Friday, February 17, 2012

Isetta - Previous Life

The lady I purchased my Isettas from husband was a professor at Park University in Missouri. Jan told me the Isetta was a campus fixture and the recipient of many student pranks. A common prank was to carry the Isetta to someplace unexpected on campus. This is a picture of Jan's husband in his graduation robes with my white Isetta in 1968.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Isetta Body - Part 2

Creative Classics in Independence, MO is doing the body and paint work on my Isetta. Creative Classics has been in business for over 30 years. The owner and my father go waaaaay back, so it's gives me peace of mind knowing my baby is in good hands.


Jerrod O'Conner is doing the bodywork on my Isetta. Jerrod has been working at Creative Classics for 13 years and has 100's of restorations under his belt. As I mentioned in a previous post, I wanted the car taken back down to the bare metal and any rust cut out and repaired with new metal.


The Isettas door stripped down to the bare metal.


Interior down to the bare metal.


After sections of the car are stripped down to the bare metal, a black epoxy sealer is used to protect the metal during the restoration.


Some of the Isettas misc. body parts that have been stripped and shot with the epoxy sealer.



These were a couple of areas of rust that Jerrod cut out and welded in new metal. The left rear quarter panel of my Isetta was really rough. In addition to the section of rust that was cut out, it was pretty banged and also had some splits in the metal.


New metal has been welded in, the splits in the rear quarter panel have been welded, and work on smoothing out the panel is in progress.


Moved to the rotisserie for further work.


A final skim coat of filler and then it will be sanded smooth before getting a coat of grey primer. In the photos below, the body work for the most part is complete and the car has been given a coat of grey primer.











Next stop, the paint booth!