Allan R

Bryan
That's impressive - you have a U code car? (duh I knew it wasn't an X code or you would have sold it for big bucks by now) I imagine you've already confirmed that the block and VIN match. Which assembly plant? Guessing Lansing. So your VIN should be something like 3J57U2MXXXXXX??

re: the rapping sound. I'm not going to offer anything more on this because I'm just not a mechanic. I did some research on the noise but really don't know much about what it sounds like in person. A good mechanic could likely diagnose that quickly. I don't want to give you suggestions that would lead you down the wrong path on this one. Hoping someone can advise you better.

Here's a suggestion though. Can you take a short video of the car running and get the sound in there? Then post it on YouTube and link it here on the site for diagnosis? Maybe start a new thread on the engine noise so it doesn't get lost in this one which deals with cosmetic issues? Hope you find the answer and it's not an expensive fix. For now just concentrate on the cosmetic issues you started and get that looked after. I must say you're doing a great job with the patching using that filler.

oldsguybry

I meant I had a 455 at my moms from another car . The vin on my 72 CS has a " K " in it . The 350 that is in the car now is from a 76 Olds . ( not original ) .

Yeah , I'm not going to worry much about the motor I have in there now till later on this summer .

oldsguybry

Here's my vin # I took from another thread I had going a while back .... 3J57K2Z106564 .... Nothing special

Allan R

Only thing notable is that since it's a Freemont car it may have the elusive build sheet still hidden somewhere in it. Looking at the VIN last 6, I'd be guessing your CS has power drum brakes on all 4 corners?

oldsguybry

Disk in the front , and drums in the back .

oldsguybry

BEFORE ....

This is what it looked like before I cleaned it up and put another coat of paint and the screen on it . I'm not sure why I didn't take a photo of it after I added the second coat of POR ....



AFTER - STEP 1

It still needs some work on the edge where the arrows point to , not to mention I still need to clean up the inner wheelwell lip portion . I would need to take the wheel off to do this , so i'll have to wait till it's nice out again and take it to my moms to do this ....



I will have to add the other filler yet also ....

Allan R

Looks good. Now some high build primer/sealer on there and you'll be good for awhile. I see the car used to be Flame Orange - code 65? Looks like the fender has had a repaint in the past.

YIKES!! Am I seeing this right? The chords on the tire are showing through???

oldsguybry

Yes , it was orange . That color looks real good with the white vinyl top .... and what you are seeing is sanding dust in the treads on the rear tire , but the inside of the tire has some chords showing . That's why I need to get some SS1 or SS2 rims and tires or Cragers ASAP , instead of investing on tires on those rims . Erik offered a good price on some SS1's he has , but I believe they are 14" rims . I'm gonna need 15" or better in order to find decent availability on tires , not to mention pricing .

ent72olds

Looking good Bryan!

Allan R

Wutchoo talking bout Willis? You can get 14's pretty easy, unless you're looking for something that 255 or wider. A normal 215, 225 or 235 70 14 is not that hard to find.

oldsguybry

I was going to order a can of this . It's a 2 part epoxy in a spray can from Eastwood . Any better ideas ?

Allan R

Bryan - that epoxy primer will do the job for you nicely. I was chatting with a friend who knows more about bodywork than I ever will and he says that epoxy sealers will bond extremely well to body panels. To quote him, " it will seal the metal tighter than a bulls *** in a snow storm and sticks like crazy". So with that in mind I retracted the comment I originally posted and offer this apology for the earlier incorrect information.

That stuff is expensive, like I said the first time. So I would seriously look at the local market to see if you can find some 2 stage epoxy paint for less $$. If you can't, at least you know that Eastwoods has it. I don't know what the coverage will be for a single can - you should ask in case you need more than 1. Hate it when I have to pay for shipping twice.....

oldsguybry

Expensive is not the word for it . I orderded it yesterday , and it cost me $30 with shipping ! I guess I should of shopped around .

question - Do you think it will stick to ordinary rattle can primer ( Rustoleum ) ? or should I remove the primer first ?

oldsguybry

I ended up sanding this down a little more then I wanted to because I was having problems with this side , but it ended turning out ok after all ....

oldsguybry

and here's how it turned out when done ....

oldsguybry

This was a fun one ....

oldsguybry

I didn't get a picture of the fender when I just had the fiberglass filler in it , so I don't have step 1 to show you ....

69442C

Nice job Bryan...you'd never know those metal termites were there.

