BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)

[Rktpwrd]

Very nice a detailed repair Donavan, as usual. I'm glad to see someone doing detailed write ups using the panel bond.

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Thanks Jim.
Yeah, you don't see a lot of people documenting using the panel bond, but it's pretty easy really. Which probably explains why.

In the limited number of times I've used it, it's always worked well. I really think this is the best way to repair this particular area.

Nice to see you on here a little more regularly again, and the wagon is looking amazing my friend! Great job. Can't wait to see you be able to start enjoying it!

Thanks for the bodywork tip! I think I have most of that stuff at home already.

No problem Mike. You're quite welcome.
Like I said before, I'll document that process too when I get there, so if you have any questions then, don't hesitate to ask.

Amazing work, does make me thankful that my Olds has no rust. Wish I was this good at repairs!

Thanks for the compliment!
Those of you that have cars that are rust free are lucky - and probably shrinking!
I wouldn't hesitate to guess there are probably more G's out there with rust issues in one form or another than not.
That's one of the reasons I'm going thru the effort to document these repairs on here. If it can help even one or two people with fixing theirs, I feel like I've given back to the G body community that's helped me out so much.

Thanks very much for commenting on the car and progress.
It's much appreciated!

Donovan

 

[liquidh8]

Donavan, I've been super busy as of late with the land purchase, and trying to get my existing house finished so I can sell. I try and get on as much as I can. And thanks for the compliments on the wagon, it's been along time coming, and I'm not getting any younger.

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[Rktpwrd]

Ok guys, I've given you all a couple days break from my updates, but I haven't exactly rested on my laurels during that time.

We've got a lot to go through and cover here again, so top up your Sunday morning coffee, and get comfortable!

When I last left off, I had just bonded the patch panel to the roof skin for good, had all the Clecos installed, and left it to cure for its 24 hour period. That was Wednesday night.

Thursday, it was still a little too early in the evening to pull the Clecos just yet, so I decided to do some more clean up on the driver's side "B" pillar and sail panel.
I didn't take any "before" pics, but there were a few rust pits that weren't removed with 80 grit sanding on the DA above the quarter window. Also, more concerning, I found some significant rust under the seam sealer on the drip rail above the quarter window too.

I was fortunate tho, as after I cleaned out the old seam sealer and the bulk of the loose rust and crud, the leftover rust was actually easily removed with the edge of the cutoff wheel on my die grinder. I just used light pressure, and used it like a really thin grinding disc.
The rust pitting above the quarter window came out as well, with a little effort using a 3" 36 grit disc on my air angle grinder.

Here's the end result:

From there, I moved onto removing the paint and more small surface rust pits on the ledge in front of the quarter window.

Here's something curious for you all:
This was a factory vinyl roof car, it was not done aftermarket or at a dealer.
The passenger's side "B" pillar has the two holes necessary to attach the trim used with the vinyl roof option...

... yet the driver's side only has (and has ever had!) one hole for the same?

You think maybe quality control wasn't what it is nowadays back then?
😕

I also spent a little bit of time stripping the paint and primer off of the "B" pillar:

By this time, I was safely past the 24 hour curing period for the panel bond, so I pulled all the Clecos. Believe it or not, due to either good planning, execution, or simply good luck, not one Cleco gave me difficulty coming out, or even had any adhesive on it!
🙂

Here's what it looked like after the Clecos came out:

With them out of the way, I could start preparing the surface for sanding. I first removed my writings denoting "passenger's" and "driver's" sides written in Sharpie with some lacquer thinner. This is a fairly important step. I've seen Sharpie marks bleed through primer and sometimes even paint before.

A good cleaning with wax and grease remover followed, then the mill scale and excess adhesive was sanded off.

Starting to look better now:

This concluded the time I had to spend on it Thursday night.

Continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

I relaxed, and took Friday night off, as well as most of Saturday.

I did however, pick up a couple supplies from my paint and body distributor Friday afternoon after work, and some sound deadening sheets and a roller from the speed shop today.

Tonight, I was ready to dive headfirst into it again. I knew the next step would be to weld up the holes for the Clecos, so I started by doing some prep for the hot work:

Spark and welding guard paper on the back window...

