Texas82GP's Roadmaster

[Texas82GP]

The wagon is pretty much Caprice sheet metal. Maybe just because GM? I like the sedan clip so much more, it's more muscular looking.

Muscular? I don't know if that's the word I'd use. Maybe formal?

I was hoping to finish up the lens swap on the cluster this weekend but I got skunked on that project. The lens on the replacement cluster is glued on way better than the one on my original cluster was. It's not going to come off cleanly. If I go ahead and use the replacement cluster, I'll need it programmed to the car. My mechanic at the little shop up here by work has the tools and the talent to do it. It might be what I do. The rub at this point is that it will throw my odometer reading way off. My car has 107k miles and the replacement cluster has 67k miles. I'd really prefer to keep the correct odometer reading. I reached out to the seller who "refurbished" the replacement cluster but they said they couldn't change the odometer reading. I may look at swapping odometers between the two clusters.

Skunked on that, I turned my attention to the bumper cover. I took all the trim off of it and then scrubbed it with a brush and soap and water, inside and out. It was filthy! I learned that the grey "trim" that I was hoping to pull from this bumper cover and swap to mine is actually part of the bumper cover itself. GM just painted the grey after painting the primary color...

The picture above was after Sean and I had started sanding on it some. At this point we probably have about four hours of sanding in it (8 hours for one man). Here's what it looks like....

It has a little bit of character but it's really a pretty nice piece. It needs a little flexible filler work but it's way nicer than what's on the car. So obviously, I'm going to paint it and swap it over to the car. I have some detail sanding I'll be working on and I have to work up the courage to go to the paint supply store for the $300 box. For those of you who haven't noticed or aren't aware of what I'm complaining about on my car, zoom in on the grey trim on the front bumper and you'll see the sun damage. Could my bumper cover be repaired? Sure. It would just be a lot more work than refinishing this one......

Refinishing the front bumper cover will fix the worst cosmetic issue on the car. I'm excited about how it is going to look. I already have the replacement chrome "tape" that runs along the top of the grey section of the bumper. It should look really sharp when its done. That's it for now friends. I'll update when there is progress to report.

 

[Texas82GP]

Sean and I made more progress on the replacement bumper cover for the Roadmaster. Late last week I bought the material to get it into primer. I went with all SEM stuff including the Scuff and Clean paste, a quart of the Plastic and Leather prep, the Bumper Bite flexible filler and a quart of the flexible primer. Sunday morning we started with some additional sanding. Once that was done, we washed it with the Scuff and Clean paste and brought it back in the garage....

Then we worked on a few places where the bumper was a little out of shape with the heat gun. This was where the trim had been pulled through a bit in a few places and where there was a little bit of damage on the lower passenger side. I would heat the area with the gun and then Sean would press it between two wood blocks to flatten the problem areas out. It worked like a charm.

Then, we wiped it down with the Plastic and Leather prep and then Sean started applying the flexible filler where it was needed. The biggest place was down low on the passenger side where it had some road rash. Sanding and had done a lot with this area but it needed some filler....

Here it is after the repair.....

While Sean was filling, sanding, cleaning the bumper cover and getting it set up to spray, I was working on our HVLP spray gun. It's a Devilbiss Finish Line FLG-3. We've done a lot of nice work with it but have had problems with it the last few times we tried to use it. It isn't spraying smooth. It's fluttering. I completely disassembled it and cleaned it. I got it all set up with primer in the cup and hung some heavy paper up on the shelves to spray test patterns with. It had the same problem so I ended up putting the primer back in the can and cleaning the gun. It was about 4PM by then so we rolled it up. It was disappointing not getting the bumper cover primed but it wasn't going to spray nice with the gun how it is.

Sunday night I did a little research and think I may have identified the problem. I found a .pdf from Devilbiss which shows you how to troubleshoot the gun. I found and ordered a little rebuild kit for it. I think the rubber bushing behind the "packing nut", on the fluid needle is hard and is leaking air. To hedge my bet, I also bought a cheap primer gun with a 2.0 tip so one way or another, that bumper is getting primed next weekend.

