BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)

JAMCAR223

Royal Smart Person
Jun 6, 2014
1,853
5,507
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Houston, TX.
Alright, after leaving y’all in cliffhanger mode (unintentionally I might add, I just didn’t have enough info at the time), I can finally divulge the latest developments.

Let’s start with the ugly first. Turns out, to my surprise and probably everyone else’s, the trim mouldings on our cars are NOT aluminum as I thought. When the welder went to repair the driver’s side belt moulding, he found that he couldn’t even strike an arc. He tried several times and even got his boss involved, but to no avail.

Here’s where he tried on the sacrificial piece I gave him, it wouldn’t weld, it just burned and cracked immediately:

View attachment 118218

The word is, these mouldings are some sort of white metal, what we commonly refer to as “pot metal”. I didn’t think it was possible to make pressed and formed shapes like that out of pot metal, but apparently it must be.

You learn something new every day.

White metal, pot metal, zinc, who knows what exactly the composition of these things are. The long and the short of it was, it wasn’t able to be welded. So that left me back at square one. I did a TON of reading and research on welding, brazing and soldering oddball metals, and even tried soldering it myself. No joy. The solder just balled up and rolled right off. There are some potential solutions out there, however nearly all of them involve purchasing some “miracle” welding or soldering rod, and they’re all priced accordingly.

I was very near to pulling the trigger on ordering one of these options, but then I sat back and questioned what the hell I was doing. I just couldn’t justify spending upwards of $100 or more on a product that may or may not have worked. Especially on a $20 moulding, regardless of the hours I’ve got into it.

So, after a lengthy discussion with Scott (InjectedCutty), we decided that a more homegrown, budget fix was worth trying. Scott is great with things like this, he’s my sounding board and voice of reason quite often. (Thanks buddy!!)

What we came up with was to use some good ‘ol JB Weld on the backside, along with some fibreglass reinforcing mesh for strength.
First, I cut off the attaching tab that I’m pretty sure was compounding the problem. It’s visible as the blurry thing in the foreground in this underside picture:

View attachment 118219

With the tab outta the way, I was able to better realign the two halves of the crack, and straighten out the edges. I ran a fine file over the faces and got it looking pretty good:

View attachment 118220

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With that done, I very lightly ground the backside to provide some tooth for the repair to stick to:

View attachment 118222

The rest of the repair went exactly as you’d think, I just mixed up a small amount and applied it along with two strips of reinforcing mesh, one shorter one underneath, and one longer one over top:

View attachment 118223

After letting it cure overnight, today I trimmed off the excess and filed the edge down again. It’s invisible from the outside. I then lightly sanded the outer face again, and test fit it on the car. Houston, I believe we have a winner.

Here it is mocked back up on the car after the repair:

View attachment 118224

Structurally, it seems very strong, and the deletion of the nearby tab doesn’t seem to have affected it at all.
Cosmetically, the crack is back to being nearly invisible again, it’s more like the hairline crack I started with. It’s still visible in certain conditions and angles, but I honestly think 99+ percent of folks out there aren’t ever going to notice it.

What do you guys think? For a nearly free repair, I’ll take it.

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Ok, onto other developments.
Thursday I went into work and used the sandblast cabinet. I got all 4 headlight buckets blasted, along with a whack of the hardware for the header panel.

Before:

View attachment 118228

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After:

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It’s sure nice having access to the right tools for the job. Speaking of which, I’d be a fool not to make good use of the quarter size paint booth we’ve got while I was there, so all the freshly blasted parts got shot immediately afterwards.

Buckets and most hardware went satin black, aiming screws and springs went flat aluminum:

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Also this week, I got to work on deleting the holes for the hood ornament in the header panel now that it’s stripped.

The underside before I started...

View attachment 118237

...then remove the old paint and bevel the holes:

View attachment 118238

Roll out the fibreglass reinforcing mesh...

View attachment 118239

...and cut a bunch of small pieces to fill in the holes:

View attachment 118240

Gluing them in with some 3M Rigid Parts Repair...

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...then made sure they were saturated and submerged in the compound with a light skim coat over top:

View attachment 118242

Continued >>>
Considering I'm from Houston... I'd have to agree. We have a winner!
 
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Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Looking awesome as per usual Donovan!

Thanks Joe!

How’s that new engine coming along? It’s looking great, I love the subtle details on it like the new water pump and bolts.
I’m really looking forward to seeing it settled in it’s home in the Regal.
 
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Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
First off, great repair. The brushed look makes it damn near invisible (and that's with me knowing where to look). To the rando looky loo it's mint.

Out of curiousity, was the weld rod you looked at from MuggyWeld? The Youtube vids look pretty amazing as far as fixing rare pot metal items.

Hutch

Thanks Hutch, I appreciate the reassurance.

Yep, MuggyWeld was one of the first products I checked out, the link came courtesy of Scott.

Once I started doing more and more research and reading, they came up more and more often. I’m not sure if they’re really that great, or if it’s just creative and persistent advertising.
I mean, if their product was really all that fantastic, would they need to advertise it as heavily as they do?

A company called Dura Fix is another one that was on my radar.

Part of the decision behind not going with one of these options was because we still really have no idea exactly what the material is. It’s a bit tough to select a repair method unless you know what you’re working with. If it is in fact pot metal, then great. A product like MuggyWeld may have worked well. But if it is something entirely different, well then it’s just a crapshoot.

The other stumbling block I came up against was that the soldering rods were all used in the demos on cast pot metal, nothing like the thin extruded or press formed stuff our trim is. Again, hard to justify the capital expenditure on a “well, maaaaybeee...”

I’m sure you understand.
 
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Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Considering I'm from Houston... I'd have to agree. We have a winner!

Thanks James!

Repairs like this usually aren’t my thing, I prefer whenever possible to try and fix them the right way. It’s always been my experience that half measured fixes usually end up with half measured successes.

But for the minimal outlay in time, money and materials, I think this solution will work out just fine, even long term.
Here’s hoping anyways!
🤞🏻
 
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Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
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Feb 2, 2015
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Little more progress made today, the deletion of the hood ornament holes is complete, and the body work on the header panel is finished.

I also got all the edges sanded and addressed, all that’s left to do before epoxy and high build primer is to finish scuffing up inside the headlight openings.

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Gotta love relatively quick and easy little projects like this.
😁

D.
 
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84dragcutlass

Royal Smart Person
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Aug 20, 2009
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North Vernon IN
It almost goes back to the thought that in the 80s these cars really were some of the first true throw away cars when you take a step back to look at things like the flimsy frames and the mystery alloy that the trim is apparently made from. My thoughts are it was probably really cheap to make and thats why they used such a strange material. I dont think they ever for a second thought any one would be restoring these cars one day
 
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69hurstolds

Geezer
Supporting Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Here's an idea, why don't you put a hood ornament on it?

Maybe something like this?
118360


Just an idea...… :)






Buwhaahahahahaha!!!!!!! Great job on filling the holes and making it look like it came that way. It's all about the details.
 
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