Washed the Arizona sand and grime off of the lower toe area of the firewall. I also wanted to confirm there wasn’t any under coating on this area which there wasn’t. Should only be on the bottom of the car. Got some dirt off – dirty water! I used a pump sprayer and bucket with a brush.
The next step will be to use PurplePower on it before wax & grease remover. Then I can strip this area before re-mounting it on the rotisserie to work on the bottom of the car. I also hope to work on the trunk before re-mounting it on the rotisserie.
Spent a little time in the garage tonight. Wiped down the firewall and determined I don’t need to use any more Purple Power on it. There is still some seam sealer in a few spots that I want to remove and a couple areas to use some paint thinner on before stripping it down to bare metal. There is still the bottom part of the firewall to tackle where it transitions to the floor board. I will have to tackle that at some point and I am trying to decide if I want to do that with it on the rotisserie or while it is off. Latest pic after wiping it down after the Purple Power:
ok – so I have been working on cleaning the firewall before I strip it down to bare metal. I have used a combination of wax & grease remover, paint thinner, and a heat gun with a scraper. Made some progress on the passenger side:
Was able to remove everything from the cowl area. There was still some glue from the windshield to remove:
After using some paint thinner and scraper – also removed some of the paint down to the primer:
The grease was so bad, I ended up using some Purple Power. This is non-flammable so was able to use it with the heater going in the garage. Not when I was using the paint thinner, it was warm enough to turn off the heater long enough for the fumes to dissipate. I used a mixture of 2 parts water to 1 part purple power. Also gave it to applications rinsing it with water after each application a couple minutes later.
As it is now… Note I plugged all of the holes in the firewall to keep it off the primed inside shell. The next step this next week is to go back over it with some wax and grease cleaner and see how much grease is left over. Might have to use some more purple power with a stronger mix\ratio. Once it is cleaned to my satisfaction, I will strip it down to bare metal – then attack the bottom of the car!
I’m only able to get out to work on the car a few hours per day. Sunday, I started to make the first pass of removing the sealant from the A/C box using a scraper & heat gun.
Before:
After heat gun – initial pass:
I did make some progress:
Ordered a larger screw driver for the hood bolts on the cowl area. They are about 3/4″ and this screw driver’s tip is 1/2″ – so I am hoping to make a dent in that Wednesday and see how it works!
Doubt I will get out to work on the car tomorrow as I will need to roof rake and shovel the snow from today’s storm… Hopefully I can get out there on Wednesday!
Started cleaning and wiping down the firewall – Recall that the car was from Arizona – there was a lot of sand to remove.
Before:
Before:
After:
Need to take the heat gun and turpentine to remove the gunk from the other side where the A/C box was and still more wiping down to do before removing the paint.
Got a little work done on the firewall the other day. There was still a little stripping down of parts to do on it. The hood adjustment bolts were stuck, so I started spraying them to help loosen them up. Also ordered a new wide tip screw driver to use on these. Hope to get some more garage time in this weekend!
Got out to the garage tonight. Took the car off of the Rotisserie and moved it to give me access to the firewall so I can begin cleaning and stripping the dash/cowl/firewall area:
Made some room to move around:
Will re-mount the rotisserie to the bumper mounts when I start on the street side of the floor:
For now, plenty of room to move around – can’t get much lower with the rotisserie. I am looking at a new lift though.
Now to remove any remaining items, clean and strip.
