ent72olds

Allan, I once had sunglsses that made everything look yellow and sunny, maybe you could get blue tinted ones!

Bluevista

They had some called blu-blockers like that, my car would disappear... if it was blue.

ent72olds

After stripping the 2 l/side drs on Wed nite, we put some welding time in last nite! Finally welded up the driprail, plug welded some holes inside and outside on the doors and began making a patch on the front door! Looks a lot like the other front door...same rot! Overall, not bad though. I hope to sneak over to the shop before she finds out today and weld in the patch I made so I can do plastic and primer tomorrow! Shoul have the 2 doors and the rocker and centerpost done by the end of the weekend! Getting ready to send out the chrome, hope I get it back in time...car has to make it to 7 Springs in July!

ent72olds

Here's the inside door patch...I'll post final pic when it's final!!!!

Bluevista

Looking good... as usual.

Seven Springs by July? Before "She" finds out? All nighters?

I think this has turned into an obsession now.

Unless some miracle happens my car won't be there but but I may just have to go to see your brother's. I have three brothers and they won't restore my car or even help me. We'd kill each other in five minutes though, what are brothers for? My three sisters would be better help.
Will you take both Vistas to the convention?

ent72olds

My '65 will be going, if the planets all align, so will this one...

ent72olds

OK...mission accomplished! My brother and I put in some hours this weekend...goal of this week was to get the centerpost and rocker on the left side stripped and in primer, and to strip, sandblast any rust, weld, do bodywork and primer the left side doors inside and out. We usually do one panel a week but we pushed it a little this week and did two panels. I also left time to do some interior construction around the house...if there was a smiley face symbol for exhausted I would insert here...oh, and I also shoveled 16" of snow with 2' drifts all around my house this morning....but enough about me!here are the latest pics!

ent72olds

The outsides of the doors were in pretty good shape! one corner had some holes and needed some welding, but the worst part about them, again, I know Mr. Bluevista can back me on this, is the bottoms of the doors are very wavy from the factory. So I did some filing to help eliminate the highs before doing one coat of plastic!

ent72olds

I let my brother do things like stipping the jambs and such. He says he's getting an appreciation for all the hard work and time that actually goes into doing something like this! He kind of had an idea from watching me over the years, but until you spend every minute doing it, you can almost understand why a good job is 80% labor. Labor ain't cheap!!! He used wire wheels to do much of the paint removal in the jambs...works fast and right down to clean metal!

Next we'll be taking off the hood and doing that and also the rear load floor panels and such while we wait on fender bottoms and rear wheelwell sections! Hopefully soon!

Bluevista

Hey Erik, That woodgrains gonna' be smooooth.

I'm working on getting mine done for the convention, it may happen if all the stars align, one is in position. I'm not bragging .. but my daughter was just awarded a $44,000 college scholarship, won't cover it all but sure helps and she's up for more.
She gets the smarts from her mom, married me didn't she?
I see your proud of the little one in your avatar too.

ent72olds

She told me today she wants to be the first "girl president"...she's 4 yrs old! She said "I can be what ever I want to be!" Congrats to your's on her scholarship! Maybe this country has a chance yet!

jensenracing77

hope to have you your dog legs soon. looks great.

Eric Anderson

Nothing wrong with bragging about that news

Looking good Erik at this rate I'm sure I'll be seeing it at the nats.

ent72olds

Thanks Eric!

ent72olds

Thanks Eric,(getting confused,too many Eric(k)'s),hope to see you there, are you bringing your ride?

Eric Anderson

I'll be there friday, I'll be looking for you. I'm really hoping to have mine done by then, getting the paint done will be the kicker. I'm going to Carlisle in the spring and I'm going to try to score the rest of the parts needed to get it back on the road, most of what I still need is big so I'm going to try and save a little on that truck shipping.

ent72olds

Last night we decided to do some shop cleaning before the weekend! I then tapped clean threads in the two left side doors and we hung them on the car to get them out of the way...we then took the rear load floor panels out and rear seats out as all these will need recovering, and repainting! Tomorrow we will remove the hood and degrease the underside first before I start work on the outside of it....

Bluevista

Isn't that tape on the seats factory?
I think your car..oops, I mean your "brother's'" is coming along nicely Erik.
Are you going to carpet the load floor? just need those tailgate stainless strips.

Thanks for the comments about my daughter's scholarship Eric(k)s.
I think I may have just about that much in the car when I'm done too.

