New Owner of 820/1000

[thomcasey]

It gets cold in Maryland, heat would suck with a 180 thermostat.

 

[transparentdsm]

yeah but summer is humid and horrible. maybe its his summer stat and during winter he will use a 190

 

[turbowop]

With a proper cooling setup, nobody needs to swap tstats between summer and winter. Especially on a car that's mostly stock.

 

[GSTwithPSI]

The PO swapped a slim fan in place of the stock puller. I'm going off the stock gauge (which is known to be inaccurate), but at idle, the needle sits just past the middle on the hot side, which I thought was a bit warm. With summer coming up, I though a 180* T-stat might be a decent idea until I can get a logger or ECMlink on the car and figure out how hot it's running exactly. It's not really a performance oriented modification so much as it is a precautionary measure. For all I know, it could already have a 180* T-stat in it.

I crossed my fingers today as I switched on the A/C. I heard the compressor and fan kick on as the car's idle bumped up, but sadly the car only blew warm air. Looks like the system will need to be leak checked and charged.

 

[GSTwithPSI]

Spent some time cleaning today. It's not done, but it's a good start.

I pulled the fenders to gauge how much work I have to do. I knew there would be some rust when I picked the car up. The pinch welds showed the typical signs of rust behind the fenders, and there are a few other places that need attention. Just like on 1837, a bunch of crap got pinned between the fender and body and started to eat away at the lower rocker panel. There was A LOT more crap stuck on this car, though. Leaves, dirt, sand, and all kinds of poop in there.

**WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT**





Passenger side:

Driver side:

It looks like poop, but it should clean up decent. The metal is solid and overall intact. I'll clean the area, remove the rust and apply an inhibitor. I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Pull those fenders and inspect/clean them every now and then. This is a good example of what can potentially happen if you don't.

 

[iceman69510]

I agree and have also said this before. I clean this area ever year. Other than the hood front edge (bad factory hemming and sealing job) this is really the only consistent rust area on these cars. They were built when the yen/$ ration allowed them to be built cost effectively with lots of galvanized and coated steels.

 

[GSTwithPSI]

Well, made some progress killing all the rust on 820. This car reminds me why G is always bitching about rust...Because fixing it sucks ass. It takes forever, and the work is tedious and time intensive. It's coming along good, though.

Cleaned up, and cut out some metal

Cut out some more metal...

Welded in some new metal

Cleaned up my birdshit welds

Sealed some of the metal and then filled in the pits with a little bit of body filler

More amputation near the rear fender

Welded in a small piece of metal and filled the repair

Basically, I just have to treat all the bare metal that's left with Rust Bullet. After I treat everything with the rust inhibitor, I need to sand everything and paint. I'll probably have to paint pretty much the whole driver side of the car. This car is a work in progress, but I think it will clean up pretty nice when I'm done.

 

[ApexHunter]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif Nice.

 

[weirdbeard]

Nice, dude. Good to see that you are getting it back to a respectable state.

 

[89Patches]

I see you're more of a grinder than welder. Lol

 

[GSTwithPSI]

Yeah...About that.

That's the biggest reason I didn't want to take this project on. I just don't have the proper equipment to do the job like I would like to. All I have is a little gasless 120v flux core welder, which is horrible for a job like this. You have to keep the amperage low so it doesn't blow through the thin metal, while still making sure it will penetrate decent. The result of which is a line of birdshit welds.

The other challenge was making a contoured body panel to fit the section I cut out. I used the anvil on my vise and a ball peen hammer to fabricate the piece in the pics. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/uhh.gif

Even though it doesn't really look the part, it's a thousand times better than it was. At least the rocker is one piece of solid metal again, and doesn't have any rusty holes through it. I hit the panel with a little body filler just to fill in any tiny little pits on the surface. I'll seal the whole thing with Rust Bullet and it should be good to go.

 

[89Patches]

Can't blame ya. Welding sheet metal with a flux core isn't pretty, especially when the metal is even more thin from rusting.

Meh, it will get hidden from the body moldings. So don't put too much thought on how it looks. Just make sure it don't rust again!

 

[GSTwithPSI]

I finally completed the vast majority of the body work on 820. I wasn't going for perfection here, since that's what I have 1837 for. I just mainly wanted a 10 footer that wasn't rusting out from under me, and I think I achieved that. I've addressed all the major areas that needed immediate attention. There are a few other places on the car that I can wire brush and treat topically. I'll hit those as time allows.

Here are some shots of the progression on the front rocker panels

There was a crappy area at the top of the driver side rear fender well. Here's the progression of that area

I went with paint from AutomotiveTouchup once again. A pint of W09 base coat took care of this job, topped off with their urethane clearcoat

I started by treating the front clip with Rust Bullet, then followed with a quickie spray of the core support

Then, taped her off so I could respray the panels that needed it. I ended up doing pretty much the whole car, save most of the passenger side (minus the passenger fender, which I did respray). I didn't have to do the the roof, decklid or front bumper either, as they were all in fairly good shape. I probably would have done the entire car if I had the paint on hand, but I only had a pint of basecoat and wasn't going to wait another week to get more.

Apparently the car was left outside in a baby meteor shower...

Outside paint job, redneck style

Fenders before and after spray

Hood

I started buffing the driver side, which shined up pretty good.

Basically, I just need to reassemble, wet sand, and buff at this point. I'm pretty happy with how the car is looking...Especially considering it looked like complete sh*t just a few weeks ago. It's no show car, but real close to my goal of being a 10 footer. I mean, why the f*** would I want to dump tons of time and money into a DD that some dick face is just going to slam a shopping cart into /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[faqinshiet]

Wow!! Excellent job!

 

[89Mirageman]

Very nice, love me some DIY paint jobs!

 

[GSTwithPSI]

I picked up a set of Lamco gauges for the Galant. The needles needed refreshed, and the boost gauge needed to be recalibrated. So, I took them all apart, calibrated the boost gauge and painted the needles to match the factory cluster.

Chipped ugly needles

Boost gauge is a bit off

Disassembled and calibrated

Needle painted

Painted the remaining 2 needles

Installed-ish in the Galant. I just need a trim ring to tidy things up. I also need to wire everything in and hook up the vacuum line to the boost gauge

Matches pretty good!

I got all the painting finished, and I think it turned out ok for the time and work I have in it. It's definitely a 10 footer, but looks a lot better than it did. I removed that horrid pinstripe as well, which I thought made the car look a million times better.

Here are some before and after shots:

I still need to wet sand and buff everything, which should blend the newly sprayed panels a bit better. There's just not enough time in the day...

 

[iceman69510]

Looking quite nice. Window trim next. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[GSTwithPSI]

Stage 1, get rid of huge rust holes...Check.

Stage 2, making the turd reliable and stop pissing oil everywhere...

Here was the main issue:

The car had been sitting so long, the oil seals literally turned solid. The lips had absolutely no give to them. The cam seals were leaking really bad, so I figured I may as well do the main seal on the front case as well.

Seal removed:

Nice new pliable Fel-Pro seals:

Much better:

Good a time as any to do a timing belt job and throw on all new drive belts:

 

[transparentdsm]

looking good Brett. seems like its a clean enough car.

 

[bobdole]

Nice job. Looks clean for sure. I see the G35 pocking in the back ground. Are those Axis wheels on it?