Get some Gibb’s on it right away...and store it indoors, for sure! Probably going to need new paint at some point...but stop it from getting worse with Gibb’s! You might try the old rust pits on firearms trick...rub it with an old pre-1965 pure copper penny and Gibb’s oil to level off some of the lumps of rust. Gently, with a puddle of oil and repeat daily, until wiping it off with a white cotton cloth stops getting rust colored.
Thanks Squirrel I'm not 100% sure on what they will want with respect to aesthetics as not been through the process here before. Hopefully its not too hard.
I'm a little worried what I might find under the paint.... Might try and pull some of the interior and check from there.
And a '50 Pan Bought the pan and Model A to flip to help offset the price of the 34 but the pan is awesome and Im digging the A so it will be some hard decisions coming up.
I've had a 32 that was beautifully built with a high $ paint job. Car was basically perfect and it just wasnt for me. I've got all winter to think about this as its about to start snowing and my garage isnt set up to sand in.
Cheers had the seller throw a couple cans of Gibbs in the trunk so will start there. Thanks all for the responses to date. Hope to get a temp tag on it Monday and drive it then it will get parked up for the winter.
What a score. Would be nice to see a couple of pictures of the car. Definitely looks interesting. Cheers
Couple pics for those that requested them. Have used the ones the seller sent me as the car is now stashed in my garage and I wont be pulling it out for a few days and I just havent taken general pics of it since it got here. I want to be clear Im not in any way down on the seller, having imported many vehicles my expectations are always higher than reality and he did his best to describe it. Car spent 20 years under a tarp before being rescued a few years back hence the current state of it (Pic as found below). Am thinking that with paint that is 30+years old we would be seeing any real rust out rather than just the bondo and paint lifting in places etc which seems to be the case. They did really love the bondo, its even on the cowl vent door The top coat is defintely seprating from the base in parts though. Have soaked it down with Gibbs and it already looks better
That´s a beauty! Not an easy decision. I had a similar problem with my 34 I bought from the US. What may be street legal and a driver in the US won´t by far pass inspection here. 25k € later mine is almost done, but still not street legal. I don´t know if you just could ask a knowledgeable inspection officer to come over and take a look and give you some advice of what needs to be done. TÜV here will accept aged paint and minor patina( they are getting stricter), but flaking paint and heavy rust won´t be accepted on a collector or vintage vehicle .
If you leave and maintain the paint you have, you are a hero for saving the car. If you redo it and paint it you are just another guy with deep pockets. I don’t see you tearing out that interior, so the outside matches the inside. Those in the know will get it, others won’t.
that car doesn't need much...enjoy it....do you guys actually think this thing will desolve into a pile of rust in a few years?
I'm amazed that other countries require shiny paint to get a license plate. If that were the case in the US, half the vehicles would be off the road. The pre-purchase pics show the exact same condition you received. Just as I remember seeing it in the show coverage pics from a few years ago. I'm guessing you were looking through some slightly rose colored glasses when doing the purchase. So, what to do now? If you strip it and paint it, with either primer or a full shiny job, you will lose all the "visual" heritage the car has. Sure it will still be an old hot rod, but I believe the spirit of the car will be gone. That's just the way I see things. I realize many see things differently than I do.
I love & believe wholeheartedly in old paint and patina, but the metal beneath that paint is compromised. For the long life of the car it has to go.
Nice car! In the original pictures I thought it was black. Now that I see the color the Gibbs treatment might be the best option rather than some flat black spray paint. The roof area is the worst, what do you do about the large area where the Bondo has lifted and is missing? Remove the rest?
Seeing the entire car, I totally get your dilemma. The car has the vibe of a cool survivor hot rod. Disturb part of it, you change the vibe. A meticulous modern paint job might give it the look of a fiberglass reproduction. And no way would it look better in primer. Plus, after waiting all this time, do you really want to send the car to paint and bodywork limbo for god knows how long? I’m with the guys who say treat it with Gibbs and run it while you consider your long-term options.
ARGH! It would be nice to get after it with some serious soda blasting and bring Hell with you when you get to it. Follow it with quality epoxy primer and drive it in the suede until your ready for color.
The inspection process in Japan is quite intensive. the outside finish wont cause it to fail, it will make them scrutinize the rest even more. Not sure how it is now, but at one time, all the fuel and brake lines on a car were required to be replaced every 10 years or so on cars of a certain age or older, that was in the 70's when my father was stationed there. may not be the same now. The shit part is, that paint was probably half way ok and runnable before it got shipped. but once it got put in a container and shipped around the world, it was trapped in a sealed container filled with salt air and just accelerated an already precarious rust situation. all of the paint that is crack will have rust under it at some level at this point. I would look at spot treating each rusty bare steal area with CLR (calcium Lime and Rust) cleaner, then working in some Ospho onto the bare sheet metal. Id seriously look at priming over each bare area after that was done too. Its a fine line between maintaining an old finish and just making it worse by not addressing the root cause of not sealing the metal up properly. There would be nothing wrong with Red Oxide primer spots on the affected areas. It was good enough for Gray Baskerville on his roadster. You are the caretaker of this car now, so you gotta do what's best for the car, not what everyone else thinks looks cool or doesn't keep it perfectly as you found it. Just as long as you keep it alive and on the streets. We all know that these cars have a soul and a story to tell, and a that's dying, nearly dead feature on cars nowadays.
I'd heard similar things about the inspections there, is why I asked....they seemed to be set up to encourage buying new cars, instead of letting folks drive old cars. Hopefully they'll let it slide, without a major body/paint job at this time.
Move to bama If the motorized napkin or pepper sack has the same vin as the car that’s the extent of the inspection
I agree with those who are telling you it's beyond saving any paint now. This isn't patina anymore. If it was thin in spots, or minor rust, then I'd say to save it if you like patina. But whatever is done now has to not only address the rust, but remove the rest of the paint to address rust hidden under it, so the car wont continue to rust.
Seeing pics of the whole car, I might be tempted to just sandblast and repaint the roof from the bodyline up, even if you have to artificially age the new paint a bit to make it match the rest. You could hide the new paint line with a pinstripe if need be. The other spots on the car aren't too bad, they could be periodically oiled, or spot blasted and touched up the way the left front fender is (especially the LH side of the hood), without really undoing the whole paint job. The problem will be, once you do something, you need to be able to stop at a certain point, before you end up redoing everything. I think it could be done though. The top of the roof and maybe some of that hood area are awfully far gone, they don't really match the rest of the car at this point anyway, but with proper maintenance and care you should be able to maintain the rest of the body and paint in it's current form without it ever getting any worse.
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