My older daughter just moved back in and I just got a new stray kid with family problems that's living here now.
Me and the cats are the only males and they're fixed, I feel that way sometimes too . I may have to go down to the gas station to get in the bathroom now.
My new natural flaming red-headed stepchild dad's a big time M.D. and the mom's family is loaded so maybe I can get some child support/paint money, life is so fun.

ent72olds

[QUOTE=
Are you going to carpet the load floor? just need those tailgate stainless strips.

Yes, and yes!The original vinyl is a little worn and it would be much nicer looking with carpet! Getting it to match the floor carpet would be the trick...any ideas? We are replacing the carpet, we already turned down one place. They sent samples, color was right, price was right, we said it is for a Vista Cruiser and they said no problem...then we asked"how many pieces does it come in?" and they said"two!"....that's when we decided to keep looking. Fusick is researching for us now. So anyway, it has to match the new stuff! Where might I get a set of those tailgate strips?

OLD SKL 69

Erik,

Did you try Auto Custom Carpet in Alabama? I have had good success with them in the past.

ent72olds

Thanks Darrell, I'll keep them in mind!

ent72olds

Man, you don't really take into account when you're doing a project like this, how much work can go into the interior! Obviously, Rob knows, but, I didn't initially plan on doing anything more than having somebody else recover the seats, and just putting in a new carpet...but what about the rear load floor in these beasts? They weren't treated kindly over 39 yrs. And then we have to do all the plastic covers that are all faded and worn! Let's get started then.......we stripped the metal panels, seat backs and rear floor hatch. Alot of work.. Some of the panels are double sided. A lot of hand sanding...we then cleaned and checked for various dents and repaired those. Then hung everything, etched, and primed. We will sand everything with 600wet tomorrow night and paint all the pieces back to their original beautiful brown glory! Then put away for safe keeping. I will use dupont vinyl on these and also use the same paint on all the properly prepped interior plastic pieces. I will probably do that soon just to get that over with so if anyone is interested (Rob), I'll make sure I take plenty of pics and explain thoroughly! Dupont vinyl is very easy to use, and once the right gloss level is chosen, is ready to spray right out of the can!

ent72olds

This stuff worked pretty well to remove the glue left behind after pulling off the vinyl "mats" attached to the load floor!

marcar1993

Moving along quite nicely. Great job on everything I've seen so far. That car will be gorgeous when done. I see you live on LI, not to far away from me, though not around the corner either. Hope to see this car one of these days.

Bluevista

I've been working on mine getting the 8-track ready, what a project. I can tune-up tape decks and know everything about them now.
The interior is a lot of fun, probably about three times the work of a 2 door or more, double about everything including the sunvisors and even has a trunk.
Those hinges are a challenge to do on those panels.
You just need those stainless strips and pan head chrome screws with the nylon washers to fasten the carpeting down around the edges, glued otherwise. Those strips come up on evilbay once in a while, does Eric's parts car have carpet back there? I ordered extra yardage from the carpet place to do it when I ordered the floor carpet and it was made from the same roll/run. I don't think anybody makes it for a the third seat floor though? may have to have it made. I used the old carpet for patterns for the load floor, pretty much square except for the t-gate on mine and that just has a corner cut out for the handle.
I used DuPont DDL lacquer on the floor and it worked pretty good, okay for hard plastic too. How are your C panel lower pillars on the top where the sun hits them through the back window? The things are usually eaten away by the sun. I had to fix mine with a little creative filling and texturing, used flexible bumper filler material.
How's are the headliners? double everything.

The carpet matches better than the pic shows, this paint looks real dark normally, carpet is just sitting there, It's a floor.

Vista 6-08 026Small.jpg

Vista Interior 001small.jpg

slaughter442

OK wagon guys,I picked up a new bumper think it is a 1971-1972 wagon it has back up lights on the sides of the plate like the vista cruser but no cut out for the tail gate could this be for a flat top wagon? will post photo later.Dont know much on wagons but there cool.Thanks for the help.Darren

Bluevista

Nice find, wagons are cool.
I think the dual action tailgate became standard on the '71 Vista Cruiser? so it could be for a '70 without the option or a flat top. If you find any Vista NOS dual-action T-gate bumpers laying around don't tell Erik, PM me.

Jamesbo

My 69 has a can go down or out.

