Good luck with it, I am sure as usual it will be better than new when you get done with it
Last edited:
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Thanks, that’s the plan obviously.
I’ve already been contemplating my plan of attack on it and have a pretty good idea of how I’m going to go about it and a few improvements I can make on the original design.
Work on it in earnest should start beginning tonight. I’ve already removed the outer weatherstrip seal (undamaged and in one piece no less!) and got it down to its bare bones. I’ll be stripping all the surfaces of the upper and lower pans right down to bare metal, treating and cutting out the rust where necessary, and refinishing them inside and out to provide protection well into the future.
You've got your work cut out for you but it'll be absolutely worth it.
Thanks, I agree. It’s a fairly rare option, so I wanna do what I can to save it. It shouldn’t be too bad actually, especially considering what I’ve already done to save other areas of the car.
I know that the AstroRoof option is jokingly referred to as the “AstroLeak”, but believe it or not this one never leaked a drop. Probably due to the seal still being intact and in good shape.
If it wasn’t for the rust on the leading edge, I likely wouldn’t have delved into it as deep as I’m now forced to.
Well, the first night of getting the AstroRoof outer pan cleaned up was pretty successful.
Just concentrating on the underside for now, I went after the heaviest of the rust first with my trusty 3M Clean n Strip wheels. I love these things, especially for rust removal, I’ve found nothing that works better.
Here’s the underside of the leading edge where the support was spot welded after the first pass:
And the same area, after a second, more aggressive pass:
It actually came out pretty well. I estimate I’ve removed about 99% of the rust that was there mechanically this way, the rest will be treated chemically with a neutralizer. No sense in thinning out the metal any more than necessary. It did chew through a couple of my Clean n Strip wheels pretty good tho.
Once I had the leading edge and flange all cleaned up, I stripped off the remaining glue, paint and primer from the flat area.
Looking much better already:
Here’s about all that’s left to be treated chemically, a couple of little areas like this:
Thankfully it doesn’t look like I’m going to have to cut out any material and weld in new stuff. I’d rather not go that route if I don’t have to.
I also found out the reason why it started rusting so bad right there, once I drilled out the spot welds and removed the front reinforcement yesterday, I found the areas underneath it were bare metal. No E-coat (or whatever it was they were using back in the day), no primer, and no paint.
Way to go guys.
👍
Is it any wonder most of these cars didn’t last much beyond the 10 or 15 year mark?
Tomorrow night I’ll tackle the reinforcement and see if I can’t get it cleaned up as nicely as the underside of the pan did.
D.
Just concentrating on the underside for now, I went after the heaviest of the rust first with my trusty 3M Clean n Strip wheels. I love these things, especially for rust removal, I’ve found nothing that works better.
Here’s the underside of the leading edge where the support was spot welded after the first pass:
And the same area, after a second, more aggressive pass:
It actually came out pretty well. I estimate I’ve removed about 99% of the rust that was there mechanically this way, the rest will be treated chemically with a neutralizer. No sense in thinning out the metal any more than necessary. It did chew through a couple of my Clean n Strip wheels pretty good tho.
Once I had the leading edge and flange all cleaned up, I stripped off the remaining glue, paint and primer from the flat area.
Looking much better already:
Here’s about all that’s left to be treated chemically, a couple of little areas like this:
Thankfully it doesn’t look like I’m going to have to cut out any material and weld in new stuff. I’d rather not go that route if I don’t have to.
I also found out the reason why it started rusting so bad right there, once I drilled out the spot welds and removed the front reinforcement yesterday, I found the areas underneath it were bare metal. No E-coat (or whatever it was they were using back in the day), no primer, and no paint.
Way to go guys.
👍
Is it any wonder most of these cars didn’t last much beyond the 10 or 15 year mark?
Tomorrow night I’ll tackle the reinforcement and see if I can’t get it cleaned up as nicely as the underside of the pan did.
D.
Similar threads
