Unfortunately I wasn't able to get much done last week. Because of Thanksgiving we traveled up to my in-laws place in Indiana on Wednesday and stayed the rest of the week. Unfortunately as well these were the last warm days of the year. It is now very cold, dipping into the 40s during the day and into the 20s at night, but still at the time I didn't want to begin sand blasting the window channels and then needlessly leave them in bare metal for an entire week, especially when it was going to be raining and there would be tons of moisture in the air. Flat panels aren't as bad because any flash rusting can be easily sanded off but because the window channels are not smooth it is impossible to get into all the crevices and remove any flash rusting. I took the days I had to do the smaller things that I hadn't been able to get around to yet like removing the remainder of the interior parts that were in the way of being taped off, fixing the glove box door that hasn't ever been able to close and various other small things like that. I also scraped all of the old hardened sealer from the window channels. This was a pretty hard job and there was no way to remove 100% of it. After sand blasting I still have had to come back and scrape some more.
Here was a surprise. This is the bottom storage area where the tailgate goes when it is retracted. It was filled with dirt and rocks. It was so thick and compacted, in fact, I had to chisel it away with a screw driver. I used a vacuum cleaner to suck up all the loose dirt after and soon noticed something wedged under one of the tracks. It was covered in dirt and all I could tell was that it was round. At first I wasn't able to tell if it was part of the car or something stuck. So far in the fenders and body panels I have found two matchbox cars, two sparkplugs, an antique screwdriver and hammer and a couple other small odds and ends, so there was the possibility this could be something foreign to the mechanics of the automobile. After a little prying I saw it wanted to come loose but was stuck so I ran the screwdriver up into the drain holes that are right below the object and began pecking it loose. When it finally came loose, I found out it was a live shotgun shell. I'm lucky I didn't blow my face off, or at least give myself a heart attack had it gone off. I don't have any pictures of what it looked like at first but after cleaning it all out I put it back where it was just to show the location of what I'm talking about. It was so old and dirty, there was no way to tell what it was at the time. It looked more like a piece of round wood.
It took an entire day to tape off all of the openings to the car and cut paper to fill the gaps. I know it won't keep all the sand out but it will keep most of it out. I go through about 4-6 bags of sand during this process and without these holes covered the majority of that would be inside the car.
I finished all the door jambs, windshield channel and rear window channels and gas door opening. Next will be the quarter panels, tailgate storage area and small parts of the rear. Here are some before and after shots.
The areas that are still body colored are actually areas of seam sealer. This is a sealer used by the factory to seal body panels together and keep out dirt and moisture. This will not sandblast away, which is a good thing, however it will not change color when sand blasted. By blasting it I'm basically just cleaning it so it cane be primered back over.
With such a small compressor and small blaster this process is very time consuming and can be very frustrating. I have managed to find a pretty good rhythm that allows me to use up the reservoir of sand in about the same amount of time it takes to use up my air pressure and then go fill up the sand again in about the same amount of time it takes to have the compressor fill the tank back up. About every 4 tanks of sand requires me sifting another load of sand from the bag, through the screen door into a cardboard box.
When it was time to put the car back in the barn I asked mother come down and steer it for me again. I hooked the chain to the four wheeler and pulled it near the barn and then unhooked it and pushed it, using the momentum to carry us over the hole in the concrete. I told mother to not touch the brake until I said so so that we could make it past the holes. Because I have removed the rear portion of the tailgate cover there's now no where to push the car from behind with the four wheeler without causing body damage. She had one shot to fit it back in the stall and she made it in fine.
