I forgot to post this interesting pic the other day when I brought the Polara home from the blaster's.
Underneath the dirt and thin layer of paint on the rear seat support, the sandblasting revealed 2 wide paint markings from the factory. In the center of the metal you can see the letters 'CON' and to the left of that in the photo you can see the letter 'H'. Since my car is a convertible that was built at the Hamtramck plant, I'm assuming that's what these markings indicate. I'm guessing that this area is structurally different on a convertible vs. a hardtop, so these paint markings could have told the assembly line guys that this stamped piece of steel was for the next convertible car frame coming down the line.
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It was a rainy day here yesterday so I worked on the car for a bit, removing the factory undercoating from the inner passenger side fender area and lower firewall. (FYI...Sandblasting does not remove this stuff!) I found pretty good success using a wide cold chisel for the long, straight, flats on the fender followed by a needle scaler. It took me about 2 hours to get this fender area clean, and I'll eventually hit it with a wire wheel or sander to finish it up. The pic's show the drivers side of car (my before pics), and then several (after) pics of the cleaned up passenger side.
No rust here I'm happy to say, and after 50 years the factory undercoat was still going strong!
Underneath the dirt and thin layer of paint on the rear seat support, the sandblasting revealed 2 wide paint markings from the factory. In the center of the metal you can see the letters 'CON' and to the left of that in the photo you can see the letter 'H'. Since my car is a convertible that was built at the Hamtramck plant, I'm assuming that's what these markings indicate. I'm guessing that this area is structurally different on a convertible vs. a hardtop, so these paint markings could have told the assembly line guys that this stamped piece of steel was for the next convertible car frame coming down the line.
- - - Updated - - -
It was a rainy day here yesterday so I worked on the car for a bit, removing the factory undercoating from the inner passenger side fender area and lower firewall. (FYI...Sandblasting does not remove this stuff!) I found pretty good success using a wide cold chisel for the long, straight, flats on the fender followed by a needle scaler. It took me about 2 hours to get this fender area clean, and I'll eventually hit it with a wire wheel or sander to finish it up. The pic's show the drivers side of car (my before pics), and then several (after) pics of the cleaned up passenger side.
No rust here I'm happy to say, and after 50 years the factory undercoat was still going strong!
