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Full of surprises. A 72 tii from the northeast


stymee

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The big day!  I have been back and forth on how I was going to strip the shell.  I was thinking soda blasting for a while, but I don't have a trailer (yet) and there are a lot of separate pieces that would need transport.  Also, I read that neutralizing the soda is very important before painting or poor primer adhesion could result.  I wanted to avoid sand blasting because of the heat and potential warpage.  So I stumbled upon the dustless blasting system.  There was an outfit in Plain View, NC, which was close, but they would travel.  After a lot of questions answered I finally had them come by this past week.

 

Dorman Naylor was very helpful answering questions about the process.  Turns out he recently retired from Goodyear after 42 years, I just had my 18 year anniversary with Goodyear this week!  He was very upfront and explained that it is 100 times noisier and messier than they lead you to believe in the youtube videos (he wasn't kidding!).  However, it does leave the metal VERY clean and with excellent texture for paint adhesion.  It uses crushed recycled glass (30/70) for media, water (treated with rust preventative, he used BlastHold) and a HUGE air compressor.  Here is the 2nd half of the two man team AJ and Dorman's trailer that he built just for this purpose.  Dorman and AJ were great to work with.  They stayed until the job was done.  I would recommend them highly.  The service was excellent and the price was VERY reasonable.

 

There are pictures below, but I also made a video of the process.  Beware, the sound is loud even in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrsN8vmCccM

 

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I decided to do it at the end of my driveway, just far enough from the house to keep the mess away, but close enough for moving parts.  My dolly doesn't roll well on rough surfaces, so doing it at the end of the road was out.  Here's the car tipped up getting ready to start.

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You can see all of the flash rust that has accumulated over the last 3 years since I replaced the floor pans and stripped the underside.

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It was like an eraser!

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Just enough room to get the underside.

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So clean!

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It cleaned out the sunroof area super easy.

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Engine bay done.

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Water tight!  It is messy...

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Can you tell that strut top in new?

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The media looks and feels just like sand.

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Flipped on the other side.

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Almost done.

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They did the hood, trunk, doors, fenders and sunroof panel on some saw horses.

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Here she is tucked back in the shop.

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All in all I am very happy with the result.  It was a bit messy, but the guys cleaned up really well.  There really isn't much dust floating down wind, though you will have a LOT of sand left on the ground.  They used about 800lbs for my car and it took about 6.5 hours.  I had some spots along the side of my driveway that were eroding, so the sand accumulation was welcome!  I did get some flash rust in certain areas quicker than I expected.  Not sure if the concentration of blast hold was too low or maybe some non treated rinse water got splashed on the body.  Dorman was very helpful after the fact as well.  I am going to treat with picklex 20 to take care of that and also give me more time to get the primer on.

 

All in all, I would definitely do it again.  If I was only doing the outside (like for a respray), I think it would only take a couple hours and the mess would be MUCH less.  The media does get EVERYWHERE, but it does not stick.  I still have to get the rockers and a few other "closed" areas cleaned out with some creative use of air nozzles and vacuums.

 

Anyhow, I'd love to hear anyone else's experience with this process, or how it compares to soda or sand blasting.

 

Next up - epoxy primer!

1972 Verona tii - "Betty"

2002tiiRear.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wow!  How much did that cost???

 

Let's just say it is between $125 and $175 an hour and it took the better part of a day.  Quite reasonable, I thought!  I don't have a trailer (yet) and getting all of my parts to some place to do the blasting would have been a nightmare.

