BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Hey guys, back with another brief update.
As we all know, not everything always goes according to plan. Well, check that, things RARELY go according to plan. I’m not immune to this either, it happens to me just as frequently as it does to any of you, best laid plans and intentions or not.
I’m still dorking around with this marker light patch, it’s gotta be as close to perfect as I can get it before filler work starts. In hindsight, it would appear that I kinda rushed into getting the openings for the lenses cut. Yes, I did some hammer and dolly work to get things straightened out, but I should’ve taken a bit more time and perfected it more than I had it.
I decided to do something I should’ve done to begin with, and checked the straightness with a straight edge. This immediately showed me I had some more hammer and dolly work to do, so I started there. Continually working the metal and checking the progress with the straight edge, I got it VERY close to the point where I’ll be happy with it.
Here’s a photo progression as I slide the straight edge down the panel, across the openings:
Obviously you can see that everything looks quite close and acceptable with the exception of the center divider strip. This was my worst fear, having this thin sliver of metal warp on me. And it happened just by moving the metal around it.
Once I saw it was that badly out of shape, I knew there was only going to be one way to fix it:
Cut it, straighten the strip, clamp and re-weld it.
In this next pic, you can see where I cut the strip close to the right hand side. This was intentional, I should get less warpage from the heat closer to an edge than in the middle. Once the cut was made, I straightened the strip and clamped a heavy gauge piece of scrap to the underside to give me something to gauge straightness by:
Once the welder was fired up, I tacked the long part of the strip to the scrap underneath it, then welded up the cut itself after:
This kept the strip from expanding and contracting with the heat until it was fully cooled. As a side benefit, the heavy gauge scrap piece acted as a bit of a heat sink, preventing the heat from propagating into the surrounding sheet metal.
Once cooled, I ground the weld flush and cut the weld from the scrap. A couple quick minutes with a file got things all cleaned up again. A bit more tweaking and fine tuning with the hammer and dolly again, and now it’s not only straight again, but waaaay better than I began with:
A final check with the straight edge, yup, good to go!
Filler work to commence as soon as this posts. Just goes to show, sometimes sh*t happens despite best laid plans. But with a level head and a bit of knowledge, almost anything is fixable!
D.
As we all know, not everything always goes according to plan. Well, check that, things RARELY go according to plan. I’m not immune to this either, it happens to me just as frequently as it does to any of you, best laid plans and intentions or not.
I’m still dorking around with this marker light patch, it’s gotta be as close to perfect as I can get it before filler work starts. In hindsight, it would appear that I kinda rushed into getting the openings for the lenses cut. Yes, I did some hammer and dolly work to get things straightened out, but I should’ve taken a bit more time and perfected it more than I had it.
I decided to do something I should’ve done to begin with, and checked the straightness with a straight edge. This immediately showed me I had some more hammer and dolly work to do, so I started there. Continually working the metal and checking the progress with the straight edge, I got it VERY close to the point where I’ll be happy with it.
Here’s a photo progression as I slide the straight edge down the panel, across the openings:
Obviously you can see that everything looks quite close and acceptable with the exception of the center divider strip. This was my worst fear, having this thin sliver of metal warp on me. And it happened just by moving the metal around it.
Once I saw it was that badly out of shape, I knew there was only going to be one way to fix it:
Cut it, straighten the strip, clamp and re-weld it.
In this next pic, you can see where I cut the strip close to the right hand side. This was intentional, I should get less warpage from the heat closer to an edge than in the middle. Once the cut was made, I straightened the strip and clamped a heavy gauge piece of scrap to the underside to give me something to gauge straightness by:
Once the welder was fired up, I tacked the long part of the strip to the scrap underneath it, then welded up the cut itself after:
This kept the strip from expanding and contracting with the heat until it was fully cooled. As a side benefit, the heavy gauge scrap piece acted as a bit of a heat sink, preventing the heat from propagating into the surrounding sheet metal.
Once cooled, I ground the weld flush and cut the weld from the scrap. A couple quick minutes with a file got things all cleaned up again. A bit more tweaking and fine tuning with the hammer and dolly again, and now it’s not only straight again, but waaaay better than I began with:
A final check with the straight edge, yup, good to go!
Filler work to commence as soon as this posts. Just goes to show, sometimes sh*t happens despite best laid plans. But with a level head and a bit of knowledge, almost anything is fixable!
D.
Don't be too hard on yourself. You have mad skills, and even when you found the problem, you didn't shy away from fixing it. 👍 #madrespect
It's amazing how nice those turn lights are. Did not have a set until our 2009 Touareg and perhaps it's an age thing now [surely not?] but I miss them when I get in my ole Taco Truck. It's been so long since I've driven my G-car, I've officially forgotten what that is even like? I seriously need to solve that problem. But, just have to do all Batman turns and let the headlights do the work . . .
You already know how to wire it up? Sorry if I just missed it . . .??
You already know how to wire it up? Sorry if I just missed it . . .??
Thanks Kevin!
Thanks brother. Appreciate the support and respect.
No worries Garth, but yeah, you kinda missed it.
There’s nothing to wire up, Olds Cool is a “top of the line” Cutlass Calais so it already had the cornering lights as an option. AFAIK, they all came that way when you ordered the fender mounted fibre optic indicator option. At least I’ve never seen one without the other.
I’m just flush mounting the lights it already came with.
D.
Don’t let me hijack your thread over this but my engineer brain can’t help it . . . I’ve heard in some circles this could eventually be considered an official disability 
How embarassing. There were turning lights on cars in 1980? I do NOT recall that being even an option on neither my completely loaded 77 or 84 Supreme Broughams nor did my 87 Supreme 442 even have that option. Two 90s Camry cars for the wife and a 94 Ranger and 99 Sierra for me, 2005 GMC Canyon and even our very loaded Volvo XC90 noted for their safety features . . . Notta hadda turning lights. Like I said, I was not first introduced until 2009 on the Touareg.
Was this a temp thing that was discontinued or I literally just managed to miss the option feature on every single vehicle I’ve owned for 40 years?
How embarassing. There were turning lights on cars in 1980? I do NOT recall that being even an option on neither my completely loaded 77 or 84 Supreme Broughams nor did my 87 Supreme 442 even have that option. Two 90s Camry cars for the wife and a 94 Ranger and 99 Sierra for me, 2005 GMC Canyon and even our very loaded Volvo XC90 noted for their safety features . . . Notta hadda turning lights. Like I said, I was not first introduced until 2009 on the Touareg.
Was this a temp thing that was discontinued or I literally just managed to miss the option feature on every single vehicle I’ve owned for 40 years?
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