1970 Oldsmobile 442ish Cutlass

[Der Bugmeister]

That certain is the way to go

Sand/media blasting is actually the way to go :-)

I would have had a hard time getting the body and rotisserie out of the shop and onto a trailer or ramp truck, and with the topside of the body already painted I opted for this route. 

Thank goodness for the spitroaster, though.  I started the job working on my back and quickly realized the futility of that method.   

[jabberwoki]

If i had cubic dollars i'd dip everything.

[Der Bugmeister]

If i had cubic dollars i'd dip everything.

I'm not sure I would even if I could.  At least not unless I could dip all the pieces in etching primer to get all the hidden metal protected again.

Dipping also exposes every problem and sin, which is good if your work scope plans for that.  This handraulic method lets me be a little pickier about leaving some cans of worms closed!

[slip knot]

I've been seeing some videos with dry ice blasting. It leaves very little mess behind. But all the videos I've seen were somewhat delicate items. Not sure how it would work for underbody grime.

[Der Bugmeister]

I've been seeing some videos with dry ice blasting. It leaves very little mess behind. But all the videos I've seen were somewhat delicate items. Not sure how it would work for underbody grime.

I've seen it too, but also not surehow much it penetrates.  I think the video I saw was on Dennis Collin's Coffee Walk (Youtube).  They were using it to clean the undercarriage of a low mile 1982 Mercedes, and it appears to just remove dirt and grime while leaving paint and coatings intact.  I think one of the restrictive elements of the method is the scarcity of dry ice in some areas.

[skfarmer]

have not commented in a while but an awesome project. i do not have the attention span to complete that large of a project and am in awe of those that can.

[Der Bugmeister]

have not commented in a while but an awesome project. i do not have the attention span to complete that large of a project and am in awe of those that can.

If I didn't have similar issues with getting distracted, this probably would be much further along by now!

I'm calling the underside "done" apart from degreasing and picking any loose material out of crevices, which I'll be working on tonight and tomorrow.  The original plan was for my sandblaster friend to come up tomorrow with some tint to darken the epoxy (it's currently a medium grey, I want something closer to the body colour), mix it up and help me paint the underside and firewall.  Apparently his wife made some other plans so that task will probably need to wait a few days...hopefully not too long, but I do have plenty to keep busy with on the chassis before the mating can occur.

In the meantime I've welded the bucket seat brackets in place, a requirement as this was originally a bench seat car. The bench is held down by four bolts, two at each end.  The buckets only use one of those bolts per side, and studs for the other three legs on each.  Took a bit of measuring and assembly/disassembly until I felt confident to start welding.

My welding skills are still damned near non-existent, but I think I had a couple of epiphanies which have helped improve my technique.  All the welds will hold, and a couple of them even look ok-ish.  They'll be covered with paint and carpet so they won't be distracting!

The console needs to be trimmed to be used with the manual shift and the two mounting brackets positioned in due course.  As the body is still on the rotisserie I think I'll hold off on that part until it's back on the chassis and I can climb right in there.

But...sneak peak, buckets and console...upgrade from white bench seat column shift 

 

[Der Bugmeister]

Finally slapped some paint on the underside of the body pan today!  I had wanted something a few shades darker but apparently we hit the limit on the amount of tint that could be added.  Since I'm just building a showy car and not a show car, we brushed and rolled the two part epoxy on.  I don't really care if I'm the only one that ever sees it, it's gonna make me happy when the car's on the lift and I look underneath.  Basically wanted some contrast from the black frame.

This was the first of two coats, I'll do the second coat in a couple of days then it will be time to spin the body around and position it where it needs to be for rolling the chassis under it.  Before the chassis can go in I'll have to clean and paint the contact points blocked by the rotisserie, and the firewall will get sprayed a semi gloss black.

All the fuel lines, hose ends and assorted fittings should be here next week and I'll be able to finish up the work on the frame, so I'm anticipated reuniting the two in under three weeks.

The new seat foam also arrived but it's going off to storage until the upholstery arrives...probably right about this time next year.

[Der Bugmeister]

Applied the second coat of epoxy then got the car "flat" and spun around so the body and chassis are both oriented in the same direction.  I'm giving the epoxy some time to harden before I set the body down on blocks and remove the rotisserie.  Then I'll have to clean/paint the contact points I couldn't do with the rotisserie in place, spray the firewall a semigloss black and the body will be ready to lower onto the chassis.

While I'm waiting for the epoxy to harden, it's time to get the chassis cleaned up and ready for the reunion.  Brake lines need to be connected and tightened, which also includes fabricating new frame brackets for the front flex lines because (of course) the new fitting are smaller than the factory holes in the originals. 

Also picked up my fuel lines and fittings today so we'll get that all plumbed up too.  That stuff is NOT cheap, let me tell ya!

[Der Bugmeister]

Got the body off the rotisserie and back on the sturdy horses.  Next step was to paint the firewall which necessitated building an overspray containment area (too primitive to call it a paint booth).  Previous owners had painted the firewall area a grey similar to the body colour but it was a flat finish and had too many flaws.  The original firewall colour was satin black and as I don't have a match on the body colour I went with black.

The fender flanges under the hood were similarly not finish painted and that was going to drive me crazy every time I opened the hood.  And with this engine, the hood will be spending a lot of time open...when not screaming down the road of course.  Since the plastic inner fenders are black (unless I decide to paint them red), the core support and many other aspects also black, I masked off the under hood portions and sprayed them with the same paint as the firewall.

I'd rather have the body colour carry on to the inside but this is the next best solution I think.

[Der Bugmeister]

Just have to clean and paint the areas where the rotisserie attached to the body and it will be ready for mating back to the frame.

The frame is also almost ready to go, still working on hose ends and need to add fluids to the rear end and transmission.  I'll probably spray some two part clear coat on the aluminum diff cover first.

Fitting the fuel pump up has been time consuming; I've lost count of how many times it's been off and back on this week.  The pump is a high volume unit from RobbMC Performance and designed for many applications.  The newest version of Edelbrock heads are the first with a recess meant to facilitate this sort of pump as it couldn't be used with previous versions of the heads.  I don't know if I'm the first but until I contacted Robb he hadn't had a chance to see the fuel pump/head combination.

Basically, the V point of the recess is in contact with the pump preventing it from seating on the block properly.  Robb indicated I should be able to safely remove 1/16" from the pump cover.  I've been carefully removing material from the pump and the head to provide clearance and eliminate contact between the two...so check the pump, remove it.  File a wee bit of material off.  Install the pump, note where the contact point is.  Remove pump.  Repeat.  Almost got it now and the rest will go easily.  While this isn't an essential part before reuniting the body and frame, it will let me position the fuel lines and clamp them along the frame easier.

The pump body rotates so I can put it in any position as required for making the hose connections.  I've got to give props to Robb for responding to my inquiries quickly, even over a long weekend.  Great customer service there.

Photos here are of the pump before any modifications, and the fender flanges after painting.

[Der Bugmeister]

Here's a photo of the fender when I got the car.  You can see how the darker grey body colour wraps down the vertical only about 1/8" and below that is another, duller grey and unfinished/lighter coloured appearing surfaces toward the hinge.

Although it doesn't look awful in these photos, the look didn't hold up in person!

[Der Bugmeister]

Big day today! 

[walrus]

looks great, wish I had been out working on my Mustang but my get and go must have got up and went as I've ignored it for a couple months Nice car you have there.