That right there is the ultimate compliment. Let's you know you've done it perfectly.
🙂
BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
🙂
Donavan:
Thank you, for the information. Love your car, I have the same ambitions for my 87 442, only my abilities and wallet don't match what I see in my mind. I've worked on the mechanical's of cars for decades, but body work is not my thing, I struggle with body work, and my son and I have been working on a 71 Cutlass S for him, and an 87 442 for me. I know normally my son would have the newer car, but I bought an 87 442 new, when my son was less than 1 year old, that is the car I really like.
Mark
Thank you, for the information. Love your car, I have the same ambitions for my 87 442, only my abilities and wallet don't match what I see in my mind. I've worked on the mechanical's of cars for decades, but body work is not my thing, I struggle with body work, and my son and I have been working on a 71 Cutlass S for him, and an 87 442 for me. I know normally my son would have the newer car, but I bought an 87 442 new, when my son was less than 1 year old, that is the car I really like.
Mark
Thank you sir, much appreciated!
I've been following your progress on the Salon as well, and you're an absolute machine. It sounds like it's going back together quick. I'll be following...
Me and my big mouth.
In my last major update, I casually made the offhand comment that I still needed to add in the outer chrome bezel mounting hole tabs and that it "should be fairly easy to do."
Dumbass. I've been doing this long enough that I should know better than to make such a silly comment. I essentially put the kiss of death on myself by saying that!
Lol
So yes, it turns out I'm still working on the header panel. If you guys are sick of reading about it, I can assure you it's not as sick as I am of working on it!
The fit of the headlight assemblies into the openings is really tight, especially at the outer edges where I needed to add the mounting tabs. The only way to install the tabs was to add in some pieces of SMC on a 45 degree angle in the corners and hollow out underneath them (to make room for the clips and screws that will mount the bezels).
Here's a couple of pics with the headlights mocked up to show just how tight it is.
The issue isn't the light itself, but rather the plastic adjusting bracket that mounts the headlight. It's visible inbehind the black gasket in the pic above as well as in this one:
I really didn't want to trim the plastic bracket to lend more credibility to it looking "factory", so I played around with the size and location of the pieces 'till I got them to just fit. The the buckets were marked for cutting out the material that would have to be removed:
Through the magic of photography, the area has been removed on the other side...
...but I can assure you, it wasn't easy to get anything in there to do it. In fact, the only way I was able to remove the material was with a big single cut burr intended for grinding aluminum. What a mess it made!
With that done in the four corners, the pieces were glued in place, and small triangle pieces were cut to cap off the ends and glued in as well. These areas will have the holes drilled in them for the bezel mounting clips.
Unfortunately, after mocking up the bezels to determine the proper depth of the triangle pieces, I discovered that I had gotten a little aggressive with trimming back the tops of the buckets before I glued them in. There was going to be a gap between where the triangle pieces needed to be and the rest of the bucket. This required adding back in small slivers of material to align with the triangle pieces. 😳
After a little sanding and a bit of kitty hair to smooth it all out, it worked out alright.
The same process was necessary and repeated on the other side. With that done, I used more kitty hair in the corners of the 45's to create a radius that more resembled the factory corners on the insides.
Looks pretty good on the insides, but there's still the backsides to do too, remember?
Anyone that has done any kind of serious custom bodywork will immediately recognize this as the worst kind there is to try and do. Inside corners, radiuses, and tight areas make for a very difficult go. Wadded up pieces of sandpaper, custom made filler spreaders,
x-acto knives, and even files were all used to get in wherever I could.
Here's a pic of one of the top insides on the backside. These were almost impossible areas I had to try and get into and work.
On the bright side however, I'm almost done. I had one area crack on me from the panel flexing during all the cutting and sanding processes that I'm currently repairing, then the header will get mounted back on the car to skim and block the outer top area where the hood ornament was.
After that, a quick scuff of the unsanded areas with a red scotchbrite pad, and it should be ready for a couple coats of high build primer surfacer. 🙂
So now you know what's been taking me so long, and the next time I feel the need to say something silly, I'm gonna bite my tongue!
