BUILD THREAD 81 Buick/Olds Turbo Wagon 02/15/2024 More Parts!

[liquidh8]

I said it before and I'll say it again, you guys are the best!

I'll keep looking around for the lock rod, I may find it. I still have to locate my power window regulators and motors for the front doors.

I'm going to start the thread in the wanted section for some of the stuff that I need. I would like to have everything on hand for when the car is in paint. This way I can assemble it over the winter.

As a side note, I ordered the front and rear door weatherstrip, the rear plate pocket, new taillights, and some new black door locks. I mounted the drivers side 3rd gen fbody power mirror. I have to come up with a clean "gasket" for it since the 3 different styles I have aren't exactly right. I may have to drive up to chophead's and have him make me something.

Today I am rebuilding my spare door hinges, new rollers, oversize bushings, fixing the detent arm holes, etc.. I hope to have them all apart and ready to prime and paint tomorrow.

 

[Blake442]

I should've told you to double all your orders for clips and save me the leg work! lol

I dug up the 4 rear seals and snapped some pics since the car was handy.
Found 3 out of 4 fronts at home, but no pics of those... you'll figure it out...
The rears all have 1 pin each, and the fronts all have 2 pins.
Maybe one of the few you found is the one I'm missing...?

I don't have any extra pieces for above the 1/4 glass, I sold the ones off the Malibu long ago...

 

[Longroof79]

Jim,
I hope you're making headway on the car. I just wanted to let you know....you're in luck...I found a few spare 1/4 window garnish mouldings. I didn't think I had any left...I surprised myself.
I'll get them boxed up and sent out to you as soon as I'm able to.

 

[liquidh8]

I should've told you to double all your orders for clips and save me the leg work! lol

I dug up the 4 rear seals and snapped some pics since the car was handy.
Found 3 out of 4 fronts at home, but no pics of those... you'll figure it out...
The rears all have 1 pin each, and the fronts all have 2 pins.
Maybe one of the few you found is the one I'm missing...?

I don't have any extra pieces for above the 1/4 glass, I sold the ones off the Malibu long ago...

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View attachment 44748

Blake, thanks for the pictures, they are exactly what I needed! AND for digging out those rubber/foam blocks. I have to look at the few rubber blocks I have to see if I have the missing ones, I hope so. The place I ordered the clips from cancelled the order because of no availability😡, so the hunt is back on for these clips. If I find a source that has enough I'll just order a bunch, I'll let you know how it goes. If not, I'll have to make something.

Jim,
I hope you're making headway on the car. I just wanted to let you know....you're in luck...I found a few spare 1/4 window garnish mouldings. I didn't think I had any left...I surprised myself.
I'll get them boxed up and sent out to you as soon as I'm able to.

MAN, all you guys are the best! I did make some more headway, I'll follow up in another post. Just let me know what the shipping cost is and I can PayPal, MO, whatever is convenient. I have to locate a large box to send your stuff out yet. I also found a complete setup up the washer squirters too, so I need to stab them in a box.

 

[liquidh8]

So this weekend we had some soso weather, but Sunday was going to be probably the last warm day for the year. SO, I took my spare wagon hinges and took them all apart for blasting and rebuilding. I had ordered some replacement detent rollers online, GM parts, and also picked up some new bushings and pins. These hinges weren't in bad shape, just the drivers side upper hinge had a badly worn pin and bushing. The others just had mild wear.

So I took the hinges all apart, and cut the rollors off, then drilled out the pins. I was going to cut some threads the old pin and use a nut and a bunch of washers to pull it out, but the dies I had were all crappy in the size I needed.


I used a small drill bit to get through the pins, and followed up with larger ones till I made the walls of the old pin thin enough to pull/pry out with a pick.



Here is the old pin, I did all four hinges with the springs and detents.



After blasting. You can see the hole where the new pin and roller will go.



I blasted all the hinge parts. Like I said, they weren't in bad shape and I just wanted to get the crud and old paint off them.



I followed up with some 400 grit paper to smooth them out some from blasting, and layed down some PPG epoxy primer, then I painted the base and clear the body color.



These will sit all week most likely, till they cure and I have time to re-assemble them. I'll make a press of sorts to get the bushings in(instead of hammering), and I'll use my shop press to put the rollers and pins in. This will protect the paint. I also painted the springs black and the pins black since they will get marred a bit during assembly, and the black is easy to touch up.

And finally, I started spending more money, haha. I order new taillights, license plate pocket, the door weatherstripping and new black door locks. I still have other items to order, but I'll get to that. 🙂

 

[Longroof79]

MAN, all you guys are the best! I did make some more headway, I'll follow up in another post. Just let me know what the shipping cost is and I can PayPal, MO, whatever is convenient. I have to locate a large box to send your stuff out yet. I also found a complete setup up the washer squirters too, so I need to stab them in a box.

Jim,
Don't worry we'll work something out. Just concentrate on your stuff right now..we'll talk about the rest when it's more convenient. Oh, I did find one of the washer squirters at the junkyard a few weeks ago, I found the right side with the metal bracket, but the driver side was toast...so if you have a good driver side, I'll take it.

