Nah, if I wanted to do that, I’d have to put them on crooked and full of air bubbles too for the most realistic effect. 😉 Not too into that I’m afraid!
Besides, that is where they were on the original door. So there ya have it.
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Nah, if I wanted to do that, I’d have to put them on crooked and full of air bubbles too for the most realistic effect. 😉 Not too into that I’m afraid!
Besides, that is where they were on the original door. So there ya have it.
Alright guys, I’ve got a TON of info and progress to share with you, an awful lot has happened in this last week. Unfortunately I’m a bit pressed for time tonight, and probably won’t get through everything I have to share.
So this just might be a two night update, seeing as how SOME of us have to work and can’t be lollygagging on the forum all day long.
😉
Anyhow, we’ll start with last Friday. After work I stayed behind for a half hour and did some sandblasting of small parts. Then stopped by one of the parts stores and grabbed a few items. The stuff I sandblasted was the 2 horns and brackets, their mounting hardware, and the two rubber front filler panel reinforcing brackets. Here they are along with some 1156 equivalent LED bulbs I grabbed.
I started off Saturday by thinking I’d just pop the LED bulbs in the trunk and under hood lights real quick, then move on. However when I installed the LED bulb in the trunk light housing, I quickly realized I wasn’t happy with the lighting. It wasn’t that the bulb wasn’t bright enough, it was plenty bright, but it was that it sat recessed in the trunk structure too far. Because the ends of the LED bulbs I got are capped and don’t emit any light, the shrouding in the structure was prohibitive.
So I did an easy hack and modified the bracket slightly to make the bulb protrude a bit more but keep the wiring hidden inside. It worked like a charm. Here’s the trunk all lit up with the new LED bulb, I took these pictures with the lights in the shop turned off:
Don’t mind the mess in the trunk, it’s temporary storage for the time being.
As you can see, it has absolutely no problem lighting up the whole area!
The under hood light was much simpler, just a straight re and re:
Looks pretty good under there now though too.
With that behind me, I proceeded to shoot the blasted parts with a little VHT satin black and “cast aluminum” for the horn bolts:
I didn’t take any pictures before blasting, but trust me, they needed it. They were all a rusty scabby mess. Much better now.
While they were drying, I knew that moving on to the AstroRoof was gonna be the next project to tackle. To do this, I needed good clear access to both sides of the car. So out came the jack and the floor dollies and on and over she went.
Yikes! Been a while since I saw this part of the floor apparently!
After I swept up the dust bunny disaster, I proceeded with my plan of attack. Now, a quick little back story on the AstroRoof situation:
Last spring I went through and restored the whole thing from top to bottom and reinstalled the completed assembly with a reproduction outer weatherstrip seal from GbodyParts.com. It was disheartening to say the least, when, after all that work the new seal was found to be too stiff and wouldn’t allow the outer panel insert to compress it and sit flush with the rest of the roof.
In disgust, I walked away from it and moved on to the other panels that needed attention. For like 10 months. But during that entire time, I would often stop and analyze how it sat in the roof in the closed position. I eventually resigned myself to the fact that I likely had a secondary problem that was compounding the issue. When I pulled the outer pan for restoration, it was badly rusted and needed major repair. It was necessary at the time to separate the front and rear insert reinforcements and pretty much rebuild the entire thing.
However.
I had a sneaking suspicion that all that fabrication and welding had pulled the rear corners down slightly. I couldn’t confirm it with the insert in place, but if this was indeed the case, no amount of seal swapping or track adjusting was gonna fix it. For those with good memories, you’ll recall that I had to flatten out the front edge with a jig and some clamps (which worked great), but at the time I never thought to check the rear edge of the insert as well.
So, fast forward to last weekend, I had developed a plan to check the curvature of the insert against the curvature of the roof. I drug home some long cardboard from work, and cut 2 pieces the width of the roof. I needed to check the curvature of the insert in 2 places, along the front and rear edges.
So I started at the back...
...and after laying out some masking tape lines to extend the sides of the insert for reference, I gradually traced and cut the cardboard down until it matched the curvature of the roof:
Perfect. One down, one to go.
