Ol' Rusty - FB/EK Sedan

[ardiesse]

Scott,

I was wondering, "why is an alloy bonnet bar rusty?" But it's not EK. My bad.

My two cents' worth: Examine the front face of the bonnet bar directly in front of where the braces are welded to the bar. If there are little rusty pimples, worry at them with a scriber. They may become pinholes. Pinholes are fairly easy to weld up and dress down; and then you can get the bar rechromed.

Or you can send the bar to the platers' anyway and get them to electrolytic-strip it, which will certainly reveal any rust holes. Then you repair them, and then they can re-chrome the bonnet bar.

Rob

[DaveEK]

Been a while. Small update.
Got my bonnet bar and first impressions - meh

Was not a great picture so I asked the seller what the condition of the chrome was like. "A bit of pitting" was the replay. As mine is a holey mess I figured I'd take a chance knowing I would have to get it rechromed.

So expectation was not high and it has not failed to disappoint. First - unboxing. Loose rust was sliding around inside the box like sand. Looks like it has spent a fair bit of its life upside down in the weather.

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Bolts in three nuts and the fourth sheard off and replaced with self tapper. Self tapper in the bin and a bit of drilling and brute force later.

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Time to do a bit of cleaning.

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Phase one - wire brush

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Does ok but never getting in to the nooks with this method.
So on to phase two. Sandblasting. Had to get my craft hat on to make it fit in my new supercheap cabinet.

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Does a lot better but really hard to see what you are doing and the cabinet is tiny, so I now how a Trex must have felt. Those glove are close together! Note: shirt as light hood - can't even see in without it, its like a mirror.

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I have the same cabinet. What media are you using?

[Blacky]

From my experience with chrome platers they do not like to plate stuff that has been sandblasted, it opens up the metal too much and is a bugger to plate (= expensive )

I would take it to a plater and have them strip the old chrome in their pickling tank rather than sandblast it .

[funkyscooter]

Clay - Fingers crossed on the re chrome, but as Blacky pointed out, might not be doing myself any favours attacking it with the sand baster. Had the EasyPhos in a glass lens cleaning spray bottle which was great for a fine mist with no drips at the end of each trigger pull. But the nozzels clog after a while. Windex bottle might be good for a larger area though.

Rob - Had a bit of a poke at the front, there were a couple of places where the chrome had bubbled but haven't found any holes.

Dave - Media is from SuperCheap - https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/nor ... 06800.html. Apart from the extention to the side, I re routed the vacuum outlet to the top of the cabinet in front of the light with a bit of PVC plumbing. Was finding that being right handed that the gun was throwing grit straight at the vacuum outlet. Now only getting dust out.

Blacky - Guess I should have asked what the brains trust here before going at it with the blaster (it was new and shiney and red and I had to play). Only intended on doing the back but thought a test on the front couldn't hurt!

[Errol62]

I’ve got a super cheap cabinet and use glass bead media. Works good, but not as good as out in the yard with $30 gun and a bucket of dried sand. Messy but.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[funkyscooter]

Now that the car is hanging and I have some spare time (Kitchen/Dining reno stole most of the last 3 months), started poking around the back of the car.
Not shy with the bog on the back. Was expecting it to reveal more of a horror show - just think it was some cost effective (lazy) panel beating.

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Few holes to fill here. Pretty sure it is behind the rear bumper so I'll test out my panel beating skills here as well

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Then had a bit more of a scrape around the rear quarter. Knew there was a few spots at the front.

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Now I have found the ones at the back

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Method for finding these pin holes that is working (so far). Scrape off 4 layers of primer/paint with old wood chisels. Doing this to keep dust to a minimum and prevent potential warpage from strip disk. Also the strip disk tends to smear the red paint which means constantly back tracking over 'clean' metal. Original plan was to scrape off red then mechanically strip primer filler and original blue. Then I just started scraping the lot. Time consuming, and not for the impatient, but not a bad job to do for an hour at the end of the day.
Some spots are pretty obvious, and a quick once over with the wire wheel reveals the rest as they don't come up as shiny as clean metal. Quick prod with a sharpened screw driver reveals if there is a hole.

[Blacky]

If that is all you have to deal with you must be pretty happy

[funkyscooter]

Yeah it's not too shabby Blacky

Now that the car is hanging on the rotisserie decided I should get it balanced/centred. Having issue with the car rotating down on the drivers side and added a bit of weight to the left to compensate.

