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Little more progress put some more X-mat down and started on the rear wiring.
Not really happy with the way the mat laid out I should have overlapped it a tiny bit vs all the gaps I have.
I am going to fill in the gaps and foil tape the seems.
Got the floor soundproofed and sealed the seams with foil tape.
After playing musical tires with the spare frame and the parts cars I ended up with a set of decent 14-inch tires at least to roll around the garage/driveway.
after changing out 8 tires the 14-inch tires when tightened do not spin. (It doesn't fit with my disc brakes ).
I was hoping to be able to roll the car out if need be. I left them on for now and will use skates to move the car in the garage.
I have a set of 15-inch rims that seem fine with the discs.
Going to wait a bit on 15-inch tires don't want old tires before I even get in on the road.
Figured adding tires would be a lot easier using the quick jack which I got around 6 months ago and haven't used it yet.
I think it's going to come in very handy.
It's alive, after wrestling with the pump to carb line where it did not seat until I took a line wrench to it and work it back and forth a few times in orders to get the line tight.
Congratulations! A giant leap forward! Glad to see it coming along.
Thanks, Greg
A few things that need fixing.
A few fluid leaks and just discovered a leak by the heater core the hose is kinked.
may need to use one those unicoil things.
Swapped the distributor around so the vacuum advanced is on the correct side.
Set the dwell and timing.
Hooked up the flush kit and flushed the cooling system.
Boy, it needed it. A job best done outside. (make sure you don't leave any extension cords lying around)
How quickly do you need to get antifreeze in the block to prevent rust?
On a separate note, how much condensation should I be seeing coming from the exhaust?
Finished flushing the system added coolant swapped out a couple of clamps for the double wire which seemed to work much better.
With the temp drop the engine developed a squeal and found the starter gear was hitting the flex plate.
I ended up adding an additional shim to the mini-starter now seems to be ok.
I cleaned up added an electric washer pump then Installed the wiper motor.
I screwed up drilling one of the doors for the power windows the first one went well and I just went for the second and drilled with the center on the wrong dimple.
It looks like it's about an inch or 1.5 inches off. I am hoping the flexible boot will allow it to be off.
I wanted to clear a few more things out of the garage but a Tall buddy stopped by so I took advantage and put up a zip wall to isolate a painting area.
Got a bunch of work to do to get ready but it's a start.
Prepping the mirrors and tail extensions. Tried sand-blasting the extensions at one point and went nowhere fast.
Decided to try the paint remover took 3 or 4 attempts but finally got through the 3 coats of paint.
With a little tweaking, they should be good to go.
Need to take the mirror stems off and see if I can get the glass off.
Tim:
I blasted mine with walnut shell media at about 60psi. The painter sprayed a DTM primer followed by the BC/CC finish and they look good. The DA may leave flat spots in the curvature of the mirror housings. I would think a filler primer would be enough to level them out before your top coats.
My wheels arrived today I am very happy with them (other than "made in China")
Looks like there will be plenty of clearance to the caliper.
Little more blocking on the doors.
Thought I could get away with a 1.3 tip with thinned-out primer but couldn't get any paint through it.
Made a mess switching over to 1.8.
Ended up not tuning it properly and laid out too much paint.
Good thing it was the inside of fenders and doors a bunch of drips and spillage.
But they will be hidden and hopefully, I'll get it dialed in better for the exterior.
Amazing how much setup/prep it takes for 5 or 10 minutes of actual spraying.
More runs, I really need to get a handle on the guns settings before the base coat.
Good thing I will be block sanding.
Did a little better on the hood but using way too much paint.
Used almost a pint on one coat on the hood.
From my research, it appears I am holding the gun too far away creating the need to overfeed the paint and causing spitting on the edge of the pattern.
Gonna see if I can get the gun dialed in better.
Got a tiny bit more primer and 1 more door to do today.
Doesn’t look terrible to me? Dialing the gun in is everything, a bigger tip will let you spray thicker material, have you thought of adding a lil reducer to get it to spray atomize better? I am assuming you are using the high build after your other paint post?
but as you said it’s going to be blocked and you could clean up the runs on the other side but at least it’s in primer get all the bugs out of the spray system now you don’t want any issues when you get to color
Got the gun dialed in and shot another couple of coats on the fender since it was edp coated, unfortunately, I will be stripping all the other body pieces for I used 2k urethane primer on bare metal and it may not stick.
Started stripping the 2k primer off and have epoxy on the way.
There are 3 or 4 spots that look like they are trying to surface rust. (circular stains)
They are apparent in both the before and after.
might have to grind them down.
Warm day so more stripping,
It's making such a mess so I am thinking of stripping all the panels and then cleaning up instead of trying to spray in batches.
Hi and forgive the intrusion, but from the pictures below, it seems I have found the right crowd.
I have a 72 Cutlass Supreme, convertible that my father and I "restored" in 1986 when I was in high school.
I banged it up once or twice, then my younger brother had it for a few years and did the same minor damage. Eventually, my father drove it around when he retired and about 15 years ago it found its way to Florida and into my then cramped garage where it started getting "hanger rash".
After a few separations, a couple deployments, a divorce and finally getting married again, it found it's way to the field at the front of my farm where it has been getting sunburned for the past five years. It's last insult was being permanently displaced from the coveted garage by a 2 day old donkey foal during a hurricane.
Sadly, the last time it drove was probably 2018 when it had a runaway overheating incident which I think may have resulted in a cracked head or maybe even engine block. I limped it home about 20 miles at just over idle in second gear putting water in the radiator every 15 minutes because I was too broke to pay for a tow.
Long story short...I've finally gotten my **** together and now am completing a 6,000 s/f two story barn which will serve as the operating room, not only for the Cutlass, but also a 46 Dodge WF 32 2T post war surplus army dump truck and a few other assorted projects.
So, back to the point...I'm planning to do a frame -off top to bottom resto on the cutlas. This would be the second time I've had it mostly apart (was an auto mech student and gear head in H.S. then went to aircraft mech tech school). I never actually turned a wrench professionally other than changing tires and being a grease monkey, but after 20 years in the trades, 15 in the military, and the last 10 on a farm, I've got a pretty good selection of tools and common knowledge.
The problem with this project isn't taking it apart, it's obviously going to be putting git back together, both practically and financially. I'm hoping to connect with some knowledgeable folks on here that are willing to share some experience and if lucky, the kind that would drop in for a cup-a-joe if you happen to be in the neighborhood.
I'll post some pics as soon as I can get a break from the barn, we're busting our asses through the dry season here in Florida and there's a ton of work left to be done. Running solo isn't as easy as it used to be now that I'm 52 and fairly bent up from a few tours in the sandbox courtesy of Uncle Sam.
The barn, aka future shop will have a 24 deep by 36 wide "garage" with plenty of overhead room. The rest of it serves as our farm store and woodshop, as well as daily maintenance bay for the tractor and implements.
Welcome and reach out with any questions, I am far from an expert but will try to help where I can.
Introduce yourself in the newbie section to get the widest audience for your project.
September 24th, 2023, 05:14 PM
