It's nice to see your driving it D and nice to see those cars. My brother parted ways with his 69 H/O just last week it was loaded in a transport to it's new home in Michigan he said he had to many tanks to fill
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Indeed.
‘78 Cutlass Salon sedan. Completely stock, in remarkable shape for the year.
I agree, Donavan, the 68' Hurst is a great car. I prefer the 68' 442 because I love the vertical fender stripe, it just makes the car. IMHO
If my 80' supreme had longer front fenders I'd add the fender stripe and do a " What If " car, there just isn't enough room to do it though.
A bit more progress today, very little actually, but some nonetheless.
I took the AstroRoof front reinforcement into work today after removing as much of the rust I could at home, and gave the heaviest pitted areas a light going over in the media blaster.
It turned out pretty good, the remaining stuff I can now treat with rust converter. This is the underside now:
And the topside:
While I was at it, I hit the front rollers, brackets and hardware as well:
But the thing I’m most excited about is I’ve now added a new tool to my restoration arsenal!
I’ve been looking for a way to effectively remove the old paint and primer and weatherstrip adhesive from inside the weatherstrip channel, but have been striking out. My favourite Clean n Strip wheels are too wide to fit inside the channel, the outer panel is too big to fit inside the blaster at work, and I didn’t want the mess that using my spot blaster would have created. I was really struggling with what to do when I decided to try something on a hunch.
I’ve had these 3M media wheels in my toolbox at work from my previous job for the last 5 or 6 years now, and haven’t had a use for them since. TBH, I’ve forgotten what they were originally used for at my old job, it may have been to clean out old packing material and bores for pumps I used to work on.
Once home tonight, I chucked one up in my die grinder and did a test section in the channel. It’s thin enough that it fits in the channel with room to spare. I was EXTREMELY pleased to see that it did an absolutely amazing job of stripping out all the old crap! This will make the job SO much easier!
It won’t touch the rusted areas at all mind you, but it removes everything else perfectly. With the rest of it removed, it’ll make addressing the couple rusted spots I do have in there that much easier to tackle.
Tomorrow night I’ll concentrate on using these to get the channel completely stripped down and cleaned out, and then I should be able to treat all the heaviest rust pitted areas with converter all at the same time.
Stay tuned, things are starting to gain momentum now...!!
D.
I took the AstroRoof front reinforcement into work today after removing as much of the rust I could at home, and gave the heaviest pitted areas a light going over in the media blaster.
It turned out pretty good, the remaining stuff I can now treat with rust converter. This is the underside now:
And the topside:
While I was at it, I hit the front rollers, brackets and hardware as well:
But the thing I’m most excited about is I’ve now added a new tool to my restoration arsenal!
I’ve been looking for a way to effectively remove the old paint and primer and weatherstrip adhesive from inside the weatherstrip channel, but have been striking out. My favourite Clean n Strip wheels are too wide to fit inside the channel, the outer panel is too big to fit inside the blaster at work, and I didn’t want the mess that using my spot blaster would have created. I was really struggling with what to do when I decided to try something on a hunch.
I’ve had these 3M media wheels in my toolbox at work from my previous job for the last 5 or 6 years now, and haven’t had a use for them since. TBH, I’ve forgotten what they were originally used for at my old job, it may have been to clean out old packing material and bores for pumps I used to work on.
Once home tonight, I chucked one up in my die grinder and did a test section in the channel. It’s thin enough that it fits in the channel with room to spare. I was EXTREMELY pleased to see that it did an absolutely amazing job of stripping out all the old crap! This will make the job SO much easier!
It won’t touch the rusted areas at all mind you, but it removes everything else perfectly. With the rest of it removed, it’ll make addressing the couple rusted spots I do have in there that much easier to tackle.
Tomorrow night I’ll concentrate on using these to get the channel completely stripped down and cleaned out, and then I should be able to treat all the heaviest rust pitted areas with converter all at the same time.
Stay tuned, things are starting to gain momentum now...!!
D.
For future reference, would these pads work on heavy adhesive like my "surprise" blobs of bondo and adhesive all over my floor pan I discovered when I pulled the carpet or would they just gum up? Heat gun until it smolders, scrape off a little bit, lather, rinse, and repeat using adhesive remover when I got down to the actual floor pan took forever.
And perhaps to clean up the frame rails prior to box in welding and recoat? Or just break out the grinder?
And perhaps to clean up the frame rails prior to box in welding and recoat? Or just break out the grinder?
That would depend on what exactly you’re trying to achieve Garth.
The materials I use in my restoration processes are like hungry Tiger Sharks - they’ll eat through everything and anything. Both the Clean n Strip and media wheels will definitely chew through factory seam sealer and Bondo without gumming up, but they will also very quickly remove everything else as well. Paint, primer, rust, seam sealer, you name it. They’re pretty aggressive.
