Joel,
That is good to know that you did not trust any blasting on the hood.
Do you plan to prepare your doors and the trunk lid in the same manner?
I have a media blaster that I have been using to clean most steel parts that I have removed, front suspension, rear axle and miscellaneous other parts. I have done everything in my basement garage and I do not have spray paint equipment. I have used paint products from Eastwood in aerosol cans for both rust treatment and finish paint. I have about 70% of parts prepared to reassemble.
Because some misguided owner or body shop had the car undercoated (which really stops the media blaster), I have spent hours and hours removing all that gunk with scrapers and wire brush just to determine where the rust was and what sheet metal parts needed to be replaced. I realize that I could not find all the rust this way so I plan to send the body out for complete media blasting after I complete the sheet metal work. Unless there is other major rust found,my plan is to have a body shop spray the body with epoxy primer and then finish paint the inside, underneath and inside the trunk before I bring the body home to reassemble and get it running.
When I have the mechanicals worked out, I will send the assembled car back to the body shop for final paint on the exterior, hood, doors, trunk lid and hard top. Maybe an odd plan but I really did not know I was going to get this deep into the sheet metal on this project until I was well into the job.
I have a long way to do but it has been a great project to work on. As a retired mechanical engineer and airline pilot, the sheet metal work has been one challenge after another, sometimes stopping me dead in my tracks until I find a way to move to the next challenge. Very rewarding on the whole.
Howard
71 280SL 4-speed
