BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)

Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
4,150
23,827
113
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
What are your plans for bumpers (if I may ask)?

That one I’m not totally sure on just yet.
I think, no, I know they’ll need some sort of brushed finish to complete the theme throughout the car, but I think I’ll end up experimenting with it a bit first.

I might try sanding the chrome inline along the length of them first, probably completely through the chrome but not through the nickel layer underneath. If that looks like crap, I can try DA’ing the surfaces with 220 in a circular pattern and see how that looks.
Either way, as long as I don’t break through the nickel layer, I shouldn’t have to clear coat them.

Scott sent me a picture one time when he had sanded his bumpers inline and it looked really good. I’ll be attempting to achieve the same me thinks. I’m a ways off from that yet anyways, so I’m not gonna worry about it until I get a little closer.
 
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Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
4,150
23,827
113
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
You know, D, I was skeptical on the brushed look but it's really growing on me. (y)

Thanks Garth.
The pictures don’t really even do it justice, it looks even better in person. Especially against the dark grey metallic paint.

So many details.......

Looking good, Donovan!

Thanks Mike, appreciate it sir!
😊
 
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liquidh8

Comic Book Super Hero
Awesome work as always Donovan, love the brushed look!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
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Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
4,150
23,827
113
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
4,150
23,827
113
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Ugh. I dunno where to even start.

I’ve been bouncing around like a pea in a whistle this last little bit. Until recently, I’ve been trying to maintain and make progress on the door belt mouldings, the door handles, door locks, and quarter glass mouldings.

A while back, I started to hit a stride again, the belt mouldings were for all intents and purposes done, when I noticed one day moving my door handles on the bench that something didn’t seem right. This is what caught my eye:

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The supposed “industrial strength” thin double sided tape I attached the inserts with wasn’t holding long term. I guess in this case my procrastination paid off, if I had’ve clear coated them already, I’d have been pissed.
I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before, but I had the ideal solution to the problem right under my nose the whole time.

Securing the handles in the vise, I applied a thin coating of panel bond in the recesses and laid the inserts back in. Then they got firmly clamped for several days.

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Once they had cured, a little minor cleanup got them looking good as before again. With that readdressed, I turned my attention back to the belt mouldings. I unbolted the mirror from the driver’s side door, and attached the moulding so I could give it the long scratch pattern in place. It was looking pretty killer...

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...right up until I noticed this:

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The front of the driver’s side moulding had a hairline crack in it that wasn’t visible throughout the countless hours of stripping, straightening and sanding. It only reared it’s ugly head once I mounted it.

Rather than walk away from this piece that had tons of hours into and start all over again from scratch, I pulled it back off and took it into work the next day. My Service Manager/Boss/Friend has a son that’s supposed to be some hotshot welder with a TIG. He has agreed to weld it up for me, but I also had to supply him with another moulding so that he can determine what filler rod and torch tip to use on it. I picked out a heavily damaged moulding from my selection and stripped a small area of the anodizing so he can experiment with it.

And so we wait, yet again. Typical story of my life, one step forward, and two steps back.

While I wait for the moulding to come back, I tackled the quarter glass mouldings. These have already had the thin recesses in them painted and then matte cleared, but in order to ensure I get ALL the pieces I’m going to matte clear to match, they need to be done along with everything else all at once.

So, it was back to square one and strip them down to the bare finish again:

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I just LOVE doing sh*t twice.
🙄😠

Already in the area and running out of things to kill time with, I also removed the door locks, thoroughly cleaned them up, and relubricated them. I also stripped and repainted the lock pawls on the backside. With that done, all that was left was to put the matching brushed finish on them. I think they turned out pretty well:

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When I went to disassemble the locks, the lock gaskets practically disintegrated in my hands. Since the shipping costs on bringing in a new set of gaskets was more than 3 times what the gaskets were worth, I found some at a local muscle car restoration place. Thanks to InjectedCutty for helping me determine that ‘70-‘81 Camaro take the same style gaskets as our cars.

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These ones are pretty nice, they’ve got a nice raised ridge around the outside that should add some nice detail and help seal out water better than the stock ones. Here it is mocked up on an old lock I had laying around:

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It’s all about the details right?

Onto current affairs.
I’m currently in the midst of 2 weeks “staycation”, last week was all about tackling a multitude of projects around the house. Shampooing carpets, defrosting malfunctioning freezers, yard work and replacing burned out ballasts in the garage to name a few.
This week however, is all about playtime in the shop.

This morning, because apparently I’m a sucker for punishment, I hand stripped and put the brushed finish on the two vertical pieces of trim for the back window. When I had initially installed them, I had just given them a lick and a promise with some red ScotchBrite. Might as well do them properly now that I’m still waiting on the belt moulding to get welded.

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Done that and with plenty of daylight still, I put Olds Cool’s header panel on the stand, and stripped off all the bits:

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Some of you might notice one headlight bucket removed, I had one trim ring screw that had welded itself to the bucket with rust, and no amount of penetrant was gonna budge it. After removing the adjusting screws, I got the bucket out and clamped it in the vise. Then hit it with a bunch of heat from my mini butane torch and quickly quenched it with cold water.
BAM, does that ever work slick!

The remainder of the day was spent outside, slowly stripping the many layers of old paint and primer from the header panel. Helluva job at almost 4 hours, but at least it’s done.

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Tomorrow I’ll remove the remaining buckets and clean and scuff inside the openings as well as sand all the edges. The buckets themselves are pretty nasty, rusty and covered in paint overspray. They’ll more than likely end up at work to get sandblasted and repainted, possibly even later this week.

After that, it’ll be onto filling the hood ornament holes and bodyworking the top peak.

That’s it for now gents. Thanks for checking in and enduring this long update. Always keep the shiny side up!

D.
 
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Canon_Mutant

Royal Smart Person
Aug 15, 2015
1,159
1,420
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I just LOVE doing sh*t twice.
🙄😠

Support Group! :friday:

I for one am completely jealous that you have at least 6 more pliers clamps than I do!

I’m goin’ to town tomorrow . . . :unsure: I just need more clamps D!

Seriously, though most of it is health related, part of my delay on my 87 once I got to frame separation was (because my health will not allow this to be done twice) I’m going to take my time, map it all out how exactly I’m going to do it, and then do it!

But first, I clearly need more pliers clamps . . . (y)
 
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mclellan83

Comic Book Super Hero
Jun 27, 2017
4,201
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Pgh, PA
Always amazed at the quality even in the little details, looking forward to what you come up with on the headlights/buckets
 
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motorheadmike

Geezer
Nov 18, 2009
8,976
27,522
113
Saskatchewan, Truckistan
It ain't progress with out those steps back.

Can't appreciate where you are going, if you don't know where you've been.

Vacation, eh? I need to try some of that.
 
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