Yup, bottoms of my doors are on my pile now too. Only 28K, garaged 24x7, never has seen a salted street, rarely even saw rain, but the rust is peering through on both. 
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Yup, bottoms of my doors are on my pile now too. Only 28K, garaged 24x7, never has seen a salted street, rarely even saw rain, but the rust is peering through on both.
I bet I’ve still got you covered Garth.
I pulled the lower stainless trim off the bottom of the driver’s door and fender tonight, and this is what greeted me:
Surprisingly enough, after I hand wire brushed the loose crap off, the outer skin actually looks quite solid. A lot of loose stuff came off though:
So far this door appears to be at least on par with the condition that the passenger door was in before I started. It won’t be known if it’s salvageable until it comes off and a thorough evaluation of the inside edge can be made.
I’ve got 2 more spare driver’s doors in storage to choose from if this one is too far gone at least.
Yeah, that's pretty bad. Mine are just starting to bleed surface rust up underneath . . . of course, you don't really know for sure how bad it is until you get in there?
GM did squat for rust protection, pretty obvious when a 28K car that has never seen Winter is showing rot.
I would agree with that..... to a point.
Could they have done better?
Absolutely.
What everyone seems to conveniently forget however, is that we have become spoiled with the march of progress and the quality of products nowadays, and without even really realizing it.
The quality of products 30-40 years ago is/was nowhere near what we’ve come to take for granted today. GM was still painting cars with lacquer for crying out loud, and fuel injection hadn’t even become refined or mainstream yet. Yes absolutely, a new Kia has better fit and finish than our old cars ever did. But our cars weren’t computer designed on CAD/CAM software and assembled by robots down to the thousandths of an inch either.
The other thing to take into account too is, where do you stop? What I mean by this is, you can continue to make improvements in almost every aspect (paint, fit and finish, sound deadening, engine efficiency etc), but who’s gonna pay for it? There’s a reason a new Chevy doesn’t cost the same as a new Mercedes. If it did, everyone would be bitching about how expensive they’ve become.
GM knew that they weren’t trying to compete with Mercedes or any other high end brand, and drew the line where they knew they could turn a profit without excessive expenditures and still make a half decent respectable car.
No sense in bemoaning “what could have been”, what they “should have done” and criticizing the past.
Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20.
Ok, onto current affairs.
It’s been a pretty busy and productive couple of evenings. With our weather finally smartening up and returning to more seasonal temperatures, I was able to pull the car out and spin it around to tuck it up tight to The Juggernaut. This was kind of a big deal, it lets me keep rolling on this b*tch.
Yesterday night, I removed the lower stainless trim from the bottom of the door and fender...
...and got the entire rest of the rocker panel stripped, inside and out:
Tonight I dove straight back into the thick of things, and started tearing down some stuff. Marker light and bezel got removed...
...along with the stick on Rocket emblem...
The ridiculous little trim piece at the top of the fender corner, and the restored door belt moulding. I didn’t want to risk anything happening to it.
Next, the fender support rod and horns came off/out...
...along with the hood hinge:
Then it was time to remove a bunch more paint. The top of the fender got stripped down to the lower body line, and the trim hole was welded up and ground down.
Whadda ya know, I DO remember how to weld! (It’s been a while tho)
Moving back to the bottom of the fender, I stripped all the old paint from around the trim holes, and ground out some stubborn rust pits that were trying to take hold:
I’ll get these holes welded up the next chance I get, and maybe even a preliminary coat of filler.
The forecast for this weekend is looking great, I’m gonna do my best to take full advantage of it and pull the car out for a day so I can set up the hood on the stand and get the underside and edges painted.
She’s go-time now kids.
😏
It’s been a pretty busy and productive couple of evenings. With our weather finally smartening up and returning to more seasonal temperatures, I was able to pull the car out and spin it around to tuck it up tight to The Juggernaut. This was kind of a big deal, it lets me keep rolling on this b*tch.
Yesterday night, I removed the lower stainless trim from the bottom of the door and fender...
...and got the entire rest of the rocker panel stripped, inside and out:
Tonight I dove straight back into the thick of things, and started tearing down some stuff. Marker light and bezel got removed...
...along with the stick on Rocket emblem...
The ridiculous little trim piece at the top of the fender corner, and the restored door belt moulding. I didn’t want to risk anything happening to it.
Next, the fender support rod and horns came off/out...
...along with the hood hinge:
Then it was time to remove a bunch more paint. The top of the fender got stripped down to the lower body line, and the trim hole was welded up and ground down.
Whadda ya know, I DO remember how to weld! (It’s been a while tho)
Moving back to the bottom of the fender, I stripped all the old paint from around the trim holes, and ground out some stubborn rust pits that were trying to take hold:
I’ll get these holes welded up the next chance I get, and maybe even a preliminary coat of filler.
The forecast for this weekend is looking great, I’m gonna do my best to take full advantage of it and pull the car out for a day so I can set up the hood on the stand and get the underside and edges painted.
She’s go-time now kids.
😏
True and compared to the 70's GM trucks and imports, it was the ultimate in rust proofing. Carry on and give it the Donovan rust proofing.
To be fair though, GM was very happy to sit on the reliability of us wanting to buy American to no matter what they put out. I mean looking at much of what they put out after our car up until the bailout alone says a lot. As a big Pontiac fan they deserved to be put down for what they were putting out at that time, they were just starting to get good all around cars with the GTO and G8 but had to steal if from Holden. The only reason they adapted was because the masses finally got talked into buying the Toyota's and Honda's for quality and features that will last a long time. But either way, I am glad that they are all coming along with putting better quality and innovation now.
Thanks for a good writeup and photos as always Donovan. I'm assuming that you're not putting the stainless trim back on the lower part of the car, because you're welding up the holes.
I noticed a cowl induction type air cleaner assembly in one of the photos. Are you going to be putting a functional cowl induction setup on the car?
Keep up the good work and updates.
I noticed a cowl induction type air cleaner assembly in one of the photos. Are you going to be putting a functional cowl induction setup on the car?
Keep up the good work and updates.
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