| Author | Message | ||
     Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov Prolific User Username: soviet Post Number: 160 Registered: 2-2013 |
When I first joined this world class forum, I think it was David that first expressed horror that I had bagged a Hong Kong delivered Camargue, rightly pointing out that Hong Kong is a good place to have a car if you want it to turn into a rust bucket real fast. Fortunately, my Camargue has been a bit of an international superstar and went Crewe UK, Hong Kong, UK, Arizona, Nebraska, New York, Mount Coolon Queensland Australia leaving Hong Kong only shortly having arrived there new. When the car landed here, I noticed that the body was superstraight and the only rust was two patches about a half an inch round on the passenger side front area of the rear wheel arch and a line of light rust on the sill under the driver's side rear window. The rear windows on Camargues are fixtures, you can't wind them down unless you have that hard top white convertible that was modified in the USA. So I have had this car for over 4 years now and no other rust has appeared, but for four years the mere sight of the little bit of rust it has has felt like a nasty feral critter that hisses at me every time I see it. Today, I had had enough and I ripped the chrome strip off the lower part of the passenger side and attacked the rust which was bubbling under the paint with sandpaper and screw driver. I have done many years of work cutting rust out of cars in panel shops in Australia and there is no way I would ever let this car out of my sight leaving it at the mercy of other mechanics, panel beaters and spray painters. So I removed the rusty bits, it is holed ever so slightly in two places. I then, not having a mig welder handy to weld the new metal in at the moment, applied Deoxidine, my favourite rust converter to the rusty metal to preserve it until I buy a mig. I applied it with a cotton bud on a stick which you can buy anywhere. Knowing that rust strikes from the inside of a panel and eats its way to the outside lifting the paint, I poked the cotton bud stalk as far as possible to the inside surface of the panel. When I get the mig, I will chop out a bigger area round the rust holes, fabricate a small piece of patch panel out of good mild steel sheet, weld a thin oxy rod to the patch panel to aid getting it into the right position and mig weld it into place. Then I will deck the excess weld down with a small air driven belt sander before applying a small amount of high quality body filler, and then applying undercoat and final paint to the area. A word of warning about mig welders. They are a marvellous tool but not without problems. One is they are notorious for sending splatter in all directions so you need to cover any paint and or glass within 2 metres of where you are welding if you don't want good paint and glass damaged by very hot flying metal. Also, mig weld is many times harder than oxy weld and you have to be patient not to over heat the panel with a grinder when removing excess weld around the patch panel. Then finally you need to rust proof the inside area of the panel you have welded because rust starts its hideous dance upon any bare metal that comes in contact with the atmosphere immediately. Panel shops and I mean professional panel shops keeping their eyes fixed upon the profit margin almost never rust proof the inside of a panel where rust has been cut out the reason being the client won't find out for about a decade. Hopefully by removing the rear seats and the inside trim under the passenger side window I will be able to find some way to the back of the panel. The next thing to do is find out why it rusted there and I suspect the rubber seals on the rear side windows that hide under all the glam stainless steel flashy trim have perished. This is where things may get ugly because I doubt anybody on the planet has some new rubber seals for a 1977 Camargue rear side windows sitting preserved on the shelf ready for sale and if they do they probably want a fortune and a pair of kidneys in good condition to part with them. I did see a publication somewhere on making your own rubber seals so I may chase that up, if not it will be a sicaflex situation. Now I feel good that the Camargue's rust molecules are not going to multiply like the local kangaroos and wallabies and my investment and love of my life is safe. And now a horrid tale of woe which causes me to do all my own paint and panel work. During the first year of my legal career, I was given a job by the senior partner of a very swanky high billing law firm to gather evidence from a technical college lecturer with a view to litigation in the area of negligence, a form of tort law. What had happened is some poor chap had put his Ferrari into a panel shop for repainting. This was to be a bare metal respray, the holy grail of all paint jobs. The apprentice had been given the job of applying paint stripper to the roof of the car and had done the right thing and masked up all the windows and indeed the rest of the car was covered with masking tape and spray painter brown paper straight of the professional role. Paint stripper is nasty stuff and finds its own way in the world. Indeed, having left the roof of the car covered with a thick film of paint stripper, gravity did the work overnight and the paint stripper lifted up masking tape up and then ran all over each and ever piece of glass on the car bar the head lights etching deeply into the glass to a tune at todays value of $50,000 just to buy the replacement glass but not the labour to fit it. Imagine being that apprentice when he came bouncing in the workshop all beady eyed and bushy tailed the next morning. No doubt he got the read the riot act followed by the full metal jacket! So if you want to play the paint stripper game, just remember the stuff can't be trusted not to do serious damage while you sleep ! | ||
| Bob UK Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.120.6 |
I only use paint stripper on bits that are removed from the car. Use argon co2 mix for softer welds. Gaffer tape is good for protecting against splatter. After welding filling and painting. Spray lots of cavatity wax behind the repair. Many years ago when E types were cheaper I helped strip the paint with nitromoors to find that the car had a thin coat of filler over the whole car. And the stripper had damaged the filler. So we took the filler off to find lots of ripples and small shallow dents. If we had mechanical sanded the car then we could stop when the filler was found. The cost doubled. At first sight the car was dead straight with micro blistering. We suggested a simple rub down to remove the top layer of paint then repaint. The owner insisted on a bare metal respray which costs more money plus even more for the dents. When the owner came to pick the car up, he was gobsmacked at how well the job had come out. Rosso Red. Tip. Fluorescent light tubes are straight so the reflection of the tube on a wet panel shows up ripples and dents. (Message approved by david_gore) |
