m455sx

attaching myself

pcard

Try Mark at stellar stellar11@earthlink.net for alternator rebuild. He has being doing this time began. I have used him and the result was fantastic.

bennie442s

Thank you to all of you who posted a few days ago, all the information was very helpful. I rotated the body and took some pics of the underside. I had noted early how much work it was to take off the factory underciating. My car was caked in it. We scrapped for three days using a combination of heat and chemical stripper. The floors really came clean. We have them coated with epoxy primer now and after a round of sanding,it will be painted with our 30% gloss black for a nice factory color.

stevengerard

Did you take note of any of the factory stampings on the firewall?

charlierogers

nice build and its coming off quickly! great job

bennie442s

The firewall stampings were located underneath the a/c evaporator box and were in really nice condition. Eventhough they will not be seen, I masked them off before any sandblasting and painting. I did the same with the yellow OW stencil on the top of my transmissoin housing. Here is a pic from when we were in the dissassembly stage.

stevengerard

nice pic of the stampings, interesting how they were under the ac housing I wonder if the addition of AC was last minute or if they didn't worry about where the stamps went. There is a thread on here with images of everyone's stampings, you should post it there too

Allan R

Steven, those stampings don't surprise me. When Rob Young rebuilt his AC car last year he found those stampings there too. Oldzy also found them under his. I don't think that's coincidence. I think you got lucky and had an inspector who anticipated the stampings would be hidden if not stamped in plain sight on your car. Thanks for directing bennie to the Firewall Stamping Thread.

gearheads78

I'm at the edge of my seat waiting for more.

davebw31

The stamps (at least at the Lansing Assembly) were for:

1) Right after "Body Drop" the body was mounted to the chassis properly, all the body mounts were in the correct positions, and all hardware was installed and torqued to the correct spec.

2) Brakes were bleed and functioning

This was all done before the A/C evap. hsg. was installed. On non A/C cars the stamps are still in the approx. same place, just more visual due to the heater core case being smaller.

bennie442s

The 30% gloss was applied from the floors, to the firewall, and both sides of the dash. It came out really nice, very clean looking on the underside. Like I said earlier it was a ton of work to get that factory undercoating off. I uncovered the firewall stampings today and the preserved black paint matched the new paint pretty well.

bennie442s

more pics of the 30% gloss black

davebw31

looks excellent! good color/sheen match.

I did the same with my stampings.

Allan R

Very nice! With the stampings I'm wondering if you hit them with a semi gloss clear whether that will blend them into the new low gloss on the firewall - Just a thought. Leaving them alone is perfectly ok in my books too. In any case they're going to get covered by the AC box anyway so it's nice to have those images recorded.

davebw31

Allan R: actually not the stamps are pretty high up the firewall, so part of one could be seen.

ScottoW31

This is a great post. Looks like you are doing an excellent job with this restoration. Can't wait to see more progress pictures.

Carshinebob

Hi Nice job. I can really identify with your comment of "lots of work" on the undercoating. Keep up the nice work on this worthy car and I'm subscribed to this thread now. ~BOB

Sampson

Yes very nice. I definitely relate to the undercoating scraping remark. That stuff iss tough. I am one step behind you with my Cutlass. i hope to be able to shoot the firewall and frame this weekend. This is a real inspiration to stay at it. Nice work so far.

bennie442s

The block sanding continues on body color, now second time around on color, 7 time thus far. I think we are getting close to having the main shell ready to go back on the chassis. Now I just need to finish reassembly of the chassis! The door hinges got new pins and bushings, the olds ones were a pain to get out. This project is moving along slowly, but it is moving along!!!

bennie442s

Both of the doors came out of a yard in California, my buddy drove them from Los Angeles to Des Moines back in 2004. The drivers door was utterly perfect, the passenger side required an NOS skin be used as replacement of the old skin.

Allan R

I went back and was reading more through your build. Also noticed you said this car had Rally Red special order paint. Does the cowl tag show a - - or does it show PNT code 73? Any chance you can post a pic of the cowl tag?

bennie442s

My cowl tag reads ( - A ) the dash marking ( - ) is the special order paint color, the A is for the white convertible top. There is no paint color code on my cowl tag.

Allan R

Got a pic? I'd like to post it for Scot in his Special Order Cars.

GAOldsman

Awesome Yes please post a pic of that cowl tag.

bennie442s

I'll try to get a better picture of the cowl tag, but the lighting is poor, might have to wait for a warmer day when the door can be open. Drivers side door got put on and so now the shell is semi complete...probably some more block sanding, but ontop the fenders next!

