'74 daily driver improvements.

[DukeRimmer]

Wish this was about my '73 restoration project that has been hibernating for years. Perhaps I could find the time to get back to it if this '74 could find a new home.

The '74 is worthy of restoration, rust is limited, no collision history, and dents are minor. Being a DD I have kept costs low by doing most repairs with used parts and will continue to do so. If it were a restoration it would have a rebuilt engine instead of the used one I installed shortly after purchase, and I'll repair the front valence instead of replacing the front panel.

[DukeRimmer]

I would never pay someone to do this. If you're paying for labor, replace the front panel. If it was a restoration project, I'd replace the front panel. The paint needs to be removed before complete respray so I'm just using some generic white laquer.

[DukeRimmer]

The correct way to do this is to remove the interior and the thick black sound absorber from the floor, then replace the entire frame rail from the subframe mounting area back. This would have required new carpets which would cry out for new headliner and dash, which means removing all the glass, which requires stripping the paint from the roof and glass areas, so may as well restore the whole bloody car.

Don't want to do that to this car so I cut the bottom plus half of both sides of the frame rail and patched it in several sections, one at a time. The size and location of the patches was dictated by the shapes and curves in the rail.

[DukeRimmer]

There was a small spot in the left 1/4.

The rear glass wanted to come out but that would have led to new headliner etc, etc, etc.......... so I left it in. The hole was fully accessible so I treated the rust and covered the hole with fiberglass cloth.

[jerry]

very nice work mitch. and this proves that one doesn't need to outspend their peers to obtain nice results. this should be copied to the FAQ construction zone.

[twenty02_vnz]

duke, did you put rust stoper inside the frame, or any kind?

-vnz

jerry,

i finally got that frame welded. but still need grinding.

[DukeRimmer]

Jerry,

Thanks for the kind words. I was thinking of your frustration when documenting the left door repair. Hoping it will get some of my fellow FAQers to use more aggressive grits. Bondo should not be tedious.

VNZ,

Yes, I flooded the frame rail with rustoleum using a carb cleaner nozzle and tube. Used the same setup to flood the left door patch and inner seams.

[DukeRimmer]

The original left door had rust spots at both lower corners and deep dents above and below the lower side moulding.

The replacement door was installed as a new part on some long ago dismantled car. Not enough time and materials were used to do the repair on that car. No seam sealer was used and there was just a thin coat of primer covered with a thin coat of Malaga. The jambs were not sanded so the original sealer was still glossy where the Malaga had fallen away. Pic 015b shows the jambs sandblasted to remove paint, surface rust, and most of the original sealer.

The outer door skin was stripped of paint using 36 grit on a grinder with glue on pad. Where there was damage all paint was removed. Where there was no damage 90% of the paint was removed with the grinder and the last 10% was removed with 80 grit on a DA sander. A rust spot was repaired at the lower front corner and dents were hammered out. Sandblasting was done on the door skin at the rust repair, the door handle recess, and the top edge under the belt moulding (the belt line is at the bottom of the glass on all cars. Upper side mouldings are not belt mouldings.)

[DukeRimmer]

Body filler was applied to all the dented and welded areas. While the material was still soft it was roughed into shape, and the most of the surface scum was removed using a grater. 36 grit on a long sanding block was used until metal showed around all low areas. Some areas such as around the welded patch were still low so they were spot filled, grated, and blocked with 36. When it was time for the final coat of filler, it was applied beyond the damaged areas and grated as shown in pic 015d.

The final coat of filler was then blocked with new, sharp paper. When most of the grater marks were gone, masking tape was used to establish a straight styling line. Tape will be in place during all future blocking steps until the final primer coat is nearly finish blocked. The technique is to block diagonally up to the tape line with even pressure on the tool. When the edge of the tape becomes frayed place another along side of it, remove the damaged one, and block up to the new one. Dozens of tape strips were used. Keep the sandpaper sharp and don’t use finer grits as these will follow the waves in the filler instead of removing the high areas. When the filler was nearly shaped, and metal was beginning to show through, final block sanding was done with 80 grit. Pic 015f shows sanding blocks used with 80 grit and DA sander with 80 used to finish the bare metal areas. The masking tape technique leaves the exaggerated styling line shown in pic 015g

Pic #015e did not post the first time so now they're out of order. They should be in alphbetical order.

