Finally Doing A Build Thread

[350_85cutty]

my buckets, they are in ok shape, but why not get them recovered while they are out the car...

I'm gonna get my pops to reupholster my bucket seats that I got from ebay and a non pillow top rear seat from my parts car and I was wondering where I could find these "buttons" i guess you call them that...my dad said to do w/o them and I might if i can't find any...any opinions on type of material? i was thinking close to oringinal material, cloth and vinyl sides in the tan/camel color...

another question that bugs me is my doors and the latches, don't know if they are something to really worry about just want you guys opinion....

just looks beat up, this is the pass door that i recentyl changed the door pins on


door works fine though


drivers side upper door hinge...again door works good


bottoms of passenger door what is the best way to go about go about fixing this? i cut out the worst part

[78PontiacGP]

wow i do have that same exact problem on the bottom of my passenger door make sure you replace youre weather stripping water might be getting inside and rotting it out

[350_85cutty]

wow i do have that same exact problem on the bottom of my passenger door make sure you replace youre weather stripping water might be getting inside and rotting it out

yeah my drivers side door is bad too, but I have yet to get the wire wheel on it, lots of scale tho...this one was bad, but I've seen worse on other ppls car...wierd cuz the rest of the car has no rust issues at all and the weather stripping didn't seem to bad so idk....and yes I will be replacing weatherstripping all the way around after it's painted..

also...that middle spot where the oval is, I know that's not rot, but what were the lil plastic inserts in those for? are those big drain holes? or some kind of door bumper when the door closed and rested on the rockers

[Blake442]

I don't know if you'll be able to come across new square things for the seats, but you may be able to cut the old ones out and take them apart and reuse them. I'm not positive though... just an idea.

The wear on your door latches is a direct result of sagging hinge pins. When the door sags, the striker is no longer centered in the opening for the latch, and it catches the edge, making them hard to close.
Since you're replaced your hinge pins, you don't have to worry about it getting worse.
A lot of times you can pull out the latch mechanisim and straighten the lip of the opening with a hammer and dolly. I can't remember how much room them give you in there...

That oval shaped hole is a drain, albeit not a very good one...
Once that hot Texas sun dries out your beltline seals (window fuzzies), water easily gets into the door shell, settling right in that lower lip, rotting out the door from the inside, even down south.

[350_85cutty]

this is how I spent my friday night. after work I clocked out then got to work on my car


shaved my antenna hole, tacked in piece of metal, then filled, and grinded out the problem spot on my pillar where I had a stress crack showing thru the epoxy primer, I grinded it out and tried fiberglass filler this time around..after that I blocked my epoxy, had about a dozen low spots, but didn't glaze them was gonna see if the Polyester Primer would fill them. I spot primed the bare metal areas with epoxy then....

...shot 2 coats of the poly-prime...excuse the ghetto mask job, need to buy some plastic sheeting and masking paper

even got the header panel

guide coated then called it a night.

I have a question, the poly prime came with a liquid hardener, but most of it leaked out during shipping. I used what I had to do my 2 coats...I read there are MEK, and MEKP...MEK is a activator and MEKP is a hardener, like what you use with fiberglass...I bought 2 tubes of MEKP but have yet to use them was gonna see if anybody could shed some light and tell me something?

also. I took off the door weatherstripping, my dad mentioned that would be bad for my door hinges, is that correct? I'm tryin to get the outside bodywork done, then take the doors off so I can do the inner doors and jambs, and new weahterstripping installed after but I dont' want to mess up my hinges

[Blake442]

Lookin' good!

Not sure about your hardener question, but I wouldn't worry about the weatherstipping/hinge deal.

If you pull off your fenders, you can jamb your doors on the car with no problems, then you won't have to deal with re-aligning them again. Just make sure you clean really well around the hinges and stuff so the new paint doesn't start to come up after a while. I like to use those tooth brushes they give me for free at the dentist and Simple Green.

Might as well start looking for another hood too... is the one on your parts car any good, or is the car even still around?

