BUILD THREAD 1987 Olds 442 Project Build

[oldsofb]

Got on it some more today. Pulled the passenger side glass and got the drivers door off.

The drivers door striker is just about broken off. It's cracked 3/4 of the way around the striker (I assume because of the worn out hinges) The door handle is also bent up a little from the previous owner pulling the door up to close it all the way. All that damage from not doing a simple bushing replacement!

I'll have to have the sheet metal tack welded to be able to unscrew it.

Hutch

 

[Geo's66]

Been following build on YouTube-HUGE help on my same project g body monte.... Thanks Hutch

 

[oldsofb]

Thanks. I kind of started that as a lark and just stuck with it. It holds me back sometimes because I will end up doing and redoing work to get it to film ok. I have to learn to not be so anal about it.

 

[Geo's66]

Question, how many hours did it take to sandblast your frame? Also, are you blasting bottom of car? I've been lucky enough to borrow a rotisserie and am trying to keep costs low, but if it's THAT much a pita, I'll send both frame and body out- thanks Hutch

 

[oldsofb]

If you've gotten far enough to have the frame off, nothing is too difficult.

I blasted the frame with a tiny blaster which had a small hopper (see my YouTube page video). That was the hardest part, stopping to refill the thing a lot. The frame had a large amount of undercoat (from a third party like zebart or something) that the sand would bounce off of until it ate through it. It took a while because I had to stop and use a scraper to get off the thick stuff to get down to something the blaster could handle. It took 2 days and about 16 hours with a lot of breaks to sift and refill sand to get it done.

As for the body, I will be using common sanding techniques for that because I'm not removing the front and rear glass or the dash. I'll just sand down to metal and use Magnet Paints "Chassis Saver" to coat and then go over with Eastwood Chassis Black.

Just spent the weekend stripping off some of the last bits to get it on the rotisserie myself.

Hutch

 

[oldsofb]

It's been hard getting time to do work on her, but I finally got a little more done.

Removed the Quarter Glass on both sides.

I triangulated both door openings with angle iron using the Door Striker and Top Door Hinge bolt holes as an anchoring point for the braces.
This should help to stiffen the body when it goes on the Rotisserie.

More to come soon (I hope)

Hutch

 

[mr evil]

Really been enjoying following you along....got all caught up on youtube the other day....keep it up, great work!

 

[oldsofb]

Thank you sir. It's taken too long to get to this point. I've torn her down as far as I'm going to. A little repair work to the back torque box and then some stripping and painting and I can actually start to put her back together. I think that's when it gets exciting. I can't wait!

 

[oldsofb]

I missed the All GM Nats at Carlisle, but I made up with some more work on the 442. It's up on the rotisserie finally.

Accessible Systems 1500 Rotisserie is really well engineered and strong.

The front brackets attached to the bottom hinge mount point.

The rear special brackets I had them make to mount to the reverse lights sheet metal.

A couple of shots of the frame.

Well, that's it for now. More later.

Hutch

 

[oldsofb]

A little update.

Hutch