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

[birdsandbees]

New rubber bumpers for the cowl bolt area.

Bumper installed.

Bumpers for hood to fender.

Two bumpers each side and a new grill support hood stop / bumper on each side.

Back glass tomorrow (this afternoon actually)!

[green69rt]

About those hood-to-fender bumpers, I've noticed that on a lot of old MOPARs that those bumpers are missing.  I suspect they get old and hard and fall out or are knocked out by accident.  Regardless, they seem to go missing a lot.  I got a piece of stiff wire and put thru the hole that's in the rubber that sticks out into the wheel well, this locks the bumper in place.  It would take something really strange for mine to come out.

[birdsandbees]

Good idea. I've never had mine fall out, but have seen them AWOL on a lot of cars.

[birdsandbees]

Hood catch and safety latch. Another paint shop error when they didn't listen to me. Catch should have been on the hood (like the trunks was) and painted with it (and then maybe my OE bolts wouldn't be AWOL as well!). Latch should have been plated Black phosphate AFAIK. Both got clear cad and will be corrected later.

New 1157 bulbs for the tail lights and 1156 for reverse lights. It took three stores to get these + one more pack of 1157's for the front signals.

M & H reproduction harness sockets not quite correct with these extra ground tabs on them.

The OE harness to show they don't have the tab.

Installed the sockets so you can't see the incorrect tabs when looking in the trunk.

Running lights work!

Signal lights work!

Reverse lights work... after an hour of trouble shooting as they were blowing the fuse. M & H left 2 strands of wire on the socket center connection and when the bulb was inserted it grounded out! $%*($!

[birdsandbees]

Now I remember why I had these "spot lights" on a switch, so they didn't come on when backing out of a farmers laneway!  

From the days of when style was in style !

Starting to think 1/2 my restoration time has been spent cleaning glass. Carpet knife blade does a nice job of taking the burr off scratches making them less visible.

One more buff, on both back glasses.

Now we're getting there and I hope to never clean a piece of glass again in my life!

Neither are perfect and there's only one way to see which looks the best, put each one on the car and have a look.

A view of a correct back glass shape. Lifted the AMD out, put in another, lifted it out and then this one into place. Thankfully it's the one I'm using. Do yourself a favour, have a helper! lol

Best looking of the two back glass' in place and taped for location. Tomorrow my lovely assistant gets to help lift it out and then back in onto butyl.

[birdsandbees]

The assembly line used auto caulking guns with Butyl, but this is a nice clean answer for one off's to install the back glass.

3/8" is the correct thickness for the Coronet / Bee.

No point reaching in and scratching quarter panel paint when you can just sit on the package tray to install the butyl!

Almost all the way around.

My lovely assistant of 36+ years. We took this car to the chapel and back!

[birdsandbees]

Checking trim depth / fit before I get too carried away seating the glass into the butyl.

VERY light heat trying to soften up the butyl a tad so I can get it to come down a bit into the lower spots and seal.

Finally I just put the heat gun in the car and let it run until the car was up to 95F, then pushed the glass down. Still took a LOT of force, one arm hooked in the back window hole the other pushing down on the glass. No other way to get any leverage. Watch out for the hot brunette...

My last entry on back glass.. I promise!  . I wish it looked that perfect in person.

Don't forget your rubber spacer blocks so it doesn't slip down over time.

[Dino]

That looks awesome!!

[timmycharger]

Great job! Getting closer to completion! 

[birdsandbees]

That looks awesome!!

Stop looking at my wife Dirk ! How's the car look.... 

[birdsandbees]

Thanks Tim!

[birdsandbees]

Not sure why but "Gotta long way to go and a short time to get there" kept playing through my head today. Lucky me... my car has stainless interior trim as well for the door panels.

I don't remember any high heeled guests in the back seat, so it must have been Gordy trying to throw beer bottles out the window that put the dents in the trim.

Did some thinking and came up with this "tool" to work the dents out. Made from an aluminum tube clamp strap.

Slip it in the open end and work it down to the dent.

Tool in place for dent removal.