🙄
Thanks for checking in on the progress everyone!
Till next time...
In my last major update, I casually made the offhand comment that I still needed to add in the outer chrome bezel mounting hole tabs and that it "should be fairly easy to do."
Dumbass. I've been doing this long enough that I should know better than to make such a silly comment. I essentially put the kiss of death on myself by saying that!
Lol
So yes, it turns out I'm still working on the header panel. If you guys are sick of reading about it, I can assure you it's not as sick as I am of working on it!
The fit of the headlight assemblies into the openings is really tight, especially at the outer edges where I needed to add the mounting tabs. The only way to install the tabs was to add in some pieces of SMC on a 45 degree angle in the corners and hollow out underneath them (to make room for the clips and screws that will mount the bezels).
Here's a couple of pics with the headlights mocked up to show just how tight it is.
The issue isn't the light itself, but rather the plastic adjusting bracket that mounts the headlight. It's visible inbehind the black gasket in the pic above as well as in this one:
I really didn't want to trim the plastic bracket to lend more credibility to it looking "factory", so I played around with the size and location of the pieces 'till I got them to just fit. The the buckets were marked for cutting out the material that would have to be removed:
Through the magic of photography, the area has been removed on the other side...
...but I can assure you, it wasn't easy to get anything in there to do it. In fact, the only way I was able to remove the material was with a big single cut burr intended for grinding aluminum. What a mess it made!
With that done in the four corners, the pieces were glued in place, and small triangle pieces were cut to cap off the ends and glued in as well. These areas will have the holes drilled in them for the bezel mounting clips.
Unfortunately, after mocking up the bezels to determine the proper depth of the triangle pieces, I discovered that I had gotten a little aggressive with trimming back the tops of the buckets before I glued them in. There was going to be a gap between where the triangle pieces needed to be and the rest of the bucket. This required adding back in small slivers of material to align with the triangle pieces. 😳
After a little sanding and a bit of kitty hair to smooth it all out, it worked out alright.
The same process was necessary and repeated on the other side. With that done, I used more kitty hair in the corners of the 45's to create a radius that more resembled the factory corners on the insides.
Looks pretty good on the insides, but there's still the backsides to do too, remember?
Anyone that has done any kind of serious custom bodywork will immediately recognize this as the worst kind there is to try and do. Inside corners, radiuses, and tight areas make for a very difficult go. Wadded up pieces of sandpaper, custom made filler spreaders,
x-acto knives, and even files were all used to get in wherever I could.
Here's a pic of one of the top insides on the backside. These were almost impossible areas I had to try and get into and work.
On the bright side however, I'm almost done. I had one area crack on me from the panel flexing during all the cutting and sanding processes that I'm currently repairing, then the header will get mounted back on the car to skim and block the outer top area where the hood ornament was.
After that, a quick scuff of the unsanded areas with a red scotchbrite pad, and it should be ready for a couple coats of high build primer surfacer. 🙂
So now you know what's been taking me so long, and the next time I feel the need to say something silly, I'm gonna bite my tongue!
🙄
Thanks for checking in on the progress everyone!
Till next time...
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
Thanks gents! I'll be sure to be taking some more pics and posting them up once the whole thing is one color and all purdy. Lol
I'm looking forward to putting this one in the "done" column and moving on...
🙂
"I LOVE THIS HOBBY HUUUUURAH"!!!! VERY niCE.i may borrow your ingenuity to install some bmw e36 headlights i bought for my "gran sport" 86 regal.
Borrow away, my friend!
What I did and posted is just what worked for me. If you end up doing the Bimmer lights in your Regal, post pics, 'cause I don't think I could picture it...
Once again, a big shout out and thanks to L.A.X-RATED (the poster above ^^^), as he was the one that supplied me with the Celebrity Lights that all the modifications you've been reading about have been for.
Thanks man, I really appreciate it!
