapped it up so it was soft and stuffed it into my ears. It worked a treat, but I must say I looked a right pillock, or so I’m told 🙂

Sunday arrived and I finished of restoring the battery tray that looked pretty bad. Obviously trying to keep as much original as I can so I decided to strip it down and see what was there earlier in the week. I am pleased to say it was in good condition apart from a little rust that had pitted the very edges. So I rubbed it down, treated it, primed it and two coats of satin black. I think it came out well. There are a few dimples on the tray still, but I think it adds a little  character.  I also decided to catch the Spanish F1 Grand Prix, I promptly fell asleep it was that interesting! What has happened to Formula 1? So all in all a good Sunday was had by me.

I have been asked what I used to strip the paint and under seal off the car. It’s called Starchem Synstryp, I have done a review of it as well and it’s in the quick links below.

Quick Link:

I have added the full set of pictures for the battery tray here, or click on the Photos – Engine Bay – Battery Tray.

Paint stripper review click here or go to Consumable Menu – Starchem Synstryp Paint Stripper

Starchem-Synstryp1

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Sparks Will Fly

The weekend is here and I have an extra day to work on the car. I arrived at Mustang Maniac and found the guys preparing some cars for collection by their owners. I had a chat with Adam to see what needed to be done on my car first. The last bit of scraping then maybe a change if I managed to get it all done. I cleaned up the front engine bay panel and found some hidden numbers marked on it under the paint. I had a conversation with Adam about them and it turns out these are the original factory markings. This is good on two accounts; The first being that the front panel is original and has not been replaced due to an accident. The second is that the markings match up to the fender, secret numbers and the door plate. I have taken some pictures of the original markings during the cleaning and then I have gone over them in a colour to make them stand out a little better. The top set is actually 5A but it looks like the 6 prefix has rubbed off. These numbers which are the model type the other numbers are options for the car, interior colour – black etc. The third picture is after the clean up. I wasn’t sure if the numbers would still be there after the final cleaning up. No matter what I did to the marks they stayed there. Impressive stuff for forty eight year old grease proof marker.

original markings
marked up 5A 26 8

I cleaned up the rear chassis legs to the point where they will be replaced. Then it was the right side wheel Arch for a clean up. Same procedures again, stripper, scrub, scrape and repeat. What was left is a little surface rust but it’s basically solid. There is a whole that needs to be patched up though, in the chassis leg that has been uncovered as a result of the clean up.

After that it was time for a change, the poor welding on the floor plan is to be ground down to see if there are any holes that are in need of re-welding. Adam was on the case to start the process to see the quality of the welding. The set of pictures here show just how bad this batch of welding is.

The grinding wheel started and the slow process to gently grind down the high spots without damaging the panels. The sparks were flying alright. The initial quick test patch was completed to his satisfaction. I was shown the technique ready for me to take over after putting on my new welding gloves, ear plugs & safety specs. I will post the pictures once I have completed some of the work. It made for a nice change and things look like they are starting to step up a gear.

I can’t wait for more of the same, but when somebody does it so easily and makes it look simple, it’s difficult to follow in those footsteps. I am a fast learner and I will step up my game.

 

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It’s A Wind Up

Saturday was the now usual routine, up breakfast and then bolt out the door!  Two reasons, one – I won’t get collared for any “little” jobs before I go, two – I can’t wait to get down to the Mustang Maniac guys. Unfortunately I didn’t quite make it to the car before I heard the words, can you clean… “Yeah I will do it tomorrow” loaded the boot and I got in the car, did I really just promise something I thought to myself. Anyway, I was going to start of by cleaning up the engine bay to see what little goodies was in store for me this time. The same technique of stripper, remove and add more till you see metal. This was going to be difficult due to all the profiles that had to be rubbed down, wire wool was used more than the scraper this time. This made my hands cramp up a few times, but the results are really good I must say. There is a question mark of the right side inner wing where the battery tray sits. The wing under the battery tray had been repaired with a large ugly plate. The rest of the wing looks sort of OK but could be a little thin and may be better to replace it. This is the before shots of the engine bay.

battery tray plate

And after the fire wall was cleaned up.

