Greg's 68 RR Resto - Bayou Bird

[Ron 73]

Thats a lot of sanding, real nice work i love these RR!!!!!! I bought although by the time i got it was nearly done a small sand blasting outfit that holds about 30 pds and it helps make quick work out of things like this, thought id mention it. came from HF and i know how things are with them, but some things do work well. you'll have a cool ride there when your done! Good luck with it.

 

[Greg68RR]

DA'ing

Thanks Swede!

Donny, it probably took 8-10 steady hours to DA the exterior of that hood down to bare metal. I reckon I went through about 10-15 stick-on pads. I used up some old ones I had around. The 40 grit 3M pads worked the best. On the under-side, I used a 3M stripping wheel and a die grinder w/ the med grit roll-loks. After DA'ing & stripping, I fired up the "Dirt Factory" w/ aluminum oxide to get all the nooks & crannies. Yep, I'm sure you could of knocked out that hood in less than an hour with your set-up. Too bad you're in San Antonio!

Thanks,
Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

68 RR's

Detmatt1, thanks for the compliments. I've seen your Junkyard Dog 68 Roadrunner resto thread & it's very nice, BTW. I've been pushing myself to get my car done. I'm sick of going to Big Easy Mopar club's car meets w/ no car! So, I try to do something on it, each day, even if I'm tired, after work.
Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

HF

Thanks Ron73! Yea, the Harbor Freight blaster fit the need. It was cheap, holds grit blast media, and will get the job done, al beit at a slow, steady rate. Plus, all my grit blasting is done in my carport/driveway. I talked w/ a guy at work I know that's into Hot Rods and he didn't know of anyone blasting cars in the area. He did mention a place that dips cars in Jackson, MS area. Anyway, Thanks for the compliments.
Greg

 

[Donny]

Louisiana isn't too far from here you know? Wow, that's a lot of time, but, if that's all you can do, it's about getting it done! The hood with me would be just about 65 minutes to blast the entire thing.

 

[Greg68RR]

Fender #1

Time to update on fenders. I had collected some xtra fenders over the years. A couple were given to me. So, I had to give them a critical look and see if they were usable/fixable. I had one bought years ago from Texas Acres for the driver side that looked decent/fixable. I'll focus on this one, first...

There was rust around where the brace went. Also, the brace had been eaten away. Fab'd a piece to rejoin the brace to the inner edge. Filled rusted thru holes w/ MIG weld...











more on DRV fender to follow...
Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

Fender #2

Drv fender continued...

Using magnetic backing tool to weld holes from eastwood. Brace welded.









More following...
Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

Fender #3

More Drv fender stuff...











Well, I'll follow up w/ more pic's, later, and continue w/ fender exploits...
Goodnight!
Greg

 

[Basoline]

Wow, nice thread! Just love those 68's...Keep the pictures comin'!

 

[Greg68RR]

Fender #4

Well, time to update some more. Got away from work at 1830. Mixed up ~180 ml of DP40 and shot Drv fender for the last time after weld repairs. I also painted my rear "roller" wheels that I fabricated last weekend w/ an OLD green Walmart brand green. Price sticker on the can was 89 cents. Remember, do a little every day!

For the last weld repair, I used a piece of scrap copper buss bar to back it up. It was perfect to use because it thin enough to be slipped in between the outer skin and a triangle brace at the rear of the fender on top. For the spot where the side marker lamp goes, I used the magnetic eastwood copper tool. Now, I probably could have skipped the weld repair at the side marker hole. I test fitted a light socket and the missing metal didn't show. But, I would know it was there, so went ahead & fixed. Used a burr tool to round out the hole.

I also used some eastwood copper weld-thru primer. I tried using the stuff from NAPA but it caused splatter. I think it is zinc rich. Also, on the NAPA stuff, I rushed the can shake & ended up plugging it up solid. $12 in the trash (of course, after being environmentally correct and puncturing the now worthless can).











On to pass side fender, but a look at my reject fenders 1st...

Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

Fender #5

OK. Here's some reject pass side fenders that I had laying around for years. One fender completely fooled me. It had the nicest "brow" area around the headlights, that is, until I ground off the bondo! Man, that thing looked like swiss cheeze! It was worked with an old screw type slide hammer.

The other one was almost useable. Again, it had a repair in the "brow" area that appeared to be a brazed in piece of sheet metal. I studied it carefully, but came to the decision that it would take more work than I wanted to put into it. It seemed to be bulged out around the damage. If it was to be used, I would had to demo out the previous repair & start from there. Also, the "brow" area needs to look good. I didn't want to sculpt it in bondo. The last photo is from the inside where the folded piece of sheet metal was crammed in & brazed.











More fender stuff following...
Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

Fender #6

Well, I managed to salvage a couple of front plastic splash shields from the fender collection. Does anyone repop these? I've never seen them available from anyone.

I then contacted Jeff at 521 Restoration to order an AMD pass side fender. Jeff gave me an good discount on the price. If you need some AMD metal or parts, I recommend him highly!

I mounted the fender to test-fit it. It sure looked good! I wasn't able to tell if the rear of it will conform to the door. I'll deal with the pass fender fit after getting it off the rotiserie and hanging the doors. Hopefully, I won't have to do surgery on the rear lower mounting lip as I saw

The AMD fender is true e-coat (laquer thinner dosen't phase it) so I scuffed it on the inside and headlight area w/ 180 paper. I DA'd the entire exterior of it down to metal so it would be coated same as the drv fender. After prep, applied DP40 epoxy primer.











More fender stuff...
Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

Fender #7

A few more photos of pass side fender after DP40 epoxy was applied...











Fenders ready for next phase...
Moving on to some other pieces...
Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

Clutch Pedal #1

I dug out the clutch/brake pedal bracket stuff. I had to install it to figure out how everything went, since it had been years ago when I took them out and put em in the storage bucket.

After a trip to the bead blast cabinet, shot the bracket pieces & supports w/ eastwood detail gray.











Clutch pedal work continues in next post...

Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

Clutch Pedal #2

Painted and reassembled the clutch/brake pedal bracket parts & set aside for later...











More pic's coming...
Greg

 

[Donny]

Very nice work! I like this thread!!

 

[Greg68RR]

Splash Shields #1

The front fender aft splash shield need some attention. I removed the factory undercoating using a torch & scrapper. I found that using heat (Mapp gas torch) is the best way to remove the factory undercoating...











More splash shield coming...
Greg

 

[Greg68RR]

Splash Shields #2

One splash shield needed a repair to one of the welded-in nuts. Luckily, I had tied it on with a bread-tie, but, I could of easily "stole" one off the "swiss-cheeze" reject fender. So, I hit it w/ the MIG welder, ground it down, and took them to the bead blast cabinet. They barely fit w/ just enuf spare room that I could work on em.

I shot them w/ DP90 epoxy primer then some el-cheapo wal-mart black spray bomb paint. They look pretty good, but they'll get covered up w/ undercoating before it's all over.











Stuck the splash shields back for later.
More to update as time allows...

Got my new digital camera & played around w/ it. I'm still not sure what resolution is best to use. Don't want to waste mega-bytes!

Greg

 

[Ron 73]

You sure are going to town! Love this build...

 

[Clay Dots]

thanks for posting

You do good work, I enjoy watching the process thank you (and all the other guys) for all your posts . much apprecaition:headbang: