Made some major progress on my current '58 Hawk>'53 coupe project.

Removed the rear bumper and the two valance panels. Had to use the acetylene torch to
persuade the bumper bolts to undo, but had to cut none.

I then proceeded to remove the rear quarter panels. I figured "might as well" have them
off and rust-proof the inner quarters, etc. Those "might-as-wells" will getcha every time.

Before I removed the quarters, I took a 1/8" drill and drilled dowel holes, or witness
marks, if you will, through the quarter panel mounting flanges at few different points, so
the quarters can be re-installed in exactly the same position as they were originally,
seeing as they appeared to fit well. None of these holes are in places that will be
visible when the car is assembled. I'll probably use 1/8" pop rivets in them when I
reattach the quarters.

Woo-hoo, ZERO rust-through revealed when the quarters came off. Just a little powdery
surface rust. There was a small dent in the back of the RH quarter, I worked out most of
it, and the body guy can finish it off.

Yesterday was a snow day here, so I went to Calgary, and did some shopping for tools etc.
One item brought back was one of those folding work stands for doing body work on loose
panels. It came in handy. I scraped all the remaining hardened undercoating off the inner
side of the quarters, and out of the wheel wells. Some I scraped off dry, some I used a
heat gun or torch to soften and then scrape. Depends on how thick the stuff is, and where
it is as to which works best. Once all the crap was off, I used rags soaked in the
"forbidden solvent" to remove the residue.

Then I got out the sandblaster, and did the underside of the roof in part, the trunk
interior in part, and all of the RH inner quarter / wheelwell. The sun was low in the sky
by this time, and you need a good light for sandblasting, so I quit that, and got out the
POR 15, and painted the entire RH inner quarter area, and as much of the frame rail as I
could reach from there. Looking good!

I did find a little rust-through in the trunk gasket channels, but it's very minor; I
think a narrow strip of fiberglass mat glommed in with POR-15 will take care of it.

So nice to work on a car, that aside from the floor, is basically rust-free.

I took a bunch of digital pics, but have yet to download them.

Gord Richmond