I worked counter-clockwise around the bay and this time I took a few more intermediate pictures as I got a bit carried away with the fire wall part and forgot to take intermediate pics.

The end results of the days hard work looked to have paid of nicely and you can see where and what I have done.

With any luck I may start on something different next weekend, but that will all depend on if Adam is happy with what I have done so far. I know we have a little more to do around the rear chassis rails. Perhaps the rear chassis legs will be on cards so I will have to wait and see. The results are amazing that there is so much good metal under there for a nearly half a century old car.

Sunday was more cleaning, I started by finishing the other front quarter vent window click here for the full process. After that I decided to clean up the main door window winders on both sides. The driver’s side was in a much more dirtier condition than the passenger side. The process here was to clean the grease off and remove the hardened dead grease and make sure the mechanism winds both ways. I used POR Marine Clean in its strongest mix 1:1 and got to work. I ended up having to use a scalpel to remove the harder parts and more recessed areas. Eventually it all came off and looked pretty good. I did notice that one of the plastic washers for the winders to locate in the rails was missing. I will have to get a replacement before I re-assemble it.

left before clean
left side
left
left reverse side
Right side before clean
right side reverse

After the clean up the mechanisms worked well again. I did not grease at this point as I will do that nearer the installation time to avoid the fresh grease being contaminated. I just both complete mechanisms a coating of Gibbs Brand to stop any rust and allow the lubricant to work its way into the rusted joints.

left cleaned
left
left reverse
left
right reverse
right full mechanism

After cleaning up the window mechanisms I then got the window cleaning stuff and started to clean the windows in the kitchen. I did promise I suppose but now my arms and hands are killing me. I was hoping that the wife was only winding me up, but no. It seems that If I can clean all day on a Saturday then I can a few windows at home. Fair point I guess and there’s not much I can say to that is there?

Quick Links:

Photo Menu – Glass Work – Door Window Mechanism Clean up or click here for the full set of pictures.

Photo Menu – Under The Car & Chassis – Under Seal Removal or Click here for the full set of pictures.

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Stripper For A Day

The stripper was of course the chemical sort to get me down to bare metal on the underside of my car. There are so many innuendos I could use for this post, but I wont go down that route. The day was of course at Mustang Maniac where my day of hard work was to begin. The car looks quite menacing when you stand there with just a three-inch scraping knife. I used some stuff called Starchem – Synstrip. This has been given quite a few reviews on how good it is. The old school strippers like Nitromors has had an ingredient change due to new laws or health and safety for what ever reason. The results speak for themselves, they don’t work like they used to. So this stuff is one of the few old school strippers left out there that you can get your hands on. Professional use only with disclaimers all over it on the label. It took notice and used goggles, face mask and gloves. Is the stripper any good? I shall review it fully soon, but it does burn like hell on your hands, that should give you an idea.

Anyway the car was given a good slap of the mixture on the under seal and it was obvious it was attacking not just paint but under seal, tar and any other stuff sprayed on it. It was going to be a long day, the first attempt removed a lot, the second exposed the base paints and we were almost there with the third. Why take it all off? Well, we wanted to see what was under the sealers to see what work need to be done or what filler needed to be removed. So a tip is – don’t buy a car that looks great as it could be covering a multitude of sins. It’s better to see bare metal and you know exactly where you are. I exposed a bit of filler around the welds, nothing to bad as it was just to smooth it all out. There was some real good clean metal by the tunnel gearbox area and a little surface rust on the rear panels by the fuel tank partition. The work was slow, made my arms ache and Adam gave me hand towards the end of the day too. What a difference it has made already. I will start on the other areas next week if I have recovered enough by then. Hopefully there will be a lot more bare metal all round next time. The process is apply the liquid, let it bubble up, scrap it off, add more, rub it in with wire wool, scrap it all off and repeat. The pictures I took after each treatment, you can’t really see a huge difference between the sessions, start and finish there is a difference.

What it looked like:

rotisserie14After the first session:

After the second session:

After the third session and the end of the day, we rubbed the chemicals down with thinners to see the bare metals. The surface rust will be attacked again with a little aggression where I can. Anything that looks bad – we will replace and patch properly.