[birdsandbees]

Rock and wiggle until you're satisfied! Goal is trying to make dent slightly proud.

Fine file on the now proud dent, then 400/800/1000 and 2000. Then Brown compound on one buffer wheel and then Green on the other. Hand wiped with MAAS polishing compound and the restored on the left compared to "as removed" on the right.

My OE grill assembly top and another that I picked up from two people buying the center from one and the headlight rings from another last year.

Checking fit of all parts to pick the best components to restore while my car is hopefully at the paint shop for it's beauty appointment. Of course I can't find the guy.. hopefully he's taken his wife on a nice vacation with my money! [​IMG]

This one has me baffled, so more research required ...or if someone could help me out! Both the ones I bought and my OE are factory blacked out. One is blacked out right out to the center grill and my OE makes more sense only blacked out in the fender area with the rest polished to blend into the mating area of the center sections top edge.

[birdsandbees]

This one has me baffled, so more research required ...or if someone could help me out! Both the ones I bought and my OE are factory blacked out. One is blacked out right out to the center grill and my OE makes more sense only blacked out in the fender area with the rest polished to blend into the mating area of the center sections top edge.

Well I've looked at a zillion pictures and it appears pending which assembly line, time of production, etc they may have been done both ways. Both of the center grills I have are black on the hump where they attach to the grill support and clean between the hump and the front face... which matches my OE headlight eyebrows where they are clean and just blacked out under the fenders. Others I've found are black all the way across on the top face and probably a better look. Some more to sleep on before I proceed...

[birdsandbees]

Decided I'd start on the tail panel trim first as a learning curve, as it SHOULD be easier to do than the grill. As per usual.. I have two to work with. My OE and another I got from a guy in California.

The tail panel being aluminum and my 26 years of building and rebuilding aircraft, I have a few tools up my sleeve for this work. Grabbed a few of my bucking bars that looked useful.

I also get to use the tool I made for the interior trim! Works great as a twister hooked into the back flange on the panel.

This wing stringer bucking bar is the perfect back up bar to fit the detail of the panel so that I can flatten the "black" area.

Panel sits perfectly in place. Just remember that what ever you use to tap away at the panel to straighten it with... MAKE SURE IT'S POLISHED.. or you'll have a lovely pattern in your finished part.

[birdsandbees]

A plastic zip tie slipped in between the back surface of the panel face and the folded over edge. This is to keep it from going flat / cracking when straightening the panel.

Zip tie is in behind this ugly "jog" in what should be a straight panel. Ready to hold the panel in place on a radius'd bucking bar and gently massage things straight.

Almost there and zip tie is still in there.

It's pretty close to straight so I'll move on to the show face of the panel and flatten it before getting too carried away.

Long flat bar beneath and another shaped bar for the top that will clear the edge detail. Shaped bar held in place and the back tapped with the hammer. 2 hours was spent taking the majority of the jogs and wows out of the entire panel using the tools shown and some old fashion bending with bare hands. Still needs minor details fixed up and another screwed in place check fit on the car before stripping paint and getting everything polished out smooth. Then prep, tape and paint.

[birdsandbees]

Tail panel screwed in place for a fit check after all the dolly and straightening work.

A couple spots not quite shaped right and marked for tweaking.

A couple of small dents pushed up.

And then a screw driver handles curved head used to smooth the area back out.

Acetone and 0000 steel wool to remove all the paint

Try to have lots of ventilation. I was stupid and forgot I have a fresh air pump and hood! 2 hours = good buzz.

Almost done. The corrugated area in the center and especially around the DODGE letters hard to get clean of all paint.

Ain't that purdy... only to repaint it after I smooth, blend and polish the outer perimeter and letters. 5 hours into this tail panel at this point.

[birdsandbees]

Thanks to moparsaver on fbbo for directing me to this wonderful find !! Used, blasted and primed and they look brand new. Couldn't have been on a car for long that's for sure.

Thanks to the Ebay seller using the Global shipping system they ended up costing double, but it is what is is, another 150 bucks in the car. WSL05 and WSR05, headlight shields, for the part number collectors.

