Alright, how about I make up for my recent lack in updating the thread by doing 2 in 1 week?
I mentioned in the last one I had more to divulge, so here goes.
With the paint correction done on the driver’s door, I wanted to address a couple other little things down low on the driver’s side of the car. The underside of the rocker panel and the pinchweld, an area that sees considerable abuse even during normal driving, needed some attention.
It’s really difficult to get good coverage on these areas in the booth, especially when the car is lowered as Olds Cool is. You can see here how thin the coverage is:
To kill 2 birds with 1 stone, I wanted to black out this area and provide some protection at the same time. I began by removing the rocker moulding and putting the car up as high as I could on 4 jack stands.
I had also noticed that there was a bit of white overspray on the front of the frame from a little issue we had with the masking in the booth, this could get fixed now too.
Once I had it up in the air and could easily access the underside, I masked off the area and thoroughly cleaned it before scuffing with a red Scotchbrite.
I had a nearly full can of Dominion Sure Seal rocker guard coating left over from when I restored the rear wheelwells, so it got the nod for this task:
Once the rocker was wiped down and cleaned again, 2 medium thick coats were applied.
This stuff is non-catalyzed and can soften and react to road oils and chemicals, so to seal it up, I applied 2 coats of VHT Satin Black over top after waiting the 1 hour cure time.
After the VHT had dried, I carefully unmasked just enough to touch up the overspray on the front of the frame, then unmasked everything, reinstalled the moulding clips, and inspected my work. It turned out very well:
Time to reinstall the restored rocker moulding after a little cleanup of some wet sanding residue that was on it.
With that little job done and outta the way, my next focus was to finish off at least part of the door. Remember this stuff?
3M Cavity Wax and the optional applicator wand set. This would be the ideal time to tackle this. As a disclaimer, I know exactly what this stuff is and have known about it for many many years, but have never actually used it. So this was going to be a little bit of a learning experience for me as well.
I personally think this is a more than worthwhile job that nearly every G body owner should consider doing, especially given the poor water management and sealing technology these cars had back in the day. Guys, water IS gonna make its way inside your doors, doesn’t matter if it’s from a rainstorm or the car wash. It’s actually inherent in the design. That’s why it’s so critical to make sure you keep the drain holes in the bottoms of your doors clean and clear.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t add a little insurance as well.
Before attempting this, I strongly advise removing the door glass first. This not only allows better access and visibility to what you’re doing, but this stuff also has a bit of a tendency to spatter a bit which seems like it would probably be a PITA to clean off the glass.
I can hear the complaints now, “But I don’t wanna remove the glass, it’s too hard”. Waaa, boo hoo. Suck it up buttercup.
It’s actually not difficult at all, I’ve had the glass in and out of this thing several times in recent months. Here’s all you gotta do, 4 easy steps:
1) With the door panel removed, remove the middle and rear lateral glass supports.
Middle...
...Rear:
This is necessary to give room to slide the glass out.
2) Remove the front upper stop:
3) Remove the 2 nuts and the rear bracket bolted to the glass. This is mandatory, the glass WILL NOT come out with it attached.
4) Remove the 3 nuts holding the glass to the regulator, one front...
...and 2 rear:
(And yes I know I have a broken stud there, it is what it is, it’s an old car). Then simply manoeuvre the glass out, manipulating the rear out first. But that’s it, 4 easy steps. No excuse for not being able to do it.
With the glass out, get the inside of the bottom of the door as perfectly clean as you can, it’ll be your last chance. Next, choose your length of applicator wand, I used the longest of the 3 supplied in the kit. I found it gave me the flexibility and easiest way to position the tip wherever I needed it, it was long enough I was able to do nearly all of it from the top of the door through the glass opening.
One thing to note, the business end of the wand had this directional nozzle in it, and while it might be good for coating, say, the inside of a blind panel, it’s not very useful in this application.
I simply removed it until I was done, you want to be able to direct the product directly into the seam, not off to either side of it. The directions call for 2-3 light coats, but I found with the nozzle removed, the product flowed very easily and quite quickly if you got a little too heavy on the button. An extremely light touch is all that’s needed here. I tried to achieve as uniform a layer as I could, this is what it looks like when it’s applied:
The stuff is initially quite thin and runny, this is good and what we want. We want it to be able to work it’s way into and in between any cracks, crevices and voids where water can collect and sit. I applied it the full length of the bottom of the door, as well as up and down the vertical seams as far as I could reach. Apply it liberallyuntil it flows out the drain holes:
Word to the wise though, don’t do like I did and forget to put a piece of cardboard or something down under the door first. The drips out of the drain holes tend to make a bit of a mess on the floor.
And that’s it. Reinstall the glass and the door panel, and carry on with your life. But at least now you’ll have a little piece of mind that no more water and dirt is going to get in between the seams and rust out your doors (any more than they already are!)
In case you haven’t already figured out, this is a preventative maintenance measure, designed to seal off and protect the failure prone bottoms of our doors. That being said, this stuff can be periodically reapplied if and when necessary, the only word of caution is DO NOT use this on any unpainted car or panel. It’s wax, so it’ll have silicones and other non-paint-friendly things in it. Paint your stuff first, then use it.
I can’t say for sure yet, but I have my suspicions that this stuff should congeal a bit and not remain runny. I currently have the car covered up in plastic for some painting, but I will report back on this later this week.
That’s enough for now gents, in the next update I’ll reveal what I covered up the car to paint, but for now, y’all keep the shiny side up.
D.
