Secret experimental 1964 GX 455

[yachtsmanbill]

Not that its the only thing going on during shop time, but this is the culmination of 2 days spent out in "B". While the filler is hardening or the primer is drying, Im running the longboard over the whole car. Theres a very few minor dings. Once all this stuff is done, the cars getting the 120 on the DA treatment. Then its the primer. This is gonna eliminate a few steps while priming to stop and fix the dings.

Only have the drivers side fender to finish up. Thats where Johnny stopped restoring grammas car. Looks surprisingly like the side I just finished! 

One or two coats of primer and she'll be ready for a topcoat sanding. If you've never longboarded a car, c'mon by and you can practice all day on the 36 foot boat LOL. Starting to look like the Pillsbury Doughboy haha. Still having fun!   Bill

[elagache]

Dear Bill and mid-60s Buick restorers,

Thanks for the status updates and da' pics!

. . . . .
. . .  Still having fun!

That's da' important part!   

Cheers, Edouard 

[Jimbo]

Bill, you sure are rolling along. Nice work,and thanks for the great pictures and especially your colorful dialogue. I'm sure a lot of us look forward to your posts..I know I do!
The last picture reminds me of waking up every morning back in the day. (green blanket)

[yachtsmanbill]

Just trying to keep that 465 warm for the winter! Somewhere in the pics is my white (used to be LOL) blanky for laying on the floor with. Dang garage is 75F with a 125KBTU furnace, but lay down on that floor and yowza! Makes ya wish for summertime. Now they are talking 6-12 inches of snow Saturday night.  Ill hafta take3 "Got Snow?" out for a spin Sunday morning. Electric start with an enclosed cab and a hot air pipe off the motor; I laugh at the weather! All thats missing is a cigarette lighter! 

Roseland Buick is where the BADLASS came from; trivia anyone??     Bill

[yachtsmanbill]

For the life of me, I cant figure out how the factory could do a headliner job in 30 seconds. They mustve had a team of 8 midgets inside each car coming down the line. Even with the back seat cushions out, I took up half the back seat. I did at least 50 yoga moves on each side, but got that dang headliner in place.
Cien por Ciento.

When the box showed up it was folded about 16 times. I unfolded it and rolled it up nice and tight, which helped flatten that issue back out. I had all the stays cleaned and painted AND marked in order, plus each stay position in the roof marked. All the youtube videos show later stuff being installed with the stays going into a plastic receiver.

WRONGO!

I had all the stays in the pockets and then realized I had the part upside down. The fact that it wasnt marked front or back was a crap shoot and I rolled sevens. That part was OK. The unit went up starting in the front as per the YT vids.

WRONG again.

You start at the center which has smallish steel points that hold the center (#3) stay in place. These get rebent closed to hold the center up. There was no other way to do that without pushing them closed through the material. The #1&2 stays go into forward facing receivers, and #4&5 go into rear facing receivers. Those had to get pushed closed as well, but theres only one on the center of each bow. Twenty four paper clips held it up and in place to take a form overnight. Theres barely a wrinkle in it. Ill be dipped in doo-doo.

So this part of the process took almost 4 hours. I think Im ready for Detroilet now! Just need to lose 200 lbs and about 18 inches (in height haha!). Probably finish this tomorrow with the cleaned hammeron molding and some glue. Then the back window happens monday, I hope!

Gone fishin'; ice fishin' that is...     Bill

[Dr Frankenbuick]

I would bet having no windows, doors or interior made the job faster at the factory.  I had all those advantages and 30 seconds was never even a remote possibility. It was more like three hours.     

[yachtsmanbill]

Yeah... I hafta admit I got a little lazy by not pulling the windshield out but the back glass and side glass open still helped.

Now its a piece of cardboard with felt glued down. Even spraying the glue and rolling it through a press is probably all automoton work. Portion control to the penny, ya know?  Bill

[elagache]

Dear Bill, Good Dr., and mid-60s Buick owners who have trouble with the "ups and downs of things". . . . . . . 