Well that was all day Saturday taken care off, Sunday I was rubbing down my driver’s side fresh air vent. It was a real mess and needed rubbing down, primer, and a couple of top coats. I have added the full process under my Photo Menu – Inside The Car – Drivers Air Vent Refurbishment, or click here for the quick link. Here are a few pictures of the before, during and after. My arms are killing me and I am pleased with the results. for both days. On the assembled pictures for the air vent the finger prints were my oily fingers, it wiped of clean. Unfortunately there is too much exciting stuff to look at here apart from different angles of course. I was well chuffed with the results, even if I do say so myself.

original state
stripped down
rust treated
self etc primer
first coat of under hood satin
the end results assembled
assembled
cable attached

 Quick Links:

Photo Menu – Inside The Car – Drivers Side Air Vent or click here

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Just A Shell

Need I say where I was over the weekend? Yep, Mustang Maniac to take the final parts off the car. The front and rear glass was to come out and I was little nervous about that to be honest in case I cracked one. There are two ways to get the glass out; the easy way and the hard correct way obviously. The hard way is to fold the rubber back a bit at a time and lift the glass out, it takes time, patience and luck not to crack any brittle glass. The principle is the same for the front and the back glass. We looked at the car and decided that the rear rubber was showing signs of age and a few splits in places, this one was going to be the easy way. The front was going to be a pain though. The front has either been replaced or the original put back in. The reason I suspect is that they were trying to find a leak inside the car. This leak was enough to make them take the rubber and glass out and seal it all back in place with copious amounts of mastic. They must have shares or own the company looking at the amount they used. Anyway, due to the mastic there was no way I was going to be able to save the rubbers at the front although they didn’t look to bad. The easy technique is to lift a flap of rubber that is over the top of the glass insert a sharp knife at such an angle to cut the top rubber section of the bezel of as it were. Once the rubber is cut of you can just lift the glass out, but first you have to free it from the rubber by gently tapping it up with your hand. The rear was simple and straight forward and came out without any issues. The front on the other hand was a pig of a job; the mastic was so thick I had to do it small stages and very slowly to avoid putting too much pressure on the glass. Eventually it was all cut away and I had to be just as careful when trying to break the mastic hold on the glass. With a sigh of relief it came free and the glass was lifted out. The worst part of the job was to remove all the old mastic and rubber that had been stuck on the front. The leak by the way didn’t look to be coming from the glass, the vents at the front obviously let the water in and it runs of to the sides were it sits unless it runs out through a drain channel. As a result the cowl will go rusty in the corners so when it rains the channel to drain away is circumvented and goes inside the car. I know I may have to replace the cowl, but that needs to be inspected for repair or replace shortly. The link for the full process of getting the glass out and more pictures can be found here, or the quick links at the bottom.

The rear glass being removed.

place knife where the rubber lifted
lift and cut at the same time
lifting the top of the glass from inside
rear glass removed

The front glass being removed showing the generous usage of mastic.

looking for a place to start
along the top removal
rubber seal cut away and left on mastic
rubber and mastic removal
before the clean up

Today I was cleaning up the steering column. This needs to be stripped back to bare metal in order for it to be painted and coordinated to the interior colours. The column was in a bad way at the bottom end where it goes through the fire wall to the steering box. The grease now gone hard, dirt, grime and anything else had to be cleaned off. POR Strip was used and wire wool to get back to the metal. Inside the column was full of old grease and needed to be cleaned out as well. The steering wheel end has a collar which holds the horn assembly and the indicator lights stalk. The horn section I have thrown out as the wires were brittle and were on an old Grant Steering wheel which I want to replace with a nice wood one. My arms ache but it was a job worth doing. The final part is to coat it from rusting with Gibbs Brand Lubricant until it needs to be painted. I just love that Gibbs Brand, see here for my review and articles. The brackets and plates I will finish them next week.

top of the steering column
steering box end of column
steering wheel end
steering box end cleaned
wheel end cleaned
cleaned collar together
other end
top side with cleaned centre bearing
underside
soaked in Gibbs Brand

The exciting news:

Now that my car is a shell with nothing in it or on it apart from the doors that is, we could well be putting her onto a rotisserie soon to allow me access to the underneath  in order to clean it all up and look for the repairs needed. The rear quarter panel needs replacing and lining up with the door, once that is done the doors will come off as well to get to the pillars and work on them too.

