Build Thread-85 Cutlass Brougham-New Pics Added!

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I am a b*st*rd when it comes to "stealing" little bits and pieces. I use a small tool box, and hide many things in plain sight inside the box. They make me open the box before I leave, see the parts, and do not think to charge me for them. I always fill it with bolts, nuts and screws too. If I find a car that has been dismantled, I look inside and grab all the leftover hardware and throw it in the box. I also use my pockets for little things like pigtails I cut. I do not mind paying for stuff, but when a lock rod from a door is considered a $10 item, it's a little silly. If they didn't insist on charging up the *ss for every little trinket off some car they bought for $50 and will sell as crushed scrap for $150, I would buy more stuff and go more often. The sad thing is that this used to be a cheap junkyard. You could get a transmission for $35 3-4 years ago, but then they got greedy.

 

[Minion1186]

the funny thing is,last time i whent,I had my pockets stuffed with mounting bolts for cutlass grilles and bezels,but not the rods.If only I wore cargo's.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

3:45am update: The JB Weld dried on the Intrigue mirror (the mounting tab was loose), so I ground it to shape and assembled the mirror. I then installed the mirror in my car and it works perfectly with the interior lights. It has an unusual lighting effect too. Instead of normal bulbs, it has a matrix of green and yellow LED's that give off a really cool, subtle glow. It has me thinking of making an LED array to replace my dome light bulb. After all, I am missing the little plastic piece that holds the terminals and have to source one anyways. Why not build something unique to replace the bulb with that will add another small feature to the car? I have a pack of green LED's already, so all I need now are the yellows and a small piece of "breadboard" to attach them to. Then I have to figure out if they can take the amperage of the lighting system, and if they need to be series of parallel wired.

I also repainted the "HOOD" lettering on the hood release and wiped most of the excess off. I will have to wait until it dries to fully clean the black of white paint. I buy Testors paint markers to do little details like this as I find them much easier to use than brushes. Recessed or raised lettering is pretty easy to paint with a white marker. The raised lettering (caps under hood) is done by carefully using the side of the marker to hit only the letters. The recessed pieces are done by painting the letters, then wiping away the excess with a paper towel moistened in lacquer thinner. Also, if you wish to polish the plastic pieces that look dull, you can get what is called a string buff for a drill or bench grinder that will gently polish old plastic. I am hoping that the hood release is the last thing that needs sealing. I will be doing it tomorrow afternoon, and hoping that I can finally move on to install the carpet, seats and seat belts. If all goes well, all I will need to buy is the rear seat belt buckles and center belt and a pint of vinyl dye for one kick panel and the lower doors.

 

[SV6 REGAL]

I just wish there were yards around up here with g-body still in them most have rusted out and scrapped..no one keeps them around makes finding the little things hard

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I got my hood release cable finished, and it passes the water test! Yay! Now I need to sheet the doors on the inside with plastic to seal out water, and see if it leaks any more in a big rain storm. It's supposed to rain Monday, so I will do the plastic on the doors tomorrow. Plastic drop cloths cut down to fit are what I use for a moisture barrier. GM used treated paper ( black on one side, tan the other), but it tends to rot with time. The Japanese cars I have played with all used plastic and it holds up much better, so I chose to copy what works. I also have to finish my sound deadening mats and such tomorrow to get ready for the final assembly of the doors on Monday. If the car passes the rain storm test, it will be getting the carpet next week.

I also sanded down the paint I had put on the radiator fan shroud with some 600 grit to take off the roughness that came back through the new paint last time. I sprayed it with Krylon Gloss Black and it looks much better this time. (I like 600 versus 400 for the final sanding as the sand scratches do not tend to bleed through as they would with anything rougher.) I think it was gloss when new, and the gloss will contrast nicely against the satin black engine bay. I tried to vary the sheen of the different blacks under the hood to try and simulate a factory look. Most of the metal is satin, the bolts are flat and some plastics and the engine are gloss.

 

[78mali350]

this "paint" on the plastics in the car that you are talking about, was this only on the newer cars? I swear on my 78 everything is just black plastic i mean like nothing is painted when it comes to plastic stuff...interesting

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

The plastics under the hood ( I think that is what you are asking about) were not painted from the factory. I painted them because the car spent so much time with no hood on it that they had grayed and looked terrible. The fan shroud was chalky, so I painted it. But, the chalkiness showed through the paint so I sanded the paint smooth as a filler and then painted it a second time. It's one of those parts that would lose me points in a judged show of perfectly restored cars, but thankfully I never plan to enter one of those. As for the interior plastics, I am just recoloring some faded or scratched pieces with a dye of the same color as original. It's just a basic clean up. The handles and caps were painted with white lettering on unpainted black plastic when these cars were new, and I am just restoring the factory finish. For those, i used a terry cloth towel to buff them out after sanding out any significant scratches with 1,000 grit and 2,000 grit paper. I just used a clean cloth, no polish as the final stage as I felt that it best simulated the string buff or the act of a human hand touching it over and over again, which would also buff it.

 

[78mali350]

okay got it, i was just confused. I thought you were saying that engine plastics came from the factory painted and I was a little lost on that one

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I have had to recondition a lot of pieces on this car, and in some cases build my own parts when no one made what I wanted.

On a different subject...kinda... I just bought a selection of LEDs and resistors- 20 for $3, and 2 prototyping PC boards for $4 off E-Bay. Why the extravagance? Well, I want to try to build my LED interior lighting, and now I have a board, resistors and 4 different color LEDs to build it with. I have green, blue, amber and white to play with. Some will build my new dome light, some may be put under the front seats to light the rear foot wells, and some may end up in the trunk. Yes, this is a bit teenager-ish, but it seems like a harmless little project that could add some functionality and mood to the car (kinda dark, melancholy and harmless- like it's creator!). After all, I am so tired of burning out interior lights as the normal bulbs seem to now be made to such a low standard that I can barely get them to last 6 months. If successful, I will build a LED array for my truck's dome light too. In researching this project just now, I did find a company that sells LED arrays for dome lights, but they want too much. $119 for some LEDs, a PC board, and a few resistors is way too much in my book. I can build several from the parts I just bought, and it didn't even cost me $10!

 

[86Cutlass383SR]

I know somebody else that might be interested in something like that if it turns out good. (hint hint) 8) I'd like something like that for both the interior and the exterior lights but I don't know enough about electronics to build them. I know, I know, like my brother-in-law says, "It's simple". I tell him, "Yeah, so is building an engine". His reply..."if you say so".