So Tired Of All The Dirt!

Jonathan spent this last week wire brushing and scrubbing the front fender clips and the area where the rear bumper mounts. He used wire brushes, the drill with the wire wheel and the angle grinder to remove the dirt.

Here is a picture of the driver side of the dirty rear bumper mounting area before Jonathan worked on it this week.

Here is a picture of the passenger side of the dirty rear bumper mounting area before Jonathan worked on it this week.

Here are two pictures of the dirty front fender clip before Jonathan worked on it this week.

These two pictures are reference shots Jonathan took to show where the seam sealer was applied to the cowl area of the passenger side front fender clip.

This is the driver side of the rear bumper mounting area after Jonathan scrubbed on it with a wire brush, the drill with a wire wheel and the angle grinder. Holy Hard Work, Batman!

This picture shows the center of the rear bumper mounting area after Jonathan scrubbed it...

and this picture shows the passenger side.

This is the area behind the passenger side fender (aka front fender clip) after Jonathan scrubbed on it with a wire brush, the drill with a wire wheel and the angle grinder.

This is the cowl area of the front fender clip after Jonathan removed the seam sealer.

This is a picture of the front fender clip after Jonathan scrubbed on it with a wire brush, the drill with a wire wheel and the angle grinder.

This morning Jonathan started bright and early wire brushing a few spots he had missed earlier this week. 

He also used the drill with the wire wheel on these spots.

Next Jonathan vacuumed off the dirt from the rear bumper mounting lip. We are not painting this area yet. Jonathan wanted to vacuum this before he used the air compressor on the underbody so he would not send dirt flying all over the garage.

We swept the garage for the same reason. It was filthy and disgusting from all the scrubbing and wire brushing this week.

Then Jonathan used the air compressor to blow off the dirt from the front fender clips and the rear underbody. 

When Jonathan hit some areas of the frame with the air compressor it sent dirt flying everywhere. Jonathan used the vacuum to suck up the buckets of dirt that were inside the frame. There were chunks of dirt falling out of the underbody. This is by far the most disgusting part of this restoration project so far. Jonathan said he bets the car is five pounds lighter now that all that dirt is out of the frame.

I swept the garage out again, and while Jonathan had the air compressor out I encouraged him to blow off the rear bumper. The rear bumper was absolutely caked with dirt. It was completely disgusting.

I only got two piles in this picture, but there are actually three piles of dirt on the driveway from the rear bumper. Blowing it off with the air compressor helped, but the rear bumper is still filthy and will have to be scrubbed good to get the remaining dirt off. Jonathan plans to pop the rivets off the safety bumper before we clean and paint it.

A man and his bumper.

After all that fun, we still had to clean and prep the front fender clips and the rear underbody. Jonathan laid two tarps down underneath the rear underbody.

I put a tarp underneath each wheel well. This is the driver side.

I scrubbed the front fender clips with MarineClean.

After I sprayed the MarineClean off with hot water, I applied Prep and Ready to the front fender clips. I applied it with a rag to make sure I did not get any inside the finished engine bay or wheel well. This is a picture of the driver side during the thirty minute Prep and Ready soak.

This is a picture of the passenger side fender clip soaking with Prep and Ready.

While I worked on the front fender clips, Jonathan worked on the rear underbody. He scrubbed it with MarineClean two times and then rinsed the area with hot water. Then he sprayed on the Prep and Ready and kept it wet for thirty minutes.

After the front fender clips soaked with Prep and Ready for thirty minutes we rinsed them off with warm water.

Cleaned and prepped driver side front fender clip.

Cleaned and prepped passenger side front fender clip.

After the rear underbody had finished its thirty minute soak with Prep and Ready Jonathan rinsed the area with warm water.

The rear underbody is now cleaned and prepped and ready to be painted with POR-15.

After these areas finished dripping we pulled the tarps outside and shook them off. Tiny snowflakes were starting to fall just as we were finishing. We bought a second infrared heater for the garage to keep it warm this winter. We are able to keep the garage at a steady 60 degrees with both heaters. I was sincerely hoping we would be finished with the underbody by Halloween, but obviously we missed that mark. I was hoping we would be completely finished with the POR-15 process by Thanksgiving, but we have quite a few parts left to paint including the rear end and the fenders. We will try our best and see what happens. I am really tired of this part of the restoration project and am really looking forward to moving on to the next step. At least the underbody will be finished soon and the garage should not be so dirty! I am so tired of all the dirt!