looks great, as always! can't wait to see in it's new coat of paint!
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Considering the before and after, I am almost sorry to see it covered up . . . 
Thanks Dave!
It may look easy seeing finished pictures, but as with most things, it's usually not.
All things considered tho, this side did go the easiest. Having the donor patch really helped with that.
Maybe on another car, on another day, on a different style build.
But not on this one. I've already got the vision of the end result in my head, and I'm excited to make it happen.
Plus, there's already a dude in my city with a convertible Mach 1 Mustang that's done the clearcoat over bare metal thing, showcasing his metal fab skills. It's been his claim to fame since he finished it, and I don't want to be accused of copying him.
Thanks Eric.
It is a good feeling indeed. I don't know about "blowing" through the filler work, but I am committed and won't stop until it's right!
Sanding the bare metal or profiling it?
If I'm just "sanding" it, it's with 80 grit on an air powered DA sander.
If I'm profiling the metal (i.e preparing it for filler to stick), I use an 8" 40 grit disc on my "big wheel".
Thanks my friend!
I can't wait to see it either. I've still got a ton of work ahead of me before I get to that point, but I'll just continue to keep whittling away at it. As long as it's ready before spring next year, I'll be happy!
You bet Opie. It's nice to have it completed, but in all honesty I'd rather be able to keep doing metal work rather than what's next. Body filler, dust, sweat, the mess all suck.
Lol. But it's a necessary evil, and I'm determined to see it through.
Thanks for checking in on things!
Ditto Darin! I can't wait either.
Stay tuned and follow its journey to that point!
Considering the before and after, I am almost sorry to see it covered up . . .
Thanks Canon!
It definitely has come a long ways already. It's just nice to see solid metal back in place after looking at those eyesore rust holes for so long.
But no more!
Update to follow...
Hey bro sorry... I think your unfinished metal work looks better than some "professional" finished paint jobs we've all seen.
Donovan ,
thinking your winter storage this coming winter will have to be different than last winter...........No worries . I will fly out, drive it to my place for storage ......no charge.
no need to thank me , just hand me the keys
Dave
thinking your winter storage this coming winter will have to be different than last winter...........No worries . I will fly out, drive it to my place for storage ......no charge.
no need to thank me , just hand me the keys
Dave
No apologies necessary man! If my reply came across as brisk, that was not my intention. I just meant to say that it's a cool idea and looks great done properly, but it doesn't really fit the bill on this one.
I thank you profusely for the compliment, I'm truly flattered that you think that highly of my metal work. Thank you!
I definitely agree, we've all seen so called "professional" paint jobs that leave much to be desired. And that's as nicely as I can put that.
Lol
It is a tough gig tho, it takes a lot of time, effort and skill to nail down a beautiful paint and body job. It's become painfully obvious lately that it's been a long while since I've done any of it on this big a scale, so hopefully I can still pull it off!
Ahhh Dave, you're all heart man. How can I ever thank you?
😉
Yep, I'm inclined to agree with you, I have a sneaking suspicion that Olds Cool will reside here in the shop over the winter. Not by choice mind you, I'd love to have it done to the point where it doesn't have to be inside, but I've got an awful lot of work yet to be done, and that I want to accomplish before next season.
The Juggernaut may need to take a back seat to this one this winter, but short term pain for long term gain. We'll see how it all plays out. With any luck maybe I can squeeze in progress on both.
Man, no flack here. Im just waiting for another update. I've told numerous people in my life about the work I've seen on this thread and go on this site the last couple months sometimes just to see what's going on here. People think I'm crazy
Trainees trying out for Navy Seals have to endure something they call "Hell Week".
I am in no way comparing myself to those tough SOB's, however I've been going through my own "Hell Week" here myself.
So, in the week since my last update I've started in on the filler work.
In a big way.
I'll get to the pics and descriptions here in a sec, but I just wanted to say this first:
Having the AstroRoof stamped in the middle of the roof has sure had some weird effects on the straightness of the roof. This roof is wavy as hell, and very little of it is or was related to my repairs. In fact, this roof has more waves in it than a Hawaiian surf competition!
😕
There are strange high spots in weird places, and the edges around the AstroRoof opening are much flatter than the surrounding areas. This all adds up to a very challenging surface to try and get perfectly flat and straight.
I attribute it to the poor stamping practices of the time, I can think of nothing else that would create these weird characteristics. I can certainly see why they painted this one white and slapped a vinyl roof on it. Far cheaper to cover up all the sins than to try and fix them/make them acceptable.
As for my "Hell Week", it's been just that. In the last week I've created and eaten/breathed in more dust than I care to admit. It's hard work blocking out such a large flat surface, I've been drinking nearly an entire 2L bottle of water every time and sweating most of it back out again.
