Texas82GP's Roadmaster
- Thread starter Texas82GP
- Start date
There's a little progress to report on the Roadmaster. I took off work early last Friday. Things are pretty slow at work. I put the new compressor for the rear air suspension on the car. My compressor didn't look too good so I bought a replacement from Dorman. It is a very good reproduction....
It's from Chyna, which I hate but hopefully it will work as good as it looks. It was a perfect fit. I had designs on replacing the rear shocks and springs while I was at it, or at least get started on that project, but I couldn't get the compressor to run. I have a knock-off Power Probe. I used it for the first time and with the shop manual, followed the factory diagnosis flow chart. Turns out the ride control sensor is not functioning...
Of course, this thing has long been discontinued. I found a guy online that repairs them. He ships you one and then you ship him your core with a return label. I'm working on getting this done. I held off on replacing the shocks and springs since I don't want to put the air adjustable shocks on the car without the compressor being able to control the ride height. I did jump across the plug for this switch and made the compressor run for a moment, though.
My brother was down on his back pretty bad Saturday so I had the yard work solo. I also had some work on the primary A/C drain for the downstairs A/C unit. I did some other small projects as well like putting new wiper blades on my truck and my niece's car, reprogramming the Tire Pressure Monitoring System on my truck and adjusting the air pressure in my tires. By 3 PM I was pretty footsore so that was my day.
Sunday, I did some more hammering on the driver's side trim piece for the front bumper. It's pretty good. Then I sanded it. I started with 220 on the hammered area and went to 150 on a small area on the side where it had a pretty deep scratch in it. I went 150, 220, 400, 600, 1500 as that's what I had on hand. Then I polished it with Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish with a knock-off power-cone on the drill. It turned out ok. It would look fine on the car but I think it needs more sanding. I can still see a lot of sand scratch in it. I'm a real amateur at this.
I ordered a few sandpaper assortments. I'm thinking I'll start over with 320, then work to 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and then polish and see how that turns out. After polishing the driver's side piece, I went to hammering on the passenger side trim piece. Unfortunately the damage is behind a thick area in the backing where one of the mounting studs is. It will only move so much. I helped it a lot though and I think it will look fine on the car.
While I was at the storage I grabbed a few pictures of the replacement cluster lens and the replacement factory stereo with add-on blutooth......
Before....
After.....
Here's the replacement radio. The blue button is a push switch that switches between normal function of the stereo and bluetooth. The bluetooth works great. This unit also has a functioning cassette deck, which I'll never use but having a broken tape deck was bad for my OCD....
I got a text from the painter last night that he has the bumper cover painted. He said he needed to do some nib sanding and then paint the silver/grey trim color. I'm expecting to get it back this weekend so I'm going to focus on getting the trim and bumper guards ready so I can put that thing back together and get it back on the car.
The weather has turned here. I'm planning to complete the restoration of the Dynaride (just learned that refers to the rear automatic leveling suspension) and the front bumper and that will be it for the Roadmaster this year. My focus will turn to cleaning up the shop and then getting on the Grand Prix for the fall/winter/spring.
I guess that's it for now friends. I'll update when there is progress to report. Until then, take care.
It's from Chyna, which I hate but hopefully it will work as good as it looks. It was a perfect fit. I had designs on replacing the rear shocks and springs while I was at it, or at least get started on that project, but I couldn't get the compressor to run. I have a knock-off Power Probe. I used it for the first time and with the shop manual, followed the factory diagnosis flow chart. Turns out the ride control sensor is not functioning...
Of course, this thing has long been discontinued. I found a guy online that repairs them. He ships you one and then you ship him your core with a return label. I'm working on getting this done. I held off on replacing the shocks and springs since I don't want to put the air adjustable shocks on the car without the compressor being able to control the ride height. I did jump across the plug for this switch and made the compressor run for a moment, though.
My brother was down on his back pretty bad Saturday so I had the yard work solo. I also had some work on the primary A/C drain for the downstairs A/C unit. I did some other small projects as well like putting new wiper blades on my truck and my niece's car, reprogramming the Tire Pressure Monitoring System on my truck and adjusting the air pressure in my tires. By 3 PM I was pretty footsore so that was my day.
Sunday, I did some more hammering on the driver's side trim piece for the front bumper. It's pretty good. Then I sanded it. I started with 220 on the hammered area and went to 150 on a small area on the side where it had a pretty deep scratch in it. I went 150, 220, 400, 600, 1500 as that's what I had on hand. Then I polished it with Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish with a knock-off power-cone on the drill. It turned out ok. It would look fine on the car but I think it needs more sanding. I can still see a lot of sand scratch in it. I'm a real amateur at this.
I ordered a few sandpaper assortments. I'm thinking I'll start over with 320, then work to 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and then polish and see how that turns out. After polishing the driver's side piece, I went to hammering on the passenger side trim piece. Unfortunately the damage is behind a thick area in the backing where one of the mounting studs is. It will only move so much. I helped it a lot though and I think it will look fine on the car.
