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Work has been a bit crazy so I haven’t had a whole lot of time to get around to working on the Spit. I did devote another day to it last weekend…tore more of the interior and weatherstrip out, removed more of the exterior trim, pulled off rear bumpers, lights, chrome lettering and logos, and Mandy managed to scrape off all the stickers and tape the former owner used as touch up materials. I also hit the right rear area with a wire brush on grinder to remove a big patch of bondo someone had smothered there.
Since this is a weekend fun car that we will probably drive up to Napa in I wanted the car to have a decent trunk to haul around our luggage and assorted gear. The trunk had some surface rust…not too bad…but was generally dirty and not something you’d want to put anything besides a tire in at that point. My goal was to clean it up, remove the rust, and get it to a condition that we could actually carry stuff in without worrying about them getting all nasty.
The grinder would get kinda hot from working the metal so I’d give it breaks every so often and pull off more interior pieces. The door panels were a little tricky since the window lever escutcheons were covering cotter (gasp! old school cotter! YES!) pins. Once I got them off the panels underneath looked pretty clean. (ie – rust free)
Took a while but I eventually ground down a fair amount of the rust and grime while continually rinsing the inside of the trunk and got it to a pretty good state. Using a cutting wheel I also cut off the spare tire mount to give more room for luggage. I’ll research a space saver tire (miata maybe?) later. I figure I’m more likely to carry luggage than get a flat tire. (knock on wood) Cleaned the metal with a harsh detergent, dried everything, masked it off and then primered it. Looks way better now, for sure. I’ll hit it with a generic black to seal it before carpeting the trunk.
And viola! Gratuitous box shot of some new and exciting parts. Among the bin - new weatherstrip set, new light gaskets and seals, new rear light housings, and some new instrument knobs. Thanks spits bits! (and the parents for an xmas weatherstrip kit)
Work has been a bit crazy so I haven’t had a whole lot of time to get around to working on the Spit. I did devote another day to it last weekend…tore more of the interior and weatherstrip out, removed more of the exterior trim, pulled off rear bumpers, lights, chrome lettering and logos, and Mandy managed to scrape off all the stickers and tape the former owner used as touch up materials. I also hit the right rear area with a wire brush on grinder to remove a big patch of bondo someone had smothered there. 
Since this is a weekend fun car that we will probably drive up to Napa in I wanted the car to have a decent trunk to haul around our luggage and assorted gear. The trunk had some surface rust…not too bad…but was generally dirty and not something you’d want to put anything besides a tire in at that point. My goal was to clean it up, remove the rust, and get it to a condition that we could actually carry stuff in without worrying about them getting all nasty.
The grinder would get kinda hot from working the metal so I’d give it breaks every so often and pull off more interior pieces. The door panels were a little tricky since the window lever escutcheons were covering cotter (gasp! old school cotter! YES!) pins. Once I got them off the panels underneath looked pretty clean. (ie – rust free)
Took a while but I eventually ground down a fair amount of the rust and grime while continually rinsing the inside of the trunk and got it to a pretty good state. Using a cutting wheel I also cut off the spare tire mount to give more room for luggage. I’ll research a space saver tire (miata maybe?) later. I figure I’m more likely to carry luggage than get a flat tire. (knock on wood) Cleaned the metal with a harsh detergent, dried everything, masked it off and then primered it. Looks way better now, for sure. I’ll hit it with a generic black to seal it before carpeting the trunk.
And viola! Gratuitous box shot of some new and exciting parts. Among the bin - new weatherstrip set, new light gaskets and seals, new rear light housings, and some new instrument knobs. Thanks spits bits! (and the parents for an xmas weatherstrip kit)