The fender lights look great, Donovan. Spreading the filler over the lenses completely was really clever.
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
I’ll get back to the fender here momentarily, but mention should be made of other news on the passenger side door.
Last weekend, My good friend Mike came over as part of our combined and renewed for this year “garage days”. I decided to have him go hard core on the bottom of the door, and establish exactly the condition of it and whether it was able to be salvaged.
He immediately dove in and stripped the wide stainless moulding, followed by its plastic clips and studs. He worked at removing much of the paint, primer, and rust that was present, and we were both pleasantly surprised to find that the door had ZERO holes or soft spots. It’s looking (at this point in time anyways) like the door will be able to be salvaged and reused.
🙂👍🏻
Pics: Yeah, it’s still bad, but I think with some sandblasting of the deep pits and converting what’s left, we can still save this door.
Being able to use this door and not swap it out for a different one will save much time. We won’t have to worry about removing glass, wiring harnesses, etc, so that was some much needed good news.
Ok, now onto the current state of affairs:
Today I was ready to get the outer skin of the fender in primer finally. Not a whole lot to report here, just some cleaning of the shop, covering everything in plastic, and preparing the fender to shoot.
As with the rest of the car, I followed my recipe of “2 coats epoxy primer, followed by 3-4 coats of high build” after a 1 hour induction period.
First coat of epoxy:
And after the second: it’s nice to finally see things in one color again!
After the aforementioned hour induction period, a healthy batch of ShopLine high build was mixed up, and 4 medium-wet coats were applied.
Here it is now as it’s curing:
I know many of you are probably curious as to how the “finished” flush mount marker light looks in the primed panel, so I delicately mocked it up for some pics.
Here y’all go:
Thanks guys, that’s all for now. Tomorrow is a stat holiday for us here north of the 49th, so I’ll let the outside cure overnight then flip it over on the stand. I’ve done an inventory of my remaining materials, and should have enough to epoxy prime and paint the inside of the fender tomorrow.
An update of those results will follow.
🙂
D.
Last weekend, My good friend Mike came over as part of our combined and renewed for this year “garage days”. I decided to have him go hard core on the bottom of the door, and establish exactly the condition of it and whether it was able to be salvaged.
He immediately dove in and stripped the wide stainless moulding, followed by its plastic clips and studs. He worked at removing much of the paint, primer, and rust that was present, and we were both pleasantly surprised to find that the door had ZERO holes or soft spots. It’s looking (at this point in time anyways) like the door will be able to be salvaged and reused.
🙂👍🏻
Pics: Yeah, it’s still bad, but I think with some sandblasting of the deep pits and converting what’s left, we can still save this door.
Being able to use this door and not swap it out for a different one will save much time. We won’t have to worry about removing glass, wiring harnesses, etc, so that was some much needed good news.
Ok, now onto the current state of affairs:
Today I was ready to get the outer skin of the fender in primer finally. Not a whole lot to report here, just some cleaning of the shop, covering everything in plastic, and preparing the fender to shoot.
As with the rest of the car, I followed my recipe of “2 coats epoxy primer, followed by 3-4 coats of high build” after a 1 hour induction period.
First coat of epoxy:
And after the second: it’s nice to finally see things in one color again!
After the aforementioned hour induction period, a healthy batch of ShopLine high build was mixed up, and 4 medium-wet coats were applied.
Here it is now as it’s curing:
I know many of you are probably curious as to how the “finished” flush mount marker light looks in the primed panel, so I delicately mocked it up for some pics.
Here y’all go:
Thanks guys, that’s all for now. Tomorrow is a stat holiday for us here north of the 49th, so I’ll let the outside cure overnight then flip it over on the stand. I’ve done an inventory of my remaining materials, and should have enough to epoxy prime and paint the inside of the fender tomorrow.
An update of those results will follow.
🙂
D.
Thank you.
I’d love nothing more than to say it was all part of the master plan, but really it was a wild-*ss experiment.
I did have a feeling that it would work out as I hoped, and I’m just very glad it did!
Donovan, you continue to amaze, entertain, and inspire with the work that you do! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Mr. Ridler, you've gone and done it again!!! The flush mounts look sooo slick in the primed fender, can't wait to see it in color!
Donovan ,
Great work as always , and good to hear Mike is back ! How did he remove the trim studs from the door ?
and the picture we all want to see ..................the back side of the fender in primer, or is there another plan for it ?
Dave
Great work as always , and good to hear Mike is back ! How did he remove the trim studs from the door ?
and the picture we all want to see ..................the back side of the fender in primer, or is there another plan for it ?
Dave
Thank you very much, you’re too kind.
I’m honoured to be a member of this tight knit community, and to share my builds with everybody. That is reward enough, but to have such flattering compliments like yours is still amazing to me.
Thanks.
Now there’s a nickname I haven’t heard on here for quite a while!!
Lol
Thanks Scott, I appreciate the praise. I too am looking forward to seeing everything in color, especially with the planned paint scheme. Hopefully I can make my goal of having it done (or at least ready for paint) by spring.
🤞🏻
Thanks Dave, it’s definitely nice to be back in the swing of things with Mike. He’s a valuable asset when he comes to help on Olds Cool, and I know he values my contributions when we work on his ‘57 Chevy.
I was preoccupied with the fender at the time when he tackled the trim studs so I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty sure he just cut them off close with the air cutoff wheel, and ground the remainders flush. That’s the nice thing about having someone’s work you can trust implicitly, you don’t have to watch and babysit their every move.
As for the backside of the fender, you all will see results on that later today. Very shortly I will be epoxy priming AND painting it, so it shall be completely finished out. I just have to wait a bit until the stores open as I ran out of thinner to clean my paint guns with yesterday.
Be sure to check back later today for more updated pics of the painted insides!
D.
Donovan,
Great work as usual, was able to catch up this morning on the build and for sure the filler over the lights and using that to completely blend it into the fender was pure genius. Makes me anxious to get back to my cutlass after the trans am is back on the road.
Great work as usual, was able to catch up this morning on the build and for sure the filler over the lights and using that to completely blend it into the fender was pure genius. Makes me anxious to get back to my cutlass after the trans am is back on the road.
Hey Josh, nice to hear from you again!
Thanks for the compliment, I dunno about “pure genius” but I’m definitely glad it worked out as desired. It was nerve racking as all hell afterwards when I went to pop the light back out as to not damage any of the filler work around it!
Glad to have you comment on the build, and great to hear from you again. Good luck on your Cutlass when you get back to it!
