When I took my front end apart last year, I tossed the air dam and fender liners in the back and covered them with a tarp over the winter. I got the fender liners out earlier and got them cleaned up and installed the new A arm seals. Looks nice!

Today I finally got around to the air dam. It was looking a little on the ratty side. All things considered for the age it has survived rather well. When the car was last restored back in 86, the air dam got coated with black underspray. Makes it look better than it is and is a PITA layer of something else I now have to strip off. I'm sure many of you can relate to this:


One of the biggest reasons that I decided to rebuild this air dam was the 'factory fit' of the staples on one side. When I looked closely it was clear that the quality control that exists on Fri/Mon (my car was built on the pm shift of Fri and finished on the am shift of Mon) sucked. The staples were in such bad positions they had let go.



So the first order of business was to get the assembly cleaned up. I doused the top first with oven cleaner and let it soak for about an hour. Sprayed some zep degreaser on and used a stiff brush to clean up the mess. This is ugly stuff to work with, so I strongly recommend using rubber gloves. The process bubbles most all the crud off. I needed to do it 2X though to get it clean.

After about 2 hours the top and bottom came out looking like this:





I was impressed! Had been thinking of replacing the masticated rubber with new material, but looking at it now I think it's going to be re-usable.

 

Now, IMO the upper section (faces inward to engine) looked remarkably good. BUT the lower section which is the side you would see if looking under the car had all kinds of discoloration on it. It also has the part number and production ordinals cast into it. There are these idiotic little raised bumps all over the lower slanted portion of the plastic. Is that some form of drag co-efficiency the engineers dreamed up? The pattern is too consistent to be a casting flaw.

This seems to have a pattern - definitely not random


Now this side? Could be random. But what's the purpose of these raised plastic dots?


Here's the part number and casting 'stuff' Some of the part number got destroyed by the stapling process.

 

Looks pretty good, Allan. I cleaned mine this summer which wasnt so bad and then used a flat black Rustoleom suitable on plastics on both pieces. Came out looking factory fresh.

 

The more I looked at this project the more certain I was that MAW was coming into play. The staples on one side were completely gone, so it made sense that I Might As Well disassemble the whole thing. That mean taking out the rest of the staples without destroying the masticated rubber. Took some doing but it got done.


With the two parts separated, it became obvious the production line took absolutely NO care or pride in their work that day. Slam bam there's you air dam, maam. There is actually a ridge molded into the plastic to fit the masticated rubber into before stapling. Noooo, why bother being correct when 'close will do'? The staples were all over the place and the rubber was set back about 1 1/2" from where it should have been.

They cleaned up pretty nice. The upper section is what you're looking at in this pic. You can clearly see the defined ridge the masticated rubber was supposed to line up with.


Although clean, this lower face of the air dam would just look bad if I decided to reinstall it. The m.r. is a little damp in the pic, and it actually is black but the nylon strands buried in it during the molding process show up as white. Again - not what I wanted. I had actually been in touch with Patton Glade to see about getting a new air dam piece from him. He says the aftermarket supply is much thinner and may not work as well as OEM thickness. So I thought I'd try fixing this.

 

So the next step in the process was to find a plastic friendly stain or paint. Found some at the local auto parts store.

Sprayed down both sides of the masticated rubber - you'll actually see it a bit from looking down by the rad, and from underneath. I decided to spray on 2 coats. Also got nit picky and made sure I sprayed the edges of the rubber too. I was pretty happy with the result. If you compare the plastic shield now to what it was before? Night and day. It also got 2 coats and I'm very happy with it.


Now for the fun part. The staples! I have a bunch of old ones from when I did the inner liners. I'll clean them up and paint them silver. Seeing as how I DON'T want to use the old holes in the plastic, I will end up drilling holes in the plastic/rubber and insert the staple manually, then use a dolly and hammer to flatten out the tangs. I have to check what drill size to use but I'm guessing it will likely be 1/64" or similar. Don't want big holes, just ones big enough to push the staples through so they will fit snug.

I'm going to let the paint cure for a day before I continue with that step. When it's all done, it will prolly look similar to where I started, but it will be factory fresh, and better assembled.

 

Thanks. I found a spray dye that seems to do the trick. I lightly scuffed the plastic to make sure there was something to bond to. Didn't think of rustoleum, good to know it's another option. I'm also restoring the bolts one at a time...talk about labor intensive? I wire wheel them then set them up for painting. Takes time out of your day, and the sad part is who do you think will ever notice except yourself? I'm documenting all my stuff so I can put together an album for the insurance adjuster when he has to do the next appraisal coming up in 2013

When I did the inner liners, I used some industrial CLR from zep to clean them, then went over them with Mother's Back to Black. It leaves an original finish that is semi lustre and amazingly nice. Of course the liners didn't have any discoloration or I would have had to paint them. Fun stuff isn't it? At the end of the day you either smell like chemicals or paint!

 

"Slam bam there's you air dam, maam"

when the guys i work with don't do something right they say, "you can't see it from my house" that is my key to go see what they are screwing up.

looks good, did you ever find the other brace? i am still keeping my eyes open for one.