I'm sorry that parts source was a bust. It seemed like a sure thing, too.and they were more on the level price wise. Some of these other places act like they're selling gold...I just can't understand it.

 

[Rktpwrd]

More quality work here Jim, as usual!

I did my hinges, pins and bushings several years ago when I first built the car, it's definitely worth the extra time and attention. They're still holding up great and like new to this day. You'll be very happy you did it.

I like the fact that you're going to paint the springs and such a different color that will add a bit of contrast and show your attention to detail.

One question however... What color/how are you going to paint the bolts that bolt the hinge to the door and pillar? I like to paint mine body color so they blend in and look more like factory, but the problem is the paint on the bolt heads always gets trashed as soon as you put a wrench on 'em to tighten them down.

Have you any way around this short of masking off the heads and painting them after everything's already tightened down (which is a giant pain in the *ss!)??? I've tried just touching up the chipped paint on the heads after the fact, but it always comes out looking like crap...

Either way, you're doing a fine job as usual, keep up the great work!
🙂
I'm eagerly following along and living vicariously thru your build as I'm running into some minor but frustrating setbacks on mine. 🙁

Donovan

 

[Longroof79]

Donovan,
Unlike Jim, I laid too much paint on my hinges. I know what you mean about the bolt heads becoming chipped. Usually they're painted right on the car along with the jambs, etc.
I've actually touched up some of bolt heads using an airbrush. In some cases I used a small artists brush and dabbed the paint into the chips. It doesn't look as unsightly.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Great tip with using the airbrush, Jack! I don't know why I didn't think of that!

 

[liquidh8]

🙁🙁

Jim,
Don't worry we'll work something out. Just concentrate on your stuff right now..we'll talk about the rest when it's more convenient. Oh, I did find one of the washer squirters at the junkyard a few weeks ago, I found the right side with the metal bracket, but the driver side was toast...so if you have a good driver side, I'll take it.

I'm sorry that parts source was a bust. It seemed like a sure thing, too.and they were more on the level price wise. Some of these other places act like they're selling gold...I just can't understand it.

Jack, I have the full set, with the metal bracket. The left and right appear to be the same part. I have four of the squirters and two metal brackets. I blasted and painted the metal brackets.

No worries on the clips, I'll find something eventually. The rears are available so that is a plus. Though I have to get on it and order those. 🙂

More quality work here Jim, as usual!

I did my hinges, pins and bushings several years ago when I first built the car, it's definitely worth the extra time and attention. They're still holding up great and like new to this day. You'll be very happy you did it.

I like the fact that you're going to paint the springs and such a different color that will add a bit of contrast and show your attention to detail.

One question however... What color/how are you going to paint the bolts that bolt the hinge to the door and pillar? I like to paint mine body color so they blend in and look more like factory, but the problem is the paint on the bolt heads always gets trashed as soon as you put a wrench on 'em to tighten them down.

Have you any way around this short of masking off the heads and painting them after everything's already tightened down (which is a giant pain in the *ss!)??? I've tried just touching up the chipped paint on the heads after the fact, but it always comes out looking like crap...

Either way, you're doing a fine job as usual, keep up the great work!
🙂
I'm eagerly following along and living vicariously thru your build as I'm running into some minor but frustrating setbacks on mine. 🙁

Donovan

Donavan,
I normally always rebuild my hinges when they are off the cars, I did the set on there right now, but I couldn't locate the rollers and regret not just getting a better set of hinges with usable rollers. They are painted the color I was originally going to use, but since I changed my mind on the color scheme, and had a spare set, so I figured I could rebuild the spare set and make them all nicey nice and use the others for mock up.

The springs always seem to get jacked up during install, along with the bolts, so like you said I figured the black would look good. As for the bolts, the plan is to take a complete set and clean them up and coat them in black epoxy. I have another set of bolts I will use with thin plastic washers to align the panels during final assembly and not mar the paint on the hinges. One the panels are aligned, I'll tighten down the hinges with the epoxied bolts. And as Jack suggested, I was going to use my little touchup gun or even airbrush (never thought of that) to put some color and clear on them. Masking is always a pain, but in the end the results are nicer.

I just read through your latest update and as always, stellar job! The worst part of the set backs is getting over the hump, but when you solve them the feeling of accomplishment seems greater IMO.

Donovan,
Unlike Jim, I laid too much paint on my hinges. I know what you mean about the bolt heads becoming chipped. Usually they're painted right on the car along with the jambs, etc.
I've actually touched up some of bolt heads using an airbrush. In some cases I used a small artists brush and dabbed the paint into the chips. It doesn't look as unsightly.

Jack, you are correct. If this were a 2 door car I may have just painted the hinges on the car since the hinge is mostly hidden, but since its the wagon the rear hinges are out for everyone to see when the front doors are open. I tried to not put on too much paint, I blasted them down to bare metal so I have some clearance for the paint build-up.

I have the small artist brush that is the go to for all my underhood bolts.

Great tip with using the airbrush, Jack! I don't know why I didn't think of that!

Me either!🙁