That's not how I roll dog. 😜
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Texas82GP's Roadmaster
- Thread starter Texas82GP
- Start date
See? You are kicking the snowball down the hill. You've already made it the brightest chrome on the car. Now, you have to do the rest of the trim. Sorry for your upcoming pain.
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Progress has been slow. I helped Dad with the Galaxie last weekend and my back gave me hell all week. I didn't do anything last week or yesterday. Today I was feeling better and didn't want to let the weekend slip away with no progress.
I decided I wanted to work on assembling the bumper cover. Sean came out and helped. I started with polishing the Driver's side stainless trim piece that I sanded a second time. It turned out nice. We installed all three stainless trim pieces. I had purchased some stainless fender washers to put between the speed nuts and the bumper cover. GM should have put it together that way in the first place. When we tore the replacement bumper cover down, a few of the speed nuts were pulling through the cover due to over tightening.
After the three stainless trim pieces, it was time for the peel-and-stick chrome bead. I was worried about this part but thankfully, I had Sean to do it. He's a great hand/eye coordination guy. He did a great job getting the bead on nice and straight. Then we moved on to installing the bumper guards, the front plate holder and the inner bumper reinforcement. It's ready to hang on the car. I'm pretty happy with it....
Hopefully it will be hanging on the car next weekend! That's it for now friends.
I decided I wanted to work on assembling the bumper cover. Sean came out and helped. I started with polishing the Driver's side stainless trim piece that I sanded a second time. It turned out nice. We installed all three stainless trim pieces. I had purchased some stainless fender washers to put between the speed nuts and the bumper cover. GM should have put it together that way in the first place. When we tore the replacement bumper cover down, a few of the speed nuts were pulling through the cover due to over tightening.
After the three stainless trim pieces, it was time for the peel-and-stick chrome bead. I was worried about this part but thankfully, I had Sean to do it. He's a great hand/eye coordination guy. He did a great job getting the bead on nice and straight. Then we moved on to installing the bumper guards, the front plate holder and the inner bumper reinforcement. It's ready to hang on the car. I'm pretty happy with it....
Hopefully it will be hanging on the car next weekend! That's it for now friends.
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Three weeks later, the car is back on the road. We had a lot more trouble restoring the "Dynaride" or automatic load leveling system than I expected. First, we pulled the non air-adjustable shocks that the previous owner put in. B-body rear shocks are a pain to replace. The upper two bolts don't have a backup welded into the frame and no captured nut. It's very difficult to get a tool up there and get a backup on those nuts. It reminded me a lot of replacing the rear shocks on my buddies 85 Delta 88 back in the mid-90's. Same car. Same PITA.
We got the shocks out and then the rear end wouldn't come down enough to let the springs out. I pulled the driveshaft and pulled the rear brake hose loose. No dice. So I used a spring compressor. Screw up number 1 was that I only bought two new coil spring insulators when I needed four. No problem, I found them at a Napa in Tomball (about 12 miles away). Dad and Sean drove out there and got them while I installed the driver's side spring on new insulators and pulled the passenger spring. They showed up and the new insulators were polyurethane (fine) and made in the USA (hurray!). Unfortunately, they wouldn't fit. I think they were the right dimensions but the poly won't stretch so I couldn't get them to go over the perches to save my life. That had me pretty much disgusted so we wrapped up for the day. I ended up buying two more Moog insulators from RockAuto to match the two new ones on the car and waited for them.
The next weekend (last weekend) we got the new spring and insulators installed on the passenger side. We got the shocks installed. That was an irritating experience. I lost one of the nuts (vanished) and ended up having to go to ACE to get a serrated metric flange nut. I was proud of them for having one. I install the refurbished load level sensor/switch and the compressor runs like it should. Great, I go to hook up the air lines to the shocks and realize I'm skunked again. GM used a quick connect from the factory. The replacement stuff uses screw on fittings. From the factory, the driver's side shock has two air fittings on it so they could just run a line from the driver's side shock to the passenger shock to air it up. I needed one of these so I could run two lines from the line coming to the back from the compressor....
It was early afternoon. It was time for lunch and a bathroom break so we rolled the shop up and went home. At that point, I didn't even really know what I needed. I just knew I didn't have it. The part above is Monroe AK-16. Unfortunately, the note on the RockAuto site for the shocks tells you that you don't need this if you have auto level control when it should tell you that you must have it if you have auto level control. From the RockAuto website...
