When I last posted, it was about the realization that I made a horrible mistake. Well, not horrible in reality, since I didn’t paint the car before realizing what a numb skull move I made. But a mistake none the less.
With work schedules and vacation plans I have putting myself under even more pressure to finish the car in order to enjoy it as much as possible over the summer before moving onto phase 2 while in next winters slumber.
Unfortunately with the pressure/schedule I have been trying to maintain I goofed. The point of rehashing this I guess is to say that at the end of the day I decided to work on this project for enjoyment. Rushing and making mistakes is the complete opposite of enjoyment, so moving forward I will try my best to maintain a better balance.
That being said, I disconnected all of the electrical, locked up the overhead door and went on vacation for a week.
Packed the family up and spent a week in Cancun, Mexico.
We stayed at the Dreams: Playas Mujeres Resort. It’s a very nice resort, and it is the same company that we stayed with last year during our vacation in Tulum. This resort has only been open about 5 months, so they still have some bugs to work out, but overall very happy.
We primarily stayed on property to enjoy the sun, pools, and in general relax.
We did manage to go on an adventure excursion to Coba, Mexico. There we repelled down cliffs (major wedgie!), zip lined over jungle expanses, kayaked to a cenote, and swam in the underground lake.
After all of that adventure we had lunch at a local Mayan restaurant and enjoyed a home cooked buffet of goodness. From there we went to the finale…
Mayan Pyramid!!!
Coba is one of the few locations left in Mexico that will still allow you to climb a pyramid. Most of the others no longer allow people to climb them, in an effort to preserve these magnificent structures.
While on vacation, I had to represent my fandom, here I am rocking my new favorite t-shirt!
Like all good things, vacation had to come to an end. But for one last bonus, I picked up a 5 pack of REAL Cuban Monte Cristo’s from the duty-free store. Last year I believe this was still a NO-NO for us U.S. citizens, but now we can bring in up to 100!
Traveling home from Cancun to Chicago sucks though, it is literally an all day event. Our day started at 5:30 AM to get to the airport, and ended at 5:30 PM when we pulled into our driveway.
I had told myself on the flight that I would get home and RELAX. I wasn’t going to touch the car the first day home. YEAH RIGHT. I think I lasted an hour on the couch before I was out in the garage, you know to reassess the situation.
Then somehow the scraper found its way into my hand.
I found two real easy ways to strip off the Eastwood heavy-duty anti-rust. Heat gun or Wax and Grease Remover.
Since the coating doesn’t fully harden, the heat gun softens it up just enough to scrap it off in sheets. Issue with that method is the fumes from heated chemicals (even with mask on!).
The second option worked as well, but had its own drawbacks, namely Wax and Grease remover has its own fumes, and its as “clean” as the heat gun. Since I didn’t seal the primer it was still porous. I used pics of the passenger side taken prior to primer and sprayed the wax and grease remover in those general areas.
After a few moments any spot that had the anti-rust wrinkled up and I hit the areas with a paint scraper. Once I got what I thought was all of it off, I wiped it down again with a rag sprayed with the remover to get any residue off.
So far my preference if I had to do it over again would be the heat gun. It took longer, was a little stinkier, but overall worked out better.
I followed up with a wire-wheel on both sides to make sure all of it was gone!
I went to a O’Reilly auto parts in a neighboring suburb and looked through their selection of anti-rust products. I found one from Dupli-color that sprays on clear and dries to a black primer.
Like other products on the market it probably has a high Zinc content that will encapsulate any rust left behind and prevent further rusting. This product is specifically meant to be sprayed over with true automotive primer for further protection. I’ll give it a shot and see!
I’ve always been on the fence as to how I was going to handle the jambs. Was I simply going to mask over the weather-stripping or what…
After the anti-rust fiasco, I decide to pull the door panels and weather-stripping off.
Plus, I know the outside was repainted at some point, and the paint used is of unknown origin. Instead of risking it, I figured pull everything in order to scuff and spray to ensure adhesion. I have no interest pulling the doors off at this time, so this is as good as it will get until its next makeover in a few years!
I had a special visitor in the garage this weekend as well! My helper Belle Blues!
While doing all of the above work, I had a squirrel moment as saw the roof-mount rear view mirror I bought awhile back and figured since I had the wire wheel out and the aluminum spray paint at my disposal I would hit it real quick to get ‘er done.
