Welcome. I’m the resident troll who pops in on occasion.
For a rust-belt car, that’s a solid car. I’m impressed! Is it a native MA car or a transplant? Mine is a native Texan, transplanted to MD in ’93. It was completely mangled when I got it, and if you look at the pictures I posted at Nash’s post, every piece of metal you see in the pictures is still mangled. As for rust, or lack thereof, I lucked out on this one.
A few winters ago, I put it on stands, and cleaned the grease-grim mix from the undercarriage. I didn’t ‘clock it,’ but it took about 3 months to complete. My guess is that I spent at least 200 to 300 hours, possibly longer. And cleaning it was a hell of more work a hell of a lot more work than “restoring it.” As you and others know, it’s an incredibly miserable job
Amervo, thanks for the motivation
All I know is that it sat in a "dry" barn or warehouse in MA for 20 years according to previous owner. A lot of spots I keep scraping to find no rust under and makes me question if I should even remove some of the oily grime, it's probably protecting any rust from forming and just more work. I spent about 5 hours last night after work doing more scraping in the areas that I thought I already finished but decided wasn't good enough, actually the very same spots that your pictures show. Unfortunately I got a little discouraged when I found medium amount of rust behind the lip of the rear quarter panel wheel well area. I completely didn't see that when I bought the car and not much I can do for it now except scrape and spray and hope for the best. The car does not see rain so I hope even with that rust it should stay as is, I hope. I'm sure when the Spring comes along and I get on it a couple times and smoke the tires I'll feel much better. And one thing I totally agree with is that it is definitely miserable work, sometimes I find myself talking out loud, swearing at everything. After I spray the driver side with paint and rubber coat the rocker panels and part of the floor pan, I have to do the passenger side scraping and painting and I'll be done. Your car looks great by the way, definitely more intact than mine!