Nice work, keep those pics coming.

ent72olds

Yeah, we sent the bumper out to Tri -City so the rear bumper budget is officially empty! Still trying to find someone to do the small chrome at a more reasonable price than Paul's. Can't see spending $2700 on 3 door handles, 4 roof rack corners, 2 taillight bezels, and 2 interior handles, and to trim pieces on the tailgate! Anyway, Allan, your car looks real nice in there! We need to get those 4 trim pieces on the gate like you have. The gate cover on this one is so rotted I'm going to have to fabbed up another. You'll see that soon...oh, and don't be afraid to post all the pics you want of your interior!....they come in very handy!

ent72olds

Just got a couple of woodgrain samples today in the mail from woodgrain4wagons. A dark sample and a medium sample...we'll see how they look tomorrow!

ent72olds

Woodgrain samples I got were terrible! Going to look at a couple other options before the idea of custom paintingit with airbrush. Didn't want that "custom" look but if it is the only way then we'will make it wicked.
Anyway, inside rear load floor now painted.color was probably on a scale of 1-10, a 8! We were very happy. Gloss was perfect. Dupont vinyl was so easy, a baby could spray it!

ent72olds

These actually look better in person. I couldn't get a good enough pic!

ent72olds

I knew we had a couple more pieces to spray on the interior, so I went upstairs to dig them out! It's only been 2 mos. since we took this thing apart...couldn't be that many more....! I forgot how many pieces were on the interior of this car, metal and plastic! Here are a couple tables full....like a smorgasbord! One has metal pieces, one has plastic! All You Can Eat!!! I guess we'll get these done next while were in this mode. I'll have to get at least another half gallon on paint as thats how much I used on the floor pieces.
We also sandblasted and started stripping the inside of the hood as that will be the next major panel done! Also received the fender bottoms today from 2blu442(John), thank you sir, pleasure, I'll let you know if I need anything else!

Bluevista

I was mistaken before and used PPG DDL, not DuPont, just finished my 8-track case with it, that's it for the interior painting.
Those woodgrain samples are probably the same ones I got 2 years ago, I don't like them either, I thought he would have more selections by now? I asked him if he could do the walnut in a lighter shade with no stripes back then but no-go. I know a couple of painters that could match that grain perfectly with brushes and paint, evers see faux woodgrain kitchen appliances?
They are making the 3M Di-Noc vinyl again and Sharpline does it, there are lots of other sources. The samples don't show much, some have a drop-match repeat that is way too close and it looks ridiculous on cars I've seen with it, need bigger samples or good pics of a car with it.


http://www.stationwagonforums.com/fo...splay.php?f=28

Some more suppliers.

http://catalog.dinocfilm.com/

http://www.stripeman.com/3m-woodgrain-vinyl.htm

http://www.beaverstripes.com/TOC.asp

http://www.sharpline.com/sign.html

http://www.stencilsandstripes.com/pr_misc_wga.asp

http://www.newlifeautotrim.com/woodgrain.htm

jensenracing77

it is a little funny that i am shipping your dog legs by greyhound.

ent72olds

I hope they aren't the poor doggie's legs! Greyhound...doggie...doglegs...ha,ha...took me a minute Eric, then I got it!

ent72olds

OK...After plenty of sanding, plastic -prepping, cleaning, hanging, etc. we finally got all the interior pieces painted! Praise be to God! As usual, I used DuPont Vinyl paint. The same paint works on the metal and plastic. The difference is in the prep work and primers user on the two different substrates. If anyone is interested in procedures, I could explain in detail here or in the paint section, if anyone asks! Here are pics! We also stripped the inside of the hood this past weekend. That will be in primer and surfacer by the weekend. I hope to have the hood (outside) stripped and repaired by the end of the weekend! Then I will be spraying the entire thing in Sprayable Polyester. Needs to be pin straight. It has over 35 dents and dings in it!

ent72olds

If you looked at the previous set of pics, you could see how discolored the armrests and other pieces were. Totally fugly! I used medium vinyl gloss which looked like a perfect sheen for interior pieces, plastic and metal.

ent72olds

I used Dupont 2320s plastic cleaner after washing the plastic parts thoroughly with soap and hot water. I used a grey scotch brite pad with the 2320s and cleaned the pieces very well. This is the most important step. I used the Spies Hecker 3304 plastic primer(adhesion promoter) before paint! I'm kind of partial to Spies Hecker. The pics look much better when the sun came out!

cts-v

Stupid question.... Does the vinyl paint feel like vinyl when its dry, or is it a bit harder?

Can you only use it on pieces that don't deflect much (does it flake of if you use it on soft vinyl)?

FYI, Great job on the body work. Thanks for posting so many pics along the way. Tom.