Restoration of my families grocery getter

[Wonderwagon]

Front end is "on". Need to find the blower motor and test, the antenna base will need to also be installed. Paint work seems to be okay no solvent pops at this time. Head light baffles, hood latch and support next. Extra set of hands was helpful and good to see an old friend too.

 

[Polara_500_Jr]

What is this piece? Where does it belong? There was one under the 65 Polara I have been working on and I can't figure where it was from. (I did not disassemble it, only trying to reassemble)

 

[Wonderwagon]

That is the radiator/ core support shim, goes between the frame and support.

 

[Wonderwagon]

So, nicely painted fenders, out of clean new moving blankets to set them on. Do you set them on the concrete, hang them up? Or grab some house hold rugs, a yoga mat and a blanket? I opted for choice three and got the "LOOK". Fortunately my buddy had the save and put the paper on top of the padding collection just before some rattle can spray work on the inside of the fenders.

 

[Wonderwagon]

Monday, when we mounted the fender extensions, we found the drivers side missing its cast on studs for the stamped nuts. Must have sheared off when the NOS fenders were installed. My Dad at some point took them to work on a midnight shift. He filed them flat and drilled and tapped them to accept a 6-32 screw, it captured the stamp nut and put it into compression to hold the extension tight. Ways a nice reminder of him.
Today's progress, trial fitted the headlight baffles and the hood latch and support. It's not huge but, an empty bag for the fender extensions and some toe tags being retired. Now to find the fender braces that are painted, hmm where did they get squirreled away?

 

[Wonderwagon]

Started the under dash trim piece repair, that should not have happened. Any how, started with relief cuts on the center rib to allow a gusset plate to be installed. Once the relief cuts were made the center section was filed down to allow the Polyester plastic piece to fit flush avoiding the side screw holes. Paper pattern was made and traced out on the plastic and cut out on the scroll saw. Filed to fit. Once a good fit was achieved, relief holes were drilled and counter sunk to allow the epoxy 3M DP 100Plus to ooze through and spead out like a rivet is the intent.

The side mounting screw holes were busted out along with the tabs that hold the trim piece up. These will be replaced with new plastic as well. Once the plastic is superglue and hopfully reinforced, plan on the new material being slightly recessed and brought to the correct height with a combination of filling crumbs and super glue.

 

[Wonderwagon]

Some snacking today, fender braces, battery tray test fitted and filler pieces below the tail lights.

Battery tray was dusted off after the pic.

Fastners on the extensions will eventually get swapped for painted ones

 

[FURYGT]

I trust that you know that the battery tray should be body color.

 

[Wonderwagon]

I trust that you know that the battery tray should be body color.

Hmm, no I didn't, the brace should be black?

 

[FURYGT]

Hmm, no I didn't, the brace should be black?

Yes, the brace is black.

 

[Wonderwagon]

Second installment/ steps in the lower dash cover.

Cut filler pieces where the screw holes blew out. Laminated two pieces of.030 styrene cut, filed, beveled to closely match the contour.

After the screw holes are filled, sections of the flange are filed down .030 and a 1/2" Dutchman is Cut. This is meant to be a reinforcement for the screw hole filler pieces.

Once the Dutchman reinforcement is fitted it is glued in.

There also was a chip broken out, a filler piece was created and glued in place. This acted as a backer for the styrene fillings to be dropped in. Once they were there, painters tape was folded over to act as a dam. The area was flooded with super glue to make a filler (model railroad trick).

Same technique will be used on the finished side to bring the plastic back to level using the saddle brown fillings as a filler.

All the areas will be sanded out, and painted to match the surrounding areas.

 

[Wonderwagon]

Next step, the backing plate was recessed into the casting and glued down to back the blown out plastic piece around the mounting holes.

Once these were sanded to shape with progressively finer grits. The finish side holes, had super glue dropped in and distributed around with the plastic filings dropped in with more super glue to make a paste for a filler.

