Now Complete Restoration / Pulling my 1969 'Bee down for strip and paint

[birdsandbees]

Back glass install on hold, so carry on! Making sure my AMD front fender splash shields are correct, compared to the OE's. I don't need anymore surprises...

Checking fit, drivers side needs a little "adjustment".

Adjustment performed.

Passenger side fits perfect, but my upper mounting hole on the body is AWOL.

A couple of holes got welded up and / or covered during repairs and body work. Making sure all the holes are ready to go so not fighting when the fenders are in the way. Tap is 10-24 BTW.

[birdsandbees]

Acorn nuts out of Evaporust for tail lights. Most cleaned up pretty good. Will keep an eye out for some more clean ones to swap out a few at a later date.

Tail lights lightly tightened in place to start squashing foam and will wait for final tightening and alignment once I have the rear trim panel restored and in place.

You can teach an old dog new tricks. Cut a dull point onto a piece of maple dowel rod and hammered out a dent in the drip rail trim.

I had already started on this piece previously. but couldn't get one spot to clean up due to the dent. Dent taken out and part way through the "cut and buff" process with green compound.

About 45 minutes of work on that little piece. Have both sides done now.

[Lennard]

Great work as always. 

[Charger-Bodie]

Great work as always. 

I agree

[birdsandbees]

Thanks guys! Off on a 7 hour drive tomorrow for another OE back glass. Hopefully out of the three that Fred has one is perfect or close to it. 

[Dino]

I had some time to catch up and dayum! Fantastic work as always Wayne.   

[birdsandbees]

HI DIRK ! 

[birdsandbees]

Can't wait for my paint mans schedule. Fenders out and ready to go on.

Thought I'd mount the headlight splash shield rubbers first, but found I am obviously missing something. Guess there's a metal shield I need, long lost.. probably Saunders body shop in 1978. More parts to hunt down..

Bird moved and the Bee turned across the two bays ready for fender install.

Tape, because I know myself ...

Realized there's one more 5/16" clip nut that goes on the fenders, to mount the rear splash shield. You can see a bit of fender repair as well, can't buy replacements for a Coronet.

So much for those countless hours applying RPM ! Shop set at 35% humidity and still rusted in 9 months. Should have listened to the resto / paint shop and painted everything.

Fenders set in place and bolts in loose to set gaps and mount front grill cross / support pieces.

Hinges ready to install.

[birdsandbees]

Note that the upper rear bolt has a larger washer than the other two bolts on each side.

Fenders and hood hinges on and lightly tightened.

Temporary bolts to get everything in place and then one time only with the painted ones to cut paint chipping.

Bolt count on the 1/4-20's. Different lengths and counting where they all go to keep it uniform looking.

Almost missed the 1/4-20 clip nuts on the headlight buckets, to mount the upper grill support.

Clip nut in place.

Grill supports in place. Upper loose until I line everything up and bottom one tightened in place.

Goodnight sweetheart !

[Lennard]

 

[hemi-hampton]

Are you going to black out the Radiator Core Support or no? LEON.

[birdsandbees]

Are you going to black out the Radiator Core Support or no? LEON.

Factory did not do that on a Blue car as far as I know. Did they? 

[Charger-Bodie]

Are you going to black out the Radiator Core Support or no? LEON.

Factory did not do that on a Blue car as far as I know. Did they? 

I would Guess this blue would have it done. Maybe b9 wouldn't. But even most black cars I've seen have had it.


Looks far better looking through the grille imo.

[birdsandbees]

B5 Blue is OE and I'm a tad darker. Thought they didn't black out the darker colours? Picture in my post above makes it look a lot lighter blue than it is.

This is how it was when I tore the car down and I know at some point in time I spray bombed the lower rad support. The grill support brace is also sprayed black, not sure if this was me or factory?

[birdsandbees]

Precious cargo loaded at destination, approximately 300 KM from home. Hard to clean and inspect glass on a -4C day in an non heated, non lighted shop to see what I was really getting, but I certainly tried my best. Glass cleaner freezing as I wiped. (Thanks for the glass, yack and trip down memory lane Fred. Now go catch some fish!)

So of course I bought two, so I can pick the best one. I'll be having a back glass sale in the near future!

And as fluke would have it, all the glass in my car, except vent windows, is dated November 1968. My "wing" vents are dated January 1969. One back glass I obtained today is dated December 1968. "128"

The other, and better one I think, is amazingly dated "118". November 1968 like my OE ! Tomorrow will be spent carefully cleaning glass.

[hemi-hampton]

Are you going to black out the Radiator Core Support or no? LEON.

