Project Ruth.

[Joe Johnston]

Soda blasting is more expensive, does not heat and warp sheet metal like sand might, does not remove rust, does not harm rubber, chrome or glass. It is dusty and the sheet metal MUST be washed with some neutralizing product like a vinegar solution. If you have this professionally done, I'm sure they will have the info and products they recommend. Prime all surfaces ASAP with an epoxy primer.

[keith]

Follow Joe's advice say no to soda blassting.

Paint companies state side are very cautious with their products being used over soda blasted metal.

I wouldn't want to take the risk.

[Anders]

Paint don´t stick well to anything blasted. All metal need to be sanded one way or another after sand/glass/soda blasting.

Quote from Gene Winfields DVD´s.

[Anders]

I mentioned earlier that I have "chipping" in the paint, and as I now are removing the paint ( Kieth style with hot gun ) I came across the area where most of this chipping is today and found out that around this area is another charcoal colored primer or similar under the lastest red paint. The body is not damaged or anything, so I´m totally baffled why only this area is sprayed with this paint The red paint comes off very easy here, but the charcoal area is on the other hand very hard to remove here. It sticks with the original paint underneath like glue. Odd. But it makes my decision to remove all paint the right way to go or I would most probably have a similar situation with the risk of having the new paint "chip" again on the same place.

[Anders]

After being away from most everything for little over a week, I´m back in the garage for some hours every night again. Today I finally got the first side done. It´s downhill from here right?

[keith]

Anders,

You have a very fine car. I'm drooling over the no rust.

I'm interested in that chipping and other primer. Is there lead filler under it perhaps?

The only other thing I can think of is it was scratched at some point and they used some kind of heavy fill primer.

You might take a ruler or straight edge and place it against the area and see if the metal is straight or slightly concave.

I'm at a lost on the primer chipping. I would have guessed really old bondo checking at first glance.

Anyway you have a fine piece there. I'm off to the GNRS in a few hours, have fun.

[Anders]

Anders,

You have a very fine car. I'm drooling over the no rust.

I'm interested in that chipping and other primer. Is there lead filler under it perhaps?

The only other thing I can think of is it was scratched at some point and they used some kind of heavy fill primer.

You might take a ruler or straight edge and place it against the area and see if the metal is straight or slightly concave.

I'm at a lost on the primer chipping. I would have guessed really old bondo checking at first glance.

Anyway you have a fine piece there. I'm off to the GNRS in a few hours, have fun.

Thanks. I´m amazed myself to be honest. There is no rust what so ever. Texas seems to be the place to buy cars from. Ruth used to live in Fort Worth and Fredricksburg
The primer filling is a strange one. There is no sign of anything different underneath the original paint or around the areas where this blck primer was. I found another area, and that is the part betveen the rear wheel and the rear bumper. The top surface comes off realy easy where the black primer was, but the black primer itself sticks to the original paint much harder then the rest of the paint. I´m baffled as you are. Good luck and have fun at the GNRS. Wish I could be there

[Anders]

Finally got the paint off the car. Only some small parts left that I will do today... One of the good thing by removing paint with the heat gun and a razor blade is also that you will be able to see what´s under the paint, and around the openings on the roof, I found that they sprayed some grey paint even before the primer. Perhaps some kind of extra protection? This is done in the factory.

[simplyconnected]

Nice job, Anders. Look into using phosphoric acid on your bare metal. It's not too expensive (~US$8/quart). It disolves rust and it leaves a phosphate coating on the steel that you paint right over. We use a form of it at Ford (called Bonderite).

Some parts were sprayed in the stamping plant. For instance, the insides of the fenders may have a green zinc primer. Other high-rust areas may have one side of the steel galvanized (like cowl top skins).

I don't know how effective these coatings were. Remember, Squarebirds were made before electrocoat was used. Sometimes the stamping plants would bank parts well ahead of schedule, especially if contract time was coming soon or a press line was scheduled to go down for a major press overhaul (new clutch, brake, gibbs & ways). It was like money in the bank but it also meant finished bare steel parts were sitting in racks and exposed for months before they were assembled. They may have painted some of these parts. Service Parts were painted as well. If an assembly plant was running out of parts, they would immediately deplete all the Service Parts they could, just to keep the assembly line going.

Ever hear of making parts 'just in time'? They did just the opposite back then for 'self preservation'. Many times, our stamping plants flew racks of parts across the country because the assembly plant was about to go down. That's when heads rolled. - Dave

[Anders]

Some progress here. After sanding down all exterior paint ( will do inside the engine bay, trunk, doors later ) there was finally time for the first layer of Epoxi primer today.

[Joe Johnston]

Nice job!

You are now at the point where I start to enjoy the restoration. Everything is now one color and you can see all the flaws and work on them. TAKE YOUR TIME!!! I can't stress that enough! Its in epoxy primer and you no longer have to worry about any rust on the major areas, and now strive for perfection!!!

Keep posting pictures too!

[keith]

Fantastic, time to pop the top on a cool one!

[Anders]

After painting Epoxi primer on all bare metal area, I took off the doors, hood & trunk as this is the next area to dig into. As it was such a sunny day last weekend ( have been for many weeks as a matter of fact ) I took out the car for cleaning up the garage. While have her outside in the sun, naked, I though I needed to feel how it is to drive a car without windows, no doors, no seatbelt, hood or trunk. It was... fresh Here´s a little video I uploaded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHjJS...ature=youtu.be

[V-John]

Hats off to you and the great work you're doing on the car. Looking good!

[keith]

Man that looks fun, I like to drive my cars around like that. Freedom of all of that safety stuff is a wonderful thing.

It was nice here today 60 degrees. We had 7" of snow on Sunday. I had the shop doors open today. A couple of lingering snow drifts just outside the door slowly melting, the radio on playing classic rock n roll and had to shut the doors around 6:00 pm this evening because mosquitoes where coming in, weird.