Hello all. I'm faced with a difficult decision and I'd like some opinions
before making it. I am comitted to keeping and enjoying my Spitfire for
many years to come. Hopefully, the next fifteen or twenty, at least. If
you've seen pictures of my car on my website, you're probably thinking how
clean it looks. Well, in photos and from ten feet away, it's VERY clean.
I've been concentrating most of my efforts on the interior lately and I'm
very pleased with the results thus far. Unfortunately, my pride of
ownership is somewhat marred by rust bubbles emerging from the paint in
almost every outside panel except the top of the hood bonnet, doors and
sills. I don't ever plan on having my car entered in any concourse
competitions -- I'm content to just turn heads on the street. :-) My first
inclination was to simply whack away at the rust where I can find it, cut it
out where I have to and patch over the problems with fiberglass or some
other filler, then get a good re-spray after removing all the rubber, lights
and trim from the body.
My concern is that rust might then just reappear on different parts of those
panels in a few years -- and I'd really be upset if that happened. This car
will always be garaged and never driven in the rain. I live in in a
semi-arrid region with very little humidity.
While I would be willing to replace all infected body panels with new
replacements, I'm wondering if I'm not going overboard, here. I can
envision spending a good $5,000 getting the body back to perfect condition
with all the cutting and welding that would be required. While I might be
willing to do this, it would be silly to spend that kind of bread on this
car IF I can be reasonably assured that new rust spots won't bubble up in
the forseeable future. What would YOU do? My inclination is to lean
towards the full restoral since I'm planning to keep this Spitfire for a
number of years. But people that I run into on the street think I'm nuts,
since to them, the car looks so good to them as it is. The worst spots are
in the lower portion of the rear valance -- not easily seen. I'm also
concerned about the sills. They outwardly look great -- the PO worked for
GM and fashioned replacements out of galvanized sheet metal -- but he
riveted them on OVER the old rotting sills. I'm not concerned about rust
coming through the galvanized sheetmetal because I think he treated that,
too -- but I AM concerned about the old rotting sills infecting the inner
sills, which actually appear to be in really good shape right now.
If I DO end up replacing the panels, I'm thinking about getting some "hands
on" body work experience by trying to repair the existing damage to the rear
wings, valance and trunk lid myself in the meantime, before I bring it into
a shop -- just for the fun and experience of trying. If I can do a decent
job, the decision might be an easier one to make...
Opinions and debate welcome.
TIA
Jeff in San Diego
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