Run on HeavyFuel (Resto)

[Silver R/T]

That turned out great. What did you use for tailpanel satin black?

[Ryan]

That car looks great! Excellent job!

[HeavyFuel]

That turned out great. What did you use for tailpanel satin black?

I'd have to ask my painter that question....and I don't plan on ever talking to him again, if I can help it.  Let's just say that he had my car for way too long, and we parted ways on "so-so" terms.  Sorry.

[HeavyFuel]

Did a few things over the weekend, one was the door handle installation.
I'll give you the play by play, maybe it'll help out a few folks.....the second side took about 1/4 the time as the first.

-  Clean up all handle parts and components.  I was pretty lucky and my stuff is in pretty nice shape.  The black buttons had some scarring from sliding back and forth on the rough edges of the handle holes, so I smoothed out the hole edges with a file, and sanded and polished the buttons.

The stainless exterior of the tumbler looked pretty tough, so I polished that up.

-  Check fitment of handle and tumbler.  I had to clean the bodywork slop out of the hole before the tumbler would go in.  Be careful with the file, and always push it into the hole....you don't want to take off a chunk of paint.

[HeavyFuel]

-  Detroit Muscle Tech makes a good gasket set and their size and fitment is superior to the originals (top).

-  Attach handle and tumbler.  There is a right and left on the tumbler, note the position of the small pivoting lever attached to the rear.

[HeavyFuel]

The main mechanism should be installed as described.

This is the factory finish on the latch parts.  I've seen most of the pivot bracket screws on other cars in silver, but mine are cad yellowish brown.

[HeavyFuel]

The striker is the factory finish as well, and I had to remove one of the two shims that was originally there.  I found that interesting....we'll see how the clearance is after the car is all together.

I checked the alignment from inside the car, slowly closing the door, and observing the alignment of the latch and striker.  Keep making small adjustments in the location of the striker until you get a smooth closing door that sits fairly tight after the second click of the latch.  Of course your rubber door bumpers should be in place .

Also observe the body lines from the outside.  Hopefully your lines are good and the door closes tight.

[HeavyFuel]

I was gonna save the gas cap till later, but I couldn't wait.

Starting to get burned out on the car......been at it pretty solid since I got it back from the painter in July.

Original galvinizing on the tube...still looking pretty good.

The last pic shows what remains of the original black paint in the grooves.  It's gonna stay just like this for now, I can always detail that later.

[JB400]

That's the problem with doing a factory correct resto.  But it will definitely be worth it in the end.  Doing a great job.

[HeavyFuel]

The lower windshield clips varied in size for the different B bodies.

Here is the R/T Specialties clip, and one of my originals.  A perfect match.



An upper clip installed.  The originals were green zinc chromate.

[HeavyFuel]

The look of the tail light changes fairly dramatically when you add the black ring.  I tried to cut this corner, but couldn't get myself to leave it.  The end product did vary a little from original...I didn't leave the small ring of chrome inside of the black ring, right up against the red lens.  I couldn't figure out a good way to etch just the recessed area.  It still turned out pretty nice.

[bill440rt]

Is that the original chrome on the fuel bezel ring?
If so that's fan-flippin'-tastic! 

Lookin' good!

PS - You can probably just remove the extra black paint on the inside of the tail light bezel with a quick wipe of a rag with some lacquer thinner. Just remove the bezels first as not to damage the lenses.

[HeavyFuel]

Is that the original chrome on the fuel bezel ring?
If so that's fan-flippin'-tastic!  

Lookin' good!

PS - You can probably just remove the extra black paint on the inside of the tail light bezel with a quick wipe of a rag with some lacquer thinner. Just remove the bezels first as not to damage the lenses.

Hmmm.....I never thought about using thinner......we'll see.


That is the original chrome on the cap and ring.    Not even polished...just cleaned thoroughly.

I only had two of the three special screws...so I went with stainless. (edit.....those screws are now replaced with re-po's....thanks to the group buy )

[Ghoste]

It looks new, very nice piece.

[cdr]

thank you for all the pics,it will help me on putting mine back together

[HeavyFuel]

Okay, I finally installed my back glass.  It was quite a process, mainly because (a) I've never done one before, and (b) I'm a picky SOB.

1. Here are the original clips and spacers, none of which will be re-used (except for a couple clips).

2. You can see how the white spacer fit into the metal brackets, and I guess they performed as spacers, along with the black rubber spacer blocks.

3. Here is where they were located on the back glass.

[HeavyFuel]

1. The original clips had either a glue or sealant on the back between the clip and the glass channel.  I used 3M Bedding and Glazing for this purpose.....it should seal things up, hopefully keep my trunk dry.

