1987 Olds Pro-touring project build - Now with paint

[dogsht]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Very cool Andrew. Great cabinet idea & info. I always suspected that with regards to the serpentine setup. Its been done on the big Cadillac motor as well. Its often just a matter of time trying finding and figuring things out and working any bugs out. Once somebody has done it its fairly easy to duplicate. I could never justify the money for a March setup. BTW my Old 442 is back on CL. Second owner since me. I talked to him Sunday a bit and its sounds like everything is still with it and that it is still clean.

 

[youngdeezy]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

you always fab up some of the best stuff drew keep the build going

 

[gp02a0083]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Fe3x,

i have always enjoyed you posts, the quality of fabrication and build is top notch with everything you have posted. keep it going, i can only imagine the payoff at the end when she's finished!

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Thanks guys.

Almost finished with the blast cabinet. Hooked up the air line, foot pedal and gun and its amazing how much nicer quality Made in the USA parts are. Of course the gun and foot pedal control cost almost as much as my entire Chinese made cabinet. 🙁

So now I'm moving onto buying the parts for this:

Well, haven't received it all yet. Buying it in kit form a bit at a time and assembling it.

http://lumenlab.com/d/micro

After this, all I need is a nice metal lathe, metal cutting bandsaw and TIG welder and I'll be set to tackle almost anything. 🙂

 

[youngdeezy]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

slowly ive been on the same mission to get a tool collection up. i still have a bit to go but i love seeing the crazy stuff you get. your just about ready now :wink:

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

slowly ive been on the same mission to get a tool collection up. i still have a bit to go but i love seeing the crazy stuff you get. your just about ready now :wink:

Yeah, if I didn't have to buy the majority of the tools that I have my car would have been done a long time ago. What I have wrapped in special tools would have paid for the paint job by now but then I wouldn't have been able to do what I've done to it so far myself.

If I ever do another car, I'll be in far better shape as I'll already have the tools in place.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

So here's the finished blasting cabinet. Still need add a few small things like the ligthing and such but I'm going to give it a test run first to see how everything works out.

It took be a bit longer than I expected but a lot of that was having to redo it at least once. I originally had it all together and found that my glove ports were too low which mean I had to make two more sides so that I could make the front taller and shrink the area where the windows were.

The window frames are made from 1x3 red oak. I needed to use a good hardwood for these since I needed good "machinability" for the rabet and miter's. Plus, Menard's had red oak on sale which meant I got them for less than Poplar. 🙂
And after putting all the time and effort into making them, I just couldn't bring myself to paint them so I put two coats of stain and two coats of polyurethane on the frames.

The other design feature that I came up with after putting the first cabinet together was to have the front lower portion hinged as well as the top. This way it's easier to load parts and if I need to get down into the bottom of the hopper, makes it easier as well. Especially since I haven't added a drain for the blasting media yet.

The most expensive part of the whole setup were the actual cabinet parts like the foot pedal control, gun, glove rings and gloves, etc. After using that small cabinet for so long I got really tired of having to pull the trigger on the gun instead of using a foot pedal. This works out much nicer.

Now I'm going to head out there today, load it up with some fresh glass beads and finish blasting Blacksheep's Torker intake. I'm sure he'd like it back soon seeing as how I've had it for probably a month or more. I had started to blast it in the old cabinet but got fed up with trying to get every nook and cranny on the thing when I couldn't turn it, at all.

 

[86 maroon gp 2+2]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

I claim that this build is the most fantastic one on this site, the looks better than new thus far

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Thanks man.

So I've changed my mind on the color of the engine for a couple of reasons.

(1) The chrome/bright aluminum look is about impossible to keep clean and shows every imperfection. And I haven't even driven the car yet!
(2) The chrome powder coat that I used doesn't hold up very well, especially to gasoline. If you touch it with anything like that it instantly dulls the finish. So everything ends up looking trashy.
(3) By the time I got done adding all of my water hoses, wiring looms and other wiring for the EFI, sensors, etc. It totally ruined the chrome look anyway.

So I went back to basics and started with my valve covers. Stripped the old power coat off and then shot them with (1) coat of semi gloss black and then (2) coats of satin clear to knock down the shine. Spent about an hour masking them off and then shot (1) coat of gold accent powder.

The first one didn't turn out too bad but there's a few imperfections with my method. Not sure if I want to try and fix it or not. Once they are on the engine sitting in the engine bay, you won't be able to see the imperfections anyway but I know it'll bug me.

This color combo will better match the rest of the car too once it's finished.

 

[ascates]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Yep, they look better with Old's Gold!