My GY8 '71 Road Runner

[ct71rr]

I got some more work done on the deck lid. I sanded the skin and treated the remaining rust. I then spayed 3 good coats of epoxy primer on the back side. I also spayed the lip of the frame that will be covered by the skin when it’s folded back over. I will spray the entire lid with SPI epoxy once it’s back together. I also cut the lock hole using a gasket as reference.

What I’m trying for:

Cut in:

Gasket:

Inside of skin coated:

Lip on frame coated:

I’m hoping to get the deck lid back together next weekend. We’ll see...
Thanks for looking!

 

[mpgmike]

Nice work on the odd shaped lock hole.

 

[ct71rr]

This weekend I got the trunk put back together. I used a photo I took when I first pulled it apart to get the factory locations for the globs of seam sealer before joining the two halves. I then bent the flange over slightly with a hammer and dolly and then broke out my new toy. It’s an Astro Pneumatic flange tool. Wicked easy to use and folded the flange over with zero issues. It was pretty fast too. I also had a few sections of the flange to weld back up because it split when I was removing it.

Seam Sealer:

Weighted down while sealer set:

Flange split a bit:

Welded up:

My new toy:

After getting the trunk lid back together, I mounted it back on the car. After installing the quarters, months ago, I could not get the gaps between the trunk lid sides and quarters any closer than about 5/16” on both sides. I literally messed around with it for days. I decided to weld a 1/8” tig rod to each side of the trunk lid to make up the difference.

About 5/16” gap:

Tig rod tacked on:

Roughed in, about 3/16” ish now:

Right side:

Left side:

I still need to fine tune both sides. I will also have to cut a slit at the bottom 3-4” of each quarter and weld up as they angle in too much. You can see it in the pic above, to the left of my orange glove.

Thanks for looking!

 

[71Beeper]

Nice work Chad! - man that took some hours didn't it?

 

[ct71rr]

Nice work Chad! - man that took some hours didn't it?

Thank you! It took forever!!

 

[ct71rr]

I took the week off and got some more work done on the car. I sanded off all of the surface rust from exposed areas and sprayed everything in epoxy primer. I took advantage of the balmy 43 degree day yesterday and washed the car down with Dawn dish soap. I then gave everything a good wipe down with wax and grease remover after drying it off.

SPI Epoxy:

Note to self, after completing a section/repair - cover with primer when done. It took forever to get everything sanded and prepped prior to spraying it.

Thanks for looking and Merry Christmas!!

 

[chargervert]

Trunk lid came out great,that was the way to go,no surprises to come through the new paint later on.

 

[ct71rr]

Thank you. It was a lot of work but I think it was worth it.

 

[ct71rr]

When I first bought this car, the roof did not have any paint or primer on it. It did have a crap ton of rust. I sanded the roof a bit with 80 grit and sprayed 3 coats of rattle can primer on it - that was about 10 years ago. Fast forward to now, I stripped the primer off and was immediately reminded of the nasty rust on the roof. I tried Ospho first but it didn’t really do anything. I decided to try a process that I saw Wray Schelin - Pro Shaper - do on his YouTube channel. Basically, he set up a tub underneath a ‘50 something Caddy filled with Rust911. He then pumped Rust911 through a series of sprinklers to treat all of the rust underneath the car. He also used a bunch of tarps to keep the spray contained. Borrowing this idea, I used a plastic bin, a sump pump I already had, a sprinkler, plastic and a crap load of clamps. I set this up Friday night and let it run for about 4 hours with 6 gallons of Rust911. The solution turned orange after about an hour an then black after 4 hours. When it turns black, it doesn’t work anymore. I did 3 more batches of 6 gallons for 4 hours on Saturday. The Rust911 removed almost all of the rust!! What was left, I was able to remove with a wire brush. I then then sanded it with 80 grit and primed it with epoxy. And, of course, I almost broke my neck while spraying. My feet got caught up between the oversized Tyvec suit I was wearing and the hose to my spray gun. I almost fell off the platform I was moving along and fat-fingered the spray gun and put a pretty good run on the roof. ****! I also started spraying primer on the trunk lid, I got the inside done. I also sprayed some of the parts to the trunk lid.

Rust!:

System set up, I didn’t end up using the bucket to put sprinkler on:

Spa treatment:

Doing its thing:

This is what I used:

The solution turns black when it’s used up:

The result:

Wire-wheeled and sanded:

Primered:

Trunk lid:

Happy New Year and thanks for looking!

 

[QuickBpBp]

More..

No damage:
View attachment 1379839

Small hole to fix:
View attachment 1379840

Some small dents:
View attachment 1379842

View attachment 1379845

Holes, both sides:
View attachment 1379843

View attachment 1379844

Rust:
View attachment 1379841

I’m really happy with this deck lid. Should be pretty straightforward to fix. Thanks again Brett!!