In the mornings I ache. Everywhere.
The back from leaning over at weird angles, my arms from the long blocking strokes, even my legs from keeping my balance on step stools and the floor inside the car.
Anyways, you get the point, so I'll stop my complaining. It's hard work.
It took me 4 full days alone to get just the large flat area of the roof from the back window to the AstroRoof opening blocked out and straight, and finished in 120 grit.
I started off all the filler work by filling the roof seams with short strand fibreglass filler and blocking them out, but I didn't see the point of taking any pics. It's just the foundation before body filler anyways. You can see them done in some of the following pics.
This was the first full application of filler on the roof:
And yes, I know what you're thinking.
"Damn D, that's a LOT of filler!!"
And you'd be right. But before y'all start flaming me for having a "bondo bucket", or other such terms, this is the correct way to do a large flat panel.
A common mistake that many novices make is trying to fill many small areas and sand each one individually. This doesn't work, this just creates waves in the final product. You have to skim the ENTIRE area, then block it all out as one. The filler will stay in the low areas, and will get removed from the high ones.
As bad as it looks to have that much filler spread across the roof, keep in mind 90% of it gets sanded off and ends up on the floor. In fact I've become very proficient at turning large quantities of expensive product into worthless dust!
Lol
Anyways, back to some pics. Most of these are just "in progress" pics, usually taken at the end of a fairly substantial step.
These were after the above application was finish sanded in 40 grit:
As you can see, it creates quite the mess!
After that step, the area was blocked out in 80 grit to remove the 40 grit scratches, but this left the area slightly low.
Time for an application of glazing putty. The putty serves several purposes, it fills any pinholes in the underlying filler, adds a thin skim coat, and provides a finer, smoother easier sanding surface prior to primer.
Again, ya gotta skim the whole area:
The masking paper covering the back window is to keep any drips or spillage from getting into the window channel areas and off the window itself. The putty is quite a bit more runny than the filler, so I didn't want to take any chances.
This is the back part of the roof now completely blocked out and flat, finished in 120 grit.
It still looks thick, but as you can tell by the bare metal areas, it's actually pretty thin. I can't sand any more off, or I'll get into low areas and will create waves. It took 4 days just to get to this point.
Continued >>>
I am in no way comparing myself to those tough SOB's, however I've been going through my own "Hell Week" here myself.
So, in the week since my last update I've started in on the filler work.
In a big way.
I'll get to the pics and descriptions here in a sec, but I just wanted to say this first:
Having the AstroRoof stamped in the middle of the roof has sure had some weird effects on the straightness of the roof. This roof is wavy as hell, and very little of it is or was related to my repairs. In fact, this roof has more waves in it than a Hawaiian surf competition!
😕
There are strange high spots in weird places, and the edges around the AstroRoof opening are much flatter than the surrounding areas. This all adds up to a very challenging surface to try and get perfectly flat and straight.
I attribute it to the poor stamping practices of the time, I can think of nothing else that would create these weird characteristics. I can certainly see why they painted this one white and slapped a vinyl roof on it. Far cheaper to cover up all the sins than to try and fix them/make them acceptable.
As for my "Hell Week", it's been just that. In the last week I've created and eaten/breathed in more dust than I care to admit. It's hard work blocking out such a large flat surface, I've been drinking nearly an entire 2L bottle of water every time and sweating most of it back out again.
In the mornings I ache. Everywhere.
The back from leaning over at weird angles, my arms from the long blocking strokes, even my legs from keeping my balance on step stools and the floor inside the car.
Anyways, you get the point, so I'll stop my complaining. It's hard work.
It took me 4 full days alone to get just the large flat area of the roof from the back window to the AstroRoof opening blocked out and straight, and finished in 120 grit.
I started off all the filler work by filling the roof seams with short strand fibreglass filler and blocking them out, but I didn't see the point of taking any pics. It's just the foundation before body filler anyways. You can see them done in some of the following pics.
This was the first full application of filler on the roof:
And yes, I know what you're thinking.
"Damn D, that's a LOT of filler!!"
And you'd be right. But before y'all start flaming me for having a "bondo bucket", or other such terms, this is the correct way to do a large flat panel.
A common mistake that many novices make is trying to fill many small areas and sand each one individually. This doesn't work, this just creates waves in the final product. You have to skim the ENTIRE area, then block it all out as one. The filler will stay in the low areas, and will get removed from the high ones.
As bad as it looks to have that much filler spread across the roof, keep in mind 90% of it gets sanded off and ends up on the floor. In fact I've become very proficient at turning large quantities of expensive product into worthless dust!
Lol
Anyways, back to some pics. Most of these are just "in progress" pics, usually taken at the end of a fairly substantial step.
These were after the above application was finish sanded in 40 grit:
As you can see, it creates quite the mess!
