Thank you Jared.
They're only there to hold the welding blanket in place to protect the dash and seats.
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Thank you Jared.
They're only there to hold the welding blanket in place to protect the dash and seats.
Great work and great pics. Gives me inspiration on the roof rot malibu...if I can catch a weather break.
Opie Knievel
Rum Fueled Midnight Mechanic and Moderator
Looking good Donovan. Watching your threads has definitely helped with my body work education. It's good to see you saving a car that a lot of people would have given up on. Just so you know, when I start on the metal work on my Monte Carlo you can expect to get a lot of questions from me!
It doesn't surprise me to see yet another display of top notch metal fab from Mr. Ridler himself! I know it took a few days to formulate a plan of attack, but you have nailed it yet again!
In addition to Opie, I've learned a bunch reading your well written posts, and the knowledge you share along with the other guys just cements the fact this is THE MOST AWESOMEST forum out there, hands down!!!!
In addition to Opie, I've learned a bunch reading your well written posts, and the knowledge you share along with the other guys just cements the fact this is THE MOST AWESOMEST forum out there, hands down!!!!
Thanks Scott!
I appreciate the kind words.
But man, I GOTTA meet your speech writer...
😛
After helping a buddy move all day Saturday, I got a chance to put in several quality hours on the car today.
Picking up where I last left off, I started plug welding up the holes in the lower part of the windshield channel flange. Not really much to report here, just a matter of clamping the flange to the underlying structure, cleaning out the zinc primer from the hole, and welding it up.
After that, remove the clamp and buzz the weld down flush. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The absolute worst part about working on this area however is unquestionably it's location. During the course of the test fitting and repair procedures, I've had to contort myself into some of the most awkward and uncomfortable positions to get the right angles to weld and grind. Everything from kneeling on the rear edge of the hood, to lying on my side across the dash and hood and grinding overhead . But I got it done.
The lower flange; fully welded and ground down:
Once that was done, I turned my attention to the welds between the roof skin and the vertical part of the flange where I made my seam. They got ground flush with the overlapping section of roof skin, and then the old paint near the leading edge was sanded off.
Before I can get some seam sealer in there, I have to make sure the corners are finished with all the metal work they require. This began on the passenger's side by removing the last of the brass braze and welding the overlap flush:
From there, continuing on with the passenger's side "A" pillar, I added A LOT of weld material to rebuild what was originally leaded. It's not perfectly flat like the rear corners, but it will add more strength and greatly cut down on the amount of filler required in this spot:
I'm still not quite done here just yet. Next I will have to add more weld to the inside edge of the corner, then carefully grind to match to the contour of the side windshield moulding. After that, it'll be duplicating the same process on the driver's side.
With each hour I spend, I'm steadily advancing towards completing this area. And that makes me very happy. I can't wait until I can tie a ribbon on this area and call it done, I'm so sick of it already!
That's all for now gentlemen, until next time...
Drive angry my friends!
Donovan
Picking up where I last left off, I started plug welding up the holes in the lower part of the windshield channel flange. Not really much to report here, just a matter of clamping the flange to the underlying structure, cleaning out the zinc primer from the hole, and welding it up.
After that, remove the clamp and buzz the weld down flush. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The absolute worst part about working on this area however is unquestionably it's location. During the course of the test fitting and repair procedures, I've had to contort myself into some of the most awkward and uncomfortable positions to get the right angles to weld and grind. Everything from kneeling on the rear edge of the hood, to lying on my side across the dash and hood and grinding overhead . But I got it done.
The lower flange; fully welded and ground down:
Once that was done, I turned my attention to the welds between the roof skin and the vertical part of the flange where I made my seam. They got ground flush with the overlapping section of roof skin, and then the old paint near the leading edge was sanded off.
Before I can get some seam sealer in there, I have to make sure the corners are finished with all the metal work they require. This began on the passenger's side by removing the last of the brass braze and welding the overlap flush:
From there, continuing on with the passenger's side "A" pillar, I added A LOT of weld material to rebuild what was originally leaded. It's not perfectly flat like the rear corners, but it will add more strength and greatly cut down on the amount of filler required in this spot:
I'm still not quite done here just yet. Next I will have to add more weld to the inside edge of the corner, then carefully grind to match to the contour of the side windshield moulding. After that, it'll be duplicating the same process on the driver's side.
With each hour I spend, I'm steadily advancing towards completing this area. And that makes me very happy. I can't wait until I can tie a ribbon on this area and call it done, I'm so sick of it already!
That's all for now gentlemen, until next time...
Drive angry my friends!
Donovan
I like the idea of filling the area with weld material, when I do my olds I will be filling the gaps on the front and rear pillars with lead and then finish it off with a skim coat of filler. Sadly I am better with lead work then I am welding
Thanks for the comments and "likes" everyone. It's very much appreciated!
🙂
It's been a couple of days since the last update, and to be honest, not a lot has been completed but there is a few things I feel I should probably cover.
First of all, I would like to give a huge shout out and thank you to Jared (Texas82GP) and Blake ((Blake442). These two fine gentlemen came through in spades in educating my dumb *ss as to the existence of moulding trim rivets for use with my UniSpotter, as well as posting the necessary attatchments and how to use them.
