72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

And here are the finished rear flares. They were in a little better shape with just some cracks near the upper and lower mounting screw positions.





I used the 2-part paintable/sandable epoxy to reinforce the lower mounting areas as well as the front and back sides of all of the upper mounting positions on all four flares. It sands very easily once it hardens overnight. This stuff really helps with the rigidity of the flares and should prevent future cracks from starting at the screw holes. I used a liberal slathering of it at all of the originally glued areas on the back sides as well, since the factory glue probably wasn't up to the task of holding the parts together after 35 years.

[mockingbird812]

Nice job Mac. Your tutorial is inspirational.

[DarrenX33]

Has to be the best step by step restoration thread this site has ever seen.

Just brilliant!

[njsteve]

Thanks for the moral support!

And here's the remnants of that original spoiler. It looks like it took the brunt of the flames as the gas poured out the air cleaner snorkel down the radiator shroud and onto the radiator support.

Here's the original "crime scene" photo:



and here's the spoiler. It's just a little too far gone for me. I can always put it on ebay as a "nearly NOS piece."

[DaJudge]

As usual awesome work Steve. Happy New Year !!

[njsteve]

I have been wondering what to do about the scratched up anodized aluminum window trim on the front and back windows. I figured I have no problem with polishing them if I could get the old scratched anodized finish off somehow. So, I did a little searching and found the following method worked pretty well. It seems that using Sodium Hydroxide (common household powdered lye/drain cleaner) is what most people recommend. I also stumbled across something that worked much better for the initial heavy stripping...what is it? Why the same old "Purple Stuff" of course! I happened to place a couple of trim pieces in the Purple Stuff just to clean them off and after a few minutes the anodizing started crusting up and bubbling off. So, I did what most people would then do: I read the ingredients on the Purple Stuff jug and low and behold it contains Sodium Hydroxide. It must be in some heavy concentration becuase it worked much faster than lye mixed in water.

Here is what I set up to do the larger pieces: a kiddy pool lined with heavy 6-ply plastic sheeting from Home Depot. I filled it with about 8 gallons of water and then added one can of powdered Drano. It takes about 2 hours before any progress is observed.

[njsteve]

It does take time and you have to continually check on the progress so you dont get to the point where the anodizing is gone and your aluminum trim starts feeding the chemical reaction instead. Here is the trim after about 5 hours. You can see the tiny foaming bubbles rising from the trim pieces.



Here is what the piece looked like at the 8-hour mark. You can see most of the anodizing is gone except in the corner area, whcih was the slowest area to dissolve.

[njsteve]

After seeing what the Purple Stuff did I set up a plastic pipe capped at the bottom and filled with the Purple Stuff. I then hung the straight price of trim on a wire and hung it in the pipe.



Here it is after 30 minutes:



And after 2 hours:



You need to check this solution frequently and use a Scotch Brite pad or 0000 stainless steel wool to scrape the anodized crust off of the surface. This allows the chemical to get a better bite at the surface and continue the process. The Purple Stuff does work very well and very rapidly but seems to reach a point of diminishing returns after a few hours.