Project Boondoggle (or, so I went and bought a Z!)

[Captain Obvious]

Haha!! Exactly. I have two in a baggie here  somewhere. Bought them about a year ago and haven't gotten around to finishing the job!

8491A202  Hardened drill bushing- .375+ id, .625+ od, .375 long

You're a smart guy!   

[charliekwin]

Door panel post!

When I pulled off the door cards, they were in about as good a shape as could probably be expected for 40 year old hardboard that lives in a car that's not well known for staying dry: a bit rough, but salvageable. I pulled off all the old foam and hit the metal cap with a wire wheel, then a couple coats of rust converting paint.

Most of the damage on my panels was limited to a bit of warping and degradation of the hardboard from water, and almost all the panel clip holes were in various states of unusable. To fix the warping, just moisten the hardboard and sandwich between two other boards until it dries.

For the clip holes and the other weak spots, those were reconstructed with some extra hardboard where needed, then reinforced with polyester resin and fiberglass mat. A step drill cleans everything up nicely. I glassed over the window crank hole too, since it isn't needed anymore.

The power accessories hit the door card, so the Dremel gave a bit of extra clearance. Might not have made much of a difference on the windows, but certainly did on the door locks.

Now the scary part: reupholstering the panels. I managed to successfully put this off for three weeks before jumping in to it yesterday. This job doesn't seem to have much documentation available, so I had to mostly rely on common sense. Let's see how that goes!

First step is to make sure everything is lined up. I started with the top edge and used the horizontal welting as my reference point. Spraying contact cement is usually a better option, but this stuff had thickened up too much, so brush it is. By the time I did the second panel, I found out that using a Sharpie to mark off large strips on the door card and panel was the best way to approach the adhesive. I probably could have pulled the middle panel just a little bit tighter while gluing, but at least was consistent enough to keep all the lines fairly straight.

On to the back side. Interior Innovations stitches 1/4" foam to the back of the vinyl, but it isn't attached in any other way, so other than the increased thickness, I was also worried that gluing the foam would let the vinyl move around and get saggy. So without knowing whether it was a good idea or not, I cut it back to about 1/4" past the door card, then glued all around the edges. Use one hand on the front side to smooth out wrinkles and take any slack out of the vinyl and the other to fix it in place in the back.

When it was all said and done, it looks like this, and I'm pretty okay with that! Once the door lock grommets get here, I can install them for good.

 

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by charliekwin

[sweatybetty]

your factory panels are much nicer than the new aftermarket ones i just bought

[charliekwin]

Door panels are in. The door pulls and grommets ($26 shipped, for 4 little bits of plastic, was a tough one to swallow) and some adhesive backed pile weatherstripping were the last bits I needed. The door panel bulges a little bit around the handle, but it isn't intrusive or noticeable unless you know to look for it. Bad photos, but I'm happy enough with the results.

Since I was waiting on parts, I wanted to see if I could track down the jerkiness in the driveline. The RT diff mount helped but didn't eliminate it entirely, but I think I found the culprit. The trans crossmember bushings were completely shot (I pushed them out by hand) and the trans mount wasn't in much better shape. Replacement should arrive in a few days.

[charliekwin]

About a week ago, I posted this thread: 

 And the responses there and combined with not really knowing what I'm getting myself into gave me the confidence to get started. So that's what I did on my Thanksgiving break. I've been removing as much paint and body filler as I can with a heat gun and razor blade and have worked through about 2/3 of the car so far.  It's pretty quick and doesn't make a mess, so I'll keep going like this for as much of the car as I can, then switch to a disc and/or sander to finish up.

Lots of bad work uncovered, but thankfully, I haven't come across any true horrors yet. Most of the car looks like it's been resprayed twice, except for the roof (I think once) and hood (looks like a donor). Thick layers of body filler all over the place to -- I think -- try to fix some oil canning on the panels, like on the lower doors. Some panels have filler that looks like it's there just to change the shape. Some dents that were filled instead of reshaped. Probably pretty normal for cars like this. The rear hatch is definitely in the worst shape (so far).

[Patcon]

The rear hatch is a hard panel to fix right. The metal is really thin and you have to have a light touch to shape it properly. It is also easily damaged. Once that metal gets stretched it is hard to get it to shrink up properly. Shrinking disc or torch maybe, but you have to be really careful to not make it worse...

[charliekwin]

Well it's about a month later and most of the paint's been removed. A bit tedious, but it's been hard to find even one uninterrupted hour in the garage lately, so progress has been slow. Still, I'm happy to go through the effort just so I know for sure what I have to work with.

I think my next step is to take on some metal work: fixing the easier-to-work-on panels that need attention and filling in some of the holes. Probably start with the quarters/fenders and doors. Then the hood, roof and hatch. At least some of the previous work makes it easy to spot the areas that need the most attention.

 

[wheee!]

Looks like you have your work cut out for you...
Or should I say you have a lot of cutting out to do...!

[charliekwin]

It's gonna be about 80 down here today, and the garage fridge is stocked with beer. Come on over Mark! [emoji3]

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[wheee!]

, Edmonton Alberta Canada is officially colder than the north AND south poles today... -31 Celsius plus windchill to almost 40 below.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-cold-warnings-north-pole-south-pole-1.4467337

[charliekwin]

Making some tentative progress on the easier bits of body work to get a feel for what I'm doing (beyond just banging away with hammers -- fun though it might be!). I think I'm happy enough with the job I was able to do on things like the fenders, hood and my big dent in the roof. The "before" was a lot worse!

Speaking of fenders...the driver side fender has never lined up properly with the door. The door sticks out and I can't see any way to fix this by adjusting the hinges (they don't allow movement in that direction). I could try to bend the fender into shape but that seems likely to make things worse instead of better. Am I missing something here?

Things I'm not looking forward to dealing with: the roof and the left rear quarter kind of look like the lunar surface, and fixing what looks like collision damage down by the bumper hole has been a...challenge.

Also, Merry Christmas to me! Just need to get some gas so the fun can start!

[Patcon]

I thought there was some adjustment at the door but it may only be at the body. The door really needs to go in provided the gaps at the hood and cowl are good. Does the bottom of the door line up well? If I had to move the door in and there wasn't any adjustment I would take metal off the mating surface of the hinge. The face where it bolts to the body. There is plenty of meat on the hinge to allow for small adjustments like this. You could also do some dolly work on the mount surface of the frame to try to get some room. If you over drive it then you can use body shims to perfect it.

When you work on the lunar surface you need to guide coat. Some cheap black lacquer spray paint or some good dry powder guide coat. Work on the panel, then guide coat. Sand with some 180. The high spots show up first. Work them down some. The low spots (where the guide coat remains) need to come up. Then repeat, repeat, repeat... If you have an area of stretched metal (if it took a pretty hard hit) you may need to shrink it. Shrinking discs work well but a propane torch also works and sometimes it is easier to use. Heat the spot some, cool with a wet rag or you can let it air cool. I always use a wet rag. It is amazing how it will tighten up a panel.