#7 Front Sheet Metal

With the left quarter panel installed, I thought I would tackle the right quarter panel.  But the trunk floor extension on that side was too far gone to weld a patch to, and would have to be replaced.  While the owner was trying to locate a parts supplier that had a new one, I began working on the front sheet metal; the hood and both fenders.

This is a close up view of the lower front part of the right fender. 

Additionally, there was a pushed in area around a styling contour near the front.  It can be seen here, just behind the headlight bezel and above the molding with the two black stripes.  There were also a couple of small dents near the lower rear portion.

The left fender and hood had dents, but with the paint so dulled with age, they could barely be seen, much less photographed.  I started the repair to all of the front sheet metal by stripping the paint off with chemical paint stripper.  The stripper is expensive, but gets the paint off much faster than a grinding disc.

The stripper is a very thick liquid that brushes on.  As you can see here, I am doing this outside.  That is because it gives off very toxic fumes that can cause dizziness, nausea, and unconsciousness.

I am wearing gloves because if any of it comes in contact with your skin it will cause severe burning and scarring.  If you use it inside, you have to provide plenty of ventilation, like a strong fan and a place for the fumes to exit.  Another reason for using it outside is that it makes a mess.  Notice the metal pan beneath the fender. 

Even wearing gloves, doing it outside, with a pan underneath, it is still a  nasty job.  After the stripper has worked for 5-6 minutes, you scrape the paint off with a putty knife.  With so much paint on this car, it took three cycles of applying stripper and scraping it off to get down to bare metal.  It you try to let the stripper stay on too long, it will dry out and be very hard to scrape off.

Here is the right fender almost completely stripped down. 

In this view of the left fender, you can see all of the paint has been stripped off.   After stripping I brushed on a liberal coat of phosphoric acid.  Even if there is no rust, the solution bites into the metal and causes paint to stick better.  Near the front of the fender is an area discolored by the solution.  This is normal and considered a good thing.  You can also see areas that have been hit with a grinder to prep them for body filler.

And here is the same fender with the filler applied

After smoothing out the filler, the entire fender gets a double coat of epoxy primer.  After that, the rubber block goes over the entire fender a couple of times with fine grit sandpaper to get the scratches out.  One final coat of primer and this part is ready for paint.   

With the other fender given the same treatment, they were both ready for paint.  Not wanting to ding or scratch them, I hung them on the wall for safe keeping.

The hood had several large areas that were dented.  This view shows my first attempt at sanding out the body filler that has been applied.  After spending a good bit of time trying to smooth out the filler, I realized that the entire skin, was moving.  The solution was to reattach the skin to the frame of the hood.

In this view below you can see the globs of body sealer that were applied between the skin and the frame.  This stuff comes out like toothpaste, and hardens to a consistency a little harder than jello.  They make it in a version that gets hard as a rock.  But you need some elasticity there because the skin expands and contracts with heat from the sun or car engine, so there has to be a little give in the connection with the skin.

Before I applied the sealer in the space between the backside of the skin and the frame, I pushed folded up cardboard into the space so the skin would be prestressed.  This would give more resistance later when I would be trying to sand the filler on the other side.

Here is the hood as it is today.  It has been blocked out twice to remove scratches and blend the filler in so no dents show.

With the fenders hanging on the wall and the hood ready to go, I turned back to the right quarter panel.  There was a lot of rusted out areas underneath the old one when it was removed.  That trunk floor extension would turn out to be a real bugger. 

Check back for more on the right quarter panel!

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