While I am up north, Ray says that he will ask his brother Gordon to weld a new piece of steel into the trunk of the car. The body mount on the passenger side has some rust holes and we are going to cut it out and replace it. Safety first! I found this out while changing out my coils. I saw carpet and thought "That's not right?" In the end, I am glad I caught it now before it became a significant problem. Until then, I put some metal over the holes and silicone it down. Not structural, but keep moisture out of the trunk. We are probably going up in two weeks and will take care of my baby then. Ray can't help me because he has to have heart surgery to replace a leaking valve that was put in around 7 years ago. Until that it done he is forbidden to do any work. I will not be letting him work on the car. I know him, he will want to help. I will tell him that I need advice, not help.
I got my new spare tire installed. They didn't balance it because the rim is slightly warped. It would have taken 15 oz of weight to balance it. Eventually, I wish to get rally wheels and one of the present wheels will become the spare. Just another thing with old cars. I wondered about the rim since it was so rusty. All in good time. At least I have a spare, for now.
Today I removed seven pieces of chrome from the car and polished it. I then took some pin striping I purchased at Canadian Tire and repaired the faded and chipped striping. The chrome has seen better days, but I think the colours came out nicely. The chrome on the bottom was polished last year, the top, today.
I was removing more trim today, from behind the doors and 1 door piece. I have 1 piece of quarter window trim on the back drivers side that is ripped. I managed to cut my wrist quite deep. Lots of blood, freaked out my son who was helping me. He asked what to do and to distract him I told him to get me a bandaid. While he was gone looking I went to see my nurse wife. Not bad enough for stitches and she had steristrips. She cleaned it, steristriped it, bandaged it, and then Mike showed up with a bandaid. I then upset my wife by going out and putting the back interior of the car together, making things bleed and requiring a new bandaging. I think most of the guys here would agree that you do not leave things apart to get lost, you put it back together. My wife loves driving in the car but really doesn't understand why I like working on it, even when it bites me (five times today).
If you need one of those pieces I should have that also. Tom T. P.S. I may have found the elusive rear electric motor.
That would be great. Thanks Tom. It is just ripped at the bottom so rolling the back window down is a pain.
Send me a pic for what you are looking for so that we're on the same page. OR in an e-mail/private message. Tom T.
Good day Tom. Boy I am going to owe you my first born (IT Tech, good to have around ) Here is a picture of the errant part that cut my wrist, I think the car is trying to kill me. As you can see, the rubber window seal is shot. Thank you very much and have a good evening. T-shirt says "I'm not retired. I'm a professional Grandpa." Chuck
Chuck, Looking at the pic I don't see a problem with that "Ripped"???? molding. Or do you mean it ripped your wrist???
That piece of molding is broken and missing the very bottom piece where it would hold it in. I cannot get it to stay in the channel anymore. And, yup, that piece of metal you see did rip my wrist. My left wrist looks like I tried to do myself in. Good thing my wife is a nurse. Tell you what, I will try to remove it and bend it back straight to see if it will stay. My day is kind of full with the garden tomorrow. With COVID-19, the community garden only lets you have access to you plot once a week, so all weeding and watering has to be done by us on Tuesday. I will work on it in the afternoon. Thank you ever so much for everything you have done for me. I sincerely appreciate it. Chuck
Well, we are up North and, after 5 days, it has finally stopped raining. Ray had a car cover ready for me to work on the car in, but we had to walk it out from where it was to where I could get an extension cord to it. My other brother-in-lay (7 kids in the wife's family, 4 boys, 3 girls), Gordon had a professional body sander that he brought over for me to use. It is air powered, about 16 inches long and 3 inches wide. Make for nice sanding. He showed me what to do. We, by that I mean me, are starting with all of the areas where metal is showing due to rock chips, and other reasons. Tomorrow I need to go into Cold Lake to pick up some groceries and more sandpaper to fit his sander. I also need to pick up a gallon of thinner for the car as well. You would think that there is only 15, maybe 20 spots where the metal shows, or rust shows on the surface. Well, I was ever wrong. I am about half done those spots and that took about 5 hours. I primed it for overnight (humidity) and to show me where I need to do more work on it in the morning. There had to be 50 spots I need to work on. After that, the finer sanding to get ready for primer, basically scuff the surface. There turned out to more fibreglass in the trunk than I previously saw. There are 4 places to have the fibreglass removed, the metal cut out and new metal put in. Both motor mounts and the two areas below the taillights. Ray had some metal for us to use so I didn't have to purchase a hood to cut up. Gord is going to do the welding. He was going to teach me, but with my vertigo, headache and light sensitivity, we decided it was better for him to do the welding. I will do whatever he instructs me to do. I don't mind admitting to ignorance to things that need doing. I can be taught, but I will not pretend knowledge I don't possess. Well, time to end this today. I am not moving to swiftly right now, back stiffened up. Age sucks. Good night to all, and, once again, please stay safe.