1972 Verona tii - "Betty"

2002tiiRear.jpg

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Though I thought the blasting went really well, there were a few areas where I had these little spots that looked like rust.  The guys doing the blasting hadn't seen it before.  It was only in certain areas.  They had some media that had been rained on, so I thought that may have been the issue.  It was also possible that the pressure washer they were rinsing with had been used when it was still hooked up directly to my water instead of the tank with the rust preventative in it.  Anyhow here's what it looked like:

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Those spots were there almost immediately after blasting.  We were running out of time, so I told them to just keep going.  They did offer to come back to re-do it, but I figured I'd take care of it as it was only in a few spots here and there.  So, on to the picklex 20 debacle!  I had a bottle of picklex 20 I had bought a while back and I thought it would be perfect for removing the spots from these areas.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't read the instructions (i.e. packing material) carefully enough and just sprayed it on, all over the body and doors, and left it.  It dried with streaks and residue, and didn't remove the flash rust.  Then I had a mess on my hands.  I certainly didn't want to paint over that.  So I reached out to the picklex 20 people, and got a quick response.  They suggested I re-wash the car to remove the picklex 20 and hold blast completely, let it flash rust, and then go back over it with picklex 20 using the correct technique.  So I did it. It freaked me out when it immediately flash rusted after being washed down.  But I have to say, that stuff works amazing.

 

The key is to do small areas at a time.  Spray it on, let it soak for 1-2 minutes, the rust just disappears.  Some areas might need a little scrubbing with a scotch brite pad.  Then just wipe off with a rag.  The only bad part was that I needed to go back over the entire surface of the car and doors.  So, fast forward about 3 days of scrubbing and I'm back to clean, bare metal.  I do feel a bit better now that I have gone over the entire car.  I was also able to spend some more time getting the media out of all of the nooks and crannies.  The picklex 20 gets in the cracks and should help with the rust prevention.  And best of all, now I don't need to be in a rush to get the primer on the car.

 

TL;DR version:  Wet Blast=good, spots of rust=bad, bad piclex 20 usage=bad, wash car and flash rust=scary, proper use of picklex 20=awesome, here are some pics during/after the picklex 20 application:

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All in all, it was just a lot of effort.  I severely underestimated the time it would take for me to get some primer on the car.  Reading everything out there about spraying paint and actually doing it are two totally different things.  Most of the information out there focuses on the actual paint laying technique.  There is a lot about surface prep, but very little about bare metal.  Especially about cleaning metal that is VERY rough from the blasting.  Great for paint adhesion, but hell on even "tack free" cleaning cloths!  Here's what I learned, and what I would suggest to someone else getting started with painting, sounds like common sense but until you do it, you may not think about the details!

 

DO get some craft paint and practice on some cardboard!  Getting the gun set up properly is HUGE.

DON'T get the car blasted before you can roll that body right into the "booth" and lay down some primer

DO have a good plan for a paint booth, my plan was OK, but it takes way too long to put up/take down

DO have a good spot to mix/prep the paint, plenty of space, and paper towels!

DO have something to dump unused paint into

DO have a good respirator rated for the isocyanates

DO have plenty of pre-sol or other cleaner for the surface you are painting

DO have plenty of gloves

 

There's way more to list, and of course all of the other obvious things that are always pointed out in the "How To's".

1972 Verona tii - "Betty"

2002tiiRear.jpg

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Fast forward another week and I have A/C in the shop, primer on the doors, and the nose job has begun.  The last 3 weeks have been in the mid 90's every day and barely below 80 at night.  This means that the shop never sheds the heat from the day before and it was miserable.  With all the bare metal inside, I didn't want to open the doors and let in all of the humidity.  So (with the blessing of my WONDERFUL wife), we went ahead with a nice Lennox mini split for the shop.  We also use it as our exercise room, so the car is the only one benefiting from the climate control.  I've had it a week now, and it is fantastic.  I need to close off and insulate the ceiling to really allow it to work as it is currently sucking in hot air from the attic.  Overall, I'm tickled.  It keeps the shop a very comfortable 75 even when it is 100 outside, and just as importantly, keeps the humidity around 50% or below.