For the life of me, I cant figure out how the factory could do a headliner job in 30 seconds.
. . . . .

. . . . . Silly boy!  You forgot the key first step!  Turn the car upside down and rest it on its roof!  Then installing the headliner will be much easier! . . . . .

Yeah I know, another bit of advice to file under: "With friends like this, I don't need any enemies!" . . . .

Cheers, Edouard 

[yachtsmanbill]

Funny you should mention that! Henry Ford wanted to prove how much safer an all steel body was in 1926. Still had wood cross beams, but the rest was all welded steel. Those 25 mph roll-overs were pretty tough business back the! COW 3; Flivver zero LOL   Bill

[yachtsmanbill]

Only had a while, and a sore back (!) today so I managed to get the dome light back in and make a few adjustments on the headliner. Just letting it take its' sweet time becoming accustomed to where its gonna live for the next 50 years.

Also went through the sail panels; theres an inner and an outer. The outer has the fabric glued to it and the inner, which is a bit larger, has a mounting bar attached to it for securing the bottom edge of the headliner before the sail panels go in. The inners' are gonna get cut out of some syntho-plastic craft board from Hobby Lobby. Im also making the package tray out of the same material. Worked out well on the '72 XGS.  I wanna get all this stuff done before the glass goes in.

So tomorrow is a trip to the glass guy for a roll of butyl mounting tape. Then to menards for a bottle of contact cement, then to HL for the cardboard stuff. Homeward bound for some work then; that oughta put us into noon.

The sail panels had one each, of these clips. These are off the package tray (4 of them!) and with the new stuff which will probably get screwed down with stainless screws with finish washers, I hafta swipe two of them for the panels. The originals vaporized. I was all over the back end with a flashlight and mirror and they were no where to be found. The panels were deteriorated  to the point that they may have just rusted away. Thoughts or ideas on this??

The last issue, which isnt news, but upon further investigation, looks like another repair. Was this fresh lacquer on un-dried primer or bondo? Its on both sides, so should the paint get ground down, paint stripper or what? Theres no way its just getting filled as a patch. Whats' the body guy exspurts recommend?    Bill

[Dr Frankenbuick]

Too much lacquer applied too quickly will shrink and eventually crack and craze.  I would guess that is what happened there.  Most body guys would tell you not to trust the work of someone else. I think you could seal it if you sand off the lacquer and like what you see.  You will be sealing it anyway if doing base/clear.  Enamel would probably go over it without sealer if the primer takes. 

Walt turned me on to these guys at least 15 years ago.  I have found them immensely helpful when posting, searching, calling or buying supplies. I got my positive pressure suit from them at a great value.  That takes a lot of the worry and hurry out of painting.   

[WkillGS]

..... roll of butyl mounting tape. .....

Along with that butyl tape, 3M recommends using their primer.

Agree that any cracked paint/filler should be removed before a repaint.

[schlepcar]

Lookin good Bill,
You have to get angry at those cracks in the lacquer....I?m talking 36 grit or 80 grit right to bare metal...I would sand or grind it off with a 36 and then feather it all back in with 80 and taper any feather edges with 150 before using an epoxy primer for a base. There is absolutely no doubt they will be back if you give them the opportunity. If you are not dealing with any rust and have the patience to deal with it,we used to wet sand the lacquer off with 220 rolled around a paint stick as a block to prep it without filling deep scratches. Either way, it ALL has to come off where cracks are present. The Auto Value stores in my area sell a lead based(unhealthy) epoxy primer with activator very reasonable. The reason for the lead is to create a hard surface that aids in final blocking that is very difficult to sand through. You put on a couple decent coats,let dry overnight and spray directly over it with two coats of 2K urethane primer. Now you have an epoxy base that won?t chip,crack,or peel and a different color topcoat that you can block out until it is ready to seal and paint. Use at least a good paint mask with low pressure (who cares how smooth it goes on)so you are not breathing all the fog that high pressure creates. The epoxy primers have to be top coated within 24 hours or they have to be sanded to promote adhesion. Dan

[yachtsmanbill]

Those cracks were one of the first things I noticed when looking at the car before buying it. There was the same issue on the drivers side a few weeks ago and if I recall, I sanded them down to the red primer and it was a well done primer job. I dont recall using paint stripper like I did on the trunk, but, the end result was almost perfect with a long board with 100 grit. Im probably gonna try a spot area with the stripper and go from there just to help keep the dark blue dust down to a minimum haha.