I have sanded and primer everything except part of the roof. I hurt. But, it is a good feeling to see it coming along. I used my wire wheel on the back bumper bolts and the gas tank straps. The, WD40 the daylights out of them. The car looks sorry right now. All a process, I guess. I used the wire wheel in the trunk a bit. Came up with 1 little hole, about 1/2 cm (1/8 in) across. I ground it out for Gord. It really feels good to do this properly, a good hurt (at least my back).
Today Gord is cutting out the rust hole is the frame of the back window. I knew about 1 hole so we removed the window with a wire and cleaned around the frame. 5 holes.... hmmm. No problem Ray and Gord said. Gord, with Ray advising, has fixed 2 holes already, the worst ones. No wonder the trunk was always wet in the rain. Fixed today and trunk floor tomorrow.
Gordon is cutting more rust out of the trunk. They are going above and beyond what I had hoped for. My post-concussion has kicked in, sick and nauseous. Ray shooed me away, there really wasn't anything for me to do anyway. The bolts for the body mounts, not one of the 4 came out nicely, even though they had been sprayed with wd-40 the night before. I ended up using Ray's die grinder and grinding out the bolt to the point where I could use a centre punch and knock out the bolts. Gord fabricated some body mount out of iron we found in the dump while hauling the burning barrel to empty. He was mad at himself since he misjudged and the mounts pushed up the trunk 1/2 inch on the one side. I told him that safety was my concern, not the level in the trunk and I really appreciated all his time and work. He then took the old door from a Lincoln and cutting patches. He didn't feel up to some of the welding, so Ray is doing it, a little at a time. I won't let him over-work himself. I feel like an expectant father....
Today my wife, Jennifer and her brother Ray have gone into Cold Lake to pick up some of the things we need for the car. We need new body mount bolts, clips for the back window trim, window pieces to centre the window when we put it back in, window sealant, misc screws. Also, of course, groceries and other things for the trailer. I am impatiently waiting for them to return so I can go out and help Gordon with the work. We are going to clean the floor of the trunk completely and use rust primer on it before we paint it. I didn't know we were going to paint inside of the trunk but Gord says I bought so much paint, we might as well. Works for me, I never liked carpet in a trunk anyways. The car is coming together much faster than I thought. I know my wife will feel much better with the mounts fixed in the trunk. There were two good mounts, but 4 is better than two, and no fibreglass will make me feel better. Ray looked at the work and said that he thought that I was just going to drive the car as it was. I don't know what made him think that. 3 years ago, he gave me a triple ball hitch for my truck, all rusty. I took a wire wheel and cleaned it right up, then painted it like new. why would I treat my car any differently? Yeah, I know, it's a sickness we Buick fans have, take care of our girls, both the human and automotive ones.
The welding has been done and the body mounts bolted back on. Yeah! We moved the car over to Gordon's garage this afternoon and tomorrow will continue the sanding of the roof, then second sanding on the car. I am looking forward to seeing it all together, painted and clean. Ray noticed that, once I emptied the trunk, that the back of the car is a little higher than the front. Must be the new springs I put in, and no weight in the trunk. Now the interior of the trunk will stay dry.
We are going to do the final sanding today then re-clean the shop floor. It is too humid to paint today. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm. We have the trunk finished. We sprayed the trunk with rubberized undercoating. When it dries we can put the carpet back into the car. This has been quite a bit of work,but really worth it in the long run. Gord is going into OCD mode with the minor body work. He is filling in the 4 small dents that car has and just isn't satisfied. One of the dents is under the trunk lid. I told him a few small dents gave the car character, just to get him to relax, didn't work. I told him that I really appreciate his help, but it isn't something he should be stressing about. He was up a 5 AM doing work on the car while I slept. My In-Laws are the best.
Well, two small bumps on the passenger side behind the rear wheel well became a patch of rust with holes 6 inches square. Gord cut it out and made the patch and Ray welded it in. Gord has put 3 layers of bondo on the patch followed by spot glaze. he put primer on it this afternoon. Hopefully, tomorrow we can start painting the roof. Fingers crossed. At least we found it before the paint went on. A steel patch (from a 64 Lincoln Continental door) is thick steel and will last for decades.
Today we put the first coat of Mulsanne Blue paint on the main body of the car and the undersides of the trunk and hood. It is looking great. Tomorrow, a little sanding and the second coat. My car is going to be gorgeous when it is finished and the chrome is put back on.
We put a coat of brilliant white on the roof yesterday and a second light coat today. It is raining a little so the paint is taking a long time to dry. Tomorrow Gordon wants to put the Pearl necklace colour on the roof after a light sanding. Then when that is dry, another coat of blue. Then, all that is left for painting will be the clear coat over the whole car. It is, to me looking great, Gordon is a perfectionist so he is never happy with the way it looks. I think it looks great. I am very happy with how it is turning out.
