71 429cj convertible restoration

[Pastel Blue]

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[DK73]

Wow that is so awesome Welcome from Denmark [WINKING FACE] Regards DK73

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[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

The tear down continues... have completed the removal of the interior... This is why I bought an Arizona car... I have always had cars with sometimes, very serious rust issues, this car has some minor concerns, but the real enemy for this car is the Arizona (Tucson) dirt, desert dust and overly dry and hot weather. This weather, although not rust prone, is still hard on a car that has never been apart after all these years. Oh, and those darn air shocks have added to the initial trunk and underbody strength issues in the rear...

I am reaching a point soon where I will be done with tear down, not bad, completed it in about 5-6 weeks. Next step off to the shop for sandblasting, body and paint. Then I will start working on the rebuild, going over each and every piece... At least the work will become cleaner as time progresses. To assist me, I have purchased a Bend Pak scissor lift (arriving in the next week) to help me with the rebuild, getting to old to be crawling around under cars all of the time... These things are great for routine car maintenance also.

If possible moving forward , I will update the progress under this post as I know that is where the admins. would want me to be, moving forward. Cheers.


Oh and here is her "little" brother tucked away (actually parked beside...) yesterday for the winter...

The tear down continues... have completed the removal of the interior... This is why I bought an Arizona car... I have always had cars with sometimes, very serious rust issues, this car has some minor concerns, but the real enemy for this car is the Arizona (Tucson) dirt, desert dust and overly dry and hot weather. This weather, although not rust prone, is still hard on a car after that has never been apart all these years. Oh, and those darn air shocks have added to the initial trunk and underbody strength issues in the rear...

I am reaching a point soon where I will be done with tear down, not bad, completed it in about 5-6 weeks. Next step off to the shop for sandblasting, body and paint. Then I will start working on the rebuild, going over each and every piece... At least the work will become cleaner as time progresses. To assist me, I have purchased a Bend Pak scissor lift (arriving in the next week) to help me with the rebuild, getting to old to be crawling around under cars all of the time... These things are great for routine car maintenance also.

If possible moving forward , I will update the progress under this post as I know that is where the admins. would want me to be, moving forward. Cheers.

I would offer a word of caution on sandblasting the exterior sheet metal. It will warp and distort the metal Soda blasting is better for exterior panels. Some paint companies will not warrant their paint applied to blasted surfaces. Check with your paint shop or paint supplier. One of these rare ponies needs special attention.

I have heard people that blast them say it is up to the operator and how you do it to prevent warping. I would suggest that you take a flat scrap piece of metal and let them blast it and see what happens. It will curl up. You can strip the paint on exterior in a short time with liquid stripper and only blast areas that have rust.

If you dip strip you have to be sure to get some protection on the metal inside and out or it will rust since the metal is completely clean. Even if you live in a dry area washing the car gets water in all the wrong places so treat it seal it and stop the rust.

I knew someone that found a really rare 64 1/2 Mustang Fastback one of the hens teeth. He took it and a guy sand blasted it and ruined it. The roof and quarter panels looked like an ocean with waves. Weeks of hammering and trying to even out the stress did not work. Even with it being a beige color it looked bad.

Just my experience.

 

[Pastel Blue]

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[Pastel Blue]

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[Pastel Blue]

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[sdstang]

Down to the paint removal and then ready for shipping off to the shop for rotisserie work: remaining suspension removal, sandblasting (where applicable), repair trunk area (due to air shock long term damage in trunk pan area), new NOS front battery apron install due to leaking battery fluid... may require a new rear tail panel, will discuss with shop after sandblasting.

This paint removal is a p.i.a... even with aircraft stripper the work is slow, This paint has been on the car for eons... will take many coats to remove, but will get there. Looking forward to seeing the car after sandblasting to see where we are at... Cheers.

Make sure you cover the stripper with garbage bags after you apply. Will work much better. Scare it up really good prior too. Took me a week to do mine.

 

[bkdunha]

Given the originality of your car and the part stampings you have located it would be VERY appreciated by myself and I am sure many others to get pictures and descriptions of original markings, stamps, stickers that you are able to identify on the car. It would help others with a similiarly equiped car move their project a little farther along. Thank you

 

[Pastel Blue]

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[sdstang]

covering up with plastic bags is a must. Otherwise you have to use so much more stripper and many more applications.

 

[TommyK]

covering up with plastic bags is a must. Otherwise you have to use so much more stripper and many more applications.

Also when you brush it on, brush it in one direction only. Don't go back and forth or swirl it around.

 

[bkdunha]

The underside of the car should be slop gray overall. After that the car would have received its top color coat which would have overspray on top of the slop gray. I THINK they received sound deadener on the bottom after the top coat was applied. Again on am not sure on that. I would propose at least scraping a section of the sound deadener off to see what colr is under that. I have not heard of an example of a 71-73 receiving top color on the underside of the pans.

I understand your need to be timely on moving things along. Just curious what original markings and labels your timeline permits gathering.

The label you reference on the axle tube is the axle assembly number. DeadNuts On reproduced one for me with my identified numbers.

 

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[mweeps]

Good luck getting this car back on the road to enjoy!

 

[Pastel Blue]

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[bkdunha]

Any progress is good progress. Looks good. Now time to turn to cleaning, detailing and acquiring parts for installation.

 

[Boss1Ray]

:goodpost:

Thanks for all the posts! I am too looking forward to seeing this car back on the road in pristine condition!

Ray

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I bet you are addicted to the smell of stripper.

A little note about the dip strip. When you do that be sure and take the parts to someone that can spray some rust preventative coating inside the inner and outer panels. If you do a search on the net you might find some bad comments about the dip strip process. It does take all paint, rust, sealer and everything off. With the raw steel inside the areas with the reinforcement covering it the rust will never stop on the inside. It has been known to rust through completely on a high end restoration. There use to be pictures of a guy sticking his finger through the roof of a Plymouth Superbird on the net. The car looked perfect just ate through from the inside out where a reinforcement covered the metal.

There are also dabs of a sealer/glue in between the inner and outer panels to help stabilize the parts this will get eaten out by the strip tank and pretty much impossible to replace since the two panels are touching or very close to touching.

Even if you have it e-coated in a tank, unless they leave it in a long time and agitate the bath, it will not coat inside because of the way the current in the tank pulls the paint. The e-coat tank is mostly water with the paint suspended in it. They are not actually dipping the parts in a tank of paint.

I have a vert that the entire car was dip stripped and they spent many hours getting everything coated to prevent the rust. The dip stripper will probably dip the parts in a phosphate rinse that will give some short term protection and promote paint adhesion.

I would look for someone like Zebart to coat the parts inside after paint. That way you can wipe down areas that you can see after they spray them.

There is good and bad to the strip tank I wish they had not dipped the vert I have. I paid him $11,000 less for the car than he had in it partly due to the dip stripping. The car is still in epoxy primer while I gather the last few parts I need to get started on the restore.

Just food for thought do some research on the net.

David

 

[Pastel Blue]

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