Coal Dust Cleaning - Blast Away The Past

11 Smooth as the day it was assembled--well, almost. We rotatedthe car to inspect, dump out coal from crevices, and touch up any missedspots before we load up and head back home.

12 Here's how we paraded to and from Paintucation studios on therollback. Notice the support stands under the jack points of the body.This is absolutely necessary for transporting a car on a body handler,otherwise you'll subject your car to stress that could affect bodyalignment and panel fit.

13 Back inside, we reinspect, vacuum and blow, and vacuum andblow some more. like sand at the beach, the coal and slag hang aroundin the cracks.

14 Remember those "solid" floors? Here's the reality--nearFlintstonian metal. We definitely would have suffered moisture damage onour underlay and carpet from this.

15 I shot the naked metal with a fat coat of Sikkens epoxy assoon as we had the 'chero off the truck to keep it from flash rusting.There are metal treatments to use on bare steel if you have to leave ituncoated for extended periods of time, but get it covered ASAP. Metalthat's been blasted and rusts over needs to be reblasted to get the pitsclean, so it's very important to move quickly and efficiently at thisstage.

16 The sheetmetal is protected and ready for the next step.Epoxies come in a variety of colors. the red oxide color is a closematch to the primer that Ford used on their '60's underbellies, ifyou're after a factory look.

17 Having our body upside down will allow us to put a beautifulfinish on our undercarriage without worries of incomplete coverage orinsufficient film build.

18 I shot a grey epoxy in the bed to accentuate the shadows ofdents and waves. We're going for a clean look, and I'll need all thehelp I can get with this well-used bed.

19 we've got a coating on our Ranchero that will allow us thefreedom to work on one panel at a time. Now, about those floors....