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Old Electrical System
Most of the old wiring
is incomplete and really unusable. I tried to be careful when
removing it, but after a while it was clear that I would have
to replace it all. There is a complete wiring harness available
which will replace all the old wires.
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Stripped Down
All the wiring and
instrument panels have been removed from the dashboard. The car
is pretty much just metal and paint now. No wires, no rust,
no cables and no seals.
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Curious Rust Spot
In only one spot under
the hood there was a rusted area that I couldn't figure out.
The hood completely seals the compartment and the wheel well
was intact enough that water could not have entered. I had to
do some detective work to figure it out.
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The Problem
At the top of the
compartment there is a gutter that drains water that gets past
the hood seal. On the drivers side, there was a significant dent
in the gutter that allowed the water to drain into the car and
caused the rusted area. The blue line follows the path of the
water.
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Fixed up
I carefully hammered
the dent out of the gutter which should now allow the water to
drain out of the car as it was designed to. I am suspicious that
this dent may have been an original flaw in the car as there
was no evidence of impact to cause the dent.
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Primed and Ready
The front compartment
was hand sanded and epoxy primed to protect it for the rest of
time. I have to paint this area before the body is put back onto
the chassis in order to protect it properly.
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Painted
Two coats of hardened
enamel were applied over the primer and everything looks great.
I'm going to use the enamel in the places where the final paint
job really isn't too visible. Enamel is half the cost of base
coat / clear coat paint and is durable enough to do the job in
these areas.
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Underneath too.
As we've seen from
the original condition of the car, the bottom portion of
the body needs to be protected the most. All the new metal has
been primed and painted almost to excess to prevent the damage
that I've been fixing over the last year.
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Engine Compartment
Firewall
For the same reason
as the front compartment, I had to paint the rear firewall in
the engine compartment. Once things start to go back together
I simply cannot get the access to these areas that I enjoy now.
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