Resurrection of my 1970 Chrysler 300 Convertible

[challenger]

Um...yeah, about that return policy...it will be done by Easter!

What's happening with this project?

 

[polara71]

What's happening with this project?

 

[Fratzog]

Enjoy monitoring your progress. Great work.

 

[Samplingman]

Well, looks like I missed some comments from August, sorry guys! I was in the middle of Carmageddon II and was thoroughly distracted, besides I had to find the project again, I seemed to have misplace the car....

 

[Wollfen]

Well, looks like I missed some comments from August, sorry guys! I was in the middle of Carmageddon II and was thoroughly distracted, besides I had to find the project again, I seemed to misplace the car....

View attachment 148860

Looks like you have plenty of storage room left if you ask me.

 

[Samplingman]

Looks like you have plenty of storage room left if you ask me.

Ah, the "open space" to the left of the car is "reserved" parking for my wife. Any unsuspecting parts in the way will be run over as she backs into the garage. "Please keep clear of the doors!" Besides, the shed was full of parts and more boxes...

 

[Samplingman]

Anyway, this is the end of my 7th season with this project. I was able to take a few days off and work exclusively on the vert, but for the most part small projects were done 15 minutes at a time. For starters, an appropriate work area had to be set up.

Then, parts must be acquired.

Of course, the next few months were spent sorting through and selling off excess pieces.

Thanks to members here and through Face Book, my yard is once again clear of debris.

 

[Samplingman]

This year I spent most of my time working on finishing up the floors. I had coated them with POR15 6 years ago, now it was time to peel back the layers and take care of bad welds and pin holes. I also wanted to get the gas tank refinished and put back in the car, one more part to get off the floor at least.

First, the trunk. I had a convertible specific spare tire hold down bracket that I needed to fabricate a base and weld into the appropriate location.

Now all I need is the correct bolt for the tie-down rod.

Trunk re-coated with rust converter and primer.

I plan on eventually painting in body color.

 

[Samplingman]

Next up was the gas tank. This came with the car. For years it sat inside the passenger compartment, then under the car, then behind the shed. I always thought that I'd just replace it, assuming it was rusted bad like the the one out of the black car. Now was the time to take a good look at it.

First I removed the sending unit. it actually looked pretty good. I have a new seal, don't see why I can't re-use this one.

Anyone know a good source for the filter on the end of the 5/16 tube? It's the only piece I need to finish this up.

Then I took a look inside, and to my surprise, no appreciable rust and very little varnish.

A gallon of acetone and a small brush cleaned the inside very nicely.

Thanks to the heavy undercoating there is no rust through. Unfortunately, thanks to the heavy undercoating it took a lot of effort to remove it!

This little badge was braised to the top of the tank. it must have been refinished at some point.

 

[Samplingman]

After scraping and sanding, I re-coated the outside with spray-on cold galvanize. I wanted to give it that bare steel look, but the surface was not polishing up like I wanted, so I resorted to Rustoleum Aluminum finish. Interestingly, I read the spray can (go figure, men do read!) and you can't just spray enamel over cold galvanize. It first has to be coated with water-based acrylic primer. I tried on some scrap metal, and the paint basically bubbled and flaked off, not the look I was hoping for. Alas, I could not find water-based spray on primer. Apparently Krylon made some, but it has since been discontinued. Fortunately, I had a can of Rustoeum brush-on water based primer from several years ago, specifically for galvanized metal!

Cold Galvanized:

Water based primer applied:

With the straps re-finished, I am pleased with the results.

 

[oliver]

Nice looking tank, James. Great work! Thanks for the updates.

 

['69FuryIIIConvertible]

Great work on the trunk and tank.

 

[65sporty]

Looking good

 

[Samplingman]

Time to get out and get under....and remove the old under coating!

https://ia802705.us.archive.org/8/i...etOutandGetUndertoFixUpHisAutomobile1914a.mp3

 

[polara71]

Why are you removing the old undercoating?

 

[Samplingman]

Why are you removing the old undercoating?

There were patches that were flaking off and the metal was rusting. Originally I was going to scrap the flakes and treat the bare metal, then patch up the undercoat with the 3M Body schutz. Once I started getting into it with the heat gun, it made more sense to peal it all back to see what was hiding underneath. Welding in patches was also made easier and not setting the old undercoating on fire was a plus.

 

[polara71]

.....

 

[Samplingman]

Here are a couple of before and after shots. As you can see there was way too much road dirt to just wire wheel and re-coat with undercoating.

 

[polara71]

Shiny

 

[Samplingman]

One area that bugged me was the damage to the rear rail, where the fuel filler neck goes through. This damage had been related to the shock rail I replaced back on page one. It measured out ok, and it is behind the bumper, but every time I drop the plate to get to the fuel neck I'd see that bent up rail. I decided to section out the bad and weld in a better part. Not perfect, but better. Next year I'll work on shrinking the warps out of the tail light fascia just above the rail.

While I was at it, the OCD meter was off the scale. I had to patch up a small section of pin holes in the right rear frame rail. While I had the trunk pan out I treated the inside of the rail and welded in a patch, so structurally everything was fine, I needed to fix the ugly on the outside.