[DukeRimmer]

The door was hung from the rafters and primed with Sherwin Williams Ultra Fill primer surfacer. I use this product because it is recommended for use over bare metal and does a good job of filling. Epoxy primers I have tried were not good fillers, were hard to sand, and the S/W brand is not recommended for bare metal. I see no advantage in using epoxy.

After drying, the jamb was sanded and seam sealer was applied to the edge of the door skin where it folds over into the jamb. Pic 015h shows this step but the sealer is clear and not visible. When the seam sealer dried I put a carb cleaner nozzle and tube on a can of rustoleum and blasted the inside of the door at the welded patch and in the seam between the door shell and door skin. The paint pooled in this seam and the door was turned end over end several times to distribute the paint to all four edges of the door skin. After drying this step was repeated twice. It's is a very messy step. Paint leaks out of the door, and it gets on the paint can as well as the painter.

[DukeRimmer]

A guide coat of red primer was sprayed on the outer door and blocking was begun using 80 grit. After blocking 15% of the guide coat away with 80, I switched to 120 grit and removed all the red. There is a block for the radius under the upper side moulding that prevents digging into the radius with the edge of the flat block. Pic 015m shows the center section blocked with 120, while the upper and lower sections are done with 80 to be finished with 120.

The old paint needs to be stripped from the car so I’ll not be doing the paint steps on this door. After blocking with 120 I block sanded some of the 120 grit scratches away using 220 folded over a paint stir stick cut to fit the paper. This is also the point at which the masking tape guide is removed from the styling line. Great care was used to round off some of the line while keeping it straight and symmetrical. Then I sprayed some color just to protect the primer. I will be putting the mouldings back on so the top edge of the door under the belt moulding, and the holes for the side moulding clips were cleaned of most of the primer to prevent chipping when the parts are installed.

[Armond]

Mitch,

Nice improvements. Hey, would you happen to have the orange or green screw in plastic cap for a fog lamp switch? Thanks.

[DukeRimmer]

It’s not surprising when a replacement body part does not fit. They’re just not made as well as originals. In this case the rear was too high after using up all the adjustment at the hinges, so it had to be forced down. The door was too far left at the front, for which there is no adjustment, so the fender had to be moved out.

[DukeRimmer]

I hate wet floors, rust floors, and floppy door trim panels. Nine out of ten of these problems result from leaky vapor barriers. Next time you have the trim panel and vapor barrier removed from your car, use your garden hose to apply water to the outside of your rolled up window in quantities sufficient to imitate rain fall. Much of the water will not be shed by the belt line seal,* and will pass through, into the door shell, between the glass and the “squeegee”. What passes through will drip off the bottom of the glass. It will not drip onto the outer door skin. It will not drip to the bottom of the door. It will drip onto the inner side of the door shell, and from there will want to pass through all the openings in the inner door shell in order to ruin your trim panel, and then your entire interior and floor. When you see the amount of water that comes through you’ll know why it’s so hard to find a good used trim panel, why I’m so obsessed with this, and why you should seal up the shell better than can be done using original type materials and technique. Why attempt to duplicate the original look where no one will see it? Use spray adhesive (any brand) on the entire inner door shell and the entire THIN plastic sheet. I use bin liners. Push the plastic into every low area and stick it to every mm of the inner door except around the lock rod. Cut away excess with razor blade being extra careful at the lower corners as the openings are very close to the edge here.

*The belt line is at the bottom of glass. Down by the door handle is the upper side moulding. All cars have belt lines, some cars have no side mouldings.