Day one of the rejuvination prep is taking everything apart for painting. A trick I learned in modelmaking at Humber is to paint in pieces, instead of masking and painting the unit as a whole. this leads to a better, more complete paint job that looks closer to what a factory finish would look like; and since I was painting with tremclad, this would be paramount in helping me get the most bang for my buck.
Step 1 of the tear down was taking the doors apart. I pulled off the interior hardware and panel, unplugged all the electrical gubbins, and unbolted the outer door handles, which on a Grand Wag, require some very aerobic tool action and a lot of close quarters wreching around sharp steel edges. my tip would be to undo the door latch and let it swing out of the way slightly to make room for a universal joint ratchet.
Also, i had removed the rear bench and left it at home, so out came the mounts and seat belts. Shortly thereafter I removed the front seats for total floor access; but not before I'd taken the new lightweight Wagon Supperleggera for a spin up the road.
I must admit, the truck felt so much livlier with all this weight off. It sat higher and the backend was very frisky for a 6000lb truck. One of these on a strick bush-truck diet of no doors, glass, or uneeded bodywork would be very capable indeed.
I also took the time that night to mix up a pot of older tremclad gloss black with a bit of thinner and painted the entire floor with a brush. Since it tack-dried quickly I could redo a second coat as soon as I had finished the first, so I got 2 good coats on the floor to make it all even and dark. this really transformed the patchwork floor into a nicer uniform colour. The thinning was not so much for the rapid drying, but so the paint would self level better since it would be thinner and not so oily.
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