Rktpwrd's "How to restore your classic car one piece at a time" tutorial never ceases to amaze. Love your OCD, makes me feel normal.
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL. Thru 12/2 Everything (Including Calendars!!) in the shop is 20% off. use code BLACKFRIDAY24.
And he plays its off like it's nothing
That fender looks great Donovan, really coming together now. The marker light mods and the W-30 badges are really going to be cool when she's all in paint!
Will file away the LED lights for the interior, got way too much to do to my 80' before I worry about those. Keep up the good work!
Will file away the LED lights for the interior, got way too much to do to my 80' before I worry about those. Keep up the good work!
Well, there’s certainly been no idle hands around here since the last update.
After finishing block sanding out the fender from last time...
...I pulled it back off and put it back on the stand to install all the freshly blasted and painted clips. While it’s off, it gives me great access to the entire driver’s side of the engine compartment. There’s been several things in this area that have been bugging me for quite some time now.
Not one to turn down a good opportunity, I rapidly dove a little deeper down the proverbial rabbit hole.
The master cylinder that I replaced a couple years ago was surface rusting because I never painted it before I installed it.
Every other time I’ve replaced a master cylinder I’ve painted it beforehand, and every time I invariably mess up the paint on it by spilling brake fluid or it develops a leak or something. So this time I didn’t paint it, and wouldn’t ya know, no issues of course.
But it’s been plenty ugly ever since.
I actually attempted to replace it with the aluminum version, but none were available that would match the bore of my newer booster, so I got stuck with a plain jane cast iron jobby.
Also very visible with the inner fenderwell off, were the areas I wasn’t able to get at when I POR15’d the frame:
Then there were the areas on the rad support that were covered up as well:
While I was prepping the master cylinder for paint, I scuffed up the dingy brake lines with some red ScotchBrite just to see if they’d clean up some. I was pleasantly surprised:
It took some doing, but I chased them all the way down to the frame, and they look a lot better IMO.
Here’s an overall view of this area of the car before I really got started. Lots of room for improvement:
Masked up and shot the master cylinder in VHT Cast Aluminum (might as well go for the “look” if I can’t have the real thing)...
...then I got after cleaning up all those ugly areas on the rad support:
By now I was already plenty deep down the aforementioned hole, so what’s a little further?
Removed, smoothed, sanded and painted the windshield wiper motor...
...redid the paint on the front of the brake booster...
...and got some paint on the rad support.
When it came time to touch up the spots on the frame with more POR15, I decided to just redo the whole area. It’ll match better, and the additional protection ain’t gonna hurt.
After the wiper motor had dried and was reinstalled, I spent some additional time cleaning up some more of the wiring at the bulkhead connector and wiper motor that I previously wasn’t able to reach.
It was starting to look a lot better already:
Only a couple things left to do now, after giving the plastic cover on the wiper motor a good cleaning, I realized I didn’t much care for the contrast in colors between the black brake booster and the grey wiper cover. It just made the cover look dingy and faded.
So out came the Bulldog adhesion promoter, and the satin black paint:
I hadn’t forgotten about the brake lines, they would need some protection now that I had scuffed them. More masking and a couple coats of VHT satin clear took care of that concern:
NOW the area was looking better!!
I rounded out Tuesday night by pulling out the door glass and wiring harness, and pulling all the hinge to body bolts but 2.
Wednesday, my dad swung by for our usual coffee and BS session visit, so before he left I got him to lend me a hand getting the driver’s door off:
Just like on the other side, it was pretty frigging ugly behind it:
Continued >>>
After finishing block sanding out the fender from last time...
...I pulled it back off and put it back on the stand to install all the freshly blasted and painted clips. While it’s off, it gives me great access to the entire driver’s side of the engine compartment. There’s been several things in this area that have been bugging me for quite some time now.
Not one to turn down a good opportunity, I rapidly dove a little deeper down the proverbial rabbit hole.
The master cylinder that I replaced a couple years ago was surface rusting because I never painted it before I installed it.
Every other time I’ve replaced a master cylinder I’ve painted it beforehand, and every time I invariably mess up the paint on it by spilling brake fluid or it develops a leak or something. So this time I didn’t paint it, and wouldn’t ya know, no issues of course.
But it’s been plenty ugly ever since.
I actually attempted to replace it with the aluminum version, but none were available that would match the bore of my newer booster, so I got stuck with a plain jane cast iron jobby.
