BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Was a pretty busy night in the Skunkworks tonight, but not much was actually done on the car. I spent most of the evening cleaning up the disaster that used to be my shop.
Cleaned up the pounds of filler dust on the floor, got ruthless chucking old crap out of my fire cabinet to make room for all the paints and supplies I’ve acquired lately, and got rid of the nasty old plastic on the car. Then I opened the big door and gave the place a thorough going over with the air hose and blow gun. It’s amazing the amount of dust I blew outta there.
It ain’t perfect by a long shot, but it’s a damn sight better than it was. At least I can see the floor again.
I didn’t really feel like masking up the door and futzing around with new plastic on the car, so instead I decided to get some of the parts together that’ll need sand blasting soon.
With how rough most of Olds Cool has been up to this point, I figured the hinges for the driver’s door off of the old Brown Bomber parts car would probably be in better shape. So I dug those outta storage, then realized I’d have to pull the original hinges off the old door anyways, because I’d need the bolts for blasting as well. Good thing I did, because upon comparing the two upper hinges...
....it was immediately easy to tell that the main pin and roller on Olds Cool’s hinge was in much better condition!
Olds Cool’s main pin and roller:
Versus the Brown Bomber’s pin and roller:
The stubby little secondary pins visible below the rollers are both equally hammered and cocked, but that should be a pretty easy fix once I’ve got it apart. Speaking of taking them apart, I used to have the proper spring compressor/removal tool once upon a time a long time ago, but it’s since grown legs and wandered off. I’m gonna have to go buy a new one for that little endeavour.
With that sorted and loaded into a box for now, I also realized that the latch mechanism would need blasting and painting too, just like the other side last year. So a couple of whacks with my impact screwdriver got the screws loosened up and out it came too:
As a final little project for the evening, I pulled the driver’s side wiring out of the accordian boot and gave it a thorough scrub and cleaning in the sink. That cleaned it up a little bit, but it was still in pretty sad shape thanks to all the overspray from the previous paint job.
Thankfully I know that regular old lacquer thinner does a really nice job of cleaning up rubber. A few minutes of cleaning with the thinner on a clean new rag got it looking like brand new again:
I know it wasn’t much tonight, but at some point the niggling little details have to be addressed too. Maybe tomorrow night I’ll feel motivated to start masking up the door and prepping the shop for spraying again.
Till then,
D.
Cleaned up the pounds of filler dust on the floor, got ruthless chucking old crap out of my fire cabinet to make room for all the paints and supplies I’ve acquired lately, and got rid of the nasty old plastic on the car. Then I opened the big door and gave the place a thorough going over with the air hose and blow gun. It’s amazing the amount of dust I blew outta there.
It ain’t perfect by a long shot, but it’s a damn sight better than it was. At least I can see the floor again.
I didn’t really feel like masking up the door and futzing around with new plastic on the car, so instead I decided to get some of the parts together that’ll need sand blasting soon.
With how rough most of Olds Cool has been up to this point, I figured the hinges for the driver’s door off of the old Brown Bomber parts car would probably be in better shape. So I dug those outta storage, then realized I’d have to pull the original hinges off the old door anyways, because I’d need the bolts for blasting as well. Good thing I did, because upon comparing the two upper hinges...
....it was immediately easy to tell that the main pin and roller on Olds Cool’s hinge was in much better condition!
Olds Cool’s main pin and roller:
Versus the Brown Bomber’s pin and roller:
The stubby little secondary pins visible below the rollers are both equally hammered and cocked, but that should be a pretty easy fix once I’ve got it apart. Speaking of taking them apart, I used to have the proper spring compressor/removal tool once upon a time a long time ago, but it’s since grown legs and wandered off. I’m gonna have to go buy a new one for that little endeavour.
With that sorted and loaded into a box for now, I also realized that the latch mechanism would need blasting and painting too, just like the other side last year. So a couple of whacks with my impact screwdriver got the screws loosened up and out it came too:
As a final little project for the evening, I pulled the driver’s side wiring out of the accordian boot and gave it a thorough scrub and cleaning in the sink. That cleaned it up a little bit, but it was still in pretty sad shape thanks to all the overspray from the previous paint job.
