Hi Larry,
I'm taking a deep breath here, before answering your questions.
You have a 73 Spit, and you want to do an off chassis resto in a couple of
month time frame.
The question of the day would be: Are you willing to work day and night on
this project???
You've already discovered some badly rusted out area in the floor pans. My
guess is that, after you start stripping down the body, you'll encounter
many more areas that may be in serious need of repairs, welding in panels,
etc... Are you planning on using chemical stripper to remove all layers of
paint?? If you do, the stripper will damage all underlying exiting body
work. You will then have to remove all the old body filler, tackle those
previously repaired areas. The stripper will also run happily into all
crevasses and, if not extremely careful, will damage the inside of the body.
Now, this will not be a bad thing, if you also want to paint all inside
panels.
What I'm trying to say is, this will be a big job, if you're taking this
baby down to the metal. You will be finding all kinds of surprises under the
existing layer of paint. It would be a miracle if you didn't. I can not
possible imagine anyone being able to do this in a two month time frame. All
off chassis restos turn into time consuming big jobs.
We've done several of them, and most of them had the count of 800 -1400
hours of work involved in them. Frankly, we've just lately given up counting
the time, it's not worth it.
However, the building available to you sounds ideal.
Hope all works out for you, and you'll have fun with your project.
Cheers
Liv
67 Spit
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Vaughan" <lvaughan@pldi.net>
To: <spitfires@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 9:55 PM
Subject: Body off resto
> I have a question for you listers, that have stripped the body, repaired,
> painted, then reassembled.
> I have a '73 Spit. I have driven it and know the clutch and transmission
are
> bad. I have been buying parts for the last year or so, but haven't done
> anything more than remove the seats and carpet to inspect the floorpan.
> The floor is solid except for a crack, from the driver seat, left front
> mount to the door panel and a pinhole in the driver floor area. I was
> scraping off the rust bumps with a screwdriver when I saw daylight!
> Here is my question. I just got permission to use a 50X100 foot building,
> next to my house. I told the guy I would only need it for a couple of
> months. Is that enough time to remove and strip the body, paint it and
> reinstall it?
> I bought a mig welder, big compressor and have plenty of tools, but
haven't
> bought a paint sprayer yet.
> I know this is kind of vague, but is two months enough time for this and
> since the windshield is good can you remove it without destroying the
rubber
> seal?
>
> Larry
> '73 Spitfire
> '77 Spitfire
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