I know I have another thread but I need to talk Hahahaha
I spent 30 min with my angle grinder

Hmmmmmmmm! 30 minutes eating dust, not able to get it perfect, got the whole car ahead of me and no telling how many 3M pads I will go theough. Hmmmmm!
Someone please talk me out of pulling the body, having the frame blasted and just painting it.....

Tell me my budget would go from $5000 to $10000, tell me I can't do it quick enough, tell me someone tell me!!!!! Tell me something to keep me sane right now....

 

Step away from the angle grinder and go contemplate the journey of many exotic destinations! Like under your Corvette. And all these people keep telling me to travel. Go to Spain, you've never seen the running of the bulls. And I tell them, they've never been under a Corvette, on a greasy shop or garage floor and engaged in a wild wrestling match, with a Muncie in the darkness. Then to emerge victorious, grimy and battle-worn. Did that answer your question?

 

You got me thinking now. What are removing with the 3M pads and a big ol' angle grinder? We really like the Rockwell aerospace high speed pistol-type air drills, with burly wire wheels or brushes, that are hardened steel. The RPM's of the air, along with a lighter drill, make much.faster work (and easier too) of any frame section, a-arm or what have you. The only bad part, is that they're serious air hogs and you've got to have big air.

 

Hahahaha ha! WTH but so true and that made laugh.

 

I just talked to a forum buddy and he calmed me down a bit and said the 3M pad was prob not the best way to approach this. I do have air but not big air and he recomended a more aggressive approach in drill with heavy wire wheel. I think I will give that a shot. I am not dealing with heavy rust. Here is a picture of what I am talking about.

 

Our sheet metal supply, sells different 'grades' of wire wheels and brushes. My Shop Partner taught me this, last year, by showing me how to tell between the soft steel, which is great for finishing up and it will conform to the surface details, but wears down faster. Then, there are at least a couple of grades harder,that really take down surface rust, even faster and last longer. He simply grabbed the wires with his fingers and I followed his lead. I was surprised to see how soft the wires were, on the fine wheels and brushes, compared to the stiff hard wheels or brushes. Get a variety! We've got a wire brush, that'll actually chew softer frame type steel and put devastation to aluminum!

Above all, WEAR the goggles and use heavy leather gloves! These things constantly spit wires out as you're using them! You WILL find pieces of wire embedded in your skin and clothing! In fact, I had to jump into an outdoor ATM kiosk at work, yesterday, in my business attire, because something was biting me inside my pants and I discretely reached down and found a half inch long, steel wire, embedded in my undies! Taking showers, you'll find pieces actually stuck in you! Days later even! Just hilarious sometimes, I swear.

 

I second the eye protection and leather gloves. I have seen wire in the eyes of more than one person and its not comfortable. If you are using a angle grinder you may need ear protection as well. When I cleaned mine I used a angle grinder with a stiff wheel the sound was to say the least loud.
Best of luck

 

Hi fc,
I show this picture only because it's the same area (but other side) as the one you posted.
There's no way to get from your picture to my picture with the body on.
Only you can decide how close to my picture you want to get.
You'll NEVER FORGET the amount of time you spent, or the amount of dirt and rust you've eaten.
Doing it makes sense for only SOME people.
Regards,
Alan

 

I agree with Alan. Its a lot of work, but only 1 way to make it look like new. The biggest thing is the commitment to complete the job.

 

There are many different paths on this road and they're all within the realm of owning these cars. It can be an over-the-top restoration, NCRS, Bloomington Gold car or it can be a resto-mod, hot rod, daily driver, mildly modded, in-progress, track car or any number of iterations and IMHO, it's all good.