...and a welding blanket on the floor inside the car in case I got any wayward slag.

On a quick safety note, I have fire extinguishers mounted on both sides of the big door...

...as well as beside the man door.

I nearly died years ago working on a car in my parents garage when I had a mishap with an electric fuel pump powered by a battery charger, and a fuel leak.
The resulting fire was scary enough, but it wasn't until much later, cleaning out the trunk, that I realized the gas tank was probably mere moments from exploding. It had swollen up like a balloon, and was about to split at the seams.
If that had've let go while I was still in the garage, it would've levelled the garage, and killed me with it.

Needless to say, I take nothing for granted anymore, and am a lot more safety conscious these days.
Be safe guys!

Back to the project:
I set up the welder, and made a couple test welds on the holes closest to the outside of the car.
This was the first attempt, not enough heat, and too much wire speed. Looks like bird poop.

After adjusting the settings, the next one was slightly better, but not much. The heat was better, but the wire speed was still a little fast.

Adjusted it one more time, moved into the car, and hit the first one in the center:

Perfect. Got it dialed in bang on.
Working slowly and carefully cooling my welds with the air gun, I worked side to side from the center out, until all the holes were closed up.
A few gave me a little trouble due to contamination from the panel bond, but most of them turned out fantastic:

Here's the entire thing, now fully welded:

Continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

It's probably been a while since you guys have seen the car from a distance, as most of the pics have been close ups.
Here's a look at the car with all my welding gear still on it:

The next step was to knock all the welds down flush. The 3" 36 grit disc on the air angle grinder made slick work of this.

With that done, and no more welding to do here, it was time to start prepping the surfaces for the initial coat of filler. I will be using All Metal for the first skim, but I'm not sure about the compatibility or adhesion to the small bits of panel bond that had squeezed out. So I decided to follow the old philosophy, "if in doubt, grind it out!"
Here's some of the small areas of panel bond that I'm referring to, previously sanded flush:

Again using the cutoff wheel on my die grinder, I removed all the remaining panel bond. I ground the areas that didn't have panel bond on them too, as the additional profiling of the metal will help with adhesion when the first coat of filler goes on.

A close up of the area after grinding:

This procedure was carried out the entire perimeter of the patch. When it was completed, it looked like this:

Once the perimeters of the patch were done, I profiled the remaining surface within the patch. This profiling procedure is important too, if the surface is too smooth, the filler won't stick to it. To profile the surface, I just roughed it up with the 36 grit disc.

Continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

Next up, but still along the lines of preparing for filler, I had some spider tracking traces of rust that didn't sand out with the 80 grit either. It's a bit tough to see in the pics, but I didn't want to take any chances with risking having this come back, or get worse and come through the new paint. They had to go.

Continuing to use the 36 grit disc, I carefully and methodically ground all traces of the pits out. Thankfully they were just slightly deeper than surface, and came out without too much effort. I always prefer to mechanically or physically remove rust whenever I can. I just don't trust the snake oils on the market that claim they convert rust, neutralize it, etc etc.

Once those problem areas had been addressed, I profiled the entire rest of the roof with my big 8" air grinder, and a 40 grit disc.

The back half of the roof now fully profiled:

Finally, filler time!
Mixing up a healthy batch of All Metal, I applied it, making especially sure to work it into the seams of the patch, with no voids or air pockets.

Once I was sure the seams were adequately addressed, I gave the entire area a fairly smooth finish in a couple long passes.

And there we go. No more visible patch! It's already dry as I write this, but tomorrow morning, I will jump back in and block it out. It will then stay like that until the rest of the cutting and welding processes are done. Then I'll concentrate on all the actual body work at the same time.

Hopefully you guys are enjoying following along.

Thanks for checking back, the next update likely to follow later tonight.

Donovan

 

[84dragcutlass]

Ive been working 80 hr weeks and I tell ya the best thing about being up at 2 in the morning is getting to read the new posts during my first 4 hours at work lol

 

[liquidh8]

Awesome b progress! It looks great Donovan.
I too prefer to sand, grind, or cut out rust.

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[Texas82GP]

Fantastic work Donovan. I really enjoyed reading the update. I take it there was zero distortion from the welding?

 

[DRIVEN]

Excellent as always.