That's about it for now. No progress on the cluster project. I had to work Saturday. We recently bought a few new trucks at work and Sean and I installed the signs, fire extinguishers and GPS tracking units on both of them Saturday. We also did the yard work so that was a full day. Believe it or not, we spent around 6 hours on the bumper cover on Sunday. At least at this point it is ready to spray. Hopefully I'll update next weekend with a primed bumper cover. It's August so we're just surviving down here in Houston, looking forward to October when it will start to cool down. Take care friends.

 

[Streetbu]

I reached out to the seller who "refurbished" the replacement cluster but they said they couldn't change the odometer reading. I may look at swapping odometers between the two clusters.

The odometer can be changed by a qualified company. There is one where I live and I believe they do many of the cluster repairs for a lot of the U.S. It's called United Radio. Might be worth checking it out.

Remanufacturing & Repair Solutions for Electronics - United Radio

We provide consistent, high-quality professional service such as remanufacturing and repair solutions to the electronics market place worldwide.

www.unitedradio.com

 

[Texas82GP]

I'm pleased to report a nice little win on the Roadmaster last night. I decided I wanted to try to swap the odometers between the two clusters I have. I started with the cluster out of my car. It came apart very easily....

The cluster consists of the chassis (white part in the lower right of the picture), which houses the odometer, the printed circuit board, the clear plastic back that goes on over the printed circuit board, and then what I'll call the face (in the lower left of the picture). The face consists of the lens, the panel that has the gauge patterns and warning lights printed on It (it's a couple of pieces), the gear position indicator, the speedo, temp and fuel gauges.

When I got to this point I just decided to use my chassis with my odometer (I retain the correct mileage on the car), my printed circuit (thereby eliminating the need to have a cluster programmed to the Passkey system) and then use the "face" from the replacement cluster. It went really well. I took the reassembled cluster over to the storage and tested it. The car cranked right up. It looks to me like all the warning lights are working. I haven't driven the car yet but the temp and fuel gauges are definitely working. I don't think it could have gone much better. It was one of those really great car projects where it just goes your way.

Next I'll swap the radio for the refurbished factory unit I bought that has had Bluetooth added to it. Then I'll replace the rotten foam tape around the A/C vent ducts and put the dash back together. I'll get some pictures then. Until then, take care friends.

 

[pontiacgp]

your two fans may have deserted you but you still got us......

 

[Texas82GP]

The weather has been so hot here the past month or so I haven't really wanted to do much. I didn't have any luck trying to spray that SEM flexible primer on the replacement front bumper cover. I tried it in an inexpensive primer gun I bought on Amazon that has a 2.0 tip. It was fluttery. Nothing I did would change it. I think the material needed thinned but the data sheet said not to and I had no idea what to thin it with. I could have tried the 2.2 tip in Sean's Devilbiss Finish Line gun that I overhauled but it was hot and I was frustrated so I said F-it.

I took the bumper cover over to my painter (he painted Sean's Camaro, Dad's Galaxie and the fender and bumper cover for my Sierra) two thursdays ago. In the time since, Sean and I pulled apart the Roadmaster to get ready.....

I've cleaned up the harness and sockets for the front bulbs. I've also replaced all the front bulbs with new long life replacements. I also cleaned up the bumper shocks so hopefully it will be a fairly clean excercise putting it back together.

I pulled the air compressor for the rear shocks while I was in there. It looked pretty crusty so I think it probably failed and that's why the rear shocks were replaced with non air-adjustable units. I went ahead and ordered a new Dorman replacement compressor so we'll see how that goes.

The replacement bumper cover is from a 92. My car is a 96. The 92 had metal trim on the front bumper cover. The trim on my car was chrome plated plastic. The metal trim for the 92 has some cosmetic flaws (dings). It isn't easily repaired since the trim is a stainless outer band with about 1/4" of some high density material on the back, like plastic rubber.

I was just going to use the trim off my bumper cover but by the time I had it removed, four of the five posts on both pieces were broken off. They really cheapened out that trim. Some of the posts were broken by the factory over-tightening the speed nuts.