Ok fine. I figure out what I need and realize it's going to be no big deal to plumb the new lines. It's last Saturday afternoon. I'm hoping to find this thing locally and get the car back together on Sunday. O'Reilly's website says they can have it at their HUB store by 8:30 AM Sunday. Great. I pay their ridiculous price and wait for the "you can come pick it up now" email. I wait all day Sunday. No email. I call the store Sunday afternoon. I get a "Duh, I don't know but we'll email you when it comes in." At that point I ordered it from Amazon and it showed up from them on Monday.
This morning Sean and I went to the storage and ran the new lines. The line from the compressor to the driver's side shock had a hole rubbed in it where it passes through the frame so I cut a short section of it out and spliced in the "T". Then we made up two new lines and put convoluted tubing on them to protect them. It was easy and went well. Then we go to put the rear wheels back on the car and the passenger rear won't go in. We had the jack stands under the frame and had the rear end drooping all the way down. The driver would go right in. The passenger wouldn't go. I measured and it looked like the passenger was drooping about 1/2" less than the driver. After fighting with it for awhile I took the passenger side shock loose at the bottom, let the rear end down so we could get the wheel in the wheel well and on the studs, then jacked it back up and put it back together. I'm hoping things will "settle in" but I'm afraid I'm in a position where there is something wrong with this new shock and it will have to be taken loose every time I want to pull the passenger side wheel and tire. Unacceptable. We'll see.
The car's back on the ground and runs and drives great. The Dynaride seems to be functioning as designed. I need to get a few people in the back seat and see what it does. Some pics....
The refurbished load level switch/sensor....
And here are some pics of the completed bumper project.....
Me buttoning up some of the lower plastic.....
Before...
After.....
I'm very happy with how the bumper project turned out. I think it really breathed a lot of life back into the appearance of the car. Sean and I cleaned and polished all the light lenses before installing them. I'm very happy with how the stainless steel trim turned out. Even though I didn't get it perfectly straight it looks very good. The peel and stick chrome bead on the top is not of the best quality (small blemishes) but it really dresses the bumper up and is a thousand times better than it was.
I think that's it for now on the Roadmaster friends. The truck is overdue for service and needs a thorough cleaning. After that the shop needs attention and then hopefully Sean and I will make some progress on the GP. Maybe it will happen this time. That's it for now friends. I hope you enjoyed the update.
We got the shocks out and then the rear end wouldn't come down enough to let the springs out. I pulled the driveshaft and pulled the rear brake hose loose. No dice. So I used a spring compressor. Screw up number 1 was that I only bought two new coil spring insulators when I needed four. No problem, I found them at a Napa in Tomball (about 12 miles away). Dad and Sean drove out there and got them while I installed the driver's side spring on new insulators and pulled the passenger spring. They showed up and the new insulators were polyurethane (fine) and made in the USA (hurray!). Unfortunately, they wouldn't fit. I think they were the right dimensions but the poly won't stretch so I couldn't get them to go over the perches to save my life. That had me pretty much disgusted so we wrapped up for the day. I ended up buying two more Moog insulators from RockAuto to match the two new ones on the car and waited for them.
The next weekend (last weekend) we got the new spring and insulators installed on the passenger side. We got the shocks installed. That was an irritating experience. I lost one of the nuts (vanished) and ended up having to go to ACE to get a serrated metric flange nut. I was proud of them for having one. I install the refurbished load level sensor/switch and the compressor runs like it should. Great, I go to hook up the air lines to the shocks and realize I'm skunked again. GM used a quick connect from the factory. The replacement stuff uses screw on fittings. From the factory, the driver's side shock has two air fittings on it so they could just run a line from the driver's side shock to the passenger shock to air it up. I needed one of these so I could run two lines from the line coming to the back from the compressor....
It was early afternoon. It was time for lunch and a bathroom break so we rolled the shop up and went home. At that point, I didn't even really know what I needed. I just knew I didn't have it. The part above is Monroe AK-16. Unfortunately, the note on the RockAuto site for the shocks tells you that you don't need this if you have auto level control when it should tell you that you must have it if you have auto level control. From the RockAuto website...
Ok fine. I figure out what I need and realize it's going to be no big deal to plumb the new lines. It's last Saturday afternoon. I'm hoping to find this thing locally and get the car back together on Sunday. O'Reilly's website says they can have it at their HUB store by 8:30 AM Sunday. Great. I pay their ridiculous price and wait for the "you can come pick it up now" email. I wait all day Sunday. No email. I call the store Sunday afternoon. I get a "Duh, I don't know but we'll email you when it comes in." At that point I ordered it from Amazon and it showed up from them on Monday.
