1978 Malibu Project, 4th times a charm

Keeping the momentum going....

The nasty, half blasted, surface rusted, bare metal core support needed some love.





So looking through my stash of paint and randoms I had some POR-15 that would look good on the mostly unseen core support. I actually can't wait to see how it looks after it dries as I used a partial of semi-gloss and a partial of gloss black knowing I would be top coating it later when I finish the top in regular paint.



Then I grabbed the header panel to strip it out and assess for damage




Apparently self-tappers are great to hold the grille in and wood screws work for the headlight trim.



Needs a little fiberglass repair to the mounts and a crack

I have decided that when I am not traveling for work I will manage to do at least one thing this to keep chugging along. Today it means finishing out the top of the core support with paint and primer then start sanding the headlight buckets for the same treatment. Meanwhile all the hardware that remains is in my vibratory tumbler with walnut shells and black beauty.

Out doing final clean up on hardware and brackets to get plated or painted, I find joy in cleaning stuff with chemicals.

Upper header panel brackets as removed



After an alkaline bath



And after an acid bath



Zero scrubbing needed and ready for paint

O. D. Showtime said:

Looks good! Nice progress!

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You are correct, those are the upper mounts, the lowers are like Palmolive, soaking in it.

David.C said:

Wish I had your skills with the body work. I do fine with anything electrical or mechanical, but lack the finesse / patience to do proper body prep.

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Oh no, I have almost zero body work skills when it comes to mud/metal bumping/paint, I'm good at fab work, metal manipulation plus about anything else, especially cleaning things. All my body work is handled by a good friend that I'll swap time on his turbo 6.2 Volvo coupe with the fab work.

Last batches for the day, all ready to drop off at the plater's or be painted now.

So I need to repair the two mounting tabs for the lower header panel, it's fiberglass, I hate the stuff.



I decided I would make some metal tabs that would back the fiberglass "repair" I would be doing. Probably not well. I grabbed some random steel from the collection and traced these out.




A few bends, some epoxy, and voila!




When it dries I'll back it all up with fiberglass.