Brian

Allan R

Bryan, I'm sort of in the same boat as you with painting - I'm a novice and need to experiment and learn a lot more. My understanding about this 2 part epoxy is that it's best used on bare clean metal and should be sprayed at temps above 55°. Once that stuff is cured it's supposed to be really hard and will keep the moisture away from the area you've just sprayed.

Brian can chime in and let you know if this is right though. Remember he's got a lot of expertise in this - you've seen on his 442 thread and IIRC from other threads and discussions he's a very accomplished fabricator/painter/car builder.

OLD SKL 69

Looks very nice Bryan. Good work

I've used that epoxy primer as well with good results.

oldsguybry

Thanks for the comments guys . I finally feel like i'm getting somewhere on this beast . It will at least look half way decent on the outside by summer time hopefully . I have one more fender to sand the filler on , and it's to the drivers door to deal with that mess , and then align the fenders better .... besides new rims and tires , I'm going to have to deal with the roof issues also .... Not looking forward to that .

oldsguybry

oldsguybry

oldsguybry

MX442

From the SPI (epoxy) user's forum, rule #5:

"*Never even look at an aerosol can of primer. "

http://www.spiuserforum.com/showthre...nter-must-read!

oldsguybry

LOL , I like that rule ! I'm going to definetely remove the primer before I add the epoxy .

oldsguybry

I'm not liking the way this is looking . Any ideas what could of caused this ? There is another crack in the filler on the other side of the mirror , so could this be a weird kind of mirror someone had on this car at one time ? The filler only seems to be in these areas except for where some idiot scuffed the metal all up . .....

oldsguybry

The red arrows points to where there are deviations and dents ....

69442C

Bryan,

Hard to say at this point what was done. I doubt a mirror since it's back pretty far from the normal mirror location. It appears to me the one area appears to be a hole that was brazed (melted brass) as was done many years ago. The scratch marks are from a grinder to scuff the metal so filler could be installed. I suspect there is a hole under that filler so you should plan to remove it so you know exactly what you are dealing with. And then we could discuss ideas on how to fix whatever it is. Your body work on the other areas is looking pretty good.

Brian

oldsguybry

Here's a couple of pictures of the damage on the drivers door . I don't know who brazed this , but they were a complete idiot ! Why wouldn't they braze the hole full , instead of leaving it this way .... also , why would you scuff the metal up like this in order to add filler ? Was filler that bad back then or something ? I have put filler on smooth non-scuffed metal before , and never had it come loose on me . I've had it crack where I filled a hole without a backing behind it , but never had it lift off of the metal , so I don't get why anyone would do this . Brian ? any thoughts on this ? anyways , here's the pics ....

69442C

Yikes...someone made a real mess out of that. For starters, the correect way to have done this and assuming brazing was the only way they could weld, would have been to straighten the metal on that area, cut a metal patch to fit the hole and braze the patch in place. And grinding an area was very common practice prior to applying filler. It's possible that area had a little surface rust and it was being cleaned up or the person was using a grinding disc to strip the paint which was not the right thing to do.

I suspect you're going to find a big lump of brass on the inside of the door and it's going to be in your way when you try to straighten the metal. See what it looks like on the inside of that door first. It would be a little more work but you might be better off taking that door off the car and have a shop mig weld a patch in the damaged area. If it's fairly flat, you might be better off cutting a small rectangle size area out of the door to get rid of that damaged area and have a new piece of metal mig welded in place. If you feel comfortable cutting out the section and shaping up a patch for the area, a shop shouldn't charge you much money to just mig the patch in place and finish grind it for you. A thin coat of FG filler over the patch, sand the FG filler down so you remove almost all of it and then put a skim coat of bondo over that area and over where the mirror goes so you can fill in the grinding marks. The purpose of the FG filler first is to fill any small pin holes that may not have been fully welded up. That way if water were to get in those little areas, the FG filler will block it. Water can pass through standard bondo.

Brian

Allan R

Wow! That is ugly. Those dents look to be a good 1/2" deep or more. I know the issue you will have with taking the door off and giving it to a shop means there will be nothing on the car while it's gone. That said, do you have any buddies who could do the mig weld that Brian suggested? Recently I saw Mig welders on sale here for around 120.00. Possibly something you could consider if you'll need it down the road anyway. Isn't it just awful finding out stuff like this once you get down to bare metal. Very sorry to see that, but on the plus side it will add to the obvious skills you've already shown you have.

oldsguybry

Thanks for the input on this . I got my trusty Dremel out and cleaned all the surface rust out of all the cracks . I know I wont have the money to get this patched , but i'm going to attempt to straighten it out a bit more . IIRC there is a brace in the way of straightening out that area on the inside of the door . I'll have to take the window out anyways so I can get that chrome piece out of the way , and then I will take a look at it closer . I will probably end up filling it with fiberglass filler , and then the finishing filler until I can get the money to do it right . My stupid camera can't seem to take a non-blurry shot of this .....

krooser

Northstar Plating in Brainard, MN is THE place to get your bumpers repaired and plated... now owned by keystone. They have many locations that you can drop off your bumpers...