Then I remembered the tank! Still had fuel in it of course. About 7 litres. That's some nasty black stuff. Pours out darker that a Coopers Extra Stout. And the smell gets into everything. A nice 19y/o vintage.

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Set it up as per Rob and Clay's advice. In the middle of the circle pressed into the firewall just above the traverse line at the front .Back is tricky as I did it with the tank in and I have left the rear springs on for now, so at the back I was in the middle of the filler hole.

Then I attempted to spin and hit my first snag.

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Had to raise both the rear and the front 50mm to clear the rear bumper mount point. Here is the rather dodgy way I have been lifting the car. Could be worse - the jacks could have been on bricks I guess.

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Success - the car spun past the mount point only to hit the top of the fin. Missed it by that much.

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Repeat process for another 10mm gained. Only problem with doing that is now the front is very close to the subframe - but it just clears so all good.

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Only issue first time rolling the car over was more fuel pissing out of a hole in the top of the tank. Wasn't prepared for that and it went everywhere. Going to to be smelling that forever.

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At that point I decided to take the tank out! Easy now that I had the car over as I could get at the 4 seized screws that were rusted in.

With the tank out I had to rebalance the car - now centred on the boot lip. Spins pretty easily. Spent the next hour rolling the car around just because I could. Actually looking forward to repairing the drivers side plenum now!

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[Brett027]

Happy news Scott: Good to have it on the spinner. Sympathise about the old fuel- it has a half-life of about a thousand years. Going on what you have already cleaned up we'll need sunglasses to stand near it soon.

[Errol62]

Great work Scott. Bit of a heart in your mouth experience mucking around with so much weight at first or was for me. I use the aid of gravity to adjust mine, turning it up the other wsy and easing off and re tightening one side at a time. All flexes slightly and allows this. Also can put it on the side and use a lever to adjust.

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[EK283]

Hi Scott,

I worked on a car in a tight spot like yours many moons ago, not sure how much room you have in your yard but I put in a small garden shed and filled it up with all bits till I needed them. Is that possible where you are ? It will certainly relieve the squeeze.

Greg

[funkyscooter]

Great work Scott. Bit of a heart in your mouth experience mucking around with so much weight at first or was for me. I use the aid of gravity to adjust mine, turning it up the other wsy and easing off and re tightening one side at a time. All flexes slightly and allows this. Also can put it on the side and use a lever to adjust.

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Having those ball park guides got it in the right area. I still worked up to them though- didn’t want to overdo it and have the car roll over on me. Gravity and friction ultimately sorted it out


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[funkyscooter]

Hi Scott,

I worked on a car in a tight spot like yours many moons ago, not sure how much room you have in your yard but I put in a small garden shed and filled it up with all bits till I needed them. Is that possible where you are ? It will certainly relieve the squeeze.

Greg

Ironically Greg, the car is in the original back yard garage which has had a bigger shed built around it. Was one of the main reasons we bought the house. Unfortunately the open plan nature of the rest of the shed makes it hard to store stuff - except for cars. But I should pull my finger out and try and tidy up a bit- it’s a bit cramped for sure


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[Blacky]

.............. and here's me whinging that I have no room in my shed - I should shut my big mouth I think

[funkyscooter]

After thinking I had found the holes in the rear quarter I had a reality check and looked inside the boot. Mastic has been liberally applied to all seams including the drain holes in the bottom so any rain filled the quarters to the bolt hole for the rear bumper.
Scraped out mastic and deadener with chisel, attempted to get as much rust out as I could with powerfile, wirebrushes etc then made a citric acid bath out of gaffer tape and builders plastic.

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Left to soak for a couple days, giving it a wire brush each morning.

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Drained the bath and flushed with water - looks pretty clean in the photo but there were still some stubborn rust/paint spots.

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Back on to the powerfile and die grinder to open up any holes as I figure the welder is going to do that if I don't. Then on to the final weapon of rust removal - stainless wire in the drill. This digs in to all the soft pockets of rust without taking too much metal. Its also as time consuming as painting a room with a 50mm brush.

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From the outside it doesn't look too bad. Might cut out the front and rear and leave the middle to help keep the shape.

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Then again, I took most of the front floor out with rust similar to this. So might end up going with the repair panels. No harm in trying to do it this way first though.