Priya's SX/4 project

[priya]

Sure thing Robert.  Hopefully it'll stop raining for a couple of weeks and I can get a little more motivated than I have been.  I want to get this car painted fairly soon.

[amc78concord]

Roger that on the rain! It's been raining here for six straight days in Central Wisconsin!

[priya]

Just when you're sure you've done all the rust repairs...not quite.  I just put the passenger door on the stand to start prepping the exterior for paint and I noticed that there were quite a few little mounds of rust where the moulding had been that divides the lower colour from the upper one and I thought "uh-oh, that's worse than I thought it was".  Sure enough I sanded away the paint and there was deep pitting along the length of the door:


After sandblasting the pits I put a scratch awl in some of the deeper ones and gave it a smack with the palm of my hand and it went partway through so I knew I couldn't just bondo over it, it had to be repaired.  I had already prepped the edges of the door for paint and I sure didn't want to cut a 4" by 3' hole and try and do all that welding without warping a pretty flat panel  it so I sandblasted the pits, took the mig and zapped the deepest ones spot by spot:


I ground down the welds and to my relief everything looked fine.  I took the 7" angle sander and started removing paint.  I got to a spot on the lower edge of the door and for some reason the paint wasn't cutting.  After sitting there for a minute or so I suddenly noticed a spot to the left that was glowing red and realized I was tilting the sander that way and that's why the paint in the centre wasn't cutting.  I stopped sanding and looked at the spot and noticed a crease about an inch long and thought "That's not good".  I took the scratch awl to it and gave it a smack and sure enough it went through like tin-foil.  So it was back to the welder and after several minutes of making short bursts I had a bumpy puddle about somewhere between the size of a quarter and a loonie.  I ground that down and it looked pretty good and then I noticed a pretty big warp in that part of the door, I guess I didn't weld slowly enough to prevent heat build up.  So then it was hammer and dolly, hammer and dolly for a fair while until I felt it was close enough that body fill should take most of the ripples out without being too thick. 

Now I've got to prep the hood for paint, unfortunately there's a number of dents in it I hadn't noticed before so hopefully I can get those close enough so that very little body fill is required as if there's too much it'll crack from the opening and closing and vibrations while driving.  Prepping the underside of the hood is going to be pretty slow going too as its all irregular surfaces so I can't use power tools and I'll have to sand it by hand.

[68AMXGOPAC]

OK, that's all fine and good, and your doing an excellent job,I would hate to admit, I certainly wouldn't be doind as good a one, and would of been discouraged by now. But what is a "loonie" , in reference to size ? LOL< sorry never heard that,.

[priya]

It's a dollar coin, somewhat larger than a quarter.

[Whuntmore]

a 'Loonie' is the nickname for the Canadian dollar coin. On the tail side, it has a loon.  So we call it the Loonie.  


Our other coins:  The penny has a maple leaf, the nickel has a beaver, the dime has the Bluenose schooner, the quarter has a Moose, the half dollar has a coat of arms, the dollar coin has the Loon and the two dollar coin has a Polar bear.

When the two dollar coin came out, it was nicknamed the 'Toonie', because of the 'loonie'

The 'head' side has Queen Elizabeth II.

[priya]

Here's a loonie and a quarter side by side:

[El Matador]

Here's a loonie and a quarter side by side:

That quarter actually looks like a UK 10 pence coin... about the right size though.

Back to the subject at hand... I admire your dedication to restoring this car.  Most people (myself included) probably would have deemed it beyond their abilities.  I also envy you for actually having the time to do all of this.  I spend more than 20 minutes in the garage, and I get yelled at for it when I go back in the house. 

[Whuntmore]

What is that?  a British Quarter??  It ain't a Can. quarter.

I feel for you there Dean... that sucks.  Not only does Priya have the time, she's got the place and the skills to do this.  Talk about having all yer ducks in a row...  I want her to adopt me... so when I get an eagle she can teach me MIG (at the level she knows it) and resto work.

[priya]

Back to the subject at hand... I admire your dedication to restoring this car.  Most people (myself included) probably would have deemed it beyond their abilities.  I also envy you for actually having the time to do all of this.  I spend more than 20 minutes in the garage, and I get yelled at for it when I go back in the house. 

I feel for you there Dean... that sucks.  Not only does Priya have the time, she's got the place and the skills to do this.  Talk about having all yer ducks in a row...  I want her to adopt me... so when I get an eagle she can teach me MIG (at the level she knows it) and resto work.

Thanks a lot guys.  I owe it all to my husband.  He works hard so I have the extreme good fortune to be a stay at home housewife.  I couldn't do a restoration like this if I had to work a regular job.

What is that?  a British Quarter??  It ain't a Can. quarter.

Yes, its a Canadian quarter, its one of the limited edition ones that had a variety of subjects on the tail.  I didn't have a regular Canadian quarter so I took one of the unusual ones my husband is collecting.

[priya]

On second thought, maybe its not a Canadian quarter LOL.  It says 10 on the tail and my husband spent some time in England.  Anyway, its the same size as a Canadian quarter.

[Whuntmore]

No worries, we're just razzing ya on that...

I can't wait till your done with this resto.  I do enjoy reading up on your work, and what you've done to 'fix' the issues.  Well Done You!

[priya]

Thanks again Whuntmore.  Its been going pretty slow this spring/summer but I guess paint prep is like that - there's a lot of tedious work that doesn't show a whole lot of change until the car gets sprayed, but I'm getting there!

[priya]

Here's the passenger door after I put body fill on and did shaping and rough sanding to 80 grit:


The door was full of creases and the waves I put in it so it took more bodyfill than I would have liked.  It would have been nice to hammer and dolly the metal more so it'd need less fill but given that most of the dents need to be hammered outward and there's very few places inside the door where you can swing a hammer that wasn't possible.  The grey areas are the high spots where the metal is showing through. The different shades of green are different layers of body fill.  I'm not sure why but I kind of enjoy the filling and shaping process even though its pretty slow going.

[IowaEagle]

You are right!  A lot of fill on that door.  I am sure it will look great when you get some primer on it.