Well, I've been working on my Vista for over five years, off and on (mostly off). For the past year I've had my foot on the gas pedal and now it's time to get this baby back on the road. I am starting this thread to document the build.
When I got the car in 2005 from California, it ran, but barely. The paint was cracked, rust holes here and there, but all the trim and glass was there. It needed an engine rebuild, underhood paint, total bodywork, and total interior.
At this point (June 2011) I've got the engine and underhood done... looks good. Not 100 points, not even 60, but I want a good looking driver. I want something to take my daughters to car shows in before they get old enough to not want to be seen with daddy anymore (that time is coming up soon).
Right now I'm working in earnest to get the bodywork done and get it painted in July. I should be out there sanding right now, but I'll take a few minutes to log in and post a few photos.
If anyone has any questions about Vista Cruiser build, feel free to ask. I may not know the answer, but I'll sure try. This forum has been GREAT to me (Especially Erik and Bluevista), so I want to spread the love if I can. Enjoy!

 

Uh... now I can't figure out how to upload photos. Looks like the photo has to be out on the web already and I have to link to it. I'll do that later... now my sanding block beckons!

 

Great, My 69 Vista was a California car to. The heater had leaves in it.

Here are a few "Before Pics"

 

I like it already, can't wait to see the resto pics. Oh wait that is Jamesbo's 69 oops. Anyhoo to post pics click "go advanced" and either click if they are on a website like photobucket or picassa, then copy the link "url" to the pics and highlight and paste where it says http:// or if they are saved on your computer in a file then click "manage attachments" below where you normally type after you click "go advanced" in the attach files the rest should come to you.
Scot

 

OK, I'm going to try to post my first photo. This is me with my (current) tools of the trade--two fileboard sanders! I'm putting down the polyester filler and getting it smooth. Fortunately just a few areas. The car must have gotten smeared on the right side at some point in its past because the front fender and tailgate are off a cream colored car. There's already a pretty good amount of bondo on the right quarter panel and driver's door. I'm getting close. After getting it smoothed out, I will spray the Limco epoxy primer (planning to get it by this weekend).

 

ANYWAY, I'm sure you guys have heard of "frame-off restorations?" Well, mine is going to be a "tires on the ground restoration." That means I just want something cool to drive and have it look good at a car show at fairly close inspection. My first major accomplishment was to have the motor rebuilt. I painted it with POR15 engine paint. It's a 455, but I just couldn't stand the thought of that blue color with a green exterior. So, I know it's sacrilege to you Olds guys, but I painted my 455 "Olds Gold". Man... it looks great in there. I wish I didn't have to put the hood on.

 

OK, I try again after clicking the "Attach Files" section in advanced... (just like you said, GA Oldsman!). However, both are slightly bigger than the 97.7 KB recommended...)

 

Nice!! I had a 71 Vista as my first car in 81, it was my mother's that she had since new. Dark green , wood grain, and a Rocket 350!

 

Here are a couple more photos. The first one was taken back in 2005 right after I bought the car. I wanted to have a straight side view so I could Photoshop it with different colors, wheels, etc. Still haven't done it, but I got the shot. In case anybody wants a hi-res version, let me know and I'll mail it to you.

The second shot is one from June 2011 as I'm doing the bodywork, getting ready for primer. Thankfully I got all the glass out and the only one I broke was the windshield. All the Vista glass came out well. Had a fair amount of rust in the window channels of the right rear quarter window, but SEM's Rust Seal and epoxy primer should help it survive for a good long while.

Time to go out there and start sanding again! -Kurt

 

Looks good! I'v always wanted a nice Vista.

 

I got a coat of epoxy primer down on the whole thing Monday night (6/20/11). It's amazing how much stuff you can see after you spray it all one even color. I missed a few dents that I'll have to go back and fix.

The epoxy sticks well and is very durable, but it sands like a piece of granite. My 80 grit barely touches it. I want to fill as many low spots as possible at this point before I spray the Featherfill. So I've got several days (weeks?) of blocking and filling before I spray the polyester.

 

It took me two months to block the epoxy out with 80 and fix the dents that I hadn't caught before. Tonight I sprayed on three coats of DuPont Chroma Surfacer urethane 2k primer surfacer. I will block this with 180, 320, and 400, then it'll be ready for paint! Hopefully it won't be so time consuming -- I shouldn't have any more spots to fill with anything more than spot putty.

 

WOW nice job on the Engine Bay

 

Nice work Kurt! She'll be nice when done. 'nuther 5 years? Just kidding....Projects get done when there's time and money.

 

Looks great so far Kurt. Are you going to paint it the original color again and put the wood grain back on or are you going in a different route?

 

looks great !

 

I love the olds vista cruisers. thanks for sharing

 

Movin' along nicely Kurt....doing a great job!I haven't touched my Vista since November...haven't visited the forum either! Glad you're saving another of these beauties! I was at the Nats in Reno, and there were only 3 there. A
'64, '65 and '71! Take care!