Allan R

I can just make out the A. Looks like a lot of overspray makes it hard to see. Whatever you do, don't sand it to get the profile - use a paint stripper and then respray.

bennie442s

After the purchase of two other cars (70 Vista Cruiser, 71 Cutlass for some reason this one had a 70 specific), and a guys entire parts collection in Minnesota, I am going to use none of those, but instead the NOS pair that you see here. Yes, they are flat lipped, next time I'm at the shop, I'll send a pic. These fenders will be stripped of primer and brought to bare metal. Then the blocking out will continue, FUN!!!
I included some pics of the tags I pulled off the fenders. Fenders were originaly sold to James Ryczkowski at Cliff Wall Oldsmobile in Green Bay, WI. I bought the fenders in 2001 along with a pair of NOS Quarter Panels and a 1972 Cutlass Convertible. I guess that makes 3 cars and a Minnesota barn full of parts purchased for this car!

70vista

Doing a Excellent job on the car. Glad you saved it!! It had a rough first 4 years but looks like it will be well cared for the rest of it life. Get out and enjoy it when done. It will be nice to see finished pics. Steve

j442

WOW!!! Great work ... the product quality thus far is superb! Keep at it! This will keep lots of Olds lovers motivated to complete their own projects!!

RALLYE KID

The car looks awesome!!!! your doing a great job on the resto should of left the over spray on the floor pans that is correct.

NDERISE

bennie thanks for all the post u have put together, i'am in the prosses of do a 70 w-30 nut and bolt res. can u tell me how u get the diff. % of black paint and were to get them. your work is an insperation to all of us olds nuts.
thanks ray

bennie442s

Sorry for the long delay in posts, my body guy was fininshing a 40 Ford 2dr hard top and my car got put on the back burner. I still need to finish the chassis, which I hop to button up this memorial day weekend.
I have to admit I held my breath as my 70 flat top NOS fenders went under the use of 80 grit to take off the factory primer, but all is well. I had saved these things since 2001, but finally they are going to good use. I argued with my body guy about using these nos fenders, as mentioned before I had plenty of other 70 flat top fenders that needed metal repair at the bottoms that I wanted him to use. However, I think I was being ridiculous...is there any other model that deserves 70 specific nos fenders?

bennie442s

The donor hood for this project was purchased up in Storm Lake, IA in 2000. My original hood was destroyed when the car was involved in an accident sometime between when the car waqs built and when my Dad bought it in 1974/1975. We are taking the hood down to the original gel coat. There is some evidence of a little front end damage, but mostly this is a very clean original hood. I wonder how many rounds of block sanding this thing wil take.....

stevengerard

lots and lots and lots

if you want it perfect. My hood was in perfect shape before I restored it but whenever I washed it water would pool in certain places because of how uneven the surface was. We used some modern fiberglass gel primer (or something like that) which supposedly reconditioned the fiberglass, they use it on vettes - or it was just BS from the body guy. I did see the can of primer and it was labeled for fiberglass restoration work.

No the hood is perfectly smooth and flat.

bennie442s

Steven,
From what we could tell, this hood had three coats of enamel and the layering upon layering of paint took a toll. When it was wet there was definately a ripple effect going on. Therefore it was neccessary to take this all the way down to the original gel coat. The body is on its eighth round of block sanding, I am guessing the hood will take more!
Does anybody have experience restoring the underside of the hood, specifically getting the raw fiberglass not covered by by metal to the correct finish?

bennie442s

So the hood is finally stripped all the way down to the original gel coat. I took a little over 12 hours and we had to eventually go to 36 grit. The enamel paint had a clear coat on top of the 3rd coat and it was tough going, trying to get it off. Now its time to epoxy prime the fenders and hood and let the blocking begin! As I stated in the last post, if anybody has suggestions for restoring the underside of the hood, that would be awesome!

442rocketdave

Ben he was right in using the 80 grit and removing the factory finish, I have seen them rusting underneath on some of the NOS parts granted just slight rust but later that will cause problems and he eliminated that! Also the primer I use is epoxy and it states you must use 80 grit before spraying. I know it sounded scary but it works best!! I hope you get that chassis finished this weekend.

bennie442s

We got the fenders down to bare metal and hood stripped to all the way down to gel coat and now they have had their first coat of epoxy primer with a guide coat applied on top of that. We will probably let everything sit and cure for at least a week or two and then it will be time to block eveything out. The NOS fenders look really good. I do not think they will require a ton more work...other than blocking out the usual small spots. I am constantly amazed at what Ron my body guy can point out to me as an imperfection...I cannot see them, but for some reason he can!

bennie442s

It has been a little while since a post...but progress is being made. The fenders and hood are still in the blocking phase, but we are close to beginning the block sanding in color. The hood had some waves in it, as almost all fiberglass does and it has been a ton of hours blocking that all out. We have used epoxy primer sealer thus far topped with a guide coat...then sand, sand, sand. Thus far the results have been very good, but once a little color is shot, that is when the fine picking will really begin.
It might not look it, but we are getting close to putting the body and frame together, then finally it might begin to look like a car again!

442rocketdave

Benny just a thought but on the wheel well mouldings I woud try to prefit those rascals at this stage before the paint is on and make sure those NOS ones fit right, I have seen some that need tweaking right out of the package. I have scratched a fender before with one and that is not fun anyway thought I would tell you since your at this stage and about to start putting paint on. same with the fender eyebrow mouldings and the hood mouldings.