Fitzy's GP is back!

[64 kiwi boni]

12 hours ago, Fitzy said:

If it is rivetting entertainment that you want, then best to tune in to Kiwi's neverending saga of 'Rusty Wrecks I Must Have.

i justA dont want to get Bored mate 

[Fitzy]

Bit of a drama the last few days. My missus' Mazda3 decided to throw up an error on both engine & auto trans, so off to the mechanic. It needed a new auto control module: $2100 just for the part. It is only available from Mazda Australia (first thing I did was search on Rockauto!) because it's apparently a common fault. Great. Then the washing machine went to lunch. Turns out the electronic printed circuit board had had enough after only 3 years. That was only $117. Good ol' electronics. When they're working they're marvellous, but when they go bad it's time for overtime.

The GP's 60 year old TH400 doesn't have any electronics and works perfectly. Not sure if it has ever been replaced though.

Anyway, I had a nice quiet day at home today after driving 200km yesterday to pick up a secondhand washer to get us through until the part turns up for the other one - at least 10 days. Hey - you can't have too many washers.

So, my quiet day consisted of putting some music on, opening up the doors on the GP and I decided I would detail as best I could the inner areas between door, jamb and pillar - an area I keep looking at and then deciding that I have better things to do. I took some before & after pics but the comparison is negligible so I thought I'd show the 'after' pics. A bit better, but I will see the difference every time I open the car from now on. My tools of trade were rubbing compound, cut & polish, Turtle wax, metal polish & Armor All. You know your car is running sweet when you find jobs like this to do!

I have messaged Kiwi to pass onto me the details of his weatherstrip supplier. Gotta do it.

[64 kiwi boni]

2 hours ago, Fitzy said:

Bit of a drama the last few days. My missus' Mazda3 decided to throw up an error on both engine & auto trans, so off to the mechanic. It needed a new auto control module: $2100 just for the part. It is only available from Mazda Australia (first thing I did was search on Rockauto!) because it's apparently a common fault. Great. Then the washing machine went to lunch. Turns out the electronic printed circuit board had had enough after only 3 years. That was only $117. Good ol' electronics. When they're working they're marvellous, but when they go bad it's time for overtime.

The GP's 60 year old TH400 doesn't have any electronics and works perfectly. Not sure if it has ever been replaced though.

Anyway, I had a nice quiet day at home today after driving 200km yesterday to pick up a secondhand washer to get us through until the part turns up for the other one - at least 10 days. Hey - you can't have too many washers.

So, my quiet day consisted of putting some music on, opening up the doors on the GP and I decided I would detail as best I could the inner areas between door, jamb and pillar - an area I keep looking at and then deciding that I have better things to do. I took some before & after pics but the comparison is negligible so I thought I'd show the 'after' pics. A bit better, but I will see the difference every time I open the car from now on. My tools of trade were rubbing compound, cut & polish, Turtle wax, metal polish & Armor All. You know your car is running sweet when you find jobs like this to do!

I have messaged Kiwi to pass onto me the details of his weatherstrip supplier. Gotta do it.

Geees I could eat my dinner off those jambs !!! 
steels rubbers 

Edited April 29, 2023 by 64 kiwi boni

[Wrongway]

I second Kiwi's recommendation. I justa installed a full set of Steel's weather stripping on the Delta I've been getting ready to sell and have ordered most of the one's I need for my GP. Steel makes a great product bro.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Wrongway

[Fitzy]

Back home after another 8 days at work. I feel a certain obligation to post something but it's piddly. You may remember the vintage license plate frame I procured for the rear numberplate? Well, I decided that now the front one looks naked so I ordered the same frame but I couldn't get this one in red. Doesn't matter because the silver & black suits the front of the car perfectly. I had to modify the Australian plate in order for it to have nothing obscured but I reckon it looks good. It will come off tomorrow and I will CAREFULLY recoat the letters and lower retaining screws with some black paint.

That's it!

[Wrongway]

Looks good bro!

[Fitzy]

Just when you thought I couldn't post anything more boring than the last one, do I have a treat for you!