This morning Sean and I went to the storage and ran the new lines. The line from the compressor to the driver's side shock had a hole rubbed in it where it passes through the frame so I cut a short section of it out and spliced in the "T". Then we made up two new lines and put convoluted tubing on them to protect them. It was easy and went well. Then we go to put the rear wheels back on the car and the passenger rear won't go in. We had the jack stands under the frame and had the rear end drooping all the way down. The driver would go right in. The passenger wouldn't go. I measured and it looked like the passenger was drooping about 1/2" less than the driver. After fighting with it for awhile I took the passenger side shock loose at the bottom, let the rear end down so we could get the wheel in the wheel well and on the studs, then jacked it back up and put it back together. I'm hoping things will "settle in" but I'm afraid I'm in a position where there is something wrong with this new shock and it will have to be taken loose every time I want to pull the passenger side wheel and tire. Unacceptable. We'll see.
The car's back on the ground and runs and drives great. The Dynaride seems to be functioning as designed. I need to get a few people in the back seat and see what it does. Some pics....
The refurbished load level switch/sensor....
And here are some pics of the completed bumper project.....
Me buttoning up some of the lower plastic.....
Before...
After.....
I'm very happy with how the bumper project turned out. I think it really breathed a lot of life back into the appearance of the car. Sean and I cleaned and polished all the light lenses before installing them. I'm very happy with how the stainless steel trim turned out. Even though I didn't get it perfectly straight it looks very good. The peel and stick chrome bead on the top is not of the best quality (small blemishes) but it really dresses the bumper up and is a thousand times better than it was.
I think that's it for now on the Roadmaster friends. The truck is overdue for service and needs a thorough cleaning. After that the shop needs attention and then hopefully Sean and I will make some progress on the GP. Maybe it will happen this time. That's it for now friends. I hope you enjoyed the update.
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Thanks! It's really a terrific car, if you're into that sort of thing (comfortable long trip car). The Borla exhaust and new catalytic converters really woke the LT1 up. It's really not a gutless turd.
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awesome, your fans came back..... 
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the bumper came out beautifully, although we figured it'd have that level of quality after seeing the work that you, your dad and brother produce.
glad you finally nailed the air ride issues, as I'm still scratching my head on my caddy. the deeper I go on this, the more odd it seems to be, and lack of info I can get. looks like there wasn't many DTS devilles made, and most of the info I can gather is for standard devilles... I have 4 level sensors, 2 sensors connected to the rear struts, and can only find 1 sensor connection on the front... for now it seems to work when it wants to, and does ride pretty smooth, but the ocd in me hates the warning texts on the message board on the instrument cluster... guess I'll keep plugging along for now. go enjoy the roadmonster!
glad you finally nailed the air ride issues, as I'm still scratching my head on my caddy. the deeper I go on this, the more odd it seems to be, and lack of info I can get. looks like there wasn't many DTS devilles made, and most of the info I can gather is for standard devilles... I have 4 level sensors, 2 sensors connected to the rear struts, and can only find 1 sensor connection on the front... for now it seems to work when it wants to, and does ride pretty smooth, but the ocd in me hates the warning texts on the message board on the instrument cluster... guess I'll keep plugging along for now. go enjoy the roadmonster!
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Thanks Darin. I totally understand now why the previous owner of the car just put regular shocks on the back. Fixing the Dynaride was more difficult and expensive than I expected. All that's left of the original system is most of the hard line from the compressor to the rear and the wiring. The compressor looked bad (dirt and corrosion on the inlet and outlet and the vacuum lines had rotted off of it). The leveling switch/sensor tested bad. The line from the front to back had a hole rubbed in it. The load leveling shocks were gone. It was a bit of a fight but I'm glad to have restored this feature of the car. I hope you have some luck on diagnosing the problem on your Caddy. It sounds like a much newer model and sounds like a more complex system.
Thanks for the kind words on the bumper. I have to give the painter and my brother a lot of the credit and thanks. My brother Sean helped me pull the bumper off a car at the junk yard, helped me disassemble it and he did a lot of sanding on it. He brings a lot of horsepower to the table on projects like sanding and taping. I'm pretty slow and overly picky. The painter did a great job on the paint and then Sean did an excellent job applying the peel and stick chrome bead. I'll go ahead and take credit for the lower stainless trim. I worked my a$$ off on those pieces and thankfully they reflect the hard work. I'll bet there are 10-12 man hours of hand sanding the bumper and I'll bet I have 10-12 hours of work in those stainless pieces.
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The car is definitely sitting a little higher in the back with the new springs and with the level control system restored. Here's a pic of the car taken by the seller in Ft. Lauderdale late last year....
Here's one of the car I just took here at the office....
Here's one of the car I just took here at the office....
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