diamond in the rough

  • Thread starter Robert Vondracek
  • Start date
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Robert Vondracek

Guest
I spent Monday cleaning the tranny area, front trunk and engine compartment.
I was amazed to find absolutely no rust in the hull, bilge, and front trunk
area. I didn't take the particle board floor out, but it appears to be in
excellent condition. There is some rust around the foot pedal area, but
hopefully changing the steel panel will take care of that. The original hull
red paint is peeling off the primer in the tranny area, but the original
off-white primer is still in excellent condition. I can only assume that the
steel below it is excellent. There are a couple dents in the bottom of the
hull, but no signs of rust. It is straight. Both doors, the front trunk lid,
and the motor compartment lid are solid and straight. The body is almost
dent-free with lots of holes and rust in the normal places. Even the
original battery box and straps are there, but there is rust and holes
around it. No holes that I have noticed have been drilled.

All of the important areas seem rock-solid. The spare tire, and even all of
particle board trunk floor is there. The top frame seems to operate
correctly. The aluminum side rails are in excellent condition.

I didn't realize that this car was this good when I originally priced it.
Based on its completeness and solidness and my study of the last 4 months of
all of the eBay auctions, I feel that this car would go for $8000 in the
right market. The price is $6495 for a quick sale before Christmas

Serial # 101704, 15,500 miles

It will be on eBay shortly assuming that it stops raining so that I can get
photos.

Rob Vondracek
219-405-1241

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WB6WSN

Guest
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<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<div style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black">From: Robert Vondracek
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">To: Amphicar Lovers
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 7:24 AM
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">Subject: [amphicar-lovers] diamond in the rough


<tt>I spent Monday cleaning the tranny area, front trunk and engine compartment.
I was amazed to find absolutely no rust in the hull, bilge, and front trunk
area. I didn't take the particle board floor out, but it appears to be in
excellent condition. There is some rust around the foot pedal area, but
hopefully changing the steel panel will take care of that. The original hull
red paint is peeling off the primer in the tranny area, but the original
off-white primer is still in excellent condition. I can only assume that the
steel below it is excellent.</tt>
<tt></tt></blockquote>
<tt></tt>
<tt>Rust can grow UNDER the primer. When I did the first couple of passes at bilge clean-out, I thought the cream-colored primer was in very good shape. I found out how wrong I was about the primer when inch or two sized pieces began flaking off during my pressure washing. I was fortunate to not have much rust, but it would have been a bad idea to have painted over the primer without having made sure the primer was really holding to the hull metal.</tt>
<tt></tt>
<tt>I was surprised to find the extensive damage done by rust between the outer surface of the hull and the top surface of both jacking plates. The primer on the inside of the hull above the jacking plates looked fairly good, with just a little "orange peel"appearance and a few little blister holes. By the time I had cut back the rust to good metal, I had 10" long holes on each side.</tt>
<tt></tt>
<tt>I wouldn't trust the metal without at least probing it with a small hammer and a center-punch. Also, I think you should drill a couple of inspection holes in the two fore/aft frame tubes so that you can use a machinist's mirror and get a look inside the tubes, and later spray some paint in there too.</tt>
<tt></tt>
<tt>Ed
El Cajon, CA USA
67 Rust Guppy
</tt>
 
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a_colo_native

Guest
--- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, "WB6WSN" <wb6wsn@c...> wrote:

> Rust can grow UNDER the primer.

Amen Ed!

I am doing a red car that looked solid enough. I was leaning on
the floor beneath the driver's seat vacuuming out the loose debris.
All of the sudden I was heading face first into the bilge! My arm
went through the floor like a wet paper towel! In the end, a section
about 24 sq/in was equally damaged. The entire floor is being
replaced from pedals to trans, edge to edge. The corners at the rear
of the front wheel wells, both 1/4s, rear floors and door bottoms
were also beyond repair. Yup, she looked pertee solid!

This was caused by storing the car outside, nose down and not
properly covered and could have EASILLY been avoided. If you have to
store it outside be sure to use a proper water-tight canvas cover
(the blue ones are good for less than a year), the nose is above the
bilge plug and plug removed.

John Bevins
IAOC Board Member
Rocky Mountain Amphicar
 
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