[DetroitRockCity]

Hey everyone 👋🏻 New to the forum and happy to be here! My first classic car restoration is underway, so that's pretty cool!

I'm working on a 79 TA and am trying to be pretty thorough. I've discovered that there are dirt dauber nests and minor rust (honestly looks pretty damn good rust wise, just surface rust in small spots) inside of the roof skin and the rear quarter panels. Trying to make a game plan to remove the dirt nests and treat the metal.

Any ideas on the best way to do this with those pieces being welded in? Should I try to get them out using whatever access port I can and then use Eastwood inner frame/rust treatment? Or should I just bite the bullet and pull the metal off, clean it all up, epoxy, and reweld the pieces in?

Any other ideas people have used before?

Any advice is appreciated!

[dataway]

I'd vote against cutting off the braces just for minor rust and some dirt dauber nests. Spend some time with a blow gun with a long (and or flexible) wand to get the nests. Anything you can use to jam in there and break the nests loose. Blow it all out and coat with something.

For the most part I think surface rust on the underside of a roof isn't a big deal on a restored car that will spend a lot of time protected from moisture, use a rust converter and paint/coat it.

[DetroitRockCity]

Awesome thanks for the info! I'll see what I can work out for using access panels to clear out the nests. I'd really like to fully grind down and epoxy every square inch, but I agree that it isn't that big of a deal and I'm opening myself up to a lot of work trying to get perfection. Would you say that using a pressure washer inside the cavities and then running heat inside to dry everything out would be a good option? Or air only?

[kingbuzzo]

<looks up definition of dirt dauber>...edumicated

[turbo69bird]

Many an airplane has crashed due to mud daubers
The guy who owned my airplane crashed 2 times due to them blocking fuel vent lines on 2 different airplanes.

[TAKerry]

DO NOT cut anything to get to hard to reach places. I second what dataway said. Eastwood has an internal frame coating spray with a long hose and a tip that sprays 360deg. Stick that in as far as you can from any access point and go to it. Do this nearly first though as that stuff will seep out of every hole it can find. A little surface rust on the underside should not hurt anything. After all it took nearly 50 years to get to that point, how long will it take to make a difference? And if it does the rest of the car will most likely need to be restored again at that point.

[dataway]

I used a pressure washer to do a final clean on my stripped interior. At first I was worried about the moisture, but quickly realized it was going to be rolled back in the shop where it would easily have several weeks to dry out before I started on it again.

A space heater inside would be a bonus, just be careful not to burn anything down.

[HWYSTR455]

Yup, use a coat hanger to poke it and break it up. Air to blow it out.

I wouldn't use the internal frame coating personally, you can, but that stuff goes everywhere and not fun to clean up. They may make it in black now, but when I last used it, it was a greenish-yellow.

This is what I used for seams and portions of the roof area:

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-he...-in-black.html

The surface stuff in the middle of the roof panel isn't much of a concern regarding rust, it would really only progress if it's exposed to excessive moisture. Plus, since it at one point probably had a heat/sound barrier material from the factory, there's glue all over it anyway. So you really only need to focus on the seams and weld points.

Definitely not worth removing a panel or making an access hole, the heat will effect a larger area and cause more of a problem.




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