Today I picked up all the glass stuff. The glass guy explained in great detail how its done, gave me a roll of the butyl tape, a bottle of primer with some "ball" brushes and a caulking gun tube of butyl sealant. Just a small, 1/8" bead around the outside edge of the tape which is put on the glass BTW, and set it in place. He also gave me a special little tool to spread any squeezed out stuff back into the joint for any irregularities, especially where I fabbed all the channel work together. For 25.00 I couldnt go wrong!

After that I shot to menards and they had a "if it fits in the bag its 15% off" sale. For mr that was a gallon of MEK, a quart of contact cement, tape, brushes and some more black sandable primer for 44.00. Such a deal. Tomorrow Im gonna see how the new headliner flattened out, and maybe start the final approach on that job.

The cardboard sail panels and package tray were some weird cardboard stuff that had gotten wet, and eaten by the meeces, and I managed to find a 4x8 sheet of some 1/8" tile board (think shower liner) at retards for 20.00 The OEM stuff MIC'd up at .100" so thats good. Paint it satin black and thats a done deal. Tuff titties on no foam rubber underlayment.

The pic shows the other DE_CRACKED paint job down to the red primer. Kinda weird with no indication of bondo underneath it. Long board picked up 2-3 very minor dings which are now history. Im not looking for perfection, just want it correct.  Hmmm.....  Bill

[yachtsmanbill]

WOW!! Just went back and re-read the first few pages from the beginning of this odyssey from 55 weeks ago. Think she's gonna be a bit more presentable this "season". At the beginning, Mike, AKA Trunk Monkey posted a few pics of his '65 "back in the day". Was that car black or really dark blue?

A few months ago, I was at a garage sale and bought 3-4 gallons of NAPA brand paint reducer for $1.00 a gallon. I think thats where Im headed on the primer. Stuck jerking my own chain about paint. The last time I did any thing major, it was mix your own in Lacquer or enamel. As par for the course, its become a confusing issue, plus the fact that my money printer is fresh out of Blue Gypsy Moth ink. I used to spend BOO-KOO bucks on paint for the boat, but the funds are limited these days, and I am trying to get the best bang for the buck. Over on "TeamBuick" (!) I keep getting pop up ads for a paint outfit in Toms River NJ.

Just cant decide ($$ ?? again) on a base coat clear coat or a hardened acrylic enamel. The 'Lass sleeps inside and is really only in the sun for outings. Is UV protection really that critical for this instance?

Anyways, had to take a few days off. My best pal up here had to put his 15 YO Lab down. I got the call at 0400 to see if I could help the poor paralyzed dog out to his Exploder for the trip to the vet, and then another 160 miles each way up to Merrill Wi. to the family farm for a burial. His dad has a Case backhoe and dug the hole. I drove the whole trip as Jeff works middle shift and had been up 30+ hours plus the emotional turmoil. It hit him hard. He kepy crying and thanking me; all I could say is "Thats' what friends are for"...

Today I went to Menards and picked up a 4x8 sheet of white plastic sheeting thats paintable, and MIC'd up at .095" whereas the OEM cardboard for the package tray and sail panels was an even .100". Dont spill the beans to the judges PUHLEEZ! I have a spare 6x9 big magnet for a speaker speaker thats gonna go in the package tray while its apart. Theres an OEM A.M. radio in the dash thats dead with a single front 3x10(?) speaker that'll get me going when I get a ghetto blaster going. Right now that 465 honker sounds good strolling down the road, but if we make the power tour this year, the noise is gonna get old in a hurry.

Go back and re-read some stuff from the beginning; hell, I wrote it and still found it entertaining!   Bill