Ok, time for the grey lady to stop snoozing.

Lots of things to do this year:
Restore and reinstall new inner liners.
Remove and restore cooling system.
Remove and replace gas tank, fuel pump, fuel sender and all rubber lines
Install cutout rear bumper and trumpet exhaust
Restore rear tail light pods and stone guards
Rebuild rear brakes.
Restore stone shield and install new 442 grills.
Remove and restore all front bumper braces.


So today was the start. Unpacked the inner liners. I was not really happy with the fasteners on the liners. They are 40 years old and are pretty scabby looking. So I decided to take them all off and get replacements. Turns out there's a trick to getting those off. Pop up the metal lock tab, and gently rotate the fastener to the side. Got all of em off without damaging the liners. (practiced on the liner that was damaged to start with). So now I will be heading to napa or partsource to get some brand new ones. I'm planning to restore the bolts and washers that came off the car - so they will be another part of this project. See that big one on the right? It's not stock, so I think Ken (guy who did all the body/paint) put that one in. The plastic pieces will clean up nicely and be reinstalled in their proper places




After a wash and brief scrub, they looked not too bad. But there was road tar on the inside liner. Decided I'm going to spray them with undercoat because they are faded to a light grey in places.

Here's the liner with the old crap removed, except for the staples



Here's the old and new staples for comparison


Wanted to see how the new A frame flaps would compare. Old vs New. They are perfect matches. (ILT) But they came with 20 staples and my car has 11 per side. So I'm re-using a couple of the good ones. I know that a lot of guys will just re-use the old ones, but hey, I've got new so why not use them?



The weather was really cooperative and the staples popped out without much issue. The plastic liner was hot from being in the sun, and the new staples slid in soooo easy.

Next I decided to put a new A arm cover in. It also went in easily over the new staples. I'm going to need a metal dolly to hammer over the tabs on the staples.



So at the end of today, I've got one side installed (sort of) Tomorrow I'll get that dolly and hammer the staples over. The liner will need some cleanup - I have some fine steel wool I'm going to try and some 'Back to Black" from mothers. I have the undercoating ready to spray too. Yahoo! Things are starting to happen again !

 

Looking awesome Al!

How did it work out with the old staples? Did any break?

I'd love to have Red inner fender liners for my cutlass. i Know they're not stock for 72', but i do think they look really sharp!

 

No, not a single one broke. I kept all of them. The front air dam has a few staples that have come out so I've got plenty.

Learning how those fasteners come out and doing the staples ate up the better part of 3 hours. Nothin new for me..... I'm really happy with the fit of the new seals. I think I'll see if I can find some to make the part on the front air dam. If not, I'll use Rob's secret elixir - Oven cleaner.

Should have worn a T shirt. I'm pretty red and hot right now....(pervert )

I've seen 72s with red liners. Claimed to be a factory correct resto. Yeah, oh look a bunny rabbit! And, they are really pricy. Shipping would be a killer too. Just clean yours up really good and call it done. That's all I'm planning on.

 

Realistically that's what's going to happen!

I think it's because i keep having dreams about that 70 w-30