Also very visible with the inner fenderwell off, were the areas I wasn’t able to get at when I POR15’d the frame:
Then there were the areas on the rad support that were covered up as well:
While I was prepping the master cylinder for paint, I scuffed up the dingy brake lines with some red ScotchBrite just to see if they’d clean up some. I was pleasantly surprised:
It took some doing, but I chased them all the way down to the frame, and they look a lot better IMO.
Here’s an overall view of this area of the car before I really got started. Lots of room for improvement:
Masked up and shot the master cylinder in VHT Cast Aluminum (might as well go for the “look” if I can’t have the real thing)...
...then I got after cleaning up all those ugly areas on the rad support:
By now I was already plenty deep down the aforementioned hole, so what’s a little further?
Removed, smoothed, sanded and painted the windshield wiper motor...
...redid the paint on the front of the brake booster...
...and got some paint on the rad support.
When it came time to touch up the spots on the frame with more POR15, I decided to just redo the whole area. It’ll match better, and the additional protection ain’t gonna hurt.
After the wiper motor had dried and was reinstalled, I spent some additional time cleaning up some more of the wiring at the bulkhead connector and wiper motor that I previously wasn’t able to reach.
It was starting to look a lot better already:
Only a couple things left to do now, after giving the plastic cover on the wiper motor a good cleaning, I realized I didn’t much care for the contrast in colors between the black brake booster and the grey wiper cover. It just made the cover look dingy and faded.
So out came the Bulldog adhesion promoter, and the satin black paint:
I hadn’t forgotten about the brake lines, they would need some protection now that I had scuffed them. More masking and a couple coats of VHT satin clear took care of that concern:
NOW the area was looking better!!
I rounded out Tuesday night by pulling out the door glass and wiring harness, and pulling all the hinge to body bolts but 2.
Wednesday, my dad swung by for our usual coffee and BS session visit, so before he left I got him to lend me a hand getting the driver’s door off:
Just like on the other side, it was pretty frigging ugly behind it:
Continued >>>
After a couple hours of work, it doesn’t even look like the same area!! It actually came back really nice.
After a couple hours today, I had trimmed off ugly overlapping edges, pared down the wiper motor support bracket, and removed the last of the old paint, seam sealer, and rusty areas. Then I brushed on some of my rust converter concoction in the areas that I knew were troublesome. Mostly around the seams.
With the door off now, I was finally able to give it a good evaluation. I aggressively poked at it with a sharp scribe, and wasn’t able to find any soft spots. However, the juice required to resurrect it from it’s current state may not be worth the squeeze.
It’s not in the greatest condition:
I have two other doors in storage that I can swap it out for, I just need to get them in for re-evaluation. They very well might require less work.
What say you guys? Should I bother to put in the effort to save this door and keep all the panels original to the car, or take the potentially easy road and swap it out if one of the other ones are in better shape?
That’s everything for now, tomorrow evening after Mike’s place, I’m gonna try and get the rust converter sanded down and epoxy brushed in the seams. Then Monday night I should be able to get the new seam sealer applied.
Paint in the jamb area isn’t too far off fellas.
😏
Till next time, keep the shiny side up.
D.
After a couple hours today, I had trimmed off ugly overlapping edges, pared down the wiper motor support bracket, and removed the last of the old paint, seam sealer, and rusty areas. Then I brushed on some of my rust converter concoction in the areas that I knew were troublesome. Mostly around the seams.
With the door off now, I was finally able to give it a good evaluation. I aggressively poked at it with a sharp scribe, and wasn’t able to find any soft spots. However, the juice required to resurrect it from it’s current state may not be worth the squeeze.
It’s not in the greatest condition:
I have two other doors in storage that I can swap it out for, I just need to get them in for re-evaluation. They very well might require less work.
What say you guys? Should I bother to put in the effort to save this door and keep all the panels original to the car, or take the potentially easy road and swap it out if one of the other ones are in better shape?
That’s everything for now, tomorrow evening after Mike’s place, I’m gonna try and get the rust converter sanded down and epoxy brushed in the seams. Then Monday night I should be able to get the new seam sealer applied.
Paint in the jamb area isn’t too far off fellas.
😏
Till next time, keep the shiny side up.
D.
Problem is...you paint the top, and the inside, and the bottom. With you, the upside is always shiny. 🤔
I would evaluate the other 2 doors you have first and then make a decision as to which of the 3 is the best candidate for restoration. No reason to spend a lot of time and effort on a part when you potentially have a better starting point.
Hate to say your original doors are in better shape than last two pairs of doors I had on my Monte. Still interested in seeing your magic working on them.
BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL. Thru 12/2 Everything (Including Calendars!!) in the shop is 20% off. use code BLACKFRIDAY24.
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