Yes, I do find myself sitting in the garage late at night staring at the thing. I've owned some interesting cars over the years, but this is the most time I've wasted looking at one of them.
When I purchased the car, it had a rusted through passenger-side outer rocker and rocker cover, and the drain channels on either side of the engine compartment were also rusted through in places. I purchased a replacement outer rocker panel and rocker cover from Jaymic. A friend welded in the outer rocker (did an excellent job), and also fabricated new drain channels and welded them in. Unfortunately, the heat from welding in the channels was a bit much for the thinner fender metal, so there is some warpage on the fender tops. I filled them a bit, but they aren't perfect. In the distant future, the car could probably use some new fenders... but I didn't have thousands to spend on a real restoration.
After getting the drain channels in, I fabricated some of the sheet metal bits that seal the channels to the engine compartment and sealed everything up with seam sealer. at least for now, water that ends up in the channels won't end up inside the fender, as was the case when I purchased the car.
After cutting out the passenger outer rocker, I was able to get in and protect the inner rocker with a nice coat of POR15. Hopefully that will slow down the inevitable.
With all of the rust repair done that I was able, I had the car media blasted and epoxy-primed. Body work is also new to me (I've done the mechanical stuff forever... but nothing cosmetic), so doing that was certainly a learning experience.
The paint is an inexpensive acrylic enamel. I shot it in the garage after a whole bunch of Internet research on car painting. (I actually shot some furniture with Rustoleum first for practice). My wife was outside mixing paint for me as I was painting the car. The color is called "Midnight Blue," which I thought would be a good fit for a car that was originally NachtBlau. NachtBlau is a little darker and has a little more red in it than the new color, but I think I actually like this color better. In retrospect, I wish I had taken a bit more time with bodywork. Imperfections show though more than I thought they would. On the other hand... I may be the worst critic, as everyone who sees the car is pretty impressed with it so far.
There is a big car cruise / parade on Fulton Avenue on August 4th, and I plan to have that be its official maiden voyage. I know some of you are local, so you should come on out.
-Scott
