What did you do to your G-Body today 2024

[mclellan83]

Well my typical luck, thought that changing the coil would improve things. Somehow only made things worse, but was able to get it out Friday night to see all the problems

https://imgur.com/a/dakota

 

[MalibuDavyou5]

The Weather is finally clear enough I got started on dissembling the Malibu. I am getting her ready for Paint and body work. Early Morning is the best time for paint as we are still in the 40 to 50 degree temps at that time. I have to grab some more 5" Orbital sander paper, but I am redoing what I could not do before. I only put a temporary paint job on to it (Spray Can) just to keep it from rusting further, I didn't see the small dents, dings and other areas until the paint went on. Now I can bust all that out and soon. I am going to try to make the deadline before a car show and swap meet (4mins away from where I live) happens. Still going to be much much more to do as I can afford.

 

[CopperNick]

So I gave in to the urge to engage in some minor OCB (Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour 😀) and applied some more heat to the duct side panel. Didn't concentrate it in any one particular area, just warmed the whole thing up. And then..............

Just by way of trying to ensure that when the panel cooled down it would be somewhere close to flat, I took my bench anvil and flipped it upside down, then placed it on the heated work surface. On top of the anvil, I added an 1100 CA battery that is one of a few that I keep around as dead load weights because of all the lead in them due to the mass of plates they were made with.

This battery is very much a dead battery; it had ceased to be a long time ago. To guarantee it being dead, what I usually do is flush the cells out with water until it runs clear, then just tip it over and let them drain. For insurance you can take some baking soda and dump in a tablespoon or two, mixed into some water to create a slurry, into each cell port.

I have three of them around; they make great weight for when you are trying to push a floor panel down into as close a correct position as possible and then hold it in place while you go for tacks.

The weight stack shown in the pictures will stay piled up until tomorrow and then be dismantled to see what I got for my efforts.


Nick

 

[MrSony]

If that bending tool that is sitting on the long leg of what might be an engine puller in the picture is your weapon of choice for bending tube then yeah, kinks and flattened tube diameter can be a consequence. I have one of that style of my own and tend to leave it in the kit box that I have assembled over the years for doing bending and shaping of various diameters of tube. The bender of choice for me is a type of lever armed pliers that uses a fixed and a floating arm with a degree of angle inscribed on the edge to keep track of the amount of curve that has been created.

As an alternative, if the tube is light enough, I may even resort to using human generated leverage and a Mark 1 eyeball to guesstimate the amount of curve and how much radius to employ to get something that looks reasonably professional when done. Only thing with the hand bomb approach is that it can be difficult to achieve a very tight radius it one is necessary.



Nick

Tight bends are the bane of my existence.

 

[Tomicamino]

Time for rearend oil change

 

[83MonteCarloSS]

Painted the area left behind after cutting the rot out of my passenger side inner and outer rocker, made up my patch panels, and painted everything after getting the inner welded on. Next day I get time I will get the outer welded up. Trying to keep the motivation going.

 

[CopperNick]

So it looks like I am not the only one having fun? with rocker panels.............................

Did manage to retrieve the radiator for my M/Carlo back from the Rad Service shop today. The bite was 146.00 and for that they did the pressure test, found and repaired some damage, purged the tanks and tubes of built up crud and corrosion and gave it a nice flat black paint job. Much cheaper than the original quote and muy much cheaper than a new one or a recore. Now thinking about pulling the spare down from the mezzanine deck and sending it out for the same treatment.

For now it is sitting in the lower rubber cradle biscuits and is being held in by zip ties while I continue to search for the upper rad mounts. I know I put them somewhere safe but that was 11 years ago, more or less, so the where of where is subject to memory loss due to the passage of time.



Nick

 

[MalibuDavyou5]

Was able to do a little today. I cut the cancer that was on the Passenger side rear panel. and cut a new piece to replace it though I am going to have to cut at least two more to fill in that area. My First time cutting into a panel. Tomorrow will be my first time Welding as I also just bought a Flux Core Welder, Helmet, gloves and Magnets for this job. But I have to wait for all the area's I rust treated to cure for 24 hours.

 

[UC645]

Was able to do a little today. I cut the cancer that was on the Passenger side rear panel. and cut a new piece to replace it though I am going to have to cut at least two more to fill in that area. My First time cutting into a panel. Tomorrow will be my first time Welding as I also just bought a Flux Core Welder, Helmet, gloves and Magnets for this job. But I have to wait for all the area's I rust treated to cure for 24 hours.

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Get that foam outta there while you’re at it!

That trash rotted out my dad’s Avalanche, it’s not worth the risk of letting it stay there.

 

[Ribbedroof]

Flux core would not be my choice for sheetmetal work, but sometimes we have to use what we can get

Also, I would suggest LOTS of practice with scrap before you attempt welding on the car, Flux core is hard to get decent looking welds with.