 

[Wonderwagon]

Need to do some paint matching and drill/ countersink the mounting holes going to wait until the dash is remounted.i remember the holes in the trim piece not aligning very well and hope to center them up better to prevent the holes from blowing our again in the plastic. Next step is to redo the inner two mounting tabs.

 

[Wonderwagon]

Today's task was to be, installing the drivers side door glass. The rear doorway in without drama. But first fixed the switch on the home made shop vac, that my dad made many years ago. Once that was working, scrubed the window tracks out with a tooth brush. Just in case there was any dirt and grit in them from the body work thatbwas done. Once those were vacumed out along with the bottom of the door. The glass was installed at a diagonal and twisted clockwise to engage the bottom corners. Once in the window guides, the lift channel was installed and the window brought up a bit and the regulator cranked up to meet the nylon/ plastic nut inserts. The screws from last weeks salvage yard visit were used. Once completed, moved to the front door, but got cut short by jumping down a rabbit hole to find the lift channels. Apparently the "shop" lost these as well. Found two back door lif channels, will need one for the passenger rear door.

First pic wndow installed after 10 year

2nd pic looking down into door with the lift channel and glass

3rd pic looking down into door from top.

 

[Wonderwagon]

As I removed the vent window/ window assembly I kept track of the steps involved. The FSM is rather brief, thought writing the steps down may help others:
Following are the steps I took to remove the frame and install the glass into the vent window assembly and reinstall:

• Mask door Fame by vent window all the way around the top and side and mask the window along the top edge of the door skin.
• Loosen the guide bolt at the base of the window guide that goes through the bottom of the door.
• Remove the three bolts that hold the window regulator to the inside of the door frame. Remove the regulator clean dried up grease if necessary.
• Remove the bolt that attaches the vent window regulator to the pivot rod of the vent window.
• Remove the three bolts that hod the vent window regulator to the inside of the door frame.
• Wiggle the regulator down to remove and disengage from the vent window pivot rod.
• Remove the three Philips screws that attach the vent window and front window guide from the upper door frame.
• Remove a portion of the top window run to allow the vent window to rotate clockwise.
• Remove the bolt at the base of the vent that attaches the assembly to the door.
• Before removing the assembly, the bottom of the window guide has a bolt that anchors the window guide to the bottom of the door. Remove the nut that attaches the bottom of the guide to the frame. Pull the bolt up through the sleeve and tape it up to retain the bolt in the sleeve.
• Rotate the assembly clockwise until the slot at the bottom of the vent window disengages the upper attachment mount.
• Slide the assembly towards the rear of the door and lift out of door fame.
• Once removed, insert the glass and front guide into the guide track attached to the vent window, sliding it up approximately 1/3 of the way up the guide track.
• The vent window and window will go into the door frame as an assembly. Inserting the vent window frame and gasket bottom point, first engaging the bottom point and slipping the front edge into the door frame. The bottom of the vent window has a slot that will need to slip between the inner and outer door skins. While this is being done, the bottom anchor bolt will need to be dropped into the mounting hole at the bottom of the door.
• Repeat the steps in reverse starting at step 13.
• First two pictures, show the masking
• Picture 3, shows the sleeve and the bolt
• Picture 4, shows the regulator mount bolts and at the top of the picture shows the mounting bolt for Vent Window/ Guide
• Picture 5, a view looking down at the rear guide with glass installed
• 
  
  
  
  

 

[Wonderwagon]

Regulator/ motorband tailgate door mechanism are both out for clean up of the old hard grease and sand blasting dust. Still have a little to do behind the lift gears. Need to think on that for a minute. However both are clean, the gray primer preserved both of them. Will give each a light coat of clear zinc paint. The gray was hard to see inside the door not enough contrast.

 

[Wonderwagon]

Decided to clean off the gray primer, wire wheel next. Then will rattle can some glossy clear. Little closer to the original steel natural color