Earlier this week while continuing to work on the quarter panels, I decided to pull the quarter panel extensions and taillights to access some rusty (but not terrible) areas that I couldn’t otherwise get to.
After seeing a few of these areas that need attention, I’ve decided to just go the extra mile and strip the whole back panel and trunk gutters down to bare metal and repaint them. Kinda sucks, but better to do it now, and it’ll be worth it to know I have adequate coverage and protection in the long run.
After the extensions and lights were out, access was still a bit limited so I decided to pull the back bumper as well:
And this is where things got interesting.
Those of us that are veteran G body owners (this is my 4th) know all too well the design flaw from GM that causes the rear frame rails to rust out. The rear rails on Olds Cool are solid and intact, but I still fully expected to get SOME crap from outta the inside of them after getting the bumper off.
What I wasn’t prepared for however, was this:
Before these pictures were taken, the floor was freshly swept so I could roll around on the creeper to pull the bumper bolts. All this crap came from ONLY the rear frame rails, from about the back of the tire to the bumper.
While it does look bad in the pics, they don’t really do it justice as to just HOW MUCH came outta there. So with that in mind, and to satisfy my own personal curiosity I decided to sweep it all up and bag it so that I could weigh it.
The results surprised even me...
Yep, you’re reading that right. 12 lbs!!!
Once I had the bumper off, the insides of the rails were packed solid. I had to use a really long pry bar and a flashlight to break it all up and work it out towards the body mount holes. It appeared to be mostly fine dust, dirt and small stones, leading me to wonder if at least one of the previous owners didn’t travel a lot of gravel roads.
I guess there’s two ways of looking at it, either the car will get less traction now with all that ballast gone, or it’ll get faster now that it’s lighter!
Anyways, the car is back down on all fours again. I’ve gotta get the winter tires put on the gf’s car today, so it’s gotta be moveable.
I’ll probably grab a few more pics once it’s outside, as it hasn’t seen the light of day much this year. If I do, I’ll post ‘em up here later today.
Cheers,
D.
like, many pages ago. Now, of course, you're gunna grenade both your transmission and rear end the first time you put your boot in it (which will go first?). Or do you have surprises in those categories there, too? I'm not worried, I'm sure your meticulous planning and execution will reveal itself with optimized solutions down the road. Well done, my friend!
