Can’t always be working on the old cars. The Chevy is ready for the road as is the Studie almost so time to do some maintenance. When I had the garage built I had tongue and groove 3/4″ plywood installed on the floor over the concrete. I prefer to work on a softer wood surface. Unfortunately the plywood has started to delaminate in areas where I rolled heavy stuff, like engines, around. Time to fix those spots. I used a belt sander with course belts to grind away loose wood. I then used two part epoxy resin to re-fix the laminate.
Next I used two part epoxy body filler with short tiger hair as a filler. I’ve done some grinding here and will add epoxy to any low spots I missed and then grind flat before priming and painting in the summer when the temp is up and the Chevy can be moved to the car port.
It’s not quite spring and a few weeks from driving season so I decided to tackle a nasty dent at the front left of the Studie’s hood. It had been fixed, but water got under the body filler and rust started. I’ve started the sanding here. I’m looking for the bare metal around the damaged spots.
Turns out there was more filler than expected. The main damage is at the bottom right. I cleaned out as much of the rust as possible using sandpaper, a grinding wheel and even a dental pick.
Next I gave the rusty area a good coat of Rust Converter and let it dry. It’s supposed to turn the rust to a primer. Hopefully this will help the new tiger hair epoxy filler to stick.
A couple of other jobs left on the Studie. First is to replace the cracked and sun distorted steering wheel.
The old wheel is on the right. The colour match looks pretty good in the photo, but up close there is a slight variance which is understandable.
The second leftover job is painting up the bucket seat adjuster levers. They aren’t perfect, but a bit of paint will help.
Nice a shiny with two coats of reflex silver and two clear coats.
Next up, a bit more on the Studie work.