We had a member who died because he swerved his motorcycle avoiding a dog. Chris Witt, Octania, the Rocket Scientist. All around stand up dude, great knowledge, hilarious, etc.

He had a standing offer to beat the stuffing out of Kryta, if that tells you anything.

It's good to stand behind your products, unless they suck. It's good to stand behind your employees, unless they suck. I think Inline Tube has probably got some good product, but has space cadets for low level employees.

About the angriest I have been recently was when I told a woman at a car dealership that I was declining a recall when I was having some other work done. She had it done anyway. When I picked it up, I parked it, got the service manager back in the shop and about put him through his front window. You never, ever, ever stand behind your employee to a customer when the employee is wrong, up to and including firing said employee on the spot if necessary. Inline Tube has the reputation they have, not because of the mistakes they make, which are numerous, but the attitude they take against customers who know more than them. Even if the customer is wrong, you still must try to make it right.

The only customer service worse than Inline Tube I have seen is Just Dashes.

 

You evidently haven't dealt with OPGI

 

Correct. I don't believe I should.

 

Still making progress, underside done, new power steering box installed..Dash pulled and sent out for replating. I took the heater box off to replace the firewall insulation under the dash, ended sanding the box down and painting and replacing the heater core. Hey while I was at it I removed front and rear windshield glass as the needed resealing. Of course found some rust..not terrible tho. Ended up cutting it out and welding new metal in both channels, will post pics once I finish up the channels..

 

Nice work!

 

Ground out the bad spots, welded in new metal, ground it down and used all metal to smooth out some the pits in the channel. She is solid now..car is extremely solid, but yes window channels always seem to have some rust through.

 

 

Looks good to me, nice work and progress!

 

Making more progress, welded in new metal in front and rear window channels, some rust bubbles in the hood got bigger but now welded in. Start on body work soon. Lots of work done, a ton more to go..

 

didn’t look to bad till you grind it out.

 

Really nice work. Sometimes it never ends.

 

Was there a heavy duty drum brake option in 66 and if so, what was the difference?

 

Yes, police cars had larger, metallic brake linings and drums. Also available as a H-D option.

 

Been plugging along on the body work. When whoever worked on the car before took the spear out of the middle of the hood as it’s a cutlass hood, they beat the holes down with a balling hammer and filled it full of Bondo. so I had to strip the hood take a hammer and dolly and get the holes back up to close to flush, and then I welded them up and then the hard part.. re-creating that natural curve in that body line and goes down the middle of the hood. Thanks to Mike Richards and, Scott Winn for giving me pointers on how to do this. so I’ve got the hood done under the side of the hood done, the trunk done. I’ve got one fender off repaired some rust got it ready and got several doors sanded so I’m moving along pretty good. Course now I have to epoxy primer, then build primer and sand it all back down a couple times maybe primer again before I got time before I got it close enough for color.

 

Lower fender looked like just pitting but once I took a wire wheel to it started going through so I had to cut about a 2 1/2 x 2 1/2” piece of metal and hand format welded in then skim it so that fender is done as far as bodywork.

 

Looking great Andy, Congrats

 

Good progress, love the rims and tires on that car!

 

Kudos to you for doing your own body work.
I started to do mine, but I wasn't good enough at it to satisfy my own standards.
So, I caved and hauled it to a pro.

 

I am contemplating having polished paint the centers and using them, but I don’t know. The tires are like brand new but they’re old. They’re probably 30 years old or more so I don’t know how safe that would be.. It’s a great old-school look though.

 

You will be OK driving it off and on a trailer.
On the road, not so much. I've had a couple of ten-year-old plus tires blow up on me in the past.

 

I don’t own a trailer, building this as a nice original street car. It will be driven like my other cars.

 

My point was, that would be the only safe use for a 30-year-old tire.
If you're going to drive it, please buy new tires.
And hang those on the wall in your garage.

 

Agree.. lol. Probably scrap the tires, do something with the rims. I have a set of beautiful original 1966 SS1’s as well for the car.

 

Getting close to spraying the main body with epoxy primer, fenders, trunk lid, hood are done. Then sand again looking for high low spots, use a skim coat of filler. Then onto using ppg vp1050 2k build primer, block and spray till it’s as perfect as my skills are before taping off and shooting color and clear. The question I have for experts on paint is should I definitely use a sealer coat or just wet sanded 2k primer before color?

 

I used PPG epoxy primer DP50LF but note you should spray the color coat the same day.

 

My PPG Refinish contact says "As long as you sand the VP2050 with 600 Grit, you should be OK. A more robust process would be to use sealer, but not mandatory."

 

‘Good info, I am a novice so in my thinking a sealer could fill in some of the fine sanding marks I could easily miss. Thats what I read anyway. Trying to do everything possible to have. Great outcome on the final paint work.

 

Been a bit since I posted progress. The Pontiac fender is my test mule for spraying base and clear. I feel like I can do ok with it now, I painted inside of the trunk and the backside of the trunk a few days ago. Then I layed two coats of PPG vp2050 2k build primer on. Now onto blocking the car out, fixing the things that need fixed before spraying my first car. Then cut and buff, and start the assembly of the whole car ..

 

V


Video to large to upload.

 

That PPG vp2050 primer is thick as honey, sprays orange peels, the tds says 2-1-1/2 reducer. If I have to spray more on I think I will go 2-1-1 on reducer to flatten it out some. 1.7 tip sprayed at 25 psi. Any suggestions on this particular primer should I need to recoat after blocking it down?

 

This is going to be a fantastic car!!! Very nice work!

 

Got some panels blocked to 400 grit, still need to go to 600 grit before base coat. Still a ways to go. Its mainly long hard blocks starting at 18-, 220 then 400. 600 is at the end before base coat clear. Then the arduous task of cut and polish.

 

is that the correct original colour?

it’s beautiful

 

The factory color is Sierra Mist, white interior..the color I chose is 1966 oldsmobile tropic turqouise as I wanted to stay in the factory color scheme. Its ppg paint using code L as the cross reference. Same as Pontiac Marina Turquoise in 66.
i think it will look nice with white interior. Thats if I can lay the paint down nice enough. My first shot at spraying a whole car.. wish me luck! 😊

 

did you find your BO9 stamp code when you were prepping the fenders?

 

I am not aware of this? What does the stamp mean and where is it located? Fenders off the car and in build primer right now.. where should I look?

 

it’s stamped on the first vertical lip down from the flat top of the fender..near the hinge mount. this one of mine has the 9 stamped over by a spot weld for the top inner brace. anybody I’ve ever mentioned it too, never knew it was there. BO9 is the 442 option code

 

I will check, I am told that was 64 only, but will surely let you know tomorrow when I am at my shop.

 

all the 66 442 fenders I’ve seen have it. mine here included

 

Let you know tomorrow.. thanks