Quick Links:

Front and Rear Glass can be found under Photo Menu – Glass Work – Front & Rear Glass or click here.

Steering column work is can be found under Photo Menu – Steering – Steering Gearbox & Column Renovation or click here.

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Nobody Will Ever Know

The weekend couldn’t come quick enough for me and seemed such a long week until it finally arrived. Saturday I woke with a feeling of knowing exactly what I wanted to do, but I didn’t really want to do it. It was going to be messy, it was going to hurt and it would never be seen. But that is the nature of restoration that I have learned so very quickly. The job in question was removing Waxoyl from inside the car roof. As you may or may not know, I had fun and games removing it from the floor pans before I treated them with POR15 paint. This time it was above me and I wasn’t too sure how I was going to attack it. Red Bull drinks were lined up and snacks were lined up like little toy soldiers on my Blue Point work cart, I knew what was coming. Plan A; was to rub the wax off with a bunch of rags and degreasant, I tried but I only seemed to spread it about and not remove it fully. Plan B; drink Red Bull and find a scraper while eating a snack. This gave the poor ol’ bloke arm muscles time to recover from half an hour of what seemed like somebody setting fire to them, they were burning that much. The man cave has lots of things that I have stored, (not hoarded – Stored) to choose from. I found all sorts of flexible implements that I could try and felt rather pleased with myself walking back to the garage. Trials were undertaken for the best tool. First was a plastic separator for a tool compartment – that was too soft, but would make an excellent filler spreader tool. (Note made to self at this point, for a small spreader use this bit of plastic). Secondly I had a silicon sealer remover, this was OK but too small and hurt the hands due to the funny angles on it. Thirdly I had a pallet knife that was good but again to small and too stiff and dug into the metal on more pronounced curves as it was sharp. The winner was an old filling knife I used for decorating, it was flexible and formed to the very slight curves of the roof, it didn’t dig into the metal and scraped of a good amount each time.

roof4

I started from the back to the front and the flex of the blade followed the roof well. The whole process was messy as the skin grafts of wax were raining down on me and went everywhere. At the start of the work you can see the roof under the wax which wasn’t pretty but it worried me a bit as it looked rust coloured, so I wanted to protect it best the best way possible. I took a photo of half the roof done for a comparison with and without the Waxoyl to show what it was hiding.

untouched roof

The mess was unbelievable and the old towels I had put down were not enough to cope with the mess. The side pillars at the rear were also cleaned up but were going to get a slightly different process. Snacks were consumed and a fair amount of water taken into the system. Arms are now aching beyond belief.

half way done
mess
more mess
even more mess
left side pillar
right side pillar

Once the roof was stripped of the wax I had to degrease it with the strongest mixture of POR Marine Clean  I could mix up on 1:1 basis. This cut through the grease and left a very clean surface after a couple of treatments. this was left to dry thoroughly.

I used a full tin of Rust Prevention paint (picture on the process page, or click here) as this time as there was no real rust to be fair. The paint required two thin coats within ten minutes of each other. They looked a little patchy when drying but the end results was amazingly smooth and consistent to a whitish grey in colour.

single coat
single coat
second coat
second coat
almost dried

The side pillars were a different story as the bottoms by the shelf was rusted a little more and need some treatment of the Granville Rust Cure. Once that had dried off too I used some Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator to spray behind the pillars into all the little gaps then sprayed the outside all the way down to the window winder area. The satin black cuts the light down in the car again. Around the roof where the inner rail is there was not enough prevention spray for all of it. So I decided to Eastwood those areas too, while trying to prevent a little over spray not that it would ever matter of course. Another note to self; start on the rear shelf soon.

left side
back

The end result looks quite good due to a contrast of the black and white, the down side is once the head liner goes in – Nobody will ever see it and nobody will ever know!

Quick Links:

For the full process so far of the work; Photo Menu – Inside The Car – Roof & Sides Rust Treatment, or click here.

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