Ten Fifty-nine

[LongRanger]

Now we're down to it . . .

That's Tito working with the hand sander, cutting down to the paint and primer that 'sticks.' Notice how the right-side door has green paint again --- even though it was showing 'primer' above -- lotta paint on not-a-lotta-car.

I mentioned earlier that two things showed-up.

The first was an old-school lead repair, on the left rear quarter, that John found was unwinding, probably done sometime in the early 70s. John said that this kind of repair was already being phased-out, back when he was first starting out doing body-work, so it was probably done back then. Well-done, too --- John was impressed. We talked a little about lead repairs. Lead is a effing deadly poison. If you've ever seen really old cars being taken down these days, the people doing the work are usually in full-on haz-mat suits because of the lead-based primers and fillers used 'back in the day.' Granpa's Buick is a Super-fund Site. I suppose lead repairs might make sense for some projects --- leading small seams or panel-edges --- but modern materials are not only safer, but better -- as in more stable. The lead in 1059 was beginning to bubble the paint, which was how John found it, in the first place. Plastic fillers don't effect paints. Or metals. Or chromosomes.

The second item that showed-up was a factory-primed replacement left front quarter. Remember that chunked after-market air-horn, busted bracket, and the braze-repaired battery box? Looks like 1059 took a hit of some kind after all. Like the lead-repair, the fender had been replaced a long time ago --- long enough to have the old-style olive factory primer on it. That's probably when the later 'S' front bumper-cum-spoiler was added, I'll betcha.

As the title search gets going, I'll try to find out more about all this stuff.

Anyway, the short version is that there were no big surprises revealed by the stripping. But I bet John and Tito will be tramping 1059's old green paint dust around for a while! . . .