Dino Saga 061119 _ De Ding and Repaint

Dino Saga 061119 _ De Ding and Repaint

Been 10 years, rust is coming and clear coat is going. Swim club is closed for winter, grass only grows an inch a week, I can take it a little easier. Took a ride past Eddie Anderson’s shop and dropped in. Things were slow before the Holidays and he said he had room. Bit the bullet. Figured 2-3 weeks for re-chrome on the bumpers and about the same to cut out rust, repair, de-ding, sand down to old primer and re-paint. This is the first time I was paying the whole freight (past work was at least part insurance) so I decided to strip the car myself. Took most of a Saturday. It is a small car and I had taken each part off many times before. Bumpers, all lights, license plate, reflectors, trim strips around doors, inner door panels, upper door channels. Zip-Lock bags (tagged with where) kept all hardware sorted. Only real surprise was amount of rust inside bumpers and inside tail lights. There was no mirror surface inside rear light assemblies. Will see if I can seal better when replacing. Will clean and repair reflectors myself. Still structurally sound and lenses are fine. Bumper hardware was rusting so went out to Specialty Tool and got lots of stainless hardware. Got some stainless sheet metal screws to replace the old ones on the lights and trim. Between English and Metric hardware, you can find almost any size you want. Friendly folks, who know what they have, help you all the way. Santa Barbara is a magic spot in more ways than you can imagine. Anything is possible here.

I am only about 2 miles from Eddie’s shop so drove the car out there, carefully, with no lights, license or anything else. Felt naked but no sweat. He got his welders on the doors right away and they cut away rusty panels and tacked in new ones. Door frame was good so there was plenty to work with. New steel went in fine and we will saturate interior with conversion coat. Pics show a start on the big dings and the small rust spots here and there. When we get serious things spotted, we can worry about the large areas. Panels are generally in great shape as you have seen in the past pictures (look at the reflections). Eddie has kept them that way through a couple of very interesting mess-ups.

Am real happy with the door window seals. There has been virtually no water in the doors since they went in. Original Ferrari seals didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t hold water. The rubber lip seal keeps water out and lets windows work fine. See Dino Saga 051002 for all the details.

Getting the lights to work right was a nightmare after last full re-paint and that was another reason for stripping the car myself. Last time the grounds were intermittent because of paint build up under ground lugs. You would not believe the combinations of phantom circuits that happen when you have dual filament bulbs and no grounds. I fixed some grounds and re-routed others. All rear grounds came off lamp assemblies and went to new screws into frame. Headlight ground areas were cleaned thoroughly and all was finally good. Will check everything BEFORE replacing any light.

Holidays are coming and should have a nice new coat of Midnight Blue Metalico to celebrate. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

John
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No. Rubber is OK, no glass company wants the job. No guarantee in any direction. It is possible to put cord under front and rear rubber lip, lifting it about 1/8". Masking tape can be rolled over edge and still leave room for paint to get under edge. Painter has to be carefull but it worked fine last paint job. Side glass also stays in. Easy to mask all. Left stainless trim strip along bottom of door windows too. Would have to take windows out to remove them and felt painter would do OK. I will take pictures as they work. Let you all follow the action.

John

 

I have the flat black just above the front air inlets and it works fine with the bumpers in place. Looks funny with the bumpers off. Optical illusion I guess. Chin gets lots of gravel hits and the black is rubberized so no damage. I kicked up the rear line too so line is just above exhaust cut-outs. Line under the doors is just above the crease. Has been good and I am duplicating it exactly. Look at the last few weeks of Saga pictures and you can see what I am talking about. A yellow or white or silver (or light anything) car might want the line a little lower but that is a personal thing. The paint is a special rubberized stuff used on off road vehicles and has stood up just fine. You want the car on a lift when masking off the line. Should be a straight line when bottom of door is at eye level. Really takes two people to get it just right. Worth the effort.

John