After that step, the area was blocked out in 80 grit to remove the 40 grit scratches, but this left the area slightly low.
Time for an application of glazing putty. The putty serves several purposes, it fills any pinholes in the underlying filler, adds a thin skim coat, and provides a finer, smoother easier sanding surface prior to primer.
Again, ya gotta skim the whole area:
The masking paper covering the back window is to keep any drips or spillage from getting into the window channel areas and off the window itself. The putty is quite a bit more runny than the filler, so I didn't want to take any chances.
This is the back part of the roof now completely blocked out and flat, finished in 120 grit.
It still looks thick, but as you can tell by the bare metal areas, it's actually pretty thin. I can't sand any more off, or I'll get into low areas and will create waves. It took 4 days just to get to this point.
Continued >>>
Last edited:
Once the back part of the roof was done, my OCD had its first revolt.
The dust and mess was already so bad, I had a fine layer of it on every single surface in the garage. I was even starting to track it into the house.
So Wednesday evening I pulled the car out and gave it and the garage a thorough blow out and cleaning. My dust pan holds something like 1 gallon, and it was full and overflowing just from the dust on the floor. Blowing the car out outside resulted in a dust storm that looked like something was on fire! Bet my neighbors were real impressed.
😎
Once I had the shop cleaned back up to an operational state, I started in on the next area of the roof. This was the front section from the windshield to the front of the AstroRoof opening. After more skimming and blocking, the dust resumed.
Thankfully, things started to move along at a little more rapid pace. I got the entire front section done Wednesday night. Much less surface area to deal with.
Tonight I resumed work, this time on the driver's side, connecting the two areas. Again, another good night, I managed to complete this area and get it blended into the other two fairly easily.
The following pics are a "walk around", taken at different angles so you get a 360 degree view:
The goal was to try to get the filler work on the horizontal part of the roof done by the end of the week. I have obligations tomorrow night, so I didn't quite meet that goal. But I came pretty damn close. If I had one more night, I would've gotten it done.
As it stands now, all that remains is this area on the passenger's side:
Here's one last pic, showing the extent of the mess, a mere one day after my big cleanup!
😱
I can tell you this: the first guy that comes along and tells me I painted it white so my bodywork didn't have to be spot on is gonna get popped in the mouth!
Also, now you have an idea why paint jobs are so expensive and take so long. Give your bodyman a break, and maybe even a pat on the back. It'll be much more appreciated than riding his *ss!
Lol
That's all for now guys, I feel I'm moving along at a pretty good pace now. Once the horizontal part of the roof is done, I'll move onto the edges which will take me into the sail panels as well.
I'll be extremely happy once the body filler step is done and I can get this part of it into high build primer surfacer.
Thanks for all your comments and support everyone. As always, I really appreciate it. Thanks for checking back.
Donovan
The dust and mess was already so bad, I had a fine layer of it on every single surface in the garage. I was even starting to track it into the house.
So Wednesday evening I pulled the car out and gave it and the garage a thorough blow out and cleaning. My dust pan holds something like 1 gallon, and it was full and overflowing just from the dust on the floor. Blowing the car out outside resulted in a dust storm that looked like something was on fire! Bet my neighbors were real impressed.
😎
Once I had the shop cleaned back up to an operational state, I started in on the next area of the roof. This was the front section from the windshield to the front of the AstroRoof opening. After more skimming and blocking, the dust resumed.
Thankfully, things started to move along at a little more rapid pace. I got the entire front section done Wednesday night. Much less surface area to deal with.
Tonight I resumed work, this time on the driver's side, connecting the two areas. Again, another good night, I managed to complete this area and get it blended into the other two fairly easily.
The following pics are a "walk around", taken at different angles so you get a 360 degree view:
The goal was to try to get the filler work on the horizontal part of the roof done by the end of the week. I have obligations tomorrow night, so I didn't quite meet that goal. But I came pretty damn close. If I had one more night, I would've gotten it done.
As it stands now, all that remains is this area on the passenger's side:
Here's one last pic, showing the extent of the mess, a mere one day after my big cleanup!
😱
I can tell you this: the first guy that comes along and tells me I painted it white so my bodywork didn't have to be spot on is gonna get popped in the mouth!
Also, now you have an idea why paint jobs are so expensive and take so long. Give your bodyman a break, and maybe even a pat on the back. It'll be much more appreciated than riding his *ss!
Lol
That's all for now guys, I feel I'm moving along at a pretty good pace now. Once the horizontal part of the roof is done, I'll move onto the edges which will take me into the sail panels as well.
I'll be extremely happy once the body filler step is done and I can get this part of it into high build primer surfacer.
Thanks for all your comments and support everyone. As always, I really appreciate it. Thanks for checking back.
Donovan
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