gtvrust

The past few weeks have seen the Alfa interior completely de-tarred. This wasn't much fun, and caused some blisters. The GTV floorpan and rear seat area are covered with a 30-40lb layer of tar-sound-deadening material. This stuff is anywhere from 1/4 of an inch to 3/8 of an inch thick. I used a chisel and mallet to get it out after some other, failed, removal methods. It turns out the extremely dry condition the car was stored infor all those years, while destroying all vinyl and rubber inside the car, also made the tar very dry and brittle. It chipped out fairly easily once I happened on to this fact. The floor turned out to be in very good shape. The only rusty areas were surface rust around the floor pedal box (as is normal with all the floor pedal cars) and a small dime sized area in the rear passenger-side footwell, where a big rock or something whacked the bottom of the car and gouged out the undercoating. The pedal box area was wire brushed and sanded down to bare metal and treated, and the small footwell hole was welded up, filled over with lead (I needed the lead practice), and recoated underneath. The entire inside floor of the car has been sanded and sealed with a few coats of Extend. It's black now, and ready for new, lighter, sound deadener.