[350_85cutty]

got this side done


since the epoxy was thick and over some mostly sanded original paint, I blocked it wit 80, then 180, the scuffed it all with a red scothbrite...still have to rework the area around the quarter glass, and take off my upper door chrome reveal, so I just focused on priming below the bodyline




spot primed all my bare metal spots, with epoxy before I shot the poly prime...with the epoxy, it says to apply a mist coat, then come with a 2nd wet coat, I just ended up shooting the whole door and quarter on my 2nd coat, let flash then hit it with the poly prime...the poly was thick! I'm using the 1.8 tip on the gun, the biggest I have, and having to reduce it with acetone like it says, but still having a nice build


wax & grease remove, can't skip this step


the materials I was working with


safety first!


guide coated, now time to go home


nxt is the roof and trunk


the body is pretty damn straight, it was to begin with

[350_85cutty]

Lookin' good!

Not sure about your hardener question, but I wouldn't worry about the weatherstipping/hinge deal.

If you pull off your fenders, you can jamb your doors on the car with no problems, then you won't have to deal with re-aligning them again. Just make sure you clean really well around the hinges and stuff so the new paint doesn't start to come up after a while. I like to use those tooth brushes they give me for free at the dentist and Simple Green.

Might as well start looking for another hood too... is the one on your parts car any good, or is the car even still around?

thanks Blake! finally got motivated to get things goin again...gonna try to shoot for getting it painted in time for the new year


this is the color I have my mind set on...I seen it in person on the same vehicle during the summertime, this lady that operated a snow cone stand in the area going towards my work had a Toyota Venza, never heard of it til I went to see what kinda of vehicle it was. I fell in love with that color


the pictures do no justice, couldn't find any pics of it in the sun, you gotta see it in person...i already got the quote for the paint...$346 that's base, clear, activator, and reducer...it's NASON, a DUPONT brand...I have a brand new SHARPE gun that I won back in High School that I've never used, was saving it just for this purpose to one day paint my car, so I'm pretty excited, haven't shot a base/clear before on a whole car, just single stage, and a test fender, but I'm sure I can handle it

yeah stupid me, I guess I don't remember reading the label on the back, i just pulled it out the box to use it the other day, it says MEKP hardener, so its the same stuff used with the fiberglass resin

good tip!

the parts car is still there, but the hood is way beyond repair, rust holes and MAJOR dents and hail damage

[Doober]

I like the color! You don't see any brown really anymore. My dad's old Road Runner was a GM brown that was used on late '60s 'Vettes (from what he said).

[Blake442]

Toyota Venza? I've never heard of that either... I guess that's what I get for missing the Auto Show this year!

The Olds is lookin' good, and I think that color will look great on there. Keep up the good work!

[3XBrownCutty]

Good color choice! lol, can't wait to see it on the car!

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

The Venza is basically the wagon...err crossover variant of the Camry, and equally dull and boring. You probably haven't seen one because it is so dull and boring as to be almost invisible.

[beermonkey9417]

so about the scoop, wanna let me take it off yer hands?

[350_85cutty]

drivers side upper door hinge...again door works good


can I fix this or do I need a new upper hinge? anyone have one for sale?


also whats a good brand of weatherstripping to buy? Steele Rubber Products? for the doors, roofrails and felts, I priced it at $315 on the website, but I found this set on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1981-198 ... 0350807637

for $239 and it includes the trunk weatherstrip (which mine is still in good condition)

[username]

can I fix this or do I need a new upper hinge? anyone have one for sale?

This isnt an expensive fix at all, I just rebuilt all 4 of my hinges for a grand total of like 25 bucks.You can get the replacement pins with a set of regular and a set of oversized bushings for 5 and change at autozone in there HELP section.The roller is a different story I ended up using one for a c/k pickup as I couldnt find one for a g-body allthough I didnt look very hard.Anyway the roller for pickups has the same dimensons save for being about 1-2" longer which I drilled the top of the hinge body the same dia.,cut off the excess and staked it,g2g.Now granted I have the doors removed which makes it nice because you can stick the hinge in a vise.