The Snowball Saga - '68 Standard Revitalization Project by Blitz

6 minute(s) of a 767 minute read

Haha, door striker envy. That's a good one...

Alright, so it's update time. One of the major tasks I wanted to accomplish that's been bugging me for a while is to clean up the underside of the car and throw some undercoating on it. Especially because the floor patches that were done were mostly just bare metal and have been starting to get surface rusty. But also just for aesthetics, so everything under there looks nice and uniform. So here are some "before" shots:

Note that the passenger side is what needed the most work... leaky heater core in front, not sure what the issue was in back.

Trunk area patch.. this was done on both sides.

Next, the most time consuming part: cleaning and masking. I rolled the car outside and jacked up the rear end as high as I could, then hit the floors with a steam cleaner / pressure washer. Then I put it back on the rack and wire wheeled as much of the rust away as I could, while also trying to get rid of loose chunks of old undercoating. I wasn't worried about removing the stuff that was firmly bonded to the metal, figured it was still doing its job and it wouldn't hurt to paint over it.

Then, the joy of masking off the whole car for a few hours. I suppose I could have gotten away with less, but...

Finally I was ready to go to town, having gotten as many things out of the way as possible. I left the rear end in place obviously... I'm thinking of tackling that whole project later, after the car is on the road again. But we'll see how long I can stand to look at the ugliness. Anyway for the undercoating, I started off by using some leftover spray cans of "Dyna Pro" which were at least 3 years old and were kinda weak in the spray department. It took 4 cans just to get from the back of the car to the wheel wells and beginning of the rear seat pan. Then I went and bought 4 cans of Evercoat rubberized undercoating from the paint shop, and that was the perfect amount to finish the whole rest of the car, and much faster since they sprayed a lot better.

Then, to hit the spots that were blocked by the lift pads, I put the car on the ground, crawled underneath and sprayed those areas.

Finally, I had planned in advance to do a little "while I'm at it" project. I peeled of the strategically-placed layer of masking tape to reveal the pinch welds, so I could black them out. Just one of those little details that helps to make the lines of the car look crisp.

And a couple crappy "after" shots where you can't even see anything... but I guess that's the point, isn't it? I used the semi-gloss VHT rollbar & chassis black paint that I've been using on a lot of stuff. I really like it.

And now, one stupid little detail / digression. I had taken off the rubber snubber bumper thing that goes directly over the rear end so I could undercoat there and also clean up the snubber & bracket. These are the original bolts after just a little degreasing. It's always kinda cool when you can reuse original fasteners that are in good shape.

AND NOW... something that happened a long time ago. Finally I can show you the vinyl top installation video. It took forever for [other members of the staff who will remain nameless] to get the premium / concours vinyl tops listed on the website. I figured it would be pointless to release a video raving about a product that isn't orderable. But now it is! See on our website here. (Available in black & white, with & without sunroof, 67-68 and 69-70) Yes, it's crazy expensive. But it is the bee's knees, especially compared to the cheapo one. Once I saw the two side-by-side, I knew I had no choice, even though I'm a poor youngster. But I covered all that before. Here's the video! (You might notice the lack of a beard on my face. It was a strange time in my life.)

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