In the end, I ended up buying another pair of trim pieces on eBay off of another 92. It's a bit of a gamble. I asked the seller for better pictures and he sent several, but they weren't great quality. I'll end up using the best two pieces out of the four and that's what it will be. It's unlikely that I replace the trim later as you have to completely disassemble the bumper cover to replace them. They are literally the first pieces to go on.

That's about it for now. Just waiting on trim, paint and the compressor to start going back together. Oh yeah, I snapped a pic of the Evap canister with all new hoses, which I replaced a few months ago. It is behind the bumper on the passenger side, mounted to the outside of the frame horn. I snapped a pic since hopefully this is the last time it will be visible anytime soon.....

I guess that's it for now friends.

 

[Texas82GP]

This past weekend Sean and I went to a few junk yards and looked at four different Roadmasters, looking for front bumper trim. Unfortunately, we struck out. The trim I bought online showed up last night. It was a bit of a disappointment. I may use the passenger side piece though. I was pretty frustrated with the situation so I took the Driver's side trim piece from the replacement bumper cover (91-93 metal trim - not 94-96 chrome plated plastic), marked the back side of it with silver Sharpie, put the face on a microfiber on the work bench and then started to whip the s**t out of it with a ball peen hammer. These trim pieces are thin stainless steel on the outside with about a 1/4" of hard rubber on the inside that encapsulates the mounting studs. The rubber makes it difficult to move the stainless but I enjoyed some pretty good success. The area I was working on is near the turn from the front of the bumper cover, to the side. It was basically a valley where the car had been run into something, like the corner of a wall or work bench. I got most of it out with about 15 minutes of effort. I'm going to work on it more tonight and I'll take some pictures. My passenger side piece (from the replacement bumper cover) has a smaller problem in roughly the same area but unfortunately it is right behind one of the studs so I don't know how much luck I'm going to have on improving it. We'll see. That's why I may use the passenger side piece that came in the mail.

Also, I heard from the painter last night. He primed the replacement bumper cover with that SEM flexible primer that I bought. He didn't like the results so he scuff sanded it and re-primed it. Here a few pictures he sent....

 

[Rktpwrd]

This past weekend Sean and I went to a few junk yards and looked at four different Roadmasters, looking for front bumper trim. Unfortunately, we struck out. The trim I bought online showed up last night. It was a bit of a disappointment. I may use the passenger side piece though. I was pretty frustrated with the situation so I took the Driver's side trim piece from the replacement bumper cover (91-93 metal trim - not 94-96 chrome plated plastic), marked the back side of it with silver Sharpie, put the face on a microfiber on the work bench and then started to whip the s**t out of it with a ball peen hammer. These trim pieces are thin stainless steel on the outside with about a 1/4" of hard rubber on the inside that encapsulates the mounting studs. The rubber makes it difficult to move the stainless but I enjoyed some pretty good success. The area I was working on is near the turn from the front of the bumper cover, to the side. It was basically a valley where the car had been run into something, like the corner of a wall or work bench. I got most of it out with about 15 minutes of effort. I'm going to work on it more tonight and I'll take some pictures. My passenger side piece (from the replacement bumper cover) has a smaller problem in roughly the same area but unfortunately it is right behind one of the studs so I don't know how much luck I'm going to have on improving it. We'll see. That's why I may use the passenger side piece that came in the mail.

Also, I heard from the painter last night. He primed the replacement bumper cover with that SEM flexible primer that I bought. He didn't like the results so he scuff sanded it and re-primed it. Here a few pictures he sent....

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Don’t ask me, I don’t know anything about restoring and straightening trim...
🤣🤣🤣

 

[Texas82GP]

Don’t ask me, I don’t know anything about restoring and straightening trim...
🤣🤣🤣

I did think about calling you but I figured once I had beat the hell out of it with a ball peen hammer, I was beyond help. I got surprisingly good results. You have to hit that backing material hard to get the metal to move.

 

[motorheadmike]

Don’t ask me, I don’t know anything about restoring and straightening trim...
🤣🤣🤣

I am still thinking of flying you out here to work on the Monte.