Repeated the procedure to create the front template...
...until I had the exact curvature of the roof along the front edge of the insert:
Now I had 2 great templates from which to work from. Next was to get the insert itself out, and remove the problematic weather stripping.
Moment of truth:
Laying the front template across the front of the insert, it matched pretty much exactly. Great news, I wouldn’t have to do anything there. The rear edge is what I was most worried about anyways. And wouldn’t you know it, my fears were confirmed as soon as I laid the rear template across it.
It was either down in the rear corners an 1/8”, up in the middle an 1/8”, or possibly a combination of the two:
The blue that you can see between the template and insert is the gap. And it most definitely should not be there.
Middle, no gap which is good. Maybe.
But same 1/8” gap on the other side:
Since it worked fairly well to flatten out the front edge of the insert last year, I figured I’d
give it a shot again on the rear this time. A couple of 2x4’s set up on the stand and 3 strategically placed clamps got it going.
I was gonna have to leave it clamped this way for a couple days, so that’s where I’m gonna leave y’all for now. I’ll continue on with part II of this update tomorrow night, but for now I’ve gotta hit the rack. Long day with a road trip for work tomorrow, so some shut-eye is probably a good idea.
Thanks for tuning in for part I of this update, until tomorrow gents.
D.
So this just might be a two night update, seeing as how SOME of us have to work and can’t be lollygagging on the forum all day long.
😉
Anyhow, we’ll start with last Friday. After work I stayed behind for a half hour and did some sandblasting of small parts. Then stopped by one of the parts stores and grabbed a few items. The stuff I sandblasted was the 2 horns and brackets, their mounting hardware, and the two rubber front filler panel reinforcing brackets. Here they are along with some 1156 equivalent LED bulbs I grabbed.
I started off Saturday by thinking I’d just pop the LED bulbs in the trunk and under hood lights real quick, then move on. However when I installed the LED bulb in the trunk light housing, I quickly realized I wasn’t happy with the lighting. It wasn’t that the bulb wasn’t bright enough, it was plenty bright, but it was that it sat recessed in the trunk structure too far. Because the ends of the LED bulbs I got are capped and don’t emit any light, the shrouding in the structure was prohibitive.
So I did an easy hack and modified the bracket slightly to make the bulb protrude a bit more but keep the wiring hidden inside. It worked like a charm. Here’s the trunk all lit up with the new LED bulb, I took these pictures with the lights in the shop turned off:
Don’t mind the mess in the trunk, it’s temporary storage for the time being.
As you can see, it has absolutely no problem lighting up the whole area!
The under hood light was much simpler, just a straight re and re:
Looks pretty good under there now though too.
With that behind me, I proceeded to shoot the blasted parts with a little VHT satin black and “cast aluminum” for the horn bolts:
I didn’t take any pictures before blasting, but trust me, they needed it. They were all a rusty scabby mess. Much better now.
While they were drying, I knew that moving on to the AstroRoof was gonna be the next project to tackle. To do this, I needed good clear access to both sides of the car. So out came the jack and the floor dollies and on and over she went.
Yikes! Been a while since I saw this part of the floor apparently!
After I swept up the dust bunny disaster, I proceeded with my plan of attack. Now, a quick little back story on the AstroRoof situation:
Last spring I went through and restored the whole thing from top to bottom and reinstalled the completed assembly with a reproduction outer weatherstrip seal from GbodyParts.com. It was disheartening to say the least, when, after all that work the new seal was found to be too stiff and wouldn’t allow the outer panel insert to compress it and sit flush with the rest of the roof.
In disgust, I walked away from it and moved on to the other panels that needed attention. For like 10 months. But during that entire time, I would often stop and analyze how it sat in the roof in the closed position. I eventually resigned myself to the fact that I likely had a secondary problem that was compounding the issue. When I pulled the outer pan for restoration, it was badly rusted and needed major repair. It was necessary at the time to separate the front and rear insert reinforcements and pretty much rebuild the entire thing.
However.