Hey you are welcome. Just saw this post. That’s a lot of work for sure. It’s always crazy wondering what is under 30-40 years of paint.. Funny thing that it was originally the color of your car.. It was nice meeting you and sorry to hear about the traffic on the way home been there done that. Glad I could help keep your car moving along over winter. Still hoping to empty my one storage one day so one deck lid, hood etc at a time!!

 

[ct71rr]

Thanks again Brett!

 

[ct71rr]

I’m still plugging away. Last weekend I decided to fix the top corner of the trunk gutter on the passenger’s side. When I removed the old primer from the deck filler and top of gutter, I blew through in a few areas on the gutter corner. I had to make a patch panel out of 4 separate pieces of metal. It was not the easiest thing in the world. That corner has a lot of angles and curves. It took me a bit to figure it out but I think the patch came out pretty good. After welding it in, I brushed on some epoxy primer for protection.

Holes:

Patch piece:

Welded in:

Epoxy:

No bad for me, I guess.

 

[ct71rr]

Today I worked on getting my doors stripped and fixed. I wanted to take advantage of the warm weather today, about 50F, and blast the inside panel. I started with the passenger’s door for no particular reason. I knew I was going to find some surprises because I found some bondo worms and two random pieces of metal tucked under the bottom corners. I could see these from the backside access holes. You can also see a few cracks in the bottom corners on the outside, definitely some bondo hiding under the paint/primer.

Inside panel:

Piece of a crappy patch sticking out in corner:

Worm sign!

Another crappy patch:

Bondo:

More Bondo:

And more:

I blasted the interior panel, then stripped the exterior skin with my SCT tool. I was afraid my blaster would warp the skin. The skin had about a 1/16” to 1/4” coating of bondo over the entire surface. Super!! It never ceases to amaze me when I find creative patches and bondo work on this car.

 

[ct71rr]

Why do people do stuff like this??!!

This corner was covered over with bondo:

This was on top of the large patch you could see from inside door:

These holes were bondoed over:

This is the other patch you could see from inside:

This is the skin side of the larger patch:

Kind of looks like California

Bondo removed:

These were the worms I saw sticking in from the skin:

This door should be a lot of fun to fix. At least there’s no really bad waves or dents in the skin. I’m hoping to get the driver’s door stripped tomorrow, it’s supposed to be another unseasonably warm day.

Thanks for looking!

 

[ct71rr]

I got the driver’s door done today. It’s not as bad as the passenger’s thankfully. I did find a few areas that will need to be fixed. There was also a 1/16” - 1/8” coating of bondo covering the entire skin, just like the driver’s door.

Driver’s door:

Worms!:

This will need to be addressed:

Stripped:

Problem area:

Holes:

Crack:

Blasted:

The only bad spot on this side:

I didn’t get a good pic of the area adjacent to the lock. Looks like there was a dent there and someone butchered the repair. It’s not too bad, I think I can fix it. This door is a lot better than the passenger’s door. Seeing that it was blue and not gold, I’m pretty sure it’s not the original door.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Grabbergreendream]

Looking good getting down to steel. Fix the bad properly & protect it & you'll be golden. I have 2 sets of doors for my 71. Both of them fit flawlessly everywhere but where the bottom rear of the door meets the quarters. I'm betting the quality from the factory just wasn't that good in that area. My door seals all the way around and that bottom corner still sticks out past the quarter a smidge. Curious to see that area when you get things assembled& aligned. Good luck & great job so far addressing those issues!

 

[ct71rr]

Thank you! My doors also fit bad at the same areas as yours. I’m going to have to slice the quarters a little and weld them back up to get the bottom corners right.

 

[ct71rr]

I decided to take my doors apart. I could see some surface rust on the inside of the panel and at the latch and hinge ends. Plus, I’m thinking it will be easier to make the repairs to the skins off of the frames. It wasn’t too difficult to separate the skins from the frames.

Inside skin of passenger’s door:

Some pro patch work:

Some more, awesome!:

Inside of frame:

Driver’s door skin:

Inside of frame:

Both inside of frames blasted:

In epoxy:

It should be a lot of fun fixing these!!

 

[ct71rr]

I also started stripping the sound deadener on the inside of the door skins. I used Goo Gone. I wet it down, covered it in plastic and let it sit overnight. I then scraped the goop off with a razor blade. I got about 99% of it off. I’m going to do another treatment to get the residue that’s left.

Door skins soaking:

Most of it off:

Thanks for looking!

 

[ct71rr]

I started on the doors. First up, the frames. Both lower corners on the passenger’s door are toast so, I will need to replace them. The right bottom corner of the driver’s door is crap too. I started with the passenger’s door: It was beyond my skill to make the patch out of one piece, believe me, I tried. So, I made it out of two and welded them together. I did the same for the driver’s side corner, as well. After getting the corners fabed up and welded in, I covered everything with epoxy.

This corner was gone:

Patch:

Welded in:

Bottom:

other side:

Other door:

Epoxy:

I also had another small area to fix on the passenger’s door: