Rusty Surprise!!

Well...the last couple of days have continued to be nice as can be...so I've spent time out on the Cruiser.  Mostly I've been working on stripping paint.  I have managed to get the rear upper sides stripped and one side completely wire brushed to a metal finish.  I also managed to get the hood in the same shape...stripped, wire brushed and sanded...at least the outside.  I've been pretty surprised at how clean it is with only a bit of surface rust on the inside where something splattered on the paint...batter acid maybe?  But for the most part its been pretty clean.  Well my main goal for today was to get the roll cage completely out.  It has been loose for some time...but the mounting brackets in the front wouldn't allow it to be lifted out.  So I finally got the bolts out of the mounts and lubed up...and a few swings of the sledge hammer later...its out!  I didn't find anything that I wasn't expecting.  RUST!  It wasn't too bad under the roll cage, but its a bit more than just surface rust.  The other bad spot was just above the rear sill...along the side channel.  I got the filler out of it and wow...what a hole.  I have a feeling it will be a tough fix, but we'll see.  I already know I'll be cutting some of that area out anyways, so what is a bit more right?  Anyways, I'm sure I'll continue the paint removal process through the next few days...time consuming but so far I've been pleased with the outcome...

Strippin' Paint!

Can you believe it was 70+ degrees today?  So I spent most of it out stripping paint on the Cruiser.  I have managed to get most of the back end stripped of paint...lots of little nooks and crannies to get into.  Mostly that is left with the back end is just to run the wire wheel over it to get the remainder of the primer off.  One thing I was worried about was how the glass was going to come out.  It actually turned out to be a pretty easy process.  The cord in the rubber took a bit of time to come out...it was rotten and cracked about every half inch...so it was slow.  The final step was just cutting the rubber holding the glass in out which took two seconds.  A bump of the glass and out it came...piece of cake!  The glass is in good shape so all I'll have to do is just re-use it when the paint job is done...of course that won't be for awhile.  I also finished getting all the hardware off the hood.  I was having a bit of trouble getting the windshield washer nozzles out...and the hood latch hooks off.  The nozzles turned out to be a simple task once I figured them out.  The hood latches were a different story.  Every one of the screws were stripped and there was no way to get the vice grips on them.  I finally resorted to getting the dremel tool out and cutting the heads off the screws.  I wasn't worried about damaging them since they will be replaced with a new set of stainless steel latch hooks in the future.  I also managed to get most of the paint off the hood...but ran out of daylight to work on it.  I think I'll get that finished up tomorrow. 

My next area that I'll be working on is the body mount bolts.  They are a bit rusted into place and I have them soaking in penetrating fluid.  At first I thought I was going to have to cut them out since I didn't know exactly how they worked...but after getting one out it seems as simple as getting the socket wrench on it and breaking them loose.  Easier said than done...but hopefully after soaking for a few days the come out without breaking.  Once those are out...I'll be ready to take the body off the frame...