I had a sneaking suspicion that all that fabrication and welding had pulled the rear corners down slightly. I couldn’t confirm it with the insert in place, but if this was indeed the case, no amount of seal swapping or track adjusting was gonna fix it. For those with good memories, you’ll recall that I had to flatten out the front edge with a jig and some clamps (which worked great), but at the time I never thought to check the rear edge of the insert as well.
So, fast forward to last weekend, I had developed a plan to check the curvature of the insert against the curvature of the roof. I drug home some long cardboard from work, and cut 2 pieces the width of the roof. I needed to check the curvature of the insert in 2 places, along the front and rear edges.
So I started at the back...
...and after laying out some masking tape lines to extend the sides of the insert for reference, I gradually traced and cut the cardboard down until it matched the curvature of the roof:
Perfect. One down, one to go.
Repeated the procedure to create the front template...
...until I had the exact curvature of the roof along the front edge of the insert:
Now I had 2 great templates from which to work from. Next was to get the insert itself out, and remove the problematic weather stripping.
Moment of truth:
Laying the front template across the front of the insert, it matched pretty much exactly. Great news, I wouldn’t have to do anything there. The rear edge is what I was most worried about anyways. And wouldn’t you know it, my fears were confirmed as soon as I laid the rear template across it.
It was either down in the rear corners an 1/8”, up in the middle an 1/8”, or possibly a combination of the two:
The blue that you can see between the template and insert is the gap. And it most definitely should not be there.
Middle, no gap which is good. Maybe.
But same 1/8” gap on the other side:
Since it worked fairly well to flatten out the front edge of the insert last year, I figured I’d
give it a shot again on the rear this time. A couple of 2x4’s set up on the stand and 3 strategically placed clamps got it going.
I was gonna have to leave it clamped this way for a couple days, so that’s where I’m gonna leave y’all for now. I’ll continue on with part II of this update tomorrow night, but for now I’ve gotta hit the rack. Long day with a road trip for work tomorrow, so some shut-eye is probably a good idea.
Thanks for tuning in for part I of this update, until tomorrow gents.
D.
I missed that the hood was back on somehow. The car just looks great! Your update seems pretty upbeat so I'm guessing you have the Astro Roof problem licked. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the update.
There you go again blaming the VENDOR for your woes when you have bent pieces of crap. Jeez the nerve of those Canadians!
Actually, that's good detective work. Was it noticeable when the panel was in place on the car?
After thinking about that rear trunk lamp, the bulb seems rather exposed there. Was simply wondering it basically could use a reflective shield like the hood lamp housing perhaps? Wondering if you put one in and obviously modify the mount bracket to allow the lamp to mount to the trunk lid to act like the hood unit and only light up when open? I dunno. Thinking out loud. Maybe nothing will happen with that exposed bulb. Just seems counter-intuitive to not protect the bulb.
EDIT: Scratch that. The hood lamp on/off gravity switch is "backwards" in relationship to the way the trunk opens. You'd have to face it the other way otherwise it'd be on when the trunk was closed.
Also, wtf is up with that pinch-weld trunk seal? Is that a genuine GM seal (p/n 20490800)? It looks buckled in places. Gap at the bottom seems odd. There's usually a little connector piece in one end of the strip. Maybe you already got a new seal for that? Not bashing. Just "helping".
Actually, that's good detective work. Was it noticeable when the panel was in place on the car?
After thinking about that rear trunk lamp, the bulb seems rather exposed there. Was simply wondering it basically could use a reflective shield like the hood lamp housing perhaps? Wondering if you put one in and obviously modify the mount bracket to allow the lamp to mount to the trunk lid to act like the hood unit and only light up when open? I dunno. Thinking out loud. Maybe nothing will happen with that exposed bulb. Just seems counter-intuitive to not protect the bulb.
EDIT: Scratch that. The hood lamp on/off gravity switch is "backwards" in relationship to the way the trunk opens. You'd have to face it the other way otherwise it'd be on when the trunk was closed.
Also, wtf is up with that pinch-weld trunk seal? Is that a genuine GM seal (p/n 20490800)? It looks buckled in places. Gap at the bottom seems odd. There's usually a little connector piece in one end of the strip. Maybe you already got a new seal for that? Not bashing. Just "helping".
Thanks Tony!
