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Whenever I restored I try and save as much of the original parts and finishes as I can. I have tried dozens of products on these original galvanized inner fenders. Finally using 5-00000 steel wool and brake cleaner did the trick. Then I washed with denatured alcohol and coated with ceramic loc the best on the market. The under hood was a ton of hours and i can only save or improve on whats left. I have appox 40 hrs in the initial cleaning and the drivers side and under hood. Its getting better slowly. I did the raw steel hood hinges the same way and they are no longer all rust.
On the hood hinges I did the best I could with rotary wire brushes then let it soak in EvapoRust for a day or three. Wire brushed some more after drying and then painted. This worked pretty well well for me. The EvapoRust is expensive so I try to use it only on those areas that cannot be reached by other means. A needle scaler is better that wire brushes on some things.
I don't want to paint anything that wasn't painted. I also didn't want to remove them. On the 70 chevelle I built a few years ago i sent the hinges to he rebush ed they did factory finish. If I spent more time on them I think i could have made them a touch better. Nothing wrong with what your doing as I have done that. I finish based on what condition the vehicle is in.
Looks good, about as nice as any inner fenders I've seen since they were pretty new.
I gave up and used a combination of paints on mine, I just couldn't make them look good enough to satisfy me. somewhere there's that breakover point where the originality is not worth the reduced quality appearance. I always struggle with that.
I agree. I got this truck in an even trade for ny 90 zr1. I will take it to Hershey and get it judged as an original condition vehical. Historical preservation category in the fall.
For what it’s worth: Awhile back, We found an all original low mileage 66 F100 in a junkyard that had been parked in a dry garage since the early 1970s. I’m guessing someone’s pop pop died and the estate sent it to the junkyard.
We washed it and It was a beautiful time capsule of a truck! Exactly as it had left the factory. We replaced all the belts, hoses, gaskets and got it running. IT WAS FLAWLESS. We tried to keep it as original as possible, a rolling historic preservation.
Unfortunately, time caught up to it immediately. Original paint quickly faded, bare metal rusted, trim turned cloudy and delaminated. Heartbreaking.
Do yourself a favor, preserve what you can any way you can, even if it means slightly deviating from original appearance.
