BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
seems like everything on that has been an uphill struggle.... I think that's why I'm not looking forward to separating the body this winter...
Car looks great. I've always struggled to like the '80s but you're winning me over. Maybe it's the wheels. No, it's everything. You're nailing it. Again.
Thank you very much! Coming from a fellow ‘78-79-80 Cutlass owner, I’m very flattered!
Of course, if you ever wanted to trade me for that beautiful grandpa one of yours...
😉
Say, are you still thinking about a set of N78’s? I happen to know of where there’s a set...
I'm always kind of on the lookout but unless they were local I'm guessing they might not be too affordable for something that would likely just hide in the attic.
Hi Donovan.
Hope things are alright over there in Calgary? Any updates?
Hope things are alright over there in Calgary? Any updates?
Hey Kevin, I’m doing well. Thanks for asking!
You caught me just as I was doing an update, see below.
🙂
I haven’t posted any updates here in a few weeks now, and as some of you may know, that often means I’ve been busy on the car.
To quickly bring everyone back up to speed, in the previous couple updates I had decided to remove the quarter extensions, taillights, and rear bumper to gain better access to the backside and eliminate some surface rust that was appearing around the edges before it got any worse.
Well, I decided to chase that particular rabbit a little farther down the hole.
In addition to removing that stuff, I also stripped off the license plate filler panel, wiring, and anything else that could be removed from the back end.
This is what I was left with, and with these pics you can probably understand my next course of action:
I decided to completely strip the entire back end of the car, as well as the trunk channels and part of the rear package tray underneath the back window. I had painted part of the package tray earlier when I repaired the back window channel, but never finished it properly as I knew I’d have to revisit it at some point anyways. As for the trunk channels, the major rust that had occurred here under the vinyl top...
...had permanently stained them, particularly the driver’s side:
It was a mess, and needed fixing.
Using mostly Clean and Strip wheels on a die grinder and occasionally the DA sander where I could fit it in, I began systematically removing all the old paint, primer, rust, seam sealer and dirt right down to clean bare metal.
As you can see in the pics, everything stripped off nicely including the surface rust that was appearing, something I was a bit concerned about. When I got up to the package tray area under the back window, I was surprised to find quite a bit of rust hiding underneath the trunk weatherstrip seal. It was quite deep in areas, and had even almost eaten through the vertical part of the weatherstrip flange in two spots. Those spots got cut out and new material welded in, and the rest of the rusty areas were ground out.
This is the area after the rust had been removed, and the welding completed:
In working in this area, I found several deeply sunk spot weld areas (visible in the pic above) where I suspect water had been pooling causing the rust to start. To rectify this and fix up the deep grinding marks, I skimmed the entire back edge in putty and blended it in after sanding it flat.
Along with everything else, I removed an absolute TON of factory applied seam sealer. The assembly line’s over use and abuse of it is appalling, if not downright ridiculous. With all of the areas stripped clean and the repairs complete, it was time to seal the seams back up again. I began by carefully masking up all the necessary seams, and applying two coats of epoxy primer in those areas with a disposable brush:
Once it had cured overnight, I scuffed the epoxy with red Scotchbrite, applied 3M “Heavy Bodied” seam sealer and smoothed it flat with a standard filler spreader.
Here’s the finished product once it was unmasked:
Still not totally satisfied with the result, I went a step further and sanded the cured sealer in the high visibility spots blending it into the surrounding areas and making it look less noticeable.
Continued >>>
You caught me just as I was doing an update, see below.
🙂
I haven’t posted any updates here in a few weeks now, and as some of you may know, that often means I’ve been busy on the car.
To quickly bring everyone back up to speed, in the previous couple updates I had decided to remove the quarter extensions, taillights, and rear bumper to gain better access to the backside and eliminate some surface rust that was appearing around the edges before it got any worse.
Well, I decided to chase that particular rabbit a little farther down the hole.
In addition to removing that stuff, I also stripped off the license plate filler panel, wiring, and anything else that could be removed from the back end.
This is what I was left with, and with these pics you can probably understand my next course of action:
I decided to completely strip the entire back end of the car, as well as the trunk channels and part of the rear package tray underneath the back window. I had painted part of the package tray earlier when I repaired the back window channel, but never finished it properly as I knew I’d have to revisit it at some point anyways. As for the trunk channels, the major rust that had occurred here under the vinyl top...
...had permanently stained them, particularly the driver’s side:
It was a mess, and needed fixing.
Using mostly Clean and Strip wheels on a die grinder and occasionally the DA sander where I could fit it in, I began systematically removing all the old paint, primer, rust, seam sealer and dirt right down to clean bare metal.
As you can see in the pics, everything stripped off nicely including the surface rust that was appearing, something I was a bit concerned about. When I got up to the package tray area under the back window, I was surprised to find quite a bit of rust hiding underneath the trunk weatherstrip seal. It was quite deep in areas, and had even almost eaten through the vertical part of the weatherstrip flange in two spots. Those spots got cut out and new material welded in, and the rest of the rusty areas were ground out.
This is the area after the rust had been removed, and the welding completed:
In working in this area, I found several deeply sunk spot weld areas (visible in the pic above) where I suspect water had been pooling causing the rust to start. To rectify this and fix up the deep grinding marks, I skimmed the entire back edge in putty and blended it in after sanding it flat.
Along with everything else, I removed an absolute TON of factory applied seam sealer. The assembly line’s over use and abuse of it is appalling, if not downright ridiculous. With all of the areas stripped clean and the repairs complete, it was time to seal the seams back up again. I began by carefully masking up all the necessary seams, and applying two coats of epoxy primer in those areas with a disposable brush:
Once it had cured overnight, I scuffed the epoxy with red Scotchbrite, applied 3M “Heavy Bodied” seam sealer and smoothed it flat with a standard filler spreader.
Here’s the finished product once it was unmasked:
Still not totally satisfied with the result, I went a step further and sanded the cured sealer in the high visibility spots blending it into the surrounding areas and making it look less noticeable.
Continued >>>
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