They go at the front top of the fenders, as I showed earlier on with the rubber seals and nothing to attach them to. Now I have the steel shields, the rubbers attach via the holes.

This tail panel trim plate is in very good shape. Thought I could just give it a buff and I'd be satisfied with it ready to repaint the black areas.

Too many scratches that are through the anodizing, so I guess I'm stripping it clean and polishing it out to remove them.

Thought I'd practice on something less valuable. The grill out of my '78 Ramcharger.

It's not just for ovens! And you'll see why you don't get it on anything else!!!

Quick spray on a corner of the grills anodized aluminum.

[birdsandbees]

30 minutes later and a water rinse. The bright anodize is gone.

Sanded with 150/320/400 as shown here to get the pits and divets out and then 800/1000/2000 wet sanded. Probably should get some 3000 or 4000 as well before I do the Bee panel.

Cut and buff with "stainless" green and then rouge.

Hand polish with MAAS.

Came out not too bad, it's sure brighter and more reflective than the old pited bright anodized area.

[birdsandbees]

Not brave enough to try the trim panel I'm using first, so I tried stripping the anodize from my original OE off of the car to see how it went. I left it almost an hour with multiple reapplications and covered with plastic to cut evaporation. Not happy with the spotty results. Looks like I have to find some lye locally to make a solution to soak it.. and of course I have a 25 lb bag for the outhouse but it's 4 hours away at the lake!

While the Easy Off was eating away I thought I'd try the highly recommended SEM trim paint on the back of the panel I am using. I bought multiple cans of this overpriced paint in anticipation of doing the grill and tail panel.

The SEM just runs off the peaks of the corrugations. It took NINE mist coats x 5 minutes apart to get reasonable coverage.

The Rust-Oleum that I used on my instrument cluster.

It took a SINGLE spray to cover better than NINE of the SEM. Either I'm doing something really wrong or Rustoleum makes damn good paint!

[birdsandbees]

WOOO HOOOO ! Paint booth reservation for Jan 21st... to get a few required things touched up and my final cut and polish done that week!! 

[timmycharger]

Interesting regarding the SEM paint, I used that everywhere in my Charger and had no problems with coverage but in my case, I don't recall painting over anything shiny.

Even though I had great results in the past using easy off to remove anodizing, I didn't have any success with the trim around my grille.  I tried removing it with the Easy off but it just left the surface rough and spotty with black stuff everywhere.  What a mess.

I just ended up buying aftermarket trim which of course, needed a bunch of tweaking to fit properly.

Great job! 

[birdsandbees]

Thanks Tim.. gonna try soaking in lye solution next. Looks like our Home Hardware still carries it, at least shows online. Home Depot / Lowes / all other lumber stores / Canadian Tire / etc do not carry it anymore.. so hopefully when I hit a store tomorrow they actually still have it at Home Hardware.

AMD's response to National Moparts on my back glass!

The B-body back glass we sell has always been shaped that way. They aren't 100% like the original in the curvature, but we rarely get complaints.

Un F'n real... knowingly selling something that is wrong and no care to make it right. "Not 100%".. how about they're 10% correct at best, as it fits the hole! At least Nigel is refunding my $611.27! Doesn't cover all the other BS to get a back glass into my car, but at least I recoup some money.

[hemi-hampton]

Seems like when some one complains about a aftermarket part some one sells the routine response is something like  "REALLY, Your the first one to complain"

[birdsandbees]

Yep, even from National Moparts I first got "we've sold and installed lots of them with no complaints". I told him to open his eye's as he's been at this longer than I have, knows what a B body back glass should look like and assured me that the "glass is now being made correctly" before I ordered it. After I gave him pics he went after AMD and at least they were honest... typical repop assholes, but honest.

How many are going to complain after they've paid to have the glass shipped half way across the globe and already stuck it in place before they notice it's wrong. Are you going to cut it back off of the buytl and mess up your brand new paint? I still question how ECS is getting correct glass and apparently it comes out of the same mfg facility?!