71Beeper
Well-Known Member
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- Nov 28, 2010
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- Location
- Stoney Creek, Ontario
Awesome work as usual Chad!
My GY8 '71 Road Runner
- Thread starter ct71rr
- Start date
Thank you!
Wow, June 25th since my last update!! I’ve been trying to get a bunch of projects completed around the house; Paint all trim on house and garage, check, replace frieze board and 2 courses of shingles on back of house, check, paint new shingles, check, replace parging on large section of foundation, check, regrade part of back yard and fix stone wall, check, regrade front yard and install new stone wall...nope. Friggin rain is killing my plans! This is still a work in progress.
Anyway, with the rain this weekend, I decided to work on my Road Runner. I’m in the process of fitting all the panels on the car. Once on, I can make final adjustments and start on the bodywork. This weekend, I blasted the radiator/front header support piece. I have no idea what this part is actually called. As normal for this car, this part was pretty banged up. I was able to straighten it out with some hammer and dolly work. After blasting, I coated the parts with some SPI epoxy.
Support:
Left side is completely dented inward, yay!! Pic doesn’t do it justice:
Blasted:
In Epoxy:
Thanks for looking!
Anyway, with the rain this weekend, I decided to work on my Road Runner. I’m in the process of fitting all the panels on the car. Once on, I can make final adjustments and start on the bodywork. This weekend, I blasted the radiator/front header support piece. I have no idea what this part is actually called. As normal for this car, this part was pretty banged up. I was able to straighten it out with some hammer and dolly work. After blasting, I coated the parts with some SPI epoxy.
Support:
Left side is completely dented inward, yay!! Pic doesn’t do it justice:
Blasted:
In Epoxy:
Thanks for looking!
71Beeper
Well-Known Member
- Local time
- 5:38 PM
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2010
- Messages
- 738
- Reaction score
- 1,138
- Location
- Stoney Creek, Ontario
Chad, I think that term is correct - that its a radiator/front header support piece.
It's best to black them out now than after it's on the car like mine was.
Looking good.
It's best to black them out now than after it's on the car like mine was.
Looking good.
On to the header panel. There’s some rot in the area where the emblem goes, flange missing from the right side, portion of the front lip is rotted, tear in flange on left side and the usual dings and dents, yay! I began by stripping the paint so I could see what I was dealing with. While doing so, I found the right side of the top panel to have a pretty good oil an going on. The PO “tried” to fix it...with...you guessed it, Bondo...super. After stripping most of the paint, I fixed the oil canned area with a shrinking disc and hammer/dolly. I also straightened what I could and removed several dings. I then made a template off of the “good flange”, created a patch piece and welded it in. I also patched the center area where the emblem goes and welded up the crack on the left side. I’ll have to carefully blast several areas on it as there was rust left under the Bondo that was smeared over the entire panel.
Header panel:
Cracked flange:
Missing flange:
Rot in center area:
The usual dents/dings:
And, of course, Bondo:
Repaired flange:
Patched center section:
Front lip patched:
This area had a pretty good oil can going on but fixed now:
That’s all I had time for today. I’ll have to get the rest of the paint and rust off and then into epoxy.
Thanks for looking!
Header panel:
Cracked flange:
Missing flange:
Rot in center area:
The usual dents/dings:
And, of course, Bondo:
Repaired flange:
Patched center section:
Front lip patched:
This area had a pretty good oil can going on but fixed now:
That’s all I had time for today. I’ll have to get the rest of the paint and rust off and then into epoxy.
Thanks for looking!
Hi all, I was able to get my header panel blasted and in epoxy this weekend. It was raining pretty good so I busted out my fancy indoor blasting tent - Cheap Chinese pop-up canopy from Amazon and went to town. It actually worked out better than expected. Before I blasted, I upgraded my harbor freight portable blaster. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I changed out the original constrictive 3/8” mixing valve and hose to 1/2”. I also changed out the original water filter to a larger water/desiccant combo filter and added a longer hose. What a difference!! It’s like an entirety different machine now!
New mixing valve next to old:
The original is very restrictive:
New filter too:
Header panel blasted, canopy in background:
Epoxied:
That’s all I had time for, thanks for looking!