 

Alan, this is one of the threads I wish I hadn't clicked on, another project Nice job!

 

Deluxe air dam man

 

Very nice job Allan. Where do you get the staples?

 

Man, after reading this I realize I shortcut the crap out of mine...all I did was scrub it and put back to black on it. Now I've got another project to do, thanks Al!

 

Allan, did you use black interior/plastic vinyl dye? I've used that with great success on exterior plastics..

John

 

Great job Allan I see you didn't invest in the anti MAW helmet Rob was selling

 

Nice job, I did mine a few years back and I had no idea what to use on the attaching rubber afer I cleaned it. What I ended up using was black shoe polish, worked out great and still looks good.

 

I took them out of my inner liners when I replaced the A arm seals. The staples were in really good shape, just not shiny like new. I kept them cause I'm a packrat. Came in handy. I'm going to see if I can't find some new ones locally at the parts store though.


Eric, no I didn't. I was hoping Scott might have had one on that 72 455 sedan he got but he says it's not on there.

You're welcome!

That's exactly what I used.

Nope, I have the prototype aluminum foil job I invented when I started hearing voices in my garage last year.

Truth be told I never thought of that. Great thing to add to my list of things that work. Thanks!

 

No kidding - it was hot. I mean it was HOT today. Almost no point wearing clothes they just get soaked in a few minutes. But I didn't want to scare the neighborhood kids or get hit on by all the cute chicks in the neighborhood. Oh, wait - that was just a figment of my imagination. They would have run away screaming too

Anyhow,
The first order of business today was to see how well the masticated rubber lined up on the air dam. Remember I said that it wasn't even close? Well that's prolly why the factory workers didn't try hard to line it up either. Maybe it's the age of the part? But the angle on the rubber didn't exactly line up with the ridge on the dam. the 'peak' lined up nicely, but the wing areas were way off. Solution?

Got out a scribe from an old math set. Pin each side of the masticated rubber with clamps. Then set the scribe for the amount of trim needed and scribe the line with a pencil. What this will do is close down the gap at the sides and custom fit the rest of the rubber inside the ridge line. Works great.




After trimming the initial scribe, I spent more time getting the trim as neat and close to the ridge. I was working in the direct HOT sun. Benefit is that it really makes the rubber and plastic soft and easy to work with. Looks like a lot, but not really. Here's the amount of masticated rubber and fine trims that came off.

 

Nice job Allan. I knew you were working up to do something and here it was. So what's next, maybe pop the body off the frame?

 

Very cool project! Good work.

 

So now the rubber has been trimmed to precisely fit the ridge line of the air dam.

left side (clamped with vice grip to hold position) One of the things I was hoping to avoid was the area where the staple had torn the rubber. Part of it got trimmed away. If you look closely you can see where the staples had been factory done - anywhere and everywhere. Some were inside the ridge, others were outside. No consistency - just sloppy. After all, who in their right mind is ever going to look there, right?



right side (clamped with vice grip to hold position) Being patient with the trimming and doing SMALL adjustment cuts really paid off.



center (left the olfa knife on just to hold down the rubber). Now that's a tight exact fit!



Now come the fun part - the staples. I had a bunch of them left from my wheel liner A arms (old ones that is). What's nice about them is they're fairly heavy gage and I think they're stainless steel??? I decided to wire wheel them to see if they clean up. Well ya! they do! Only one thing. Remember to hold them with a vice grip when you do that. I started out by using a pair of angle needle nose pliers. Almost finished the first one and ....zip....it caught the wire wheel and it's somewhere in the garage playing hide and seek. Slow tedious work but they came out looking almost new.

I pulled out the smallest drill bit I had (too small to know for sure, but I measured it with the staple and it was bang on). So now back to the heat in the back yard. Here's the process:

* Plan out where the staples will go. THEN, double check to make sure they aren't too close to any of the stiffener ridges built into the air dam.

* Space out the staples starting at the outside and center peak. I put in a total of 7.

* Drill one hole through the rubber/plastic. Then line up a staple to see where the other hole needs to be and drill it. Push the staple through. NOTE: THE STAPLE MUST CRIMP ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIDGE LINE, INTO THE PLASTIC. This will give the holding power it needs. You don't need to overdo the staples - 7 is LOTS and holds the rubber stiffly.

* Repeat the process for all staples.

* To flatten the staples, I inverted the assembly and put a metal dolly to support the staple from the backside. Gently start by tapping the staple tangs inward. Once the started, I used the flat end of a drift to slam them flat into the plastic. I kind of screwed one of them up, but I'm not taking it apart to redo now. It's holding really well, so why mess with a good thing?

So now the air dam is completed. Yee haw!

The lower section: (after I took that picture I realized some of the rubber got scuffed so I took some small pieces of tape and taped over the staples, then shot the whole thing again with a new coat of black dye. Looks amazing. This pic is pretty good too. I think I did the extra coat because the black dye can was almost empty.



The upper section:



So now the air dam has taken a resting place in the collection of restored parts and will be installed after I finish the cooling/rad support and new stone shield/grilles and front bumper.

 

You doing a great job Allan.

 

DAM.....that looks good.