If that’s what you want, then by all means, those should be your go-to choice. But if all you’re looking to do is remove the excess blobs of hastily applied seam sealer without disturbing the finishes underneath, then I wouldn’t recommend it. Unfortunately you’re probably better off continuing to manually scrape the offending areas with a putty knife and generous amounts of elbow grease.
As for your frame rails, I wouldn’t even bother with the Clean n Strip wheels unless there was heavy oxidation and deep pitting, I would likely go straight for the electric grinder with a nice flap wheel. It’s pretty tough to make a recommendation over the internet without seeing the areas in question in person.
Bit more progress tonight, I got the weatherstrip channel on the topside of the outer AstroRoof pan cleaned out of all the old paint and crap, and the heaviest rusted spots ground down.
Then I treated those areas with rust converter:
I applied the converter with an old toothbrush, it lets me work it into the pits and ensure thorough coverage. I treated both sides of the outer pan as well as both sides of the front reinforcement. The converter turns all the bare metal black, but where it really counts is in the deepest pitted areas that I can’t otherwise get at or do anything with.
I’ll let the rust converter dry overnight, then tomorrow I’ll sand off the excess black. I may have gotten a little carried away with applying the converter, but I didn’t want to take any chances. If it even remotely resembled a rust pit, it got a liberal coating.
Things are going pretty well so far, after thinking about it for a bit, I’m gonna drill out the spot welds on the rear reinforcement and give it the same treatment as the front one. Chances are, it probably looks the same on the underside as the front one did.
More tomorrow night.
D.
Then I treated those areas with rust converter:
I applied the converter with an old toothbrush, it lets me work it into the pits and ensure thorough coverage. I treated both sides of the outer pan as well as both sides of the front reinforcement. The converter turns all the bare metal black, but where it really counts is in the deepest pitted areas that I can’t otherwise get at or do anything with.
I’ll let the rust converter dry overnight, then tomorrow I’ll sand off the excess black. I may have gotten a little carried away with applying the converter, but I didn’t want to take any chances. If it even remotely resembled a rust pit, it got a liberal coating.
Things are going pretty well so far, after thinking about it for a bit, I’m gonna drill out the spot welds on the rear reinforcement and give it the same treatment as the front one. Chances are, it probably looks the same on the underside as the front one did.
More tomorrow night.
D.
Aaaaaaand as I suspected, the underside of the rear reinforcement and outer pan looked almost the same as the front did.
Tonight I drilled out the spot welds for the rear reinforcement and this is what was waiting underneath once I got it separated:
So, another night, another slight setback, and another repeat of what I had to do on the front. I managed to get the rear flange cleaned down to bare metal, the last of the paint and primer removed from the flat areas, and the flange treated with the converter tonight at least.
Done and treated:
Also tonight I got the excess cured rust converter (the black stuff) sanded off all the areas that didn’t need it. All that’s left on there now is whatever is in the grinder marks and rust pits, and that’s exactly what I wanted. This is the decidedly unglamorous and boring stuff that no one cares about or wants to see, but it all needs to be done.
Here’s the underside of the front reinforcement now, the excess black sanded off and ready to get epoxy coated:
And the topside of the same:
Front flange of the outer pan, all the excess removed and cleaned up as well:
That’ll about do it for this week, I might see if I can’t get more done come Saturday night if’n I’m feeling motivated. The next steps are to get the rear reinforcement cleaned up and treated, and then the rear flange can get its excess sanded off as well.
This is all painstaking and time consuming work, but it’ll be worth it to know it’s been properly treated and protected once it’s all said and done and put back together.
Thanks for checking back and following along friends.
D.
Tonight I drilled out the spot welds for the rear reinforcement and this is what was waiting underneath once I got it separated:
So, another night, another slight setback, and another repeat of what I had to do on the front. I managed to get the rear flange cleaned down to bare metal, the last of the paint and primer removed from the flat areas, and the flange treated with the converter tonight at least.
Done and treated:
Also tonight I got the excess cured rust converter (the black stuff) sanded off all the areas that didn’t need it. All that’s left on there now is whatever is in the grinder marks and rust pits, and that’s exactly what I wanted. This is the decidedly unglamorous and boring stuff that no one cares about or wants to see, but it all needs to be done.
Here’s the underside of the front reinforcement now, the excess black sanded off and ready to get epoxy coated:
And the topside of the same:
Front flange of the outer pan, all the excess removed and cleaned up as well:
That’ll about do it for this week, I might see if I can’t get more done come Saturday night if’n I’m feeling motivated. The next steps are to get the rear reinforcement cleaned up and treated, and then the rear flange can get its excess sanded off as well.
This is all painstaking and time consuming work, but it’ll be worth it to know it’s been properly treated and protected once it’s all said and done and put back together.
Thanks for checking back and following along friends.
D.
Progress is always good, it'll all be worth it when she's finished.
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Just think of all the rust hiding in low mileage undriven cars sitting in garage bubbles and museums. Surprised you aren't going to start using electrostatic coatings for the 200 year solution.
Great work as always!
Great work as always!
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