Allan R

Bryan, I understand your dilemna. Remember one thing if you're planning to try and even this out a bit so you can use the fibreglass filler. Don't end up with a big wad of the stuff to act as filler. When you start pounding out the dents remember not to start in the middle and work out. The general rule of thumb (and Brian can correct me if I'm wrong) is to start with the area that was stretched last. In this case it will be the areas around the big dents. Gradually work the metal as close to flush as you can starting from the outside working in. You may need someone to hold a metal dolly on the outside of the door while you pound from the inside. That will control any overstretching of the metal.

re: window fuzzy. That chrome bead is attached to the window fuzzy and is screwed to the inside of the door outer skin. So yes you'll need to take out the door glass just to get that out. As long as the remote mirror cable is still being held by the retaining tabs you should be ok to work around that.

re: door steel brace. I just looked at the Fisher Body Manual (section 6 - Doors) and it looks like you'll have enough room to work that metal without having to worry about the horizontal door reinforcement. You may have to get creative to put some pressure on those dents in the right places though. Once you have the inner door panel off you can assess the damage better.

re: camera blur. Usually most cameras have a 'macro' and 'anti shake' feature. Looks a little like a flower image on the camera screen. If you adjust with that the pics should come out clearer. Don't try to get uber close to the work though because the automatic rangefinders on the less expensive point and shoot cameras aren't good with that.

You're making good progress, keep up the good work.

oldsguybry

The brace at the top of the door is totally in the way . I can feel some kind of metal plate up there that must of been used as a backing for the brazing job . It's not the same metal plate that you see in the pictures i'm posting below . That metal plate is for the mirror . The red arrows point to about where the damage is ....





This plastic piece is pretty wore out and moves around quite easily .... is this where that felt washer is suppose to sit ?

Allan R

Bryan, I see what you're getting at. I don't really see how you can get in there from behind. Betting a shop would likely weld on some studs and use a slide hammer to level it off. There are some slide hammers that don't require the welded rods but I don't think that's in your budget. Maybe Brian will have a good suggestion for you. If it was my car and $$$ was tight I'd consider either heating the metal and putting an ice cube on it to see if it 'pops' back. Other than that, I'm reluctant to suggest anything else that would cost you a lot of bucks. Is there any way you could put a small wood block between the metal so you could leverage the dent out from inside using a flat iron?

The felt washer - I don't see how it could be in any other place? That's a question I'll have to keep in mind when I remove mine to install the Power windows. The felt looks original to me and there's no info in the Fisher manual about it. wondering if it wasn't supposed to be in the guide assembly to steady the tube in the guide assembly? I see you've removed the lock rod and clips already.

From what I can see in the Fisher manual, the guide assembly is supposed to have tolerance so the front/rear travel stops and the outer panel bearing plates can be adjusted for proper window tightness. Once they are properly fastened the window is held in place by them and the inner/outer sash fuzzies.

oldsguybry

I have decided to do this for now , and I learned a lot more about the sanding filler process . I'm not going any further then this , but it's pretty good . You can't feel any deviations in it at all . I did leave a few scrapes in the metal sticking out , but you can barely feel them . I'm going to leave the area where the polished trim piece lays the way it is , since it will be covered up . I will have to light sand the other four spots I did in order to bust out the rattle can epoxy I bought , because it only has a short shelf life once you start using it . I may have to work on some other areas so I don't waste any of it ....





fg

69442C

Bryan,

If you want to check it for straightness, take a little rattle can primer or even a little rattle can lacquer paint (black if possible) and lightly dust a little paint over the area and let it dry. Now take a sanding block with a 180 paper on it and sand the area with the block. If there are any low areas, they will become evident since the black paint will stay in the low spots. If you need to add a little more filler, remove the rattle can paint off those areas.

Brian

ziff396

Yes. And use the longest sanding block possible that will fit the ares you are working on. Short blocks tend to follow the bumps and not give you a correct result with the primer.