Thankfully I know that regular old lacquer thinner does a really nice job of cleaning up rubber. A few minutes of cleaning with the thinner on a clean new rag got it looking like brand new again:
I know it wasn’t much tonight, but at some point the niggling little details have to be addressed too. Maybe tomorrow night I’ll feel motivated to start masking up the door and prepping the shop for spraying again.
Till then,
D.
I was a few weeks behind but, WOW! Great work, as always. No grass grows under your feet.
Donovan I was going to ask you about door gaps. considering that you grabbed a different door for driver's side, aren't you concerned that gap might be off a little? Just going by my car the driver side is larger than passenger side by a noticable amount. Either GM fitment or maybe past accident. Don't know
Wow. Just wow! I'm taking the lazy way out. All those cruddy parts you're cleaning up- I just have to dig into a box of NOS goodies for those, wash and paint.
That rubber conduit is p/n 20000072. Need 2 per car. They use plugs if you don't have power anything. 78-88 A/G, and 77 B body.
The door locks are 20293612 for RH, 20293613 for LH (78-88) and any comparable supersession numbers. Can still get LH from GM with p/n 16608235. RH discontinued but it was 16608234.
20009522 is 78-80 A body lower hinge, 2 per car. 2 door 81-88 uses 20323900. Upper hinge is 20323894 for RH and 20569461 for LH, 78-88 A/G. And comparable supersession numbers. (like 20569460 for RH and the same 20569461 for LH)
That rubber conduit is p/n 20000072. Need 2 per car. They use plugs if you don't have power anything. 78-88 A/G, and 77 B body.
The door locks are 20293612 for RH, 20293613 for LH (78-88) and any comparable supersession numbers. Can still get LH from GM with p/n 16608235. RH discontinued but it was 16608234.
20009522 is 78-80 A body lower hinge, 2 per car. 2 door 81-88 uses 20323900. Upper hinge is 20323894 for RH and 20569461 for LH, 78-88 A/G. And comparable supersession numbers. (like 20569460 for RH and the same 20569461 for LH)
I just wanna say thanks for documenting your build(s). This thread is invaluable to people like me. The detail and explanation of the process is top notch. It took me a couple weeks to get caught up. I have question regarding the 3m clean n strip wheels. I can only find black ones locally. Is there a difference between black and purple? The black works great it just burns up so fast. Thanks
Thank you sir. I’ve been admiring the work you’re doing on your little import wagon as well. Gonna be a shame to sell it, but I understand.
As far as no grass growing under my feet, I’m feeling my self imposed time crunch a little bit. I’m behind schedule if you compare where I was at this point last year, so that’s what’s keeping me grinding hard lately. I REALLY want to get the car in color by late spring at the latest.
But of course, I’m still not willing to sacrifice quality at the expense of meeting an arbitrary deadline.
😐
those black wheels are mostly glue so they come apart quickly.if you can see light through the wheel they're cheap.check out the orange norton beast tex rapid strip discs.i use them @work and they're good product.
Is it a concern? Sure. It always is when you start swapping non-original body panels. But ya gotta do the best you can and align them with what ya got.
Look at it this way: Would you refuse to shower just because you’re having a “great hair day”?? Of course not. All you can do is hope you get your hair looking as good (or better) than it did before your shower. Personally, I’m terribly over-anal retentive when it comes to panel gaps. They’ve gotta be as close to perfect as I can get or it eats at me. On The Juggernaut, I welded and filed all the gaps to within 30 thou, but this isn’t that kinda build. I’ll just get them as best I can with what GM gave me to work with.
The real saving grace believe it or not, is that both the door and fender are off at the same time. This means I can move and shim them around till my heart’s content, or at least until they look half decent. If your panel gaps are off, there’s nothing keeping you from adjusting them to look better. Your time is all it costs.
Ahh yes, but not everybody wants to buy the same car twice over, with the second one being at 150% markup from vendors on ebay.
😉
That’s why it’s called a “restoration” Mike, and not a “replacementication”.
🤣🤣🤣
I’m perfectly fine with bringing original items back to life with a lil elbow grease, rather than replacing everything.
And thanks for all those invaluable part numbers, once again you blow my mind with that info!
🤯
Last edited:
Similar threads
