Once out the panels reveal 40 years of dirt, oil, undercoating, and paint that needs to be stripped off so that you can start fresh. Media blasting does not work well on these soft surfaces so the only approach is to use more of our trusty Goudey's paint stripper, scrapers, brushes and just plain hard graft. It is awful work that is messy and not in the least bit self-improving.
Now that the panels are clean any damage or rot needs to be repaired with fiberglass cloth and resin taking supreme care to match the strand orientation on the original layup. This way you can be assured of seamless joins when the parts are installed and painted. In addition, the panels are littered with threaded steel plates that are riveted in. Over the years these plates have had their holes stripped many times over so all new plates were fabricated and installed. We can now be sure that all the threads are perfect and new.
With the job now done we can take solace in the fact that had we given this work to someone else the labor bill would have easily paid for a new compact car. This makes us feel good until we remember that once installed all of this fiberglass is all but invisible. Lunacy knows no bounds.
