Body

As you can see by the picture I've taken off many of the parts in preparing for the body lift off.The seat is out with the dash and top left to remove.

Before the body comes off we have some issues to fix.The trunk lid gap is bad.

Another picture of the gap.The middle of the lid is bent in like someone sat on it.The bottom is bent out.

I received many suggestions from the Thunderbird group and decided to try this one.I pushed down and in on the left rear corner a little at a time,putting the upright 2X4 at the lowest point of the sag.Notice how straight the rain trough is.

After 30 minutes studying the problem and setting the 2X4's,it took 5 minutes to straighten it out.

The bottom of the lid is straight also.A little time spent now makes it easier when reinstalling the lid later.

The next problem to fix is the gap on the bottom of the doors.This is common on most little birds.I again went to the classic bird group and my friend Jerry for the solution. Click on the link for details.

I used the instructions in the helpful tips link to fix the gap on the lower corner.I did numerous checks on the progress and It didn't move.The instructions said to screw the angle iron to the door but I used vise grips so not to drill any holes.Guess I'll try the other door.

After putting a lot of presure on the first door I screwed the clamps in to far and look what happened.It took very little to twist the corner in.I got it back out with a steel rod,some door slaming and a ruber hammer.Not too good on the paint.Why didn't the first door move?

I took the door off the car and lookie here.Under the weather strip was the paint and under the paint was the tape.The bottom hinge also was rusted and when I put presure on the clamps,instead of forming the metal it just sprung it and it came back when the presure was off.

The hinge area was also rusted.Most of the body work was done in the 60's because very little bondo was used,mostly lead.

I was very hapy with the way the door bottom turned out.After cutting out the old metal,welding in new and grinding off the welds I put a thin coat of body filler with fiber glass in it and top coated it with feather rite.I than put the door back on the car to check the fit.

These are the braces under the dash to help hold the body together.Notice the farmer engineering to brace the dash.Number 9 bailing wire would have looked better,unbelievable. The dash and windshield have been removed .

As we remove parts, some are restored,some are put on a list to replace and all are boxed or bagged and put in the computer.I took 100 pictures in one day on the tear down and all these steps are time consuming but important.

About ready to lift the body off.The body bolts are all removed and the best tool was the torch.All the bolts had to be heated,one cut off and two twisted off.There was some floor rust around the bolt area and repair panels were welded in over the top of the body bolts back in the 60's.I was very careful not to twist off the bolts in the trunk area as the nuts are welded inside the frame.

This rotor was built 20 years ago from Casco plans and used by several friends.I spent a day getting it set up and mounting the body on it.It has 8 body mounting points and all the threads on the bolts had to be re-threaded because of old paint.It's very movable on concrete but a bear on the drive and that's where it has to go to be blasted.

The body is hanging ready for the rotor.Because of the location of the lifting points the doors are left on but must remain closed untill mounted on the rotor

The last time I had a body on this rotor I had to use a chain hoist to rotate it.I changed the balance point and now can rotate it by hand.

After turning the body over I now understand why the under coating is so thick.Besides the duct tape there are numerious patch panels pop riveted to cover the rust.In order to get a good blasting job not only all the under coating but the patch panels will have to be removed first.

This was the degree of undercoating on the bottom of the body.I tried paint remover,oven cleaner and diesel fuel and they all made a gooey mess taking 3 or 4 applications.I sharpen the end of an old bucher knife and scraped and picked and at the really tough areas used a propane torch.This seemed like the best solution but I spent 16 hrs.on the body.

After the scraping I pulled the body outside and presure washed it to remove any loose material.I think the body is now ready for the blaster.

The blaster came today and is setting up his equiptment to begin.He tells me he does 12-14 cars every month plus industrial equipment and buildings.He has a compressor to supply clean air to his helmet.

Instead of soda blast we're using star blast on the body because of the residue issue.It does remove rust and if done properly will not warp the metal.On the body floor and bottom and also the car frame we used sand.It took 5-1/2 hours non-stop to blast the car.

This product was sprayed after blasting to protect the metal from rusting.Two part primer will be used after all body work is completed.This is what the paint supplier recomended.Learned later it may have been better to skip this product and use the two part primer instead.

Much repair had to be performed on previous body work.On some areas lead was used,other areas duct tape covered with paint.When I purchased the car in 1980 it had a frame up restoration and I never spoted all these problems until the body was stripped.After I purchased the car it had decent storage.Here is one of the many problems that was corrected.

After all body panels were installed the floor top and bottom were sprayed with Eastwood Encapsulator.

The body is back on the frame to make sure the body mounts are welded in the proper location to bolt it to the frame.At this time we'll check door,hood and trunk lid fit.We set the hard top on to see if we could improve the body to top gap.We're also skiming the body with body filler to take out any waves and kept it straight.

I finally have the body covered with two coats of primer.It took two months longer to reach this point than I planned.

The hood and trunk lid are the two straightest parts of the car.The body has a few imperfections but for the most part I'm pretty happy.If the weather gets back to more normal soon I'll fix one small problem with body filler and use 2 part glazing putty on any pin holes, lightly sand with 80 grit and apply one more coat of red 2 part primer.