Very astute of you Jared! I’m surprised you were able to infer that just from the tone of the update. I don’t wanna give too much away just yet before part II of the update, so I guess I’ll just have to keep y’all in suspense a tiny bit longer!
😏
Meh, I just call it like I see it. Make a correct quality part, and you won’t hear any complaints from me. Actually, I’d about give my left nut right now for a NOS GM outer AstroRoof seal. Damn unobtainium.
😔
Thanks. It was near impossible to tell with it on the car because it wouldn’t sit flush with the junk aftermarket seal. If it did, it might’ve been a little easier to tell, but perhaps not. It was only low in the back corners an 1/8” each side, pretty tough to see that with the naked eye across a panel that size.
It was more just a hunch I had, intuition based on experience maybe.
I agree, the bulb is a little more exposed there, but it was the most graceful solution. I tried positioning the bulb a multitude of ways to get the most efficient use of the light, but this seemed to be the best.
In all reality, how many times are you really going to run the risk of smacking the bulb with something? I don’t plan on carrying much more than maybe a couple car show chairs and a cooler or two, and if I’m doing anything with those that’s getting close to hitting the bulb, I’m probably also gonna hit and possibly damage the paint on the underside of the trunk lid too.
I really do think it’s a non-issue at this point.
THAT, is an honest-to-goodness, gen-u-wine original GM trunk seal circa 1980. Original to the car. What you’re seeing is how much it’s shrunk over the years. Every single one I’ve ever seen up here all look like that. I’m surprised you haven’t seen it before yourself actually.
I’ve never seen a connector strip on one of these, maybe it was a later model year thing?
I don’t have a new one, and wasn’t really planning on getting a new one, because other than how much it’s shrunk, it’s in otherwise really good shape.
Great, now ya got me thinking I should replace it too!
😅
Actually I haven't seen them shrink up exactly like that. I've seen them cut, split, torn up and chunks missing out of them, and cracked due to dryness, but never wrinkled up like that. Sure, the ends pull apart sometimes, but the wrinkles? Nah.
There is the little nub connector shown below which is fused into one end. You install it just like yours with the split in the back center, and any trimming is done on the OTHER end. Then a dab of weatherstrip adhesive on the nub to keep it from popping out.
I have actually seen people trim the nub end and makes you go WTF?
But hey, if you want to keep the OG seal, and it's still sealing, more power to ya. But one of these days if you think you may need one, I might know someone with one...or several.
There is the little nub connector shown below which is fused into one end. You install it just like yours with the split in the back center, and any trimming is done on the OTHER end. Then a dab of weatherstrip adhesive on the nub to keep it from popping out.
I have actually seen people trim the nub end and makes you go WTF?
But hey, if you want to keep the OG seal, and it's still sealing, more power to ya. But one of these days if you think you may need one, I might know someone with one...or several.
Alright, time for part II of the update.
I wanted/needed to leave the AstroRoof insert clamped for several days to establish its new “set” and flatten out some, so to make efficient use of the downtime I busied myself with a couple other little projects. When I removed the aftermarket seal, almost all of the weather strip adhesive stayed stuck to the insert. So that all needed to be removed.
After doing a little digging and research, I found a guy online that said he had good success removing the adhesive with wax and grease remover. I already had some on hand, so I figured I’d give it a try. It worked really well actually. It softened up the adhesive to the point where a little scraping with a plastic stick and rubbing with a soaked rag dislodged it not too bad.
Before:
After: Nice and clean now, just like before the seal went in.
I could only do 3 sides of it at the time because my clamping jig was covering up the 4th, but it didn’t take long to get the last side done once the clamps came off.
In the meantime, I also got the freshly blasted and painted horns plugged into the wiring and mounted back into the fender:
Back to the AstroRoof. The original outer AstroRoof insert seal is no longer available from GM, and hasn’t been for something like 14 years now. So it’s pretty much unobtainium at this point. Realizing this, I knew I was gonna have to try and salvage and reuse the original seal. Thankfully it came off in one piece with no significant damage, it was just old, crusty and a bit dried out.
