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My GY8 '71 Road Runner

Looks great! I bet you don't know what to do with your free time now, after a workout like that it's hard to not go to the shop and grab sandpaper, it becomes a habit. I painted my 71 as well and know exactly how it feels sanding all those curves, closest thing to a straight panel on these cars is the trunklid, even the doors are compound curves.
Thank you! After sanding the entire car about 10 times over the past 3 months, you become pretty intimate with all the angles and curves. I have a much greater appreciation for John Herlitz’s vision and attention to detail. Although I was cursing him the entire time I was sanding/buffing :p
 
Nice work! It's amazing how much difference the cutting and buffing makes in a paint job!
Thanks Pete! I knew I was going to need to cut & buff a lot, that’s why I sprayed 6 coats of clear. It wasn’t that difficult to do, just tedious and time consuming.
 
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Looks amazing - well done!
 
I’ve been farting around a bit getting the car ready for undercoating. While doing so, I found that I was missing both fender to front valance splash panels. I was able to purchase a pair off EBay. These were covered in a good bit of surface rust and old undercoating. I treated the old undercoating with a good soaking of GooGone overnight and scraped it all off the next day. For the rust, I tried something different. Icetech posted a link to a YouTube video of a guy that made an Evaporust knock-off. I saw this video a while back and always wanted to test it out. So, LET THE SCIENCING BEGIN!!

The mixture is 1 liter of water, 100 grams Citric Acid, 40 grams Sodium Carbonate and a bit of Dawn Dish soap. I ended up making a 40 liters batch (about 10.5 gallons). All ingredients are available from Amazon. I paid about $50.00 total. I placed everything in a plastic tub and let both pieces sit in the solution for 48 hours. I think the results speak for themselves.

Before:
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Some damage to fix (this piece had a bit of oil canning going on too):
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GooGone:
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Undercoating all gone:
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The ingredients and setup:
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Citric acid mixed in first:
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Sodium carbonate being added- there is a violent reaction! Add slowly and spread it out as you pour it in! As you can see from the now wet floor, I had a large eruption flow over the tub. A big clump, that I didn’t notice, dropped in. I added about 1/2 a cup, then waited for the reaction to stop, then added another 1/2 cup and so on:
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Citric Acid and sodium carbonate mixed. Again, be careful, if you have any undissolved clumps of sodium carbonate at the bottom - they will cause a reaction when mixed- ask me how I know:
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I then added a healthy squirt of Dawn dish soap and mixed everything together:
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Both pieces dropped in:
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More on next page:
 
After 24 hours:
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After 48 hours:
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After a rinse off and drying:

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I have some repairs to do:
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Flange fixed and I took the oil canning out by shrinking the edge with a hammer and dolly:
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Success!
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I’m very happy with the results. I still need to blast them though. This cost me $50.00 for about 10.5 gallons (about $5.00/gallon). Evaporust would have been $240.00 for 10 gallons ($120.00/5 gallon bucket). I will need to test this against Rust911 in the future as it is also about $5.00/gallon. I’ve only used Rust911 as a continuous spray and not as an immersion. According to the YouTube video, this solution is supposed to last for a much longer time than Evaporust. We shall see!
 
I repaired the flange on one of the valance to fender filler panels and a section of the corner on the other. I haven’t touched my welder in months!

Flange replaced:
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Corner:
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Not much but better than nothing I guess.
 
I started installing the bodyplugs in preparation for spraying the undercoating. This was a bit of a PITA because some were missing from my car so my reference photos weren’t as helpful as I hoped. I was able to find a few images on the internet that helped. I thought I’d document where they go as best as I can determine. I did have to order an odd-ball sized plug from Steele Rubber for the trunk. I’m thinking AMD has the center hole closest to the back punched out a bit too big. I ordered the 36 piece kit from Detroit Muscle Tech and a set of the galvanized plugs. I also ordered the “super” body plug kit from Classic Industries.

Detroit Muscle 36 piece kit with galvanized plugs (G) and Steele Rubber plug (E):
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Classic Industries “Super” set” -I used “H” in the trunk:
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Passenger’s side front:
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Passenger’s side rear:
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Trunk:
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Steele Rubber “E”:
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This is a reference photo I found online showing “H” with a wire running through it:
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I hope this helps someone. It took me way too long to figure this all out!
 
I haven’t been able to work much on the car with my son’s indoor track and daughter’s hockey schedules on the weekends. Both were off today so after snow blowing the driveway, I sprayed undercoating on the back-half of my car. I will do the front once the front valance and associated slash shields are installed. I can’t put the front valance on until I take the car off the rotisserie.

I used Resto Ricks undercoating. I started by scuffing the area with a scotchbrite pad, then wipe down with W&G remover. I then taped everything off. The undercoating wasn’t all that hard to spray. Note to self; wear a hat while doing this…it doesn’t come out of hair very easily!
I sprayed 2 coats, letting the first dry for about 45 minutes. I used 2 gallons.

Taped & masked off, first coat:
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First coat:
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Second coat:
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Not much to report but, it’s something.
 
I got the bird off the rotisserie! It took longer than I thought it would - like everything else :]!

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Not much, but it’s progress!
 
I stripped the paint off the hood inserts (boomerangs) last weekend. Before doing that, I had to pirate a few of the mounting bolts from another set I have. I was able to get them out after a little bit of a fight. It appears that these were originally drilled into the plastic for a secure hold. I’m thinking I’m going to have to add a little epoxy to them to make sure they hold securely in the plastic. Removing the multiple layers (5+) of paint was not fun. Seeing that these are made out of some kind of DuPont space-age plastic (at the time) and not wanting to risk damaging them, I ended up sanding them by hand with 220.

Before:
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Inserts removed:
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A few layers of paint/primer:
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After (on left):
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I also worked on getting my upper control arms stripped and ready for epoxy. I’m not sure they’re worth keeping. Getting the ball joints out was a HUGE PITA!!!! After many cycles of heating with a torch and spraying with PB Blaster, I got them out. I also removed the bushings, as well. The mount where the ball joints screws into got a little chewed up in the process and both sleeves for the smaller bushings have a small dent. Both have them, so maybe this is normal?? Should I just replace with new upper control arms?

Stripped:
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Both mounts got a little chewed up:
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Both sleeves for smaller bushing have this dent:
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I also worked on getting my upper control arms stripped and ready for epoxy. I’m not sure they’re worth keeping. Getting the ball joints out was a HUGE PITA!!!! After many cycles of heating with a torch and spraying with PB Blaster, I got them out. I also removed the bushings, as well. The mount where the ball joints screws into got a little chewed up in the process and both sleeves for the smaller bushings have a small dent. Both have them, so maybe this is normal?? Should I just replace with new upper control arms?

Stripped:
View attachment 1817803

Both mounts got a little chewed up:
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Both sleeves for smaller bushing have this dent:
View attachment 1817805
If you decide to go new, I can ship these out tomorrow. I bought them and decided to go QA1.

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I started cleaning up my UCA’s and LCA’s for epoxy. I fixed (mostly) the oblong shape in sleeves of the UCA’s and fixed the oblong opening in one of the LCA’s sway bar mounts. Hopefully I can get them in epoxy next weekend.

UCA’s before:
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After:
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LCA’s before:
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After:
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I think I need to replace this grommet/eyelet- not sure what it’s called:
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Oblong hole:
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A little weld:
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Much better:
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I posted this on the suspension thread, I’ll also try here too. Does anyone know what this grommet? Is called and where I can get one?

Sway bar perch:
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