I bought a clean Nevada shell and plan to transfer all the components to it from my rusted 68 S-code. I was planning to put it on the rotisserie and take it down to bare metal inside and out. But the rear quarter panels on the shell are ready for paint. Should I…
Do you have any specifics on what procedures and materials were used to get those rear quarter panels to the place they are at? If not you may want to consider stripping them. Don’t know that I would strip the whole car down to bare metal, unless your suspicious of other possible issues (previous work) All depends I suppose on what level of paint job you want, or what fits your budget.
When I got my car many years back it was advertised as “ready for paint” The primer the PO put on was so thick, and it hid a fair amount of crappy prep and body work underneath. Far from “ready for paint” Not saying it is the case with yours, but if in doubt…
Standard car or XR7?
Of course I can’t see what’s under the primer on the rear quarter panels but the rest of the car is as rust-free as I’ve ever seen so there would be few rust repairs if any under the primer. I’m not a professional but I haven’t noticed signs of shoddy work like bondo worms on the inside or thick bondo anywhere. But you make an excellent point. I really ought to get a professional body guy to come by and look at it before I decide. I’ll do that and post the results later. Mine is not an XR7. It has the 390 like yours and a 4-speed like yours. Mine has red interior and a bench seat.
After seeing what a PO was trying to pass off on mine when I picked it up, I would take it down. If it is that clean, it shouldn’t be that much to bring back to “paint ready”. But as David said, I guess it depends on budget too…if the quarters fully pass magnet test and from the inside you are not seeing anything scary, perhaps it is ok. Everyone is going to have a different opinion based on their past experiences though, and how far you are wanting to take it…
Just my $0.02
You have to take it down to the shell anyways to transfer parts. can’t see where trying to save the work done on the quarters is really going to save you much in the long run. For peace of mind I would go ahead and do the quarter panels as well and have a clean slate to work with and you know what you have moving forward. No worries then of something hidden you didn’t know about under a new paint job coming back to haunt you.
Brian has a good point. Your already there so its not that much more work to redo the quarters to make sure its right. Body work already started by the PO is a hard once since you just dont know what was done.
I choose not to go down to metal on mine based on budget and my overall goal of the build but thats all personal preference