 

Still Sanding! I've got about two more evenings of sanding ahead of me now. I've been blocking the whole car with a long board BY HAND. A DA has not touched the Vista since I started going back up with the primer. It is going to be straight and mirror smooth, baby!

On the urethane primer surfacer, I've been sanding first with 120 grit. It's a little coarser than I'd like to use, but it cuts through the orange peel the fastest. The 120 work is the most time-consuming; once I get all of the orange peel out, I'm sanding 180, 240, and 320 dry. I'm using polyester glazing putty on all the remaining pinholes and low spots (no spot putty will be used). Thankfully there are few of them. All the time I spent sanding and filling at the epoxy primer stage is really paying off now.

After I get the whole thing down with 320, I'm going to spray a 2k urethane sealer to cover up the minor cut-throughs and make it all an even, uniform color. Then I'm going to carefully wet sand the sealer with 400 grit. Then I'll start it up and take it to Iron Horse Auto Body in Rainsville, AL where George Eid will lay down the color. Woo-hoo! Getting close!

 

Looks good, how did you get your black wheel wells so shiny.

 

The wheelwells are polypropylene, and mine were all faded, scratched, gouged, etc. I used several products from Urethane Supply Company (www.urethanesupply.com) to do the repairs. First, clean them with soap and water, then 1000 Super Clean plastic cleaner. Then sand them with 180 grit. I filled the gouges with 2000 Flex-Filler epoxy filler. Once I got them all smooth, I sprayed them with 1050 Plastic Magic adhesion promoter and followed that with two medium wet coats of our 3020 Black Cat black waterborne primer surfacer. I sanded that with 320 and 400, then sprayed some black PPG Concept single stage urethane paint on them. Sounds complicated, but it goes pretty quick since they're relatively small. The key is surface prep and using the Plastic Magic before you put any coating on the polypropylene. This type of plastic is hard to get adhesion to. Urethane Supply specializes in anything you need for plastic repair or refinishing. Thanks for asking, and thanks to everyone for their shout-outs!

 

You can't block them enough... After you are done sanding you can wipe the panel with grease and wax remover and look down the panel while it's wet to see if there are any ripples or waves.

 

nice work !!!!! shes gonna be a beauty

 

Kelvin Sturgess from New Zealand asked me for some photos of the tailgate hinges since his daughter accidentally erased his photos from the SD card in his camera. I thought I'd share mine with the rest of the Vista Legions in case anybody else needs them. These are the low-res versions. If anybody needs the hi-res originals, e-mail me and I'll send them to you.

By the way, Kelvin claims he has the only 71 Vista in New Zealand! It's a nice looking one with all the glass and trim. Apparently the original roof glass wasn't enough for him, so he has a glass sunroof in over the driver's seat, too!

-Kurt

 

I finally got the Vista painted on December 3rd. It was painted by George Eid of Iron Horse Auto Body in Rainsville, AL. He's a crusty old bodyman and painter from New York who settled here about 15 years ago (if his wife wasn't from here I'd swear he was from the witness protection program!)
I did all the prep work and masking; even drove it into the booth for him and finished covering the tires. All he had to do was wipe it down and pull the trigger. Because he's a PPG shop, we used DBC basecoat in a Ford NZ code "Kiwi Green". He suggested using Nason clear at about half the price of the PPG high-end stuff. It's not perfect, but pretty darn good for the $250 he charged me to shoot it.
Next I want to get the glass back in and get it over to the upholstery shop ASAP. My goal is to go to at least one car show next year!
Best wishes to all you Olds fans for the holidays and in the new year. May your projects be finished on time and under budget!
-Kurt

 

looks great ! keep the pictures coming!!!!

 

Looks good Kurt. Kind of naked looking there without any glass or trim on it. Let the reassembly begin.
Christmas greetings back to you and your family. Next year should be fun with your new look at car shows!

 

Looking very nice!
Kiwi green? Reminds me of key lime pie - MMMmmmmmmm.......

 

Looks great Kurt. It's always nice when they start going back together. Thansk for the process you used to paint the wheel houses. I am going to paint mine body color when I get to that point on the 70 Vista I am doing. Keep up the good work.

 

Very nice work ! Those wheel wells are astounding.....!

 

Thx for the neat link. Their kit should also fix any broken tabs on the liner mounting.

 

Hello everyone! It's been too long since my last post, but I have been working on the car pretty steadily. A major milestone was achieved last week when I finished the tailgate. I had to rewire the switch, tear apart the switch internals, and short circuit the safety lockout, but it works! I also found the source of my mysterious battery drain--the tailgate relay. I took the relay out, no more drain. I also can't lower the tailgate window from inside anymore, but I'm not worried about that. I can lower it with the key in the gate and I'm fine with that.