I had searched for some sort of rubber conditioner in bulk form, but ultimately found nothing. The best I could do was I found some 303 Protectant in a gallon jug locally. I quite like this product and have had good success with it in the past, so I grabbed it. It wasn’t cheap at $68 for the jug, but then again I didn’t exactly have many options. At home, I emptied the entire jug into a bucket, submerged the seal in it and placed a weight on to keep it from floating to the top. This is what I’ve been referring to as “the science experiment” ever since. I honestly had no idea if it would work but I figured it was at least worth a shot.
The seal has been soaking in this concoction for a couple months now, and it was time to pull it out and have a look at it. It was gross to say the least!
It had this weird slime stuck to it in places, possibly where it was trying to float to the surface:
A few minutes spent with a couple rags to wipe it down and dry it off cleaned it right up with no problem however. I had to wring it out in a few places to squeeze out the excess that it had absorbed, but I think it’s good now.
I feel it did make a noticeable difference though. It’s nice and soft and pliable now where as before it was a little questionable.
The lines that you see in it aren’t cracks or tears, they’re just wrinkles from being glued in the same position for 40 years. Not pretty, but perfectly sound as this seal didn’t leak when I bought the car.
By this time 3 or 4 days had passed, and I figured the insert had been clamped for long enough. Last night I gingerly removed them and held my breath as I tested the rear template against it. This is what I found:
Incredibly enough, it was absolutely PERFECT!!
It truly couldn’t have been any better. The curvature of the insert now matched the template exactly. Wow, better buy a lottery ticket because that sh*t never happens!!
Guys, I cannot state just how elated I was with this pleasant surprise. I had planned to set aside a month or two to possibly have to rework the insert to get the right shape to it. Now I didn’t have to! No filler work to be done, no block sanding, no reshaping. Soooo happy about that, I was practically doing a little happy dance around the shop!
So now that nothing further needed to be done to the insert, I had a decision to make: Do I glue the seal in now, or wait until after the car is painted? I’m almost positive the 303 concoction I soaked the seal in contains silicone, and silicone is a nightmare for paint jobs. Know what fisheyes are? Silicone is fantastic for getting fisheyes in paint you’re trying to apply. Think oil and water, the two just don’t mix. So I made the call to install the seal AFTER the car is painted. It might be a little bit of a PITA to do then, but there is a procedure for it in the FSM. So it can’t be that bad.
THAT meant there was absolutely no reason the insert couldn’t go back in, and the whole AstroRoof assembly get buttoned back up for now. So last night I made that happen too. I spent quite a bit of time adjusting and readjusting the forward stops and front and rear track heights until I had it sitting absolutely perfect in the opening. There might be some minor readjusting when the seal goes back in, but that’ll be a walk in the park in comparison. Getting the baseline set now was the biggest goal.
In and set now, and hot damn if it don’t look good sitting flush like it’s supposed to. It doesn’t look like a damn turkey tray or shallow swimming pool anymore!!!
So, that’s it. What do y’all think? Personally I’m pleased as punch, I’ve been dreading revisiting this for months now. All day today I kept grinning to myself knowing that this part of the car is all but done.
After I got the last of the adjustments made and a little ogling time in to admire my hard work, I came to the realization that the next step is to remove the last of the trim for final block sanding! This is it boys, no more filler and body work, I’m finally on the home stretch now!
And that’s it. Gonna leave this on a high note, let me know what y’all think. Thanks for the likes and for following along.
D.
I wanted/needed to leave the AstroRoof insert clamped for several days to establish its new “set” and flatten out some, so to make efficient use of the downtime I busied myself with a couple other little projects. When I removed the aftermarket seal, almost all of the weather strip adhesive stayed stuck to the insert. So that all needed to be removed.
After doing a little digging and research, I found a guy online that said he had good success removing the adhesive with wax and grease remover. I already had some on hand, so I figured I’d give it a try. It worked really well actually. It softened up the adhesive to the point where a little scraping with a plastic stick and rubbing with a soaked rag dislodged it not too bad.
Before:
After: Nice and clean now, just like before the seal went in.
I could only do 3 sides of it at the time because my clamping jig was covering up the 4th, but it didn’t take long to get the last side done once the clamps came off.