While I was at the storage I grabbed a few pictures of the replacement cluster lens and the replacement factory stereo with add-on blutooth......
Before....
After.....
Here's the replacement radio. The blue button is a push switch that switches between normal function of the stereo and bluetooth. The bluetooth works great. This unit also has a functioning cassette deck, which I'll never use but having a broken tape deck was bad for my OCD....
I got a text from the painter last night that he has the bumper cover painted. He said he needed to do some nib sanding and then paint the silver/grey trim color. I'm expecting to get it back this weekend so I'm going to focus on getting the trim and bumper guards ready so I can put that thing back together and get it back on the car.
The weather has turned here. I'm planning to complete the restoration of the Dynaride (just learned that refers to the rear automatic leveling suspension) and the front bumper and that will be it for the Roadmaster this year. My focus will turn to cleaning up the shop and then getting on the Grand Prix for the fall/winter/spring.
I guess that's it for now friends. I'll update when there is progress to report. Until then, take care.
The replacement bumper cover is painted.....
I'm real happy with the trim color. I haven't seen it in person yet. The painter sent this pic yesterday. I may be able to go pick it up later today. I need to re-sand the Driver's side stainless trim piece.
I'm real happy with the trim color. I haven't seen it in person yet. The painter sent this pic yesterday. I may be able to go pick it up later today. I need to re-sand the Driver's side stainless trim piece.
Progress! I had success “restoring” aluminum wheels in my past finishing with 2500 grit before polishing. It’s obviously a different substrate, but with stainless being a harder material you probably need to knock the scratches down more to get a more mirror like finish.
love the progress on the car, will def be one of the nicest Roadmonsters out there!
I'm kinda going through the same motions on the caddy, with the rear air ride suspension, and dealing with the P.O.'s mechanic's f*#kery... wrong air struts, mounted wrong, no resistors for the aftermarket strut's lack of wiring harness... found some Delco struts, and seem to be working, but oddly not sure, as the butts of these big girls sit low anyway! looks like the Roadies use the same type stuff in their workings, just different shapes, and the compressor look to be the same unit as mine... I'm tuned in for the final results!
I'm kinda going through the same motions on the caddy, with the rear air ride suspension, and dealing with the P.O.'s mechanic's f*#kery... wrong air struts, mounted wrong, no resistors for the aftermarket strut's lack of wiring harness... found some Delco struts, and seem to be working, but oddly not sure, as the butts of these big girls sit low anyway! looks like the Roadies use the same type stuff in their workings, just different shapes, and the compressor look to be the same unit as mine... I'm tuned in for the final results!
I put about three hours of effort into the passenger side trim piece earlier this week. I started with 320 and then 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 and finally 2500. I did all my sanding in the long direction of the trim and got much better results. I then did the Mother's mag and aluminum polish with the foam cone in the drill. It's pretty good but it isn't show quality. I'm guessing the Mother's isn't aggressive enough, or maybe the foam cone isn't.
Still, I've come to the realization that while the piece is in my lap and I'm sanding it, I'm looking at it way harder than I or anyone will with it on the car. It will be the best looking trim on the car and will be fine for a driver.
Thanks Darin. Yeah, fixing the automatic level control system hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be, and it's been pretty expensive. Once I'm done, all that will be original will be the wiring and the air lines. I'm still trying to buy a refurbished level control sensor. Still, I want this to work. When the back of the car gets loaded down with passengers and luggage, I want the ride height to be correct.
You mentioned your Caddy is sitting low in the rear. On my car, there is an adjustment on the level control sensor, and a height specification in the shop manual. Maybe your sensor needs adjustment?
I'm not sure the compressor is kicking in and airing up the system. I actually learned on sunday, that the system on mine is different from a standard Deville.. the normal system has only 1 sensor on the D/S rear, where my DTS has one on each corner... I had swapped out the compressor unit out with a junkyard part before I changed the rear air struts (cheap way to start diagnosing a system you know nothing about) just to see if that was the original problem, before I learned about the sensors on the struts on just the DTS models... I'll probably switch back to the original pump before I start doing further diagnosis (read: lots of diagnosis...)
Put about 3.5 hours more of sanding into the driver's side stainless trim piece for the front bumper. I hate sanding. I had to go back to 240 to get some of the scratch out of it. I went all the way to 3000. It looks pretty good. I didn't do the polishing with the Mother's and the foam cone. It was 9:30 when I finished with the 3000 and I was over it by then. I'm going to pick up the bumper cover at the painter's house this evening. I called the seller on the refurbished level control switch earlier. I'm supposed to be buying it today but I'm waiting for him to do what he said he was going to do. Hopefully I'll have the bumper all re-assembled this weekend. I'll post some pictures of the progress as I go.
