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May 12, 2015

Rust, rust, RUST.....COMET Caliente teardown!

As I said in an earlier post, the little Comet looks good from afar....
but up-close, she's FAR from good!


Unfortunately, the closer one looks, the more rot one finds....


Under the rockers, the entire inner rocker is rotted out.


The rotted metal peels back like the tin on an old tabacco can



Previous repairs made use of silver tape and some kind of filler that was still somewhat pliable.


The torque boxed (behind the front wheels) will have to be completely replaced - or more likely - built from scratch. At this point, the only replacement panels for these somewhat rare cars are lower quarter, panel patches and front fenders - which sell for $800.00 apiece!


I had to clean out many, MANY pounds of dirt, mud and rusted metal!


Setting the IH 4x4 up for dissassembly


With the final snow out of the way and the old, deteriorated tires aired up and round again, 
we pulled the IH 4x4 the last few feet into the E-tek Shop with the shop van...




It's tight - but Colton's got an eye on things!





Colton jumped in to help, squirting all the fender bolts with WD40...





Next up for the IH is total disassembly for sandblasting and body work.