72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

And here's the passenger side rear inner fender area. While scrubbing away with the lacquer thinner and a rag I discovered a non-scratching scraper tool on my garage floor...a plastic bottle cap! It was within arms reach so I grabbed it and it worked wonders. I was able to get into the tiny areas and it was soft enough not to scratch any of the original primer or paint. I should patent it!

[71-LS6]

Hey Steve, that was a pretty neat trick with the leaf spring stencils. Looking good!

[njsteve]

When all else fails, use the cranium!

[njsteve]

Got the rear end installed, along with the sway bar and shocks. I ended up painting a set of KYB gas shocks in the GM grey color (did the same in the front). This way they won't stick out so much as not being original.

[njsteve]

I started to clean up the driveshaft and noticed that the original paint marks were still there, under the grey paint someone put on. Some careful cleaning and here's the remnants: From the front of the driveshaft the order is orange, white, then yellow. (This stripe scheme is corroborated by the '72 repair manual list as the correct code for the M-22 and M40 driveshaft for 1972) The stripes are brushed on and they are 1/2" wide with a 3/8" gap between them. (You can still see the brush marks in the paint) The front stripe is 19-3/8" from the front weld seam and the rear stripe is 22-1/2" from the rear weld seam.

[yellowjudge]

Great pics, & very informative

[njsteve]

I spent a few hours chemically stripping the paint off of the driveshaft and then polishing it with the coarse wirebrush disc on my bench grinder. It worked very well. The finish matched the shiny areas under the stripes exactly. I then restriped it with one shot striping enamel and a brush. I let the paint dry overnight and then installed the U-joints and sprayed the whole assembly with the wax based Nyalac metal preservative. It works pretty well at keeping natural metal from rusting.