Bat #4355016

[E911]

Ron- how are you removing the paint and filler?

Thanks- Richard

 

[RonP]

the interior and exterior work done by soda blaster. So hood doors and trunk with aircraft stripper.

 

[E911]

Thanks Ron

 

[aearch]

beautiful

what a great car absolutely beautiful
your a lucky man
i just love the striping cant wait to see in it in monterey

 

[TodB]

Frankly, its the next steps that are crucial and what separate a good resto from a concours resto. This is also where the budget can get blown especially on E9s.

At this point, the quality of the future work will be dependent upon:

1. What is found under the dirt, paint, rust proofing, etc. This also exposes any previous short cuts taken.
2. What the restorer actually tells the owner he finds
3. The commitment by the owner to stay the quality course, i.e commit even more $
4. The commitment by the restorer to stay the course and not give in on quality due to budget strain, i.e. will the work be done correctly or will corners be cut? After all, the end result will be a direct reflection on the restorer's reputation
5. The owner's spouse not finding out about the budget or revised budget(s). I say this tongue in cheek, but its true.

At this stage, quality will be based upon the expertise of the team doing the body and metal work including the necessary welding and fabrication. I am certainly not an expert on metal fabrication or repair but I do know that it takes a skilled craftsman and a bunch of time to weld well. You cannot rush. Unfortunately, bondo and paint are frequently used to cover up crappy work or to help make up for lost time or budget. Many of us have seen the hack jobs firsthand with some coming from VERY reputable shops.

Its great to see a project like this chronicled with pics along the way. Ron, I look forward to seeing the next set of pictures showing the metal fab and repair.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Ron, very smart to do the doors, trunk, hood with stripper. They can be done by a good blaster but I ended up with some fairly warped metal and needed more filler than I would have liked to get the surfaces flat on my blue coupe. The inside of those pieces can be allot tougher than the outside flat areas so you may want to consider some kind of combination if the stripping gets too messy. Just a thought. Also, from what I can see there is some pretty bad rot in some places but those areas are fairly standard so the pieces should be available and the areas where previous work was done may need to be re-addressed since it looks like you are going full bore on this thing. Good luck and keep on posting those pics, they are really helpful.
Thanks-

 

[E911]

Peter, the panels Ron chose to strip are aluminum on this car so all the more susceptible to warping.

-Richard

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Ahh! The plot thickens!

 

[RonP]

Happy Friday everyone! Thank you all for the positive sentiment. Well, as Tod pointed out, this is a pivotal time in the restoration process. As you will see, there is rust in some of the usual spots, but not in others? Strange, but true. I had anticipated the rockers needing to be replaced, so NOS units were sent with the car. As you can see, the RF lower fender is toast. Luckily I had ordered (VOR) 2 NOS front fenders for the CSL Group 2 Race Car that we will be restoring next-I will start another thread on that one. The fenders are on the way from Der Fatherland and I will order yet another replacement for the race car. The two rear fenders will also need some work as someone did a hammer and dolly job on the wheel wells, most likely for some wombat wheels for the "Miami Vice" look back in the 80s. What sucks is the RR fender is still available, but the left is NLA. Oh, the wonders. We will cut up another car for the sacrificial lamb.
Pics:

 

[sfdon]

Bitte- wir sagen DAS vaterland!

 

[RonP]

Bitte- wir sagen DAS vaterland!

Don, hopefully it will stay here!

 

[Markos]

Ron, very smart to do the doors, trunk, hood with stripper. They can be done by a good blaster but I ended up with some fairly warped metal and needed more filler than I would have liked to get the surfaces flat on my blue coupe. The inside of those pieces can be allot tougher than the outside flat areas so you may want to consider some kind of combination if the stripping gets too messy. Just a thought. Also, from what I can see there is some pretty bad rot in some places but those areas are fairly standard so the pieces should be available and the areas where previous work was done may need to be re-addressed since it looks like you are going full bore on this thing. Good luck and keep on posting those pics, they are really helpful.
Thanks-

Peter,

can you elaborate? Does the soda blasting cause warping?

 

[rsporsche]

i would be very afraid of blasting a CSL as some of the surfaces are thinner than they are on a standard coupe ... or at least that's my understanding ... especially the roof.

 

[OCCoupe]

I had my coupe blasted prior to paint. There are pros and cons to the process. One of the cons is that the media goes EVERYWHERE and gets in to every nook and cranny. Hours need to be spent vacuuming and dusting out all of the media. The last thing you want is to have the painter stir up some of the hidden media only to have it land on your nice sticky paint.

Another con is that media blasting uses a lot of force and can stress the surface of the metal. In the case of my coupe this caused the trunk, hood, and roof to loose the shape/memory. We had to heat and cool the metal until the hood, trunk, and roof tightened back up and took shape again. it added to the already long list of work that needed to be done and took hours to do properly.

The pros are that you end up with a clean ready to treat/prime surface that is void if rust. This surface needs to be prepped right away before rust starts to develop as the metal is now virgin and vulnerable.

Another pro, and this is also very important, is that media blasting doesn't require the use of a chemical stripping agent. Chemical stripping is a very good approach but, and this is a big but, you need to be absolutely sure that all the chemical stripper has been removed and neutralized so that you don't have a reaction to the primer or any other chemical used to prep the car for paint. I have seen some paint jobs that ended up with defects from residual stripping agents left on the surface prior to prep and priming.

 

[RonP]

Some updated photos of the painted shell. I had the speaker holes in the rear closed.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ronperry/library/Bat 4355016?sort=3&page=1

 

[EJ333]

Ron,
Were the floor pan plugs welded shut or epoxied ? Thanks

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Absolutely beautiful! I hope she's ready for the 2016 Monterey gathering-

 

[RonP]

The floor pans were left alone. No rust there!

 

[BuzzBomb]

Meanwhile, back in the bat cave, the reassembly begins.

 

[BuzzBomb]

Ok no more spoilers from me before Monterey. Except this one.