At 07:53 PM 1/15/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Is it possible to rustproof a bricklin without doing a full restoration?
>I want to at least neutralize the rust on 1758 so it won't do any more
>damage while I get things in order financially....
Riley, et al.
It IS possible as Greg said to have the inside of the chassis rails
coated. This is a MUST.
To go a little further, I would suggest that you look at jacking up your
car and putting it on heavy duty jack stands, and pull all 4 wheels and if
you are a real glutton, look at disconnecting the muffler from the hangers
and letting it hang down, pulling the front and rear bumpers. If you see
any rusty metal, which I suspect you will, I'd try to clean it down with a
4" grinder and a Knotted wire brush. (If you do, be sure to go buy a face
shield - about $10, and a resperator mask - about $30, and a set of Micky
Mouse ears hearing protectors - also about $10-$15.) Now wire brush as much
of the metal as you can, the front and rear cross braces, the front fender
wells, the reinforcement plates on the front of the floor boards and the
rear of the seat area.
If you want, you can wipe on some metal prep to try and help kill the
remaining rust. When you are done, paint it with something, anything.
If you want to spare the expense use something like Rust-O-leum or DeRusto.
If you want to go the extra expense use something like POR-15.
I also suggest that you pull the interior covers off the bottom of the
A and B pillars. The A pillars are the body members at the front of the
Door, and the B pillars are at the rear of the door opening. Behind the
front covers you will notice 2 squarish holes about 2x2". The rear most
one houses the body bolt the front one houses the rear fender mounting
bolt. Spray both bolt with WD-40 or someother penatrating lub. Then
try to loosen the bolts. Then retighten them. Becareful, don't apply
too much pressure as you don't want to break the bolts or you're in for
a lot of work. Do the same thing for the rear bolts in the lower large
round hole behind the B pillar cover plate.
Next you might want to take some paint and an old brush and get as much paint
into these areas as is possible. However, be careful and cover your carpet,
etc. with plastic so you don't mess it up. After the paint dries, you might
want to spray in some 3M sealer - I can't find the part # right now. I'll
have to get it to you later. It comes is a spray can - like trim adheasive,
goes on very wet and drys to a rubbery texture to fill holes and seams. I'd
spray this into the holes at the A and B pillars to try and seal the seams
where they meet the sill plate. If you have seen the pictures of my sill
plates, you'd understand. The front seems to be more vanuneralbe then
the rear based on the amount of rust I found.
The next place I'd work on is the transmission cross brace. There was
nothing left on the one on my car. Rusted completely away. The problem
here is the exhaust pipes run right through it. If you want to drop the
cross brace to clean it up, you will have to cut you exhaust pipes off,
both in front of and behind the xcross brace. Now you can undo the 3 bolts
on each side and the transmission mounting bolt to remove the brace.
Put a jack under the transmission to hold it up before you pull the
cross brace. Clean with wire brush and paint. If you see a lot of pin
holes in the metal, you might want to take it to a local metal shop and
have them make you a new one. Shouldn't be very expensive. The only
part that was salvagable on my old cross brace was the actual lip that the
xmission sits on. The metal shop can cut the old one off and transplant
it to the new cross brace. Paint the new one before installing it.
Next, if you have to pull the engine for any reason, use this opertunity to
wirebrush down the engine compartment. Do NOT touch the firewall with the
wire brush. It is fiberglass, and you will eat right through it. Clean
the fender wells, the chassis rails and the saddle under the engine. Then
paint.
You might want to pull the windshield wiper motor and the screen over the
plenum. Then clean out as much of that junk in there as is possible.
Ensure that the drain holes are clean - us a piece of wire to poke into
the drip tubes. Once this is as clean as you can get it, again paint with
anything.
You should also remove the lower inside door panel. Inspect the bottom
of the door. These have a tendency to rust badly. Clean out any trash,
try to scrap off any rust, and paint. If rust is too bad, you will have
to have patch panels fabricated. Then paint.
If you haven't noticed yet, I'm fanatical about bare metal. There shouldn't
be any. Bere metal rusts. So paint, paint, paint!!!!
While this sounds like a lot of work, you can easily do this over several
weekends and still use the car during the week. You might have to down
the car for a few days if you pull the engine and or remove the xmission
cross and have to have a new one made. But on a hole, all this cleaning
and painting can be broken down into sections and done on the weekend.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
71 Saab Sonett III 75 Bricklin SV1 77 Spitfire
www.team.net/www/morgan bricklin.shel.olsy-na.com/bi
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