Spring Cleaning

Well, Dad’s off to Europe. He and a few of his buddies decided the American auto scene didn’t offer enough panache, so they’ve been living it up at the Retromobile in Paris, France. Meanwhile, I’m stuck at home with a car to restore.

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In the past few days at the garage, I’ve finished grinding down the welds in the battery tray area, which is now looking good as new. When I wire up the car later, I may decide to move the battery to the trunk for a more balanced weight distribution, in which case there would be no need to actually weld a tray to the metal. Originally, the battery rested on a small platform to keep sulfuric acid off of the metal surfaces (and that worked just swell), but that was rusted through and cut out with the rest of the metal.

 

Next step is to go over every inch of the car and remove leftover glass abrasive and dust with an acid etching compound. As I clean up the car for final bodywork and paint prep, I’ll have to make some decision regarding the fake side-scoops in the rear quarter panels. My original plan had been to cut them out and weld in new metal, in keeping with the design of the 1969 Boss 302 I’m replicated, but today Dan the Muffler Man pointed out that the scoops are actually quite desirable, and removing them would diminish the value of the car. Thoughts, anyone?

(click for greater detail)

1969 Mach 1 w/ side-scoops

1969 Boss 302, sans side-scoops

One Comment

  1. Ping from Dad:

    OK–it’s time to pick up the pace, Ace!