BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”

carnutjw said:

I could move some stuff around to fit Olds Cool. Another plus- we have clear, mild days many times over the winter so it wouldn't have to sit idle all season.
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As much as I appreciate the offer, I fear that the commute to get the car might be a little excessive!
😅

I’m on the mend from this viral crud now, but it’s been a long process and still not up to 100% yet. I did have enough energy over the past few days to at least thrash clean The Skunkworks and condense the equipment wall to make room to move The Juggernaut over.

Unfortunately even with both cars jammed as close together as possible, there’s still not enough room to be able to work on the bumper.









So until I can procure an alternative storage spot for Olds Cool, I have to move it outside every time. Not the end of the world, but an annoyance and inconvenience for sure.





I guess I really shouldn’t complain, at least I have a space of my own and can move things around as needed. That’s more than a lot of people can say.

Been lots going on in The Skunkworks lately.

I finally (and somewhat reluctantly) obtained alternate storage for Olds Cool, had to rent a 20x20 storage locker for it just so I could have room to work again.

While I was working on obtaining that I was still working on the bodywork on the bumper. Thankfully my large countertops worked well temporarily to provide a spot to work on it. Here I had just finished the body filler portion of it:

















While that was happening, I finally at long last received my special eBay purchase, a collaborative effort with 69hurstolds, a brand new NOS grille for The Juggernaut. The seller wouldn’t sell or ship to Canada, so Mike was kind enough to bid by proxy on my behalf and we won it.









What we won’t talk about here, is the colossal CF it took to get it to me after the fact, no thanks to USPS and their part in dropping the ball SEVERAL times. FedEx finally got done what apparently the postal service couldn’t.

A HUGE thank you to Mr. 69hurstolds for helping out and going way over above and beyond for his patience and getting this to me.

After completing the filler work stage on the bumper, it was next time to skim everything in polyester putty to address the pinholes and more prominent burn-throughs.

Here’s that stage done now as well:













Then finally last night after hours, I trucked the bumper and all my gear into work and shot it in a couple coats of epoxy and polyester spray filler. 5 hours later, I was done and ready to load it up to take back home.













I’m on the last few days of a weeks vacation and am trying my best to push this over the finish line. Now that it’s back home, it’s still not done yet. It next needs 2 more rounds of block sanding, one in 120, and one in 220, then it has to go back in the booth again for another 2 coats of epoxy and 3 coats of regular high build primer-surfacer.

Once those steps have been completed, it’s unmask the inside, mask the outside, and address the backside. It’ll be back to the booth for a third time, where it’ll get 2-3 coats of epoxy and a liberal coating of RaptorLiner.

And people wonder why custom bodywork is so expensive. 🙄

D.

State of the Union update:

The polyester spray filler on the bumper has been blocked out in 120 and 220 grit, and it came out really nicely. I only had 2 very small spots that needed just a touch of additional putty, easily rectified in less than a half hour.

I completed blocking it late Saturday night last week with the aspirations of shooting the final coats of epoxy and high build primer-surfacer the next morning, only to find out that I didn’t have quite enough catalyst hardener for the primer. And the PPG product line I use only has one supplier that isn’t open on the weekends.

Needless to say I was more than a little pissed.

So I had to bide my time, be patient and pick up the catalyst during the day last week. I used the suddenly available time that Sunday to fabricate a little adapter jig that would allow me to attach the bumper to one of my engine stands. This’ll make it easier to spray and get all the edges.

Here’s the completed bumper blocked out in 220, on the stand and ready to go:





Just a simple little jig to attach it to the engine stand:



Early this morning I trucked everything into work again to use the booth where it received 2 additional coats of epoxy to seal in the poly, then topped it off with 3 nice clean smooth coats of EnviroBase primer-surfacer.

I think it turned out really well:











I want it to cure really well as the next step is to remove it from the stand, unmask the backside, mask the frontside, and apply 2 coats of black epoxy primer and a liberal coating of RaptorLiner to the inside. So to that end, I’m letting it sit for the rest of the day today, all day tomorrow, and then bright and early again on holiday Monday I’ll be going after it.

In the meantime, I’ve already started attacking the next item on my shjt/hit list, the filler/cold air intake screen panel I scratch built several years ago:











This piece doesn’t need a whole lot of work, but the work it does need is extremely finicky and difficult to do due to the locations and shapes. I’m really trying not to put a whole lot of time into this piece, but due to the difficulty that’s proving to be challenging. The plan is to hit it hard all day tomorrow (Sunday), and maybe, hopefully, have it ready to spray epoxy and high build on Monday when I go back to the booth for the bumper.

The payoff for all this work is in sight, after the backside of the bumper is done it’s on to assembling it with all the new parts, lights and hardware and reinstalling it back on the car!

More to come as work progresses over the next few days.

D.