After Media Blasting

    After a trip or two down to ASR in Friendsville, TN, the body was finally completely blasted.  I was really impressed with the setup down there.  After plastic media blasting, they used some kind of Starblast, then primed everything.  Not bad for just over $1,000.  I decided to go ahead and get new fenders, decklid, and hood.  As cheap as sheet metal is for this car, it was far easier to get new pieces instead of the time to media blast and possibly end up with a bad piece anyways.  Case in point, one of the door was good, but the other had a bad bottom to it.  Since I got a good deal I spent the extra for OEM fenders instead of aftermarket to make the body work much easier when we go to get the final aligment and painting done.  I haven't bought a hood at this time since I need to see how that new motor sits down, etc.
    Anyways, back to blasting, turns out that the reason the paint was so wavy wasn't the sheet metal at all.  There was about 6 layers of primer on the car and none of it was block sanded (go figure that one).  From what I gather it seems that the guy doing the previous sheet metal was really good, and then they either ran out of money, or got a really crappy painter to finish it off.  Either way, I'll be sure to use a good painter to finish my restore off.  One thing about the blast material, you'll be surprised at what nook and crannies you'll find it coming out of as you rework different parts (I'm still gettting some from the insides of the frame-rails).
    Well after blasting I had the car hauled off to Kool Kolors over in Clinton, TN.  I had Jeff weld in the new TCI front suspension crossmember.  This also really opened up the engine bay alot by getting rid of the shock towers.  Not bad, more engine bay room, and alot better suspension.  I'm pretty sure the side access panels will be in use alot as I try to cram that monster motor in.  Jeff also fixed both front rocker panels, the one rusted out spot on the front right frame rail, and then fixed the radio cut out in the dash.  He did a really nice job, and I'll probably take it back to him for the final body work.  This also explains the three different color of primer.  The whole car was done in a light-green etching primer.  Then the front was rework and covered in an expoxy primer, and then there was a little bit of inner fender work, and this was covered with dark-green etching primer.  Yah it's all kinds of Crayola Box colors now.
    One interesting story is when Jeff was dropping it back off at my house, one of the freaking wheels broke off the car dolly.  All I can say is that the body of these cars are very light.  I had to pick up and hold the rear end of the car while the rollback wrecker slowly let the rest of the car roll off.  In one respect it was pretty kewl, because now I can say that I was able to pick up half the car by myself.  :-)  Anyways, you'll notice that the left rear of the car has a jack-stand underneath it and you might be able to see the broken caster in a few of the pictures.  Oh yah, that was welding project number one....Fix broken car dolly.   Oh well, click on the pictures for a larger slideshow, ENJOY!!