Factory did not do that on a Blue car as far as I know. Did they? 

As far as I know they did, I read somewhere many years ago, I don't know if it was a TBS or what but they said dark colors like Black, B9 & another color or 2 did not get the core support black out treatment. But I know when I restored my Buddy's 1 of 1 Black 1970 T/A Challenger I was very surprised to see the core support Blacked Out. LEON.

[hemi-hampton]

As far as I know they did, I read somewhere many years ago, I don't know if it was a TBS or what but they said dark colors like Black, B9 & another color or 2 did not get the core support black out treatment. But I know when I restored my Buddy's 1 of 1 Black 1970 T/A Challenger I was very surprised to see the core support Blacked Out. LEON.

[birdsandbees]

Thanks for pointing it out Leon! Looks like I have something else to do before I get too much further. Google has brought up a lot of previous discussion on this subject!

[hemi-hampton]

I usually use  ppg's dp90 epoxy primer for the flat black out look. But any flat black should work. LEON.

[birdsandbees]

Glass I picked up yesterday has heavy filth along the lower edge from leaves and gunk, and then sitting in an attic for 30 years to bake it on.

I tried everything I had, acetone, reducer, gasoline, varisol, WD-40, Windex, glass cleaner, even the cerium polish with the buffing pad. None even touched it after 2 hours of farting around.

Went in for late lunch and complained to the boss that I was getting nowhere. And she handed me this.

Cook top cleaner, a bit of water and the scrubber + a bit of SOS scrub pad lightly.

10 minutes later we have the cure and next time I'll just ask the boss first! Still needs lots of work, but I at least have a method to clean it right up.

[birdsandbees]

When you think it's clean.. clean some more. Straight back and forth rub with cleaner and you can feel it glide or drag when removing some hazy spots.

As good as it's going to get, or that my arms are going to give!

Two recent acquisitions cleaned.

And now 4 originals and 1 AMD to choose from. Enie, meany, minny, Moe.......

[birdsandbees]

Was originally pissed my paint man couldn't work to MY schedule for front clip install, but I'm now ecstatic that I got to spend 4 hours taking my time and setting the fenders and doors perfect vs "wam bam thank you man.. I gotta go"!

Plastic paint brush handle for a "gap feeler". Notice the "mirror". Maybe I should skip cut and buff! 

Door to fender gaps set up perfect. Rear of door just slightly high in anticipation of glass, vent frame and interior panel weight.

Passenger inner fender had a small wow in it that didn't sit flat against the fender. I have the fix for that.

Passenger side body line is amazing.

My drivers side was never as nice and crisp for body line as the passenger. Body shop had it better, but never really bolted stuff tight to get it right. They welded my spacers to the fender bottoms when they were fitting the car. To get things correct I had these nice stainless washers with ears on them that I use for hard to reach places on aircraft. Fender bottom spaced out another 3/16" was the ticket to fit properly to the sill plate contour.

Gap perfect, but binding a piece of paper at the lower detail when the door is opened. Door needed to go in ever so slightly at the bottom and out at the top and that issue went away.

Adjustment so minor on the door side of the hinge I couldn't really see that I moved it, but bottom out.. top in and I got it spot on after 20 minutes.

[birdsandbees]

Drivers side body match has never looked this good in my memory.. back to 1978 anyhow when I was 16.

Something else I've never seen, a perfect upper body line front to back on the drivers side.

Everything done on the door to fender gap and making sure I have the same distance from cowl to fender nose on both sides for hood fit. Amazing that it's within 1/32" !

I could stare at this thing all day!

Drivers side as nice.

Just another shot.. 

All bolts tightened on fenders, inner fenders and grill support centered and tightened.

I'm a happy camper. Hood time, if I can find a couple of helpers. Then the new POS x AMD glass gets removed and the recently acquired 50 year old back glass gets lined up and installed.

[birdsandbees]

Car and hood both ready for hood installation.

Quick thread clean first, so not fighting with bolts.

Daryl and I standing the hood up to flip.

Daryl and Holly putting it in place while I get the "easy" job of installing bolts.

Hey... just stand there and hold that while I pose for a picture! lol

Drivers side went perfect on the second adjustment, passenger side a PITA.

A bit more playing.

[birdsandbees]

What do you think Son??

My helpers.

I'd say I had the fenders darn close. Perfect passenger side gap.

Drivers side I of course had to re-play with the aft end of the fender at the cowl..... which of course lead to playing with the door again. 20 minutes and we're good and still have a nice crisp body line.

Filter assembly back in place to make sure the air box doesn't hold the hood up.

Yep, just another shot!

.. and another shot.