The 14 Car Performance Therapy Project Rushforths, Baers, Yokohamas, and more

[NOT A TA]

The body & door exterior is in primer ready for final blocking. I moved on to stripping the trunk channel area and found an old rust repair the PO had done with fiberglass at the base of the rear window (never leaked) which will require removing the window to repair with metal. I'm having a glass guy who showed up at a couple jobs I've been on come by & pop it out then return for install when I'm ready. Not too expensive and I don't want to risk the piece.

Since Jeff had the body in primer and I was waiting on glass removal we pushed the car out of the way to work on other things. I moved to the gas tank. The inside of the tank is perfectly clean with not a speck of rust but like many northern cars this one had been backed into frozen snow mounds denting the tank. So the stud gun got called back into action and worked great to get the dents out. Then a skim coat of filler to smooth out the surface followed with prime & block and it'll look perfect when painted. Since I'm going to fabricate a diffuser that will allow the tank to be seen if someone peaks under there I wanted it nice.

You can see one of the dents in this old pic, others are more subtle and flat black hides them.





Cleaned enough to use the stud gun and pull the dents.



Studs ground off, high spots hammered and cleaned for filler.



Starting skim coat.



While I was messing with the tank Jeff started on the front fender we knew would need some work. I'd gotten the fenders from a bud back when I painted the car the first time 20+ years ago and one was an early fender without the core support brace provision that had some rust issues. I'd done some repairs but without a welder at the time I was limited. Fast forward to now and we decided to take the fender apart from the inner support to make repairs.

After getting started and thinking about the best thing to do I remembered a bud had a couple late 2nd gen bird fenders he didn't need and couldn't sell stored in his warehouse so I went to look for them (ya I have a key). I thought we could cut up the Formula fenders to get the metal sections needed to fix my fender. When I got there there were no regular fenders BUT there was a really nice rust free early 2nd gen left TA fender by itself and I just happened to need a left! I talked to my bud (OK,begged) and he gave me the fender. There's a little dent in it by the side marker light but we can fix that right up in a lot less time than doing metal work on my old fender.

[NOT A TA]

After getting the tank in primer we got to work on the front fenders. I sandblasted the insides of them and Jeff stripped the outsides with sanders and did some hammer & dolly work before skim coating a couple spots. After a little post blasting prep work on the insides they were ready to get the insides in primer. It was sooo nice to work with rust free fenders!

[NOT A TA]

With no rust repair work needed on either fender bodywork on the outside of the fenders is now roughed in and they're in primer. We'll wait to do finish bodywork till the car is partially reassembled so we can check door/fender gaps etc. and do final blocking.





I decided to smooth the subframe so all seams and joints are now fully welded and I'm in the process of grinding all the welds.

[NOT A TA]

I have 2 front valance panels. This one is going to remain stock and be a backup in case the modified one doesn't work out the way I want. It had some rust hidden under old bodywork so I welded in some patch panels and then sandblasted it along with some other parts. Next they all got some prep work & primer.

[NOT A TA]

Door bottoms of most cars built when this one was usually don't hold up well as many of you know. I can't tell you how many cars I've seen with fully rusted out bottoms and they're a pain to replace the metal in because of the curves & folds. Luckily, although mine had some rust they were repairable without having to replace metal. The passenger side door is usually worse than the drivers and mine's no exception so I'm using that to show how to do a door that's got some rust but is still structurally sound without welding all new metal in.

In this case there's no visible rust in the interior of the door, if there was, new metal would have been installed. When I painted the car 20+ years ago the outside rust was there and I cleaned it with wire brushes/wheels, etc. and put rust converter on it before paint. Granted the car has rarely gotten wet since the first time but the rust had not popped through the paint or progressed. This time it's getting a better repair because I have a blaster.

Sandblast edge of door & get the rusty parts really good. Blow out all send & debris and then coat all the rusty areas with panel bond, let sit 24 hours. Because this isn't a place where the panel bond would get hot from exhaust or rapidly change temperature by heat from the sun it makes a great filler to seal the pits and stop new rust from forming after blasting. Inside will be sealed later.



Sand down panel bond till it's just filling the rust pits and open up the drain slots, and gasket holes. Then skim coat with regular filler, sand, and prep for primer.

[protour73]

Awesome work as always John!!

Keep going man, Loooooong time no talk!!

[NOT A TA]

I've been cleaning the underside to clean shiny metal a section at a time and shooting it with epoxy primer. With a little luck I'll finish cleaning the middle floor section and have it in primer over the weekend.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

looking good john!!

[WSSix]

x2 you're going serious with it this time. Keep up the great work!

[Ron Sutton]

Nice progress John. Keep up the great work !