With the tailgate, the woodgrain and trim has to go in before the window, so that took a while. I got the tailgate handle, switch bezel and Vista script rechromed... man, that looks nice (but expensive!). I polished the stainless with my 3600 rpm Baldor buffer (NEVER let it bite in the wrong direction! I cracked my right side taillight chrome surround when it did that and launched it through the sheetrock of my ceiling!) I finally prevailed over the trials and tribulations and the result is good. Now on to the rest of the car.

You might be interested to know where I got the woodgrain film. Good question. I originally bought a piece from some place I found online. It was well over $250 and it was just enough to cover the tailgate (ouch!). I tried to install it myself--utter disaster. I had to scrap the whole piece. Then I had local vehicle wrap guy Johnny Edwards of Accel Graphics in Fort Payne AL create a woodgrain pattern from the piece that I bought. He printed it and installed it for me for only $150! Sometimes it's better to pay a pro to do the job!). You can order film from Johnny by calling him at 256-844-8629, then get your local vehicle wrap guy to do the job for you.

Next step is to get the interior loosely installed so I can get it over to the upholstery shop. I'm also going to have Johnny put the woodgrain on the sides. While it's at the upholstery shop, I'll polish trim and get it ready for final assembly! The end is near!

 

Kurt, that looks amazing. I think Johnny is going to love you for the repeat business on the sides of the car. Glad you found the gremlin relay. I have some relays and was wondering if you know the number on it? I might have the one you need. (shot in the dark, but what the heck)

 

I love that green Kurt! get more pics up!

 

Finally, after over SEVEN years of the Vista more or less being parked in the garage, it is finally going to go over to a nearby upholstery shop for a total interior makeover. I'm posting a couple of "before" pics of the interior so you can see how truly terrible the interior looks. The door panels are as bad or worse. I'm going with green vinyl with vertical pleats -- conservative and functional.

As you can see, I've got woodgrain on the sides now. I just finished the grille and plastic beak. It needed a lot of reconstruction work. I used our PlastiFix rigid plastic repair kit to fill in holes and repair cracks. You can see a short video of the PlastiFix repairing my grille surround at this link: http://www.urethanesupply.com/videos.php or at our YouTube site: www.youtube.com/urethanesupply

I ran it up to temperature last week when it was 105 here in Alabama. It ran at a steady 200 even idling. The lights work, and everything seems good! I'm really getting excited to get it on the road soon.

While the car is at the upholstery shop, I'm going to send the bumpers off for chrome plating and polish all the side trim. I've had a bear of a time finding all the proper clips to hold the trim on, especially the kind that pop into holes. Any help there would be appreciated.

Thanks for everyone's kind comments and support! Once I get this baby on the road, I hope to meet with you guys in real life!

 

Can hardly wait for the after pics. You doing all your own stainless polishing? I saw a link to some fasteners a while back. I'll see if I can find it again.

 

very nice!!

 

My goodness! Has it been nearly a year since I posted anything on my Vista Cruiser build?! It's hard to believe I took it to the upholstery shop that long ago. Well, he is well known in the area to take his sweet time to do an overall interior. I had to bribe him to get it done for me by the end of March! He made it, and I picked it up from the shop at the end of March. I think the results were worth the wait, though. Check the photos out yourself and compare to the "before" pictures! Shout out to SMS Auto Fabrics in Oregon for the vinyl, door panel cardboard, and cat whiskers.

Now I'm replacing trim and taking care of dozens of details before I get it on the road. Thank goodness I have a Baldor polishing stand! You need one with all the stainless trim on this car. Unfortunately I had to take the fenders back off to get the trim on them. I'll be putting the fenders and hood back on soon and will post a new photo soon.

I got the bumpers rechromed by Houston Bumper (one of our customers) for a nice product swap deal. They did a fantastic job. I got some new "Vista Cruiser" fender emblems from Fusick's for $55 each ... great source and VERY knowledgeable. I also picked up my cowl screen and hood seal from them. Full disclosure, I sent my old fender emblems to a local chrome plater and they cost more than twice as much as the new Fusick's emblems and looked 10 times worse. Don't make that mistake if you're restoring an Olds!!

I also installed a Grant old-school steering wheel. It has an Olds rocket horn button. Not stock, but it looks a lot better than the "import tuner" style wheel it used to have.

Oh, I also removed the tires from the wheels, sandblasted the wheels, epoxy primed them and painted them body color. And I got some nice NOS dog dish hubcaps off of eBay. I can't wait to show you a photo of the car with the tires on the ground! Should be some time in July. Until then~

 

Love it Kurt. Can't wait to see more.....I'm jealous. I haven't had time to touch my Vista....

 

Nice I like it too, I also have a Vista though no where near as nice as yours. It looks like you have gauges where the heater control were? I will be watching this thread also... Thanks