Since this project began, John Balow and his staff at Muscle Car Restorations have been rockin’ on the Roadrunner, especially as it relates to identifying the key sheetmetal needs and stripping away the 30 years of abuse that this particular car has seen. With the ominous task of disassembly and cataloguing of parts complete, the next step was to deliver the unitbody to DeWayne Krumenauer and Randy Goettl’s Progressive Stripping in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. It was determined with the level of disassembly that this car has seen, that media blasting would be the most appropriate method to get the B-Body ready for additional metalwork.
In your efforts with your Mopar project, however, media blasting may not be the best choice. So what choices do you have? We'll use this opportunity to display our particular situation, while at the same time offering you some other choices as it relates to the first step of restoration--metal repair.
At DeWayne Krumenauer and Randy Goettl's Progressive Stripping in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, an employee takes the sandblasting gun in hand and goes to town on the Road Runner. Here, he exposes previous damage repaired with body filler in the passenger side quarterpanel.
Another Option
Does the mere thought of stripping your ultra-rare, priceless Mopar have you shuddering with the thought of warped body panels from the media blasting process or the caustic nature of chemical stripping? Are you looking for a no-nonsense solution that will work with your very-straight, little-bodywork-required Mopar?
If so, the folks at PPG may have one of the best solutions yet. The process is E-Coat, and it not only neutralizes any rust on your car, it also proves to be the very first primer coat from which to begin your restoration process. John Balow introduced us to E-Coat when he described the process used on Pete Matuszek’s original factory 1968 Hemi Dart, obviously a rare and desirable Mopar. John determined early on that this method would be the best for this car.
The process basically dips the entire unitbody through a series of 12 cleaning and preparation tanks. Finally, the unitbody goes into an electrostatically charged paint tank. E-coat stands for Electro-deposition coating. The car remains in the tank for four minutes, electrostatically charged. The car then goes into a reclaimer tank which removes excess paint and creates a uniform film that is approximately 3 mil thick. From there, the unitbody goes into an oven where it is baked at 375-degrees F. for an hour. This is the same process for any replacement panel that you would get from an OE parts department. It remains the state-of-the-art process, despite the fact that it has been around for quite awhile. A typical E-coat will cost in the range of $2,500 to $3,500. With the money saved in epoxy primers and rust inhibitors, the net difference is probably in the restorer's favor. The paint is cured by heat primer. Upon removal, every exposed and unexposed part is covered in the hard-curing primer, while at the same time offering an excellent basis for working on. The E-coat process can be used with any modern day topcoat, but PPG can only recommend its line of product. If you'd like more information on this process contact PPG Industries.
Inside and out, the process took nearly six hours and resulted in a bare metal unitbody. | 
The key to requesting media blasting is to not pressure the company to get it done in a hurry. Despite charging by the hour, hurrying the process can result in heated and warped panels. Not the case from Progressive as they spent ample time with excellent results as shown here. | 
Back at Muscle Car Restorations, small parts requiring media stripping were loaded in the handy wheelbarrow and stripped in a remote area away from cars undergoing restoration at MCR by Jason Balow, John's son. |
The Roadrunner returned to Muscle Car Restorations completely stripped. Here, the quarterpanel with filler is more obvious. John notes, "This was due to previous rust repair." | 
The quarterpanel extensions showed severe rust-through. To repair this damage, John and his crew will replace the sheetmetal with parts procured from Neil Freeman of Freeman Auto in Whitehall, Montana. Neil has one of the largest inventories of rust-free sheetmetal in the country. | 
Underhood, a typical place for rust, due to corrosion, is adjacent to the battery box. Our Roadrunner was no different--even the frame rail will require replacing. A call to Freeman Auto for replacement parts has the components on their way. |
In order to continue metal repair, specifically the front and rear floors, the Roadrunner was placed on this alignment table to ensure that the unitbody would remain in its original shape even after replacing sheetmetal, including the front and rear floors. | 
The plumb line indicates chassis alignment on the alignment table. | 
The most obvious reason we needed to replace the front driver's side floor is shown here with this repair work. John decided that the overall work would look much better if the repair were done using a complete floor. |
A complete floor was acquired from Neil Freeman. The floorpan was delivered from Montana to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, by Steve Durham. Many thanks to Steve and his careful deliveries. | 
In order to make the replacement floor work, the four-speed hump was removed from our original. | 
It was then placed in the floor procured from Neil Freeman. |