Resurrection of my 1970 Chrysler 300 Convertible

Samplingman · Jun 11, 2023

Big_John said:
Do those last a while?

I did both sides with one stripping drum. Half way through I bought the second one, but didn’t open it yet. There is still a lot of meat on the drum, I’ll keep using it until the housing starts to rub on the metal, lol.

The finishing drum didn’t wear very much. The key is not to hit the edges and make sure the welds are ground smooth first.

For $99 the three drums come with the tool. The second stripping dum cost me $29 more. Still a decent value. Doing both quarters took me about 6 hours, where I had previously spent a week using chemicals and pretty much did nothing.

rags · Jun 13, 2023

Samplingman said:
Ugh, getting the body lines and these panels straight are going be a challenge.

i had the same problem when i repaired the quarters on my '69 thirty years ago. i made a sanding block long enough to catch the intact original sheet metal in front of and behind the wheel arch. mudded the whole area and sanded until i saw steel poking through at each end of the repaired area. i remember buying strip sandpaper on a roll and using spray adhesive to stick it on to the block.

Samplingman · Jun 13, 2023

How long is that and what is it made of? Eastwood has 24 inch blocks, but I'm not paying $100 for a piece of rubber.

rags · Jun 13, 2023

Samplingman said:
How long is that and what is it made of?

the flat area is 32 inches by about 1 1/4 inches wide. made from items i found in a scrap metal pile. hollow square stock and conduit. i wasn't paying for anything if i didn't have too. we is jus' too po'.

Samplingman · Friday at 9:33 AM

Alrighty then, time to get back to work! This is the 14th year of this project and I’m beginning to finally see some assembly progress.

Ok where was I, oh yeah, the hood I had meticulously refinished in 2022 turned out to be junk. Welding the frame back in caused a bow near the hinges and it did not sit flush with the fenders. I picked up another that appeared solid, but needed some rust repair, so once again it all came apart. I posted these in another thread, so I’ll put them here as well for consistency.

Once again I have the most rust free C Body hood on the planet, lol.

Samplingman · Friday at 9:47 AM

I also took the time to refinish the grill surround. It took a few tries but I found a decent match silver. I have an NOS surround piece from a ‘69 NYB that I used for comparison and was happy with the match. Since I was at it, I did the TX9 as well.

Samplingman · Friday at 9:56 AM

I decided to take a break from the quarter panels and concentrate on getting the trunk finished. Epoxy prime, Eastwood seam sealer and body shutz, then three coats of single stage to wrap it up.

Fratzog · Friday at 10:01 AM

Looks great. Thanks for the update. :thumbsup:

Samplingman · Friday at 10:06 AM

The car season has been getting longer with the weather holding out into November so I was able to get the front and rear valances painted. Not bad for outside in the dirt floor paint booth.

Samplingman · Friday at 10:20 AM

It’s been over 10 years since I took the tail lights and rear bumper apart, so I took the time to find, assemble and install everything even though I’ll have to take it all apart again to have them re-chromed.

The tail light frames were painted with the same silver as the grill surround. I did the reflective areas with chrome paint. The license plate frame was disassembled, de-rusted and coated with cold galvanized compound.

Samplingman · Friday at 10:47 AM

Even though I had the top frame in storage for the past 10 years, it turned out to be a rotted mess. Thanks to @Big_John and @amazinblue82, I was able to secure a really good replacement. It only needed some minor rust patches, a good cleaning and fresh coat of satin black. Installed the 50+ year old cylinders and pump and the up and down action is smooth as silk.

My old frame:

Fresh from Buffalo:

jmustian · Friday at 10:47 AM

Samplingman said:
It’s been over 10 years since I took the tail lights and rear bumper apart, so I took the time to find, assemble and install everything even though I’ll have to take it all apart again to have them re-chromed.

The tail light frames were painted with the same silver as the grill surround. I did the reflective areas with chrome paint. The license plate frame was disassembled, de-rusted and coated with cold galvanized compound.

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Beautiful work