BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)

[Longroof79]

Good to see you getting back into it again, Mr. D.
Once again, your motivation has to be in the right place at the right time. However, I do miss your current updates.
Keep on keepin' on, my friend. I'm sure progress will continue when you feel up to it.

 

[pagrunt]

Finally get my fix for this project, seemed lost with out any updates (even seemed to slow down my own motivation.)
As for a foot of snow...

 

[TURNA]

Welcome back!! hope all is well!!!

 

[Clutch]

Nice work "D" your not the only one who backed off bud. I'm trying to make a ton happen all at once but if I get one little thing done I'm happy

 

[Kiko]

I'm glad you got your motivation back! As you can tell by the above responses -- we all missed you!! I know the feeling, but luckily I have my son working with me -- either my GP or his 73 Camaro RS (both in my garage). We kind of push each other.

Wish you all the best...

 

[O. D. Showtime]

Good to see you back at it Donovan!

Heard about the damn snow, we got some this morning as well but nothing like you guys got.

 

[Canon_Mutant]

Hey everyone, long time and no updates on this here thread. My apologies for that.

It would seem I underwent another of my “crisis’ of motivation” events, and this most recent one lasted longer than most. In fact it’s been several months since I’ve even been in the garage much less picked up a tool. That combined with battling through a couple of illnesses, and, well, here we are.
Sad part is, the weather here has sucked the proverbial tailpipe ever since the last week of August so there’s been virtually zero seat time in the Olds girl lately either.

All that came to a head this morning however, when I opened the door to a foot of snow! Enough of this sh*t, time to get back out into the garage and crack down again. This winter will be the final big push towards getting the last of the bodywork done and the car in paint. The goal, hopefully if all goes well, is to have color on it by spring.

With that being said, I needed a starting point to get myself back into the swing of things again. I know I should really continue on with where I left off on the AstroRoof, but I’m still just not ready to dive back into that mess just yet. Instead, I decided to tackle a little project that’s been bugging me for quite some time.

Starting with giving the top of the passenger side fender a good cleaning with wax and grease remover, I started preparing the area to get the unneeded antenna hole welded up. Once the area was down to clean bare metal, I cut out a patch for it with a hole saw and laid the patch over the irregularly cut hole. (Someone had added an aftermarket antenna at some point and butchered the hole in the fender)

With the patch overlaid, I traced around it and opened up the hole to a uniform size, then started tacking it in:

View attachment 96796

A little fine tuning and tweaking as I went, I got it fully burned in. I took the opportunity to remove the silly little fender trim piece too as it won’t be going back on, and buzzed up the hole for that too.

Once it was all ground flush, it was metal finished in 40 grit and is now ready for a skim of filler:

View attachment 96797

It ain’t much yet, but it’s a start. From here I’ll probably go onto skimming and blocking it out, and then maybe onto the lower part of the same fender as it’s got a few damage issues from a previous owner.

That’s it for now, but it definitely feels good to finally get back to work on it. Hopefully the motivation will continue again this time, updates will follow as progress warrants.

Thanks all,

D.

Ha, wish I woulda done this instead of the “power antenna replacement from hell don’t get me started again” project.

Good news is that since everything screeched to a halt after new body bushings and rear end required, I switched to the front end and I have realized that you scatter the front control arms, spindles, sway bar, and steering assembly, you can get back in there to turn around and get on that lag bolt (with about 3 extensions and 3 wiggles). Piece if cake!

Antenna Swap Procedure:

step one: wait until you want to upgrade your entire control arm and steering
assy . . .

Great work as usual D . . .

 

[Rktpwrd]

Hey guys, thanks for all the well wishes and welcome backs. It’s really nice to hear from so many of you again. I’ve missed that over the last few months. I wasn’t aware that so many of you enjoyed reading my updates so much.
Thank you.

Jack, I couldn’t agree more. I just haven’t been in the right state of mind up until now to get back to the grind (pun fully intended), and I know from past experience that when I try and force it the quality usually suffers. Hence, I felt it better to wait until the urge struck again, however long it took before that happened.

Kevin, I hope this system that’s stalled over us dumping all this solid precipitation doesn’t head your way. If it does, you guys are in for a real walloping.
For all of you that might’ve thought I was joking about the foot of snow we got here, here’s the view out the front of my house as of about an hour ago, and a lot of it has already melted. Hell, the damn trees still have all their leaves on them!
Too early for this sh*t...

Garth, I feel your pain in trying to remove the fender mounted antenna. The stock one obviously took a dump at some point in the car’s previous life, as it was long gone and had been replaced with some shoddily installed aftermarket unit before I got the car.

I knew long ahead of time that it too would be going away, so when I had the old 305 yanked I removed the inner fenderwell and got rid of that POS then. It wasn’t even bolted down at the bottom, it just swung back and forth from the escutcheon, banging around on the inside of the fender! I certainly don’t miss it.
I kept just the escutcheon mounted on the fender up until today, to hide the hacked up hole that was underneath it. I’m glad it’s in the trash now too.

Kiko, looking forward to that long overdue build thread...
😉

Eric, that’s the key right there. Getting one thing done, preferably each day, no matter how small it might be. Enough small things accomplished eventually equals large progress. I’m gonna try and stick to that line of thought this winter.

Pagrunt, I won’t be held responsible for diminishing your motivation as well, hell, mine was bad enough without having you making me feel guilty about yours too!
😅

Again, thanks for all the comments guys, I really appreciate it and enjoy hearing from y’all.

D.

 

[BuickOldsPontiac]

Donovan, I have to chime in and say it is great to see you back at it! Your build is one of my must reads here. It helps to motivate me for the day I finally do something with my Cutlass...even if my work will not even be in the same ballpark as yours!

 

[Rktpwrd]

Donovan, I have to chime in and say it is great to see you back at it! Your build is one of my must reads here. It helps to motivate me for the day I finally do something with my Cutlass...even if my work will not even be in the same ballpark as yours!

Thanks brother!
I’m honoured and humbled to have your support. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being an inspiration to others. Thanks man.
😊