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Collector and Classic Car Insurance for Less

Episode 9: Project COVID-1953 – Starting on the Body Work

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Episode 9 – Now that the engine is pretty much complete. Rick is ready to move to the body. The body has been damaged due to a garage fire and is heavily rusted. Some new fenders and a roof were already purchased. Starting with the firewalls, Rick gets everything grinded, wire-brushed and wire wheeled down. Using fast edge from Eastwood to help remove rust and provide a protective coating, the firewalls are all smoothed out and we’re ready to move on to the next steps.

Episode 9 – Video Transcript

Rick Drewry:
All right, now that I have the engine pretty much where I want it for now, I am moving on to the body, finally. The body, as you remember, has a lot of rust from it being burnt. It was in a garage fire. The car did not catch on fire but, the garage did, and fell on the car. So, there is a lot of top end paint that was burnt off, and because it has been sitting for so long, also rust. What I did was; the first thing, I went ahead and bought an extra set of fenders a few years back and a hood. The fenders that were on the car and the hood that was on the car is very, very warped. Also, I took out the headlight buckets and all of that. They actually are not in bad shape.

Then, I started working on the firewall. The firewall was heavily rusted; as was the roof and the dash but, I figured I’d conquered the firewall first. My goal is to smooth the firewall out. Completely smooth and eliminate everything off the firewall to give it that clean look. It is something that I like to do and have done many times in the past, on other cars. So, next I took the plates off. Then started grinding, wire brushing, and wire wheeling everything down. It can only go so far. I used some fast edge, from Eastwood. It is basically an acid etching that will eat rust. You spray that on there and keep it wet for 20 minutes to a half hour, and then wipe it off with a lacquer thinner soaked rag. When you completely take that back off, it wipes off the rust (most of it) and leaves a zinc coating on it and will protect it. That way it does not flash rust as you are working on the car. I got it down to where I want it and I know what I am dealing with. So, I stripped that completely down, wire wheeled it, assessed it, and I am ready to move on to the next step.

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