Interior resto update

The Dan

New Member
Jul 16, 2003
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Orange County, CA
Well, I changed jobs recently and had a week off, so "Sally" and I have had a solid week to get things rolling on her rear interior resto. In the last 5 days I gotten more done than in the past 6 months. Amazing what you can get done when you have the time. Anyways, starting on Monday I gutted the entire rear half of my FB. I took the rear vents to a local chromer, the vents will be back in two weeks. (Any fastback guys needing to get theirs re-chromed I finally found a place in Santa Ana, CA that will turn them around in two weeks. I'll let you know the quality of the job once I get them back.) I bought a sandblaster and stripped the entire back half of the car, removed all the seam filler, what a job that was. Bug & Tar remover helps in removing the factory seam filler. Once stripped, I cleaned all the metal, re done all of the seams with new Seam-filler and 3M caulk seam filler. I let that bake in the nice so-cal sun for a day to harden up. Next I primed everything with a high dollar self-etching primer. This primer is from the UK and has an acid base, so it really penetraits the metal. It is $14 bucks a can though! However this is NOT a job you want to do often, so I went all out in hopes to never have to do it again. So, once primed, I gave everything a nice coat of wimbeldon white. The rear floorboards and panels look nearly as good as the exterior. Finally some reward. I took all of the metal folding seat parts and hinges to a local blasting company. I got back all the parts today minus paint, glue, etc. Total coast for blasting everything only $40. I was happy about that. I'm now a whitness that if you sandblast the metal parts that have the crinkle finish, the blasting process does NOT remove the grainy texture. It came back perfect! Once home I cleaned all the parts thoroughly and again sprayed them with the self etching primer. All that's left now is to paint all the parts, including the fiberglass portions, ( of which I'll be stripping with Eastwoods de-kote) glue on new carpet, install all the new chrome and screw it all back in. I'm hoping once finished this will bring my car into the high 90's (points that is) at its next show. I thought I'd share my progress as I know there's a few of you re-doing your FB's right now. I have learned a few things and am happy to share if you have questions. I have pics, but no way to post as I don't have an editor yet to reduce the image size. I can e mail them if your interested. Again, this has been a ton of work, but the results are better than I could have hoped. Even my wife is amazed, and I usually can't do much right in her eyes :D

Once I finish this project I'll get pic's of the finished product.

FYI: The primer I used is called UPOL Acid 8, $14 a can local paint supply, very nice results, no sanding before paint, it is very smooth, with little over spray from the can.
 
Brings back memories of restoring my '66 coupe... btw..it will take YEARS to get that sand out of all the nooks & crannys :bang:

Have you sandblasted the bottom yet? It took me two full weeks of laying on my back under the car, sitting on jackstands. That was 2 years ago and I sometimes think I'm still tasting sand. :p

I'd like to see some pics of your project sometime, when you get a chance to post them.