In the meantime, I also got the freshly blasted and painted horns plugged into the wiring and mounted back into the fender:
Back to the AstroRoof. The original outer AstroRoof insert seal is no longer available from GM, and hasn’t been for something like 14 years now. So it’s pretty much unobtainium at this point. Realizing this, I knew I was gonna have to try and salvage and reuse the original seal. Thankfully it came off in one piece with no significant damage, it was just old, crusty and a bit dried out.
I had searched for some sort of rubber conditioner in bulk form, but ultimately found nothing. The best I could do was I found some 303 Protectant in a gallon jug locally. I quite like this product and have had good success with it in the past, so I grabbed it. It wasn’t cheap at $68 for the jug, but then again I didn’t exactly have many options. At home, I emptied the entire jug into a bucket, submerged the seal in it and placed a weight on to keep it from floating to the top. This is what I’ve been referring to as “the science experiment” ever since. I honestly had no idea if it would work but I figured it was at least worth a shot.
The seal has been soaking in this concoction for a couple months now, and it was time to pull it out and have a look at it. It was gross to say the least!
It had this weird slime stuck to it in places, possibly where it was trying to float to the surface:
A few minutes spent with a couple rags to wipe it down and dry it off cleaned it right up with no problem however. I had to wring it out in a few places to squeeze out the excess that it had absorbed, but I think it’s good now.
I feel it did make a noticeable difference though. It’s nice and soft and pliable now where as before it was a little questionable.
The lines that you see in it aren’t cracks or tears, they’re just wrinkles from being glued in the same position for 40 years. Not pretty, but perfectly sound as this seal didn’t leak when I bought the car.
By this time 3 or 4 days had passed, and I figured the insert had been clamped for long enough. Last night I gingerly removed them and held my breath as I tested the rear template against it. This is what I found:
Incredibly enough, it was absolutely PERFECT!!
It truly couldn’t have been any better. The curvature of the insert now matched the template exactly. Wow, better buy a lottery ticket because that sh*t never happens!!
Guys, I cannot state just how elated I was with this pleasant surprise. I had planned to set aside a month or two to possibly have to rework the insert to get the right shape to it. Now I didn’t have to! No filler work to be done, no block sanding, no reshaping. Soooo happy about that, I was practically doing a little happy dance around the shop!
So now that nothing further needed to be done to the insert, I had a decision to make: Do I glue the seal in now, or wait until after the car is painted? I’m almost positive the 303 concoction I soaked the seal in contains silicone, and silicone is a nightmare for paint jobs. Know what fisheyes are? Silicone is fantastic for getting fisheyes in paint you’re trying to apply. Think oil and water, the two just don’t mix. So I made the call to install the seal AFTER the car is painted. It might be a little bit of a PITA to do then, but there is a procedure for it in the FSM. So it can’t be that bad.
THAT meant there was absolutely no reason the insert couldn’t go back in, and the whole AstroRoof assembly get buttoned back up for now. So last night I made that happen too. I spent quite a bit of time adjusting and readjusting the forward stops and front and rear track heights until I had it sitting absolutely perfect in the opening. There might be some minor readjusting when the seal goes back in, but that’ll be a walk in the park in comparison. Getting the baseline set now was the biggest goal.
In and set now, and hot damn if it don’t look good sitting flush like it’s supposed to. It doesn’t look like a damn turkey tray or shallow swimming pool anymore!!!
So, that’s it. What do y’all think? Personally I’m pleased as punch, I’ve been dreading revisiting this for months now. All day today I kept grinning to myself knowing that this part of the car is all but done.
After I got the last of the adjustments made and a little ogling time in to admire my hard work, I came to the realization that the next step is to remove the last of the trim for final block sanding! This is it boys, no more filler and body work, I’m finally on the home stretch now!
And that’s it. Gonna leave this on a high note, let me know what y’all think. Thanks for the likes and for following along.
D.
Last edited:
The top looks great. I know you put alot of work into it earlier but its pretty sweet when things cooperate and come together for sure. I noticed the cover slightly off some other random car in your garage.... Great work as always.
