1970 Stage1 4 speed Convertible Silver Mist

Starting one another rare one...pretty solid. The paint is about 1/8" thick, so it's going to take some time to scrape and peel it all off. A few little rusty bits, but no major rot.

 

Working on chemically and mechanically stripping the mile-thick paint...one layer at a time. I do see the original silver mist paint at the bottom. Looks like White on top, grey primer, cream primer, grey again, silver, primer. It'll probably be 50lbs lighter when stripped. RH fender has some rust that needs help.

I am going to knock off the majority of the paint (sans jambs) and hose it with black epoxy to preserve for now. It will switch places with the orange 72 that I need to start on.

 

Some insight on the layers

 

Yep!

 

More Delorean appearing...

 

Everything is stripped but the jambs. I'm going to pickle it with some black epoxy for now because I have to get onto the orange car that has been patiently waiting for eons.

I didn't find any big surprises, other than a bunch of spots with filler. The way I heard the story about this car, is that it was painted in a hurry to hide it from the repo man. But all of the signs say it had some extensive body work done before the white was applied. Whoever applied the white paint must have put it on with a putty knife or 3/4" nap roller. The material I pulled off the outer sheet metal is going to fill a wheelbarrow.

 

Fresh hosing of black epoxy to protect the metal while I tuck it in the corner for another day.

 

Stupid stupid Jasco non-methylene crap. It took an hour for it to pop the top layer of white paint off. Even the aircraft stripper at the paint supply store is non-meth. The counter guy ranted about it this morning while I was in there getting the black epoxy.

The body is pretty nice. Lots of dings and dents...but pretty minimal rust. RH fender needs a good patch...and the right rear wheel lip is perforated.

 

Finally getting something done on this one. The lower windshield area looks pretty good but I think there is a perforation at the antenna area.

 

She’s crusty, but solid.

 

Except for the core support and RH wheelhouse

 

These came out without TOO much fuss. No busted caged nutz. I’m ready to roll the car into the other garage to blow it apart the rest of the way...just need to finish up the 61 Impala I’m spotting for some rust repair.

 

I have a couple pics from when it got here...$6k maaco paint and body job done 2 years ago and rust was already popping back through. I pretty much cut the entire wheel lip off on both sides and cleaned up inside. Welded patch panels back on, and a bit of the rocker panel on the passenger side. The hood to fender alignment was fubar, too. I got it as close as possible without doing surgery.