 

Thanks guys! I had about an hour long conversation with Birdsmith last night . He talked with me about that very thing. The commitment to finish and how many start and don't finish. What I explained to him was this. The commitment for me isn't the problem. It's all about what makes sense within these perimeters. 1st budget: I plan to pull the engineto reseal, have already pulled the rear end and plan to pull tranny and possibly trailing arms all to clean, paint and replace bushings etc also scrape and paint the body I feel as if there must be a black hole here. I have a budget which has been thought out and should be fairly close based on previous work I did on another car and pricing parts for other repairs I haven't.. My budget is nowhere near what I see people post about doing a body off restoration.
2nd time frame: I figure after last night I will spend no less than a month wire wheeling the frame based on how long it took me to do that small section. If I pulled the body and blasted it, I figure that time gets cut in half. So why does it take years for a person to do this? Yet another black hole in my mind.
When I think of pulling the body I see this I have extra few hundred $$$$ on bushings, blasting and a few things like that which does sound like much. Time wise I feel like I may save time but not for sure. I know there doesn't have to be a hard set date for finishing this but I have to have a goal date to keep me true to the project. May 1st! Some may say no way! But keep this in mind. Last year (never having done anything like this) I pulled and rebuilt an engine and scraped/painted the 78 and did it in 6 months not having a clue as to what I was doing. What say you?

 

I say pull the body. Scott we all know that the thought of knowing the top of your frame is still dirty and rusty will bug you. Especially if you have spent weeks cleaning and painting just PART of our frame. Do i once and do it right!

 

It sounds like you have a more aggressive timeline than most others. I am preparing to tear down a '77 to the frame, but I will work on it as time and other obligations allow. If it takes a week, a month, or a year it doesn't matter. Yes, it is expensive to fix a Corvette from the frame up. I would guess that, since you are tearing it down that far, you would want to replace all the lines, clips, hoses, bushings, etc. before replacing the body. Not cheap, but at the same time it is very satisfying to know that everything under you is new as you drive down the road and that you did it yourself. Just do it. Simple.

 

You need to go back to "square #1".

What is the condition of your frame? body mounts?

What do you want to do with the car? NCRS award winner? weekend driver?

If the frame has only surface rust and no real rust damage AND if you are not trying to create an NCRS 'champion' nor show car like Alan_71's [which we all adore...but wouldn't have the patience to do ourselves], then forget about pulling the body.

If the underside of the car is filthy, get it steam cleaned. That will get almost all of the gunk, dirt, rocks, etc off the underbody surfaces. Then you can do a final washdown and start painting the frame/etc. All of the fiberglass areas just get cleaned well...that's it. The rest of the metal work can be masked and painted as it sits.

You will be proud of the underside of the car when you put it up on the rack; shows that use a mirror to look at the underbody will be impressed; no one else will ever see down there to know what you've done, anyway.


P.S. You DO want to clean and paint the wheelwells with semi-flat black or satin black paint.

 

This car is in unusual condition and only (truly) has surface rust. In fact, 4 of the body mounts don't have any cracks and all of them still have soft rubber. I am not building a show car but a very nice driver.
The only reason I was so beside myself last night was it took a really long time to get that small amount of surface rust off and thought how much easier it might have been with the body off of the car.
I went out after my rant (hahaha) and tried a different method and it was a ton easier.
As for the wheel wells, they are to be cleaned but not sure if I will paint or leave the way they came but there appears to be some kind of undercoat that has to be dealt with.

PS Alan does have a great car and I could have the patience just not sure about the $$$$ hahaha!

 

Impressive wordsmithing you smooth talking devil you.

 

Holy crap batman!

That looks clean enought to eat off of, I can hardly believe my eyes.

Are you afraid to drive that thing?

 

Nice huh!!!!

 

if....you actually only have surface rust and no damage, raising the body, dustless or media blasting and painting , or even just por and paint, and re-installing the body will take less than a week, start to finish. I havent done it to a corvette, but I did do it to my tow truck in alaska. If you dont take the body off the sling, you wont need a body dolly. you can leave it hanging and just drop it back down. if...you have other repairs planned, suspension, fuel lines, etc, etc, the body off the frame makes it shorter work also.
I did the wire brush (what you can) version at first, the places I couldnt get at , kept on rustin till I did it right. something most folks dont think of...
if your brakes work, take the M/C loose from the firewall , that way you dont have to bleed the brakes afterward.

the other choice.....if...its only surface rust, quit wire brushing, use marine grade rust converter, paint it and leave it alone.

 

Tell me more about this marine grade rust converter.
Thanks