Jeff, I agree with Scott...drive a little,tinker a
little. The relaxation and *downtime* makes the
anticipation of driving your LBC all the better.
Dave Gebhard
1977 Spitfire
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff McNeal <jmcneal@ohms.com>
To: Spitfire List <spitfires@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2000 5:17 PM
Subject: At a crossroads - opinions welcome
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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