 

Thanks Brian. I've got some other stuff on the go too. I'll post it when it's closer to done. Your work is inspiring to me. I know my car is not going to compare to that 69 you've been working on but I love doing this work myself. Gives me a sense of accomplishment. Pop the body?? Are you serious? I WOULD do it if you came up and supervised. It's not bad right now but one day I would LOVE to do that. Maybe on a different project car? This one's too far along to tear it all down again.

Thanks Jesse! When I decided to post all this, it kind of struck me about how many of the little details never really get discussed during a restoration. Admittedly the air dam isn't a whopper, but it's still something I know is done right now. And I think the insurance guy will prolly like to see all the small details of change that have occurred since the last time he appraised the car. I remember all the hard work you put into your land yacht. How's the family? Your daughter must be almost ready for kindergarden soon?

You also are one of the inspirations of doing it right. I need a bigger garage, compressor and more tools! For now I'll persevere.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Just hoping some of it can be used by others who want to tackle some 'easy' projects.

BTW!! Even with the amount of masticated rubber I trimmed? Because it's better lined up with the ridge on the air dam, on a dry fit it's better than it was when I took it out! Now I have to tell Patton I don't need that piece we were talking about.

 

Allan, it looks great!

 

Mission accomplished....I was hoping you would dig yours up and give it a try. If yours has always been a northern car I figured the rubber had to be in pretty nice shape. As I mentioned in our pm's...these things survive pretty well and a good scrubbing, etc will work wonders.

Can't EVER argue with nice ORIGINAL used parts...usually the best alternative.

Lookin' good.

 

OK, just booked a ticket and I should be there next Monday. Just kidding with you of course. Speaking seriously, I'm glad you tackled this air dam as the 69 also uses one and it is not looking to great at the moment. But now I know how to make it look perdy again. Thanks for posting this project.

 

Looks good. Mine has a little wave to it. Will heat flatten it back out or am I looking for new rubber?

 

Depends what you mean by 'little wave'. Can you post a picture?

Mine is not completely flat but the process of custom fitting and restapling did take most of the irregular surface caused by pressure points out of it and stiffened it up really nicely.

What you can do (if you're inclined, but it's a lot of work) is separate the masticated rubber from the air dam like I did. Then lay it in the hot sun. Leave it a couple hours in the heat and with no pressure from the staples, I'd bet it will be pretty flat in short order. Rubber doesn't take long to relax it's shape when it's hot.

You can do either of these 2 things:
1. Lay out, fit,scribe, trim and staple like I did so its an exact fit and there are NO PRESSURE POINTS on the rubber and it should stay relatively flat.

2. Use the old staple locations if you want, just make sure the m.r. is laid out flat so there are no pressure points between fixation points when you push the staples through and re-bend them.

If you think your rubber part is beyond salvage? As Patton says, original used parts are always better in this case than buying new. You're in Wichita, so Scott and Eric are your closest ones. There might be someone closer if you want to advertise in the "Parts Wanted" section of the site.

Scott (Oldspackrat) Indianapolis IN
Eric (jensenracing77) Brazil IN
John (2blu442) Medford OR
Brian (507OLDS) Erie PA

 

In the 50's, people were doing the jitterbug, by the 1970's, disco was happening and the tunes were sweeping the streets.

Today, the year is 2012. a new wave has sweeped the nation, Oldsmobile owners and all ripping out there overlooked air dams only to realize...

I might as well...

 

Sure enough Tony. You saying you're gonna do yours now?
LOL, it was already out from last year... You don't want to overhaul your air dam. It's too much fun Does that sound Mark Twain'ish' enough??

 

I'll have to take a pic when I get home. The rubber at the front of the car, the part that lays on the bumper has a part that is sticking up about 2-3 inches higher than the bumper. Taking it apart and laying it flat with some heat might be what it needs.

 

Nice job Allan. I don't think I'll redo mine this year, maybe next.

 

Couldn't get a good pic while it was in the car. I'll have to take it out sometime and try to flatten it out.

 

Very easy to take out. Only 6 bolts. IIRC they are 1/2"

 

Great attention to detail , Im learning, looks great.

 

Great job Allan. I was going to suggest you make the staples out of paperclips, but since you were able to clean up the old ones... next time.

 

Steele sells the correct thickness masticated rubber.

I used VHT Vinyl Dye to recolor the plastic.

Came out great as well.

 

Since you brought it up... I was thinking about going out and buying a small length of stainless steel heavy gage wire and cutting it to the length I would need for staples. Then just bend them at right angles where I need to. I don't need to anymore, but I'm tempted to do it just to see if it works. Then I can 'sell em' I suppose if I had more staples to play with I might have put 1 or 2 more into the project. I know that I was really shocked at how badly the A-arm seal staples were randomly shot all over the place. I might have to go back and re-visit them so they look as good as the air dam.

Thanks for the tip on Steele. For some dumb reason I didn't think of them. I'm starting to become quite a fan of the spray dyes. The duplicolor dye seems to have a strong odor at first. How about the VHT? Duplicolor was around 10.00/can....I didn't see anything from VHT except engine and caliper paint.