This weekend I went out to do some work on my car and while I had my
head under the dashboard I noticed that the paint on the firewall behind
the pedals was wrinkled as if brake fluid had gotten on it. I popped
the hood and looked around under there and found that the rear seal on
the brake master cylinder had apparently given up the ghost. Brake
fluid was everywhere. The owrst of this is that it ran down the
firewall, and pooled in the area where the bolt for the frontmost body
mount is. From there it leaked through that hole and ran down between
the frame rails and the body and back towards the rear of the car for
about 3 feet. Paint on the frame and underside of the body is peeling
off, paint on the inside of the firewall in the passenger compartment is
peeling. Its quite a good mess.
I took out the brake master, the power brake servo, the clutch master,
the carpeting inside, the pedal block and pulled the wiring harness back
into the interior. This was all just to clear the area up so I can
clean and repaint the mess. Thankfully when I restored the car 10 years
ago the entire car was primed in zinc-chromate primer which was not
affected by the brake fluid but quite a bit of blue paint is peeling off
my car.
Now that I've disassembled all that stuff, I have a couple questions
before I proceed. First off, what's the best way to neutralize the
brake fluid and clean it off the metal before I repaint the areas that
are messed up? I assume what I should to is clean all the brake fluid
off, maybe re-prime just for good measure and then repaint but, I don't
want to do that until I'm sure all the brake fluid residue is gone.
Second, any ideas on the best way to deal with the fluid that's now
trapped between the body and the frame rails? I suppose I could
loosen/remove some of the bolts that hold the body to the frame and try
to create a gap that would let me get in there and clean but, that seems
iffy. I'm afraid that in doing that I'll end up throwing things like
door gaps, fender gaps, etc all out of whack. I also can't figure how
I'd ever get the body far enough off the rails to actually repaint the
damaged areas. On the other hand, leaving brake fluid trapped between
the body and frame seems like an equally bad idea. Any tricks I can try
there?
Although not what I had planned to do with my time this winter, I do
have all winter to clean this mess up so I want to do it right but, I
also don't want to make unnecessary work for myself. Any help/tips
would be greatly appreciated.
Phil Beckman
Libertyville, IL
73 TR6
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