Re-skinning tools

The original trunk and deck lids were in pretty fair condition. There was no rust perforation, but there was a fair amount of surface rust on the inner sides of the skins. Rick decided to separate them from their frames to eliminate the rust and coat the cleaned up metal with rust inhibiting paint. He put many hours into this project using re-skinning tools from Eastwood, seen in the photo at right. The tools include (from top to bottom) pliers to crimp sheet metal on, a fulcrum point , and a tool for prying the crimp up and bending it open. The special tools made the job much easier than using a screw driver and hammer, but some of the spot welds joining the skin and frame were stubborn enough to require chiseling. 

He says If he had it to do again, he wouldn't put the effort into re-skinning. It wasn't a good idea, but he didn't know it at the time. Re-skinning the front lid was a particularly bad pursuit. The panels shouldn't have been separated because when the frame and skin were joined at the factory, a tension was applied during the crimping process. The tension ensured that the lid's final shape conformed to the body contours surrounding the lid. By separating the skin from the frame, this tension was released, and as a result, the lid tended to flatten out. In the end, he had to scrap the re-worked front lid and replace it with one from a parts car.

On the rear lid, there was some difficulty during re-crimping when a couple of the edges split while being crimped back on. Rick ended up welding them back on, using clamps to hold them in place while being tacked. After welding and grinding them down, he spent hours finishing them with a metal file. Afterward, you could not tell it the areas had been fixed. He doesn't  recommend this to anyone, but  with humor he adds, "It was good practice!"

He's now learned he should have simply squirted a substance called Eastwood's Oxysolve into all the cracks and crevices, sloshed it around and let it drain and dry. His body man swears by the stuff.

I asked Rick what keep him going through all this grief and he responded, "Could be I'm a damned stubborn "Mick" or just a hard headed hillbilly of Irish descent. Actually, I always wanted to try some of these things to see if I could do it. I can and I won't again if I can avoid it. Whew!"