New mixing valve next to old:
The original is very restrictive:
New filter too:
Header panel blasted, canopy in background:
Epoxied:
That’s all I had time for, thanks for looking!
whayden2003
Well-Known Member
Heck yea. Looking good.
Thank you. I appreciate it! It’s a lot of work but will be worth it in the end.
Well, I finally finished the Great Wall of Massachusetts. This was my first attempt at building a dry-stack retaining wall. I wanted to build this for about 12 years but, the town I live in being the unreasonable people they are, would not let me. I live on a scenic road and need to get approval from the Conservation Commission to remove trees on my property near the street. There were about 5 oaks that were pretty much dead, only had about 3 branches each and one was almost hollow. They denied my request because removing the trees would “effect the esthetic” of the road. About 3 months after this hearing, one of the trees fell, knocking the power lines down and blocked my street for about 5 hours. This happened about 10 minutes after I was just walking my dog in that area. Fast forward about 6 years, and the power company & Town deemed the rest of trees dead and had them removed. - Sorry for the off topic rant.
Anyway, this has now freed me up to start working on the RR again. I installed the torque boxes which turned out to be a giant PITA!! They did not fit very well at all. I had to metal work them extensively; rebending, reshaping, hammering, cut pie-slices out of one, trimming, etc. Each one took me about an hour and a half to get to fit decently. I almost said F-it and threw them in the trash. After getting them welded in, I cleaned the welds up a bit. Not perfect, but better than factory (I think).
The Great Wall:
Fitment issues, these are the “good” areas:
Welded in:
Cleaned up:
I forgot to take more pics as I was going. The initial fitment on these was terrible.
Thanks for looking!
Anyway, this has now freed me up to start working on the RR again. I installed the torque boxes which turned out to be a giant PITA!! They did not fit very well at all. I had to metal work them extensively; rebending, reshaping, hammering, cut pie-slices out of one, trimming, etc. Each one took me about an hour and a half to get to fit decently. I almost said F-it and threw them in the trash. After getting them welded in, I cleaned the welds up a bit. Not perfect, but better than factory (I think).
The Great Wall:
Fitment issues, these are the “good” areas:
Welded in:
Cleaned up:
I forgot to take more pics as I was going. The initial fitment on these was terrible.
Thanks for looking!
71Beeper
Well-Known Member
- Local time
- 5:38 PM
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2010
- Messages
- 738
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- 1,138
- Location
- Stoney Creek, Ontario
Great job Chad - all you need now is frame connectors.
I started getting pieces back on for final fitment and bodywork. I started with the hood. My original hood is a mess (of course). It looks like someone attempted to cut a hole for a scoop, probably in the ‘80’s and had second thoughts. Part of one of the braces was lopped off too. And there are numerous bondo worms sticking through to the underside. I purchased a replacement from a member on here, mopar6970, back in 2018. I lucked out, the seller lived in Florida and happened to have a friend that was driving up to New Hampshire. He agreed to deliver the hood to my house for a small fee. This hood is basically mint, with a little surface rust here and there and it’s almost the same color as my car was originally, tawny gold as opposed to gold leaf metallic. I also rough fitted the doors, fenders and header panel. I have many hours of adjusting, banging and swearing ahead of me to get everything lined up. Yea!!
Original hood:
Scoop?
Worm sign!
Replacement:
Not fitted yet:
I can’t remember the last time the car has had the hood, fenders and doors on it. It’s been years!!
Thanks for looking!!
Original hood:
Scoop?
Worm sign!
Replacement:
Not fitted yet:
I can’t remember the last time the car has had the hood, fenders and doors on it. It’s been years!!
Thanks for looking!!
Looking like a car again!!!!
Grabbergreendream
Well-Known Member
Looks great!
Chad, I gota say your a busy guy... Not sure how you find the time to accomplish all you do, but props! I see you even created a rock wall/fence in your spare time this fall...
I wish I had your ambition & perseverance to follow through!
Great job on the car in your "other" free time!
Chad, I gota say your a busy guy... Not sure how you find the time to accomplish all you do, but props! I see you even created a rock wall/fence in your spare time this fall...
I wish I had your ambition & perseverance to follow through!
Great job on the car in your "other" free time!
Thanks John! Free time, what’s that?! 
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