This is the door after the metal-prep procedure. It has a nice dull coat of phosphate? I think that's what it is. It's good for several weeks without rusting. The dark spot on the right is a gouge in the metal that was just filled up with plastic and painted over. I will hammer and dolly out as much as I can before using any filler.

I finished stripping the door and also did the interior where it shows). the next step is to clean any remaining debris off using a scothbrite pad on my die grinder. The door has the left side done, all bright and shiny. The tool and pad I'm using is shown in the next photo. When done I will go over it with metal-prep, wash with water and dry. It will be rust resistant until I get some epoxy primer on it.

Yay! I got the roof done today. Move on to the door next, you can see it already set up on its stand by looking through the windshield (hole)

Whoops, I forgot. I also still have to do the door.

Well, the holidays and a bunch of broken Corvairs put a serious crimp in my Bianchina time, but I finally got to it today. I got the right rear fender and the right door opening stripped. You can see on the first picture the "good ole boy "jackleg body repair. So much heat was used in brazing, the body buckled. You can see what is called an "oil can" dent right above all the brass. That's the kind of dent you get when you squeeze one of the old metal oil cans. I'll have to melt all the brass out to release the tension on the dent before trying to straighten it with a hammer and dolly. The other picture shows what was under the slab of body filler on the front of the wheel opening. There was no attempt to repair the rust, just smear some Bondo on it. The rocker panel was repaired the same way. It will be cut out and a new rocker panel welded in. Unfortunately, there are no panels available for the rear fenders, so I'm going to have to get creative when I start on them. All that's left to strip is the roof and some of the inside that will show. Get on it soon as I can.

Well, I delivered another restored Corvair and I am just about done with the remodeling of the rec room so I was able to get back to paint stripping. I'm working on the right front fender and I am just amazed at the shitty workmanship and lousy repair practices this poor little car has undergone. The pictures show different views of the same area trying to capture the hack job done on the fender lip. The procedure, apparently, is to beat the inner and outer fender edges together, punch a series of holes with a chisel, wrap a strip of fiberglas around the exposed edge and then slather on about a pound of filler. Grind, file, sand or even maybe whittle until it resembles the original fender, spray on a fast coat of paint and get it out the door before the rust pops through again. Needless to say it appears I am going to have to replace the front fenders with new ones. I have already obtained an NOS front panel to replace the battery acid eaten one that is on the car. If I have to also replace the rocker panels, does anyone think the car will fold in half when the bad parts are removed? I'll have to start with the front panel, go to the fender and then the rocker panel. The process will be reversed to install the new parts and of course I will only do one side at a time. Hmmmm.

Didn't get any pictures but I finished stripping the whole left side including both sides of the door. I also removed the window and did a little maintenance on it. It had gotten rust in the edge guides and swelled up so as to make it very difficult to remove from the door. Once out, I scraped as much rust out of the grooves as I could and carefully squeezed the sides back together so it would fit through the opening in the door. I then painted all the metal part with POR-15. When dry, I wrapped the glass in foam rubber and put it in the attic until re-assembly. I let the car down off of the lift, pushed it outside, turned it around, pushed it back inside and lifted it up. It's now ready to strip the passenger side and see what horrors await me there.