continued from page 2, "A True Ragtop..."

I decided to begin the restoration and stripped the car of every single nut, bolt, screw, washer and any other type of fastener and all the parts they fastened. When all I had left was a body shell, I built a rotisserie that attached to the front and back of the car where the bumper brackets attach to the frame, and put the 'bird on it. It's very nice working on a restoration project when you are able to spin the body 360 degrees. I hand scraped all of the undercoating/rustproofing from the car (It's impossible to sandblast that off!)

After it was completely scraped, I then sandblasted the entire body shell. When sandblasting the unit body framework that goes up over the rear axel, large holes developed. The bottom of the car, the rockers and framework under the floors, that had been in direct contact with the mud, were solid, but the back portions that were above the mud had rusted quite badly.

I thought about welding patches in, but because some of the holes were in areas that were subject to a lot of stress, I decided against that. I was going to try to find another rust free body shell.

Hemmings...here I come!

Back to Index ......Go to Page 4, "The Florida Connection..."

Thomas G. Maruska
Duluth, Minnesota

Copyright © 1996 by Thomas Maruska