Episode 10 – Focusing on nothing but the firewalls, Rick gets busy wire-welding and removing the rust. Remember, this car was in a fire, so this process is a little more time-consuming. The pop-riveted panels that were covering up holes; were removed, and new patch panels were welded on to create the smoother look we’re going for. Both the inside and outside firewalls were stripped, welded up, and acid-etched. It’s important to use caution when grinding and sandblasting; so you don’t end up removing good metal.
Episode 10 – Video Transcript
Rick Drewry: Okay guys, time for an update on project COVID 1953 or 1953 Chevy 150. It was time to start getting really dirty on this car, to get things the way I want. I started with the firewall. Remember this car was in a fire. The firewall was burnt, as was the top of the dash, the roof, and everything else. So, the firewall is what I focused on first. There were pop-riveted panels in place covering up holes, things like that, and I’m going for a smooth firewall look. I got rid of those. Wire wheeled as much as I could off and then took a grinder to the entire firewall as much as I could. That got most of it; I’d say probably 80% of it. After that, I started using fast edge which, I’m a big fan of, and it started etching the metal and de-rusting it chemically.
Basically, you spray that on and keep it wet for about 30 minutes, and then wipe it off with a rag that is doused in lacquer thinner. That gets it off, and it leaves like a zinc coating on there. Sometimes it takes two or three times to get it down to where you want. It also takes just the rust away because if you keep grinding and grinding or sandblasting and sandblasting, you start losing good metal. Once this was done, I started welding in patch panels into all the holes. There were, I’m going to guess thirty holes for whatever reason, I don’t know, all over the place. So, I welded everything. I think I spent two days welding this thing to get every little pinhole taken care of and welded up. That way, I am starting from scratch on what I need to go through the firewall. So, I did that and then stripped both the outside and the inside, welded it up, acid-etched it, and got it ready to move on to the next step.
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