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I worked on the doors a bit, doing the whole picklex routine first.  Then I sanded and hammered a bit to straighten out some of the dents.  I am NOT a metal whisperer by any stretch, but it is amazing what you can do with metal once you realize that you can shrink and stretch over and over.  It is tough when you can't get to the back of the door skin with a hammer.  I still have some pretty good dips that will need filler, but they are better than when they started!

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Then it was on to the nose job.  My car had a nose replaced somewhere along the way.  Unfortunately, they used the late nose instead of the early nose.  I was able to procure an early nose center section from a fellow '02 Group faqer a couple years ago.  It had like 5 coats of paint on it!  I think I found Chamonix, Golf and Atlantik under there.

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Here's the non-original nose of the car.  I will also be removing the dented area as a bonus.

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First, I drilled out the spot welds between the front panel and the support piece that was sawed off along with the section.  I will be re-attaching with plug welds in the same area.

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Then I blasted the panel to clean it up.  Starting with a wire wheel to get through the bulk of the paint layers saved the blaster a bit of work.  Here it is for a quick test fit.

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After marking the edges of the new panel, I cut out the old center section (waaaaaaaay inside the lines!)

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After clamping the panel in place more accurately, I was able to precisely mark where to cut.

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And after a bunch more very careful trimming, it's about ready to weld into place.  I have been test fitting my grills along the way to make sure everything matches up.  Other than a few modifications to the tabs for the blind nut clips, there isn't much else to do for the "conversion".  I am being extra careful to try to keep the gaps small so I can get good, consistent welds.  I decided to run the lower joint along the fold at the bottom so I can more easily hide the welds.

IMG_7967.JPG

 

Did I mention how awesome A/C is in a shop? :)

1972 Verona tii - "Betty"

2002tiiRear.jpg

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You are doing so much more than I could ever do myself! Congrats on the progress, the A/C and all the sharing of your experiences. I was going to mention the different style of grill mounting but you covered it.

Jim

Jim Gerock

 

Riviera 69 2002 built 5/30/69 "Oscar"

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You are doing so much more than I could ever do myself! Congrats on the progress, the A/C and all the sharing of your experiences. I was going to mention the different style of grill mounting but you covered it.

Jim

 

Thanks, Jim!  I was actually going to ask if you could take/share some close up pictures of your nose with the grills off.  I think I just need to cut down/re-drill the tabs that I already have, but I'd love to see them as they were meant to be.  I can't wait to use your thread to help me start re-assembling!

1972 Verona tii - "Betty"

2002tiiRear.jpg

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Thanks, Jim!  I was actually going to ask if you could take/share some close up pictures of your nose with the grills off.  I think I just need to cut down/re-drill the tabs that I already have, but I'd love to see them as they were meant to be.  I can't wait to use your thread to help me start re-assembling!

Funny that you asked.  I'm trying to fit my new grills and the speednuts sourced from the local auto parts store will not work (they are too deep).  Penskeparts website shows the original body nuts are NLA but the ones for the rear Euro license plate lamps are available.

 

Here is one picture that shows the bottom tab without the body nut.

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Here is the 71 Sahara nose that is on the car now,

IMG_6978.jpg

Jim Gerock

 

Riviera 69 2002 built 5/30/69 "Oscar"

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  • 4 months later...

Stunning work.  My hat's off to you.  I have this burning desire to really want to learn how to weld.  I know it takes practice and you have to put in the hours as well.  I hope to one day start a project like this and tackle the body work end of a rotted out find from the bush.    I have no idea why I'd want to suffer like that, but it's just something on my bucket list. 

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

David,

 

Where are we at?  The shell was looking pretty darned great when we last saw it!

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited by Conserv

1976 2002 Polaris, 2742541 (original owner)

1973 2002tii Inka, 2762757 (not-the-original owner)

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Good read, well done. I'm hoping my car is not this bad. I'm afraid to look.

You're at the easy part now.

 

Mike_

I don't give a fird gen, carbretted, alyoominiuhm, tickity boo!... wiff an ole in the boot!

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  • 2 years later...

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