It turns out I had all the necessary parts in my kit to use them all along, and didn't even realize it!
This is the end piece that makes it possible, the trim rivet simply sits in place here, you position it wherever you need it and weld it on:
As soon as I realized the possibilities with these, and the fact that I'd need them for the back window channel, I set about to locate some.
I had a minor panic attack when my body shop supplier said she had none available, but thankfully she was able to locate some for me the very next day.
$25 for 500 rivets, that's pretty reasonable. Plus, that's roughly 480 chances to screw up and re-do them!
I've yet to test them out on a scrap piece, but I'm looking forward to doing so and using them. I may even end up grinding off some or all of the existing ones in the windshield channel and replacing them with these just so that I can thoroughly clean out all the old paint and crud from underneath them first.
On a related note, I think I'm going to make another trip back to the 442 on the weekend, this time as a reconnaissance mission. I want to remove the rear window trim from it and document exactly where the trim rivets are placed. This will ensure my trim will be held in place with the clips exactly where the engineers intended it to be.
Yep, I'm anal retentive like that!
Getting back on the car, I got the passenger's side upper windshield corner finished as far as the metal work is concerned. Basically duplicating the same process as on the rear roof, I added weld material...
...ground it flush...
...and finished the shape to match the windshield moulding:
I still have to repeat this on the driver's side, as well as adding the same ton of weld to the previously leaded area, but at least one side is done now.
Progress on the windshield channel has been painfully slow due to the difficulty of access to the area, and the fact that it's been just plain ignorant to work on. Windshield primer and urethane, seam sealer, paint and regular primer, and all the rest of the crap in there. Not to mention the rust.
To further complicate matters, I smashed my pinky finger pretty badly at work the other day (the nail is black and will probably fall off) and now even simple things like putting my gloves on is a painful procedure.
Despite my reduced capacity, I did get a little more done tonight. I got the last of the old crud and paint stripped from both "A" pillars, inside the channel and out:
The area that the base of the windshield sits on also got the same treatment:
Now I've finally got nice clean shiny virgin metal to work with!
🙂
If all goes well tonight, I should be able to make a decent dent in finishing off the driver's side "A" pillar and upper windshield corner.
That's all for now, as always thanks for following along. Your thoughts, comments and suggestions are always welcomed!
Donovan
🙂
It's been a couple of days since the last update, and to be honest, not a lot has been completed but there is a few things I feel I should probably cover.
First of all, I would like to give a huge shout out and thank you to Jared (Texas82GP) and Blake ((Blake442). These two fine gentlemen came through in spades in educating my dumb *ss as to the existence of moulding trim rivets for use with my UniSpotter, as well as posting the necessary attatchments and how to use them.
It turns out I had all the necessary parts in my kit to use them all along, and didn't even realize it!
This is the end piece that makes it possible, the trim rivet simply sits in place here, you position it wherever you need it and weld it on:
As soon as I realized the possibilities with these, and the fact that I'd need them for the back window channel, I set about to locate some.
I had a minor panic attack when my body shop supplier said she had none available, but thankfully she was able to locate some for me the very next day.
$25 for 500 rivets, that's pretty reasonable. Plus, that's roughly 480 chances to screw up and re-do them!
I've yet to test them out on a scrap piece, but I'm looking forward to doing so and using them. I may even end up grinding off some or all of the existing ones in the windshield channel and replacing them with these just so that I can thoroughly clean out all the old paint and crud from underneath them first.
On a related note, I think I'm going to make another trip back to the 442 on the weekend, this time as a reconnaissance mission. I want to remove the rear window trim from it and document exactly where the trim rivets are placed. This will ensure my trim will be held in place with the clips exactly where the engineers intended it to be.
Yep, I'm anal retentive like that!
Getting back on the car, I got the passenger's side upper windshield corner finished as far as the metal work is concerned. Basically duplicating the same process as on the rear roof, I added weld material...
...ground it flush...
...and finished the shape to match the windshield moulding:
I still have to repeat this on the driver's side, as well as adding the same ton of weld to the previously leaded area, but at least one side is done now.
Progress on the windshield channel has been painfully slow due to the difficulty of access to the area, and the fact that it's been just plain ignorant to work on. Windshield primer and urethane, seam sealer, paint and regular primer, and all the rest of the crap in there. Not to mention the rust.
To further complicate matters, I smashed my pinky finger pretty badly at work the other day (the nail is black and will probably fall off) and now even simple things like putting my gloves on is a painful procedure.
Despite my reduced capacity, I did get a little more done tonight. I got the last of the old crud and paint stripped from both "A" pillars, inside the channel and out:
The area that the base of the windshield sits on also got the same treatment:
Now I've finally got nice clean shiny virgin metal to work with!
🙂
If all goes well tonight, I should be able to make a decent dent in finishing off the driver's side "A" pillar and upper windshield corner.
That's all for now, as always thanks for following along. Your thoughts, comments and suggestions are always welcomed!
Donovan
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