toolman

Removing undercoating is usually one of most labor intense jobs when restoring a vehicle. So when I heard about using dry ice to remove undercoating, I decided to try it. Dry Ice is usually found at industrial welding stores. The price runs from $2.00 to $3.00 per pound. When using dry ice, gloves and safety glasses worn to prevent frostbite. First, I tried using dry ice right from the package and just laid the block on the undercoating. The undercoating got to 15 degrees but didn't really remove large chunks of undercoating. So I tried the next method- put the dry ice in a 5 gallon plastic bucket and smash it till it resembles snow. Then I poured alcohol-92% (bought from CVS) into the bucket and mixed it till it was mud like. I checked the temperature and it was minus 15 degrees. I packed the mixture on to the undercoating( packing snow). After couple of minutes, undercoating made a cracking sound. The undercoating was so frozen, it cracked. Now all you have to do is to hit the undercoating with a hammer. The undercoating came off in small to large chucks. Inspecting the area shoes that there was hardly any undercoating remaining( came off very cleanly). I worked a small area 12" x12" at a time to get the most of the dry ice-kept moving the ice around slowly. I used about 15 pounds of dry ice and two bottle of alcohol to do the interior floor of the car. Haven't tried this procedure on the undercoating on the bottom of the car yet. Building the rotisserie now. Sunny [sharedmedia=videos:videos:297]

Overall the body is not too bad and repairable. On the right side rocker panel might have be replaced on further inspection. I might even cut the firewall and move it back 4" to 5" for better weight distribution. Also might install square tubing into the frame rails and extend the rails to the rear cross member. Checking out Hoke and other mount guys. I wanted to try out a new method of repairing my cracked dashboard but it was too far gone, Anybody make replacements? Sunny

hatch hinge-no rust right lower hatch rust but repairable left lower hatch-rust but repairable right side floor board and sub frame-rust but repairable hatch hinges-no rust right lower inner ender-rust but repairable right side seat-repairable but might repace

More pics Made part shelve to store the parts during the build as I have only a two car garage. The shelve is made of 3/4" plywood 48" X 43" supported by 2" X 4" boards anchor bolted to cement wall. Top shelve will hold hood, fenders, doors, hatch, and etc. Below the shelve the front and rear suspension parts will go.

window cowling-no rust left lower door post-rust but repairable engine compartment right side lower inner front fender-rust but repairable cowling panel-no rust left lower hatch panel-rust but repairable

Starting to strip down the car to check how the corrosion is. Sunny