2. The green clip is an original one that I installed in place of the white rubber/metal clip spacer.  I needed something to fill those two holes, and many of my old clips were still mint.

3. The new rubber spacers that hold the glass centered on the hole (from roof to lower channel) are fabbed out of a solid rubber block and needed a corner taken out in order for the trim to pass nicely from clip to clip.  They are sitting on some thin rubber material to elevate them to the installed height of the glass.

I didn't take a pic of it, dammit, but the bottom of the original rear glass is cut very unevenly.  You have to be careful on the placement of the spacer blocks, because an inch back and forth, one way or the other matters.  Mark on the tape where the block goes after aligning your glass in the opening.

[RIDELIKEHELL]

That glass can be a chore...great Job!

[HeavyFuel]

The alignment of the glass should be done before the dam is installed.  You need to do this so that the fitment can be checked between the glass and pinchweld that it rests on.  Hopefully, it will pretty tight, straight and even all the way around.  If you find some uneven gaps, make sure to take those into account when you place the dam and sealant (more on that later).

1-2. Here you can see the side to side spacing, with the dam in place.  Be sure to have a sufficient amount of glass available for the sealant to adhere to.

3. Once the side to side spacing is set, run a piece of tape vertically across the glass channel and cut the tape at the channel.  Use this as a guide after the sealant is on the channel, and you're placing the glass.

[HeavyFuel]

Now ....the height of the glass away from the pinchweld.  I wrestled with this for quite a while.

1. You want the glass at just the right height, so the trim fits nice and it's as close to the designer's intent as possible.  I checked the service manual, and the factory used a rubber dam, in "V" shape, with the sealant laid in a 3/8" bead against the open part of the "V".

2. I debated on how much the bead of sealant was intended to compress.  I figured about half, so the 3/8 bead becomes 3/16.  I rounded up some rubber material and cut some 3/16 spacers.

6mm dam is just a tiny bit taller than the spacer, so it should work to hold back the wall of urethane from entering the cabin.

[HeavyFuel]

Why use the 3/16 spacers, you ask?   Why not just use the 6mm dam or a thicker one that will compress to 3/16?

Because of the uneven glass to pinchweld gap mentioned earlier.  I want to control the finished height of my glass, and need to use spacers to accomplish this, and when they are placed in the right positions, the dam can compress more in one place and less in another.

My conclusion is that the glass height should be pretty close to the level of the catch on the clip that holds the trim.  A little bit one way or another is not a huge deal, but the glass needs to be level in the hole, and the clips need to be consistent in height around the glass (they adjust up and down about 1/16).  I found the clips along one sail panel had to be "up", and all the others were "seated" all the way down.

[HeavyFuel]

Now remove the glass from the opening, lay down a nice bead of urethane, taller that the dam.  I used the Dow 418 HV, which doesn't require a pinchweld primer.

Use a good caulking gun, with a force multiplier, unless you have a grip like Dwayne Johnson.  I didn't have either, and it sucked dispensing this crud.

1. Position the glass, bottom first on the block spacers, and then tilt it forward.  Make sure your tape alignment mark is right on.  Press the glass down tight against the pinchweld spacers.

2. In this shot it's tough to see, but I "paddled" (service manual term) the sealant tightly into the area with a wood shim, then ran a nice smooth edge where I could.  Don't glob up any by the clips or where the trim needs to run.

[HeavyFuel]

Let the urethane dry for a few days and you can put on the trim.  Be sure to mark the location of the trim clips, so you know where to start whaling away with the hammer.  Not.  I used a small wood block with a rag covering one end, and gentle taps with a hammer.

1. Polish and test fit all of the trim pieces.  My pieces fit together really nice and I was able to snap all 5 together and lay in position as one.

2-3. I started attaching at the top center, and soon found out that a small gap helps the clips go down together as they slide against the vinyl top.  Use a deburred putty knife for this, on the left side of the joint.

I also put a tiny amount of white grease on the contact surface of each clip, just to aid in the installation.  I didn't know how easy or hard it would be to get the trim seated.

4. I had one troublesome area where one of the top pieces joined with the lower corner piece, but for the most part, it went down pretty well and turned out decent.  The lower straight piece pushed down by hand....no hammer needed...and was nice and snug.

[HeavyFuel]

1. The distance between the trim and the edge of the roof is nice and even, thanks to the prior planning on the glass and clip height.

2. The trim along the roof lays as it should on the same plane as the glass .

3. In this bizarre pic you can see how the lower trim transitions between the glass and the body panel.  I like the way it turned out.

[Dino]

Good job man!