Hammer (paint) time!

I haven't had a lot of time to work on the car this month. Too many things for the kids and Deb.

Last weekend I had a couple of hours to work on the car and remove the passenger upper control arm. Thank god for air tools. 25 year old bolts don't want to come off!

The reason I took it off was to get access to the torque box to de-rust it and paint it. There was a little bit of surface rust which came off easily. I put the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator on the whole box and let it dry.

This weekend I had a whole 2 hour to work on the car. So I painted the torque box with 'hammer' paint from Rustoleum and painted the control arm as well. No pictures yet, but I will take them when I put that side back together.

If you've never used this paint before, be warned. At first it looks like the paint is 'lifting' and running off, like you didn't prep the metal correctly. Don't panic like I did ;-) But after a few minutes it starts the show the 'hammer' texture.

The other hour I had today was used cleaning out more of the undercoating from the car. I got a lot from the body seams out, but didn't touch the wheel wells. I need to research how to remove that much surface area.

One new item about the garage setup. With the kids back in school, I've lost Deb's side of the garage as temporary storage. So I'm doing a full clean up each time I do any work and put away everything so she can get the van in the garage.

Next weekend I'll put the passenger control arm back on, take the driver's side off and do the painting all over again.

Slow and steady ...

New doors and Techie details on the car

I bought two new doors for the car this weekend. They are from a 86 Mustang with the 'aero' moldings instead of the black and pinstripe. Luckily I can change the moldings. The doors are from a power lock/window car, but I'll convert them to manual to match the original.

Why new doors? Well, for $50 they have no rust. The current doors are shot, typical of a New York car. Plus the labor to clean up the surface rust will be way more than $50.

I haven't done much else on the car. Many commitments with the kids taking priority. They started school today, so maybe I'll get some time this weekend.

I thought I'd posted this before, but here is the 'decoding' of the buck tag and VIN:

VIN
1ME = Mercury, USA
B = manual seatbelts, no airbag(s)
P = passenger car
79 = Capri three-door sedan (hatchback)
W = turbocharged 2.3L engine
5 = VIN check digit
E = 1984 model year
F = Dearborn Assembly (DAP)
606840 = 6,840th 1984 Capri assigned a VIN at DAP

Body/Buck Tag
CAPRI = model line
606840 = last six of VIN
61D = Capri three-door sedan (hatchback)
W = turbocharged 2.3L engine
0463
9W = Dark Charcoal Metallic exterior
RS
DF
ST
AC = air conditioning
06
HB = rear defrost
S = cruise control
TRS = Turbo RS
MBW = T5 transmission
04 = hood scoop
-A = Charcoal interior
EI = electronic fuel-injection
NLR

Vehicle Certification Label
EXT. COLORS - 9W = Dark Charcoal Metallic
DSO - 84 = "Home Office Reserve" district sales office
BODY - 61D = Capri three-door sedan (hatchback)
INT. TRIM - PA = cloth high-back bucket Functional Sport Seats (P), Charcoal (A)
A/C - 1 = tape stripe color
R - check again for radio code
S - [blank] = no sunroof or T-roof
AX - R = 3.45:1 axle ratio w/ Traction-Lok differential
TR - 2 = T5 transmission
0000 - check again for front and rear coil spring codes