I managed to put a little paint on those letters - I didn't want it perfect coz it's gotta match the rest of the car. I bought the smallest quality paintbrush that I could then carefully applied the tiniest dab of paint...and that shit ran everywhere. Friggin paintbrush managed to find any space between the letters. I abandoned that and after cleaning up the mess with acetone, I simply moistened a fine cotton rag held tightly over my forefinger and wiped the paint across the letters. That worked - a hot tip for those wishing to do a similar task. Anyway, it turned out all right. Will reattach tomorrow and I'll probably take her out for a quick blast to keep everything working.

[64 kiwi boni]

2 hours ago, Fitzy said:

Just when you thought I couldn't post anything more boring than the last one, do I have a treat for you!

I managed to put a little paint on those letters - I didn't want it perfect coz it's gotta match the rest of the car. I bought the smallest quality paintbrush that I could then carefully applied the tiniest dab of paint...and that shit ran everywhere. Friggin paintbrush managed to find any space between the letters. I abandoned that and after cleaning up the mess with acetone, I simply moistened a fine cotton rag held tightly over my forefinger and wiped the paint across the letters. That worked - a hot tip for those wishing to do a similar task. Anyway, it turned out all right. Will reattach tomorrow and I'll probably take her out for a quick blast to keep everything working.

That’s exactly how I would do it mate 

And look ! It came out perfect 👍

Acetone is a plumbers best mate it melts everything 

[Fitzy]

Had a productive day today. I took my little list of things to do when I went into the big smoke and ticked off everything. I visited the powdercoater and we chatted about what he could do. Turns out he will blast, prep, coat and finish with a clear - all for about $1000: less than a quarter of the chroming cost.

Wrongway, this may interest you. He showed me a pallette of shiny finishes and the one closest to chrome was polished aluminium. The powder (& clear coat powder) come from the US. The brand (the name escapes me now) was something to do with the way light reacts with some of these modern fancy finishes. So he starts with a primer, then possibly a gloss black, then the colour and the clear will then transform the base colour into what it's supposed to be. This is all science fiction to me but I'm going ahead with it. It'll be more durable than a vinyl wrap and should be nice & shiny.

So, like a jerk I proceed to start removing the 58 year old bolts. Swearing, sweating and general mayhem ensue until I am laying under the car idly looking up and then notice that just 4 big bolts anchor the bumper assembly to the chassis. I guess next time, I'll just remove them!

[Fitzy]

Here we go: Prismatic Powders.

[Wrongway]

Thanks Fitzy. I can't wait to see what you have to say about yours. Is that the color you're doing yours in? I actually been thinking about powder coating the chrome over the last week or so, so maybe this is a sign.  I'v even been looking at building an oven later this year so maybe I can do it myself, we'll have to see about that.

[64 kiwi boni]

4 hours ago, Wrongway said:

Thanks Fitzy. I can't wait to see what you have to say about yours. Is that the color you're doing yours in? I actually been thinking about powder coating the chrome over the last week or so, so maybe this is a sign.  I'v even been looking at building an oven later this year so maybe I can do it myself, we'll have to see about that.

Wrongway ! If you build a power coating oven . You know we love pic around here !! 

[Wrongway]

If I build it I'll post pics for sure bro. Still undecided because it has to be big enough to fit my bumpers.

[JUSTA6]

3 hours ago, Wrongway said:

If I build it I'll post pics for sure bro. Still undecided because it has to be big enough to fit my bumpers.

Kiwi has his pizza oven,  get his plans.  Adjust to fit.  Damn, now I'm hungry.   Ham, mushroom N sweet peppers,,,,,OHHH yea

[64 kiwi boni]

19 minutes ago, JUSTA6 said:

Kiwi has his pizza oven,  get his plans.  Adjust to fit.  Damn, now I'm hungry.   Ham, mushroom N sweet peppers,,,,,OHHH yea

Your making meeeee hungry too !!

I did use my pizza oven to bake my paint on the long branch headers on the 64 … worked a treat 

[Wrongway]

Sounds like you need to start a part time power coat business. We all know how much free time you have. 

[Fitzy]

Today I did it the easy way and simply unbolted those 4 big bolts and the bumper just slid out, although there is some massive reinforcing bar that sits inside the bumper near the top - probably to assist in ramraiding ATMs, not that there were any in 1965.

The bumper is a real mess and I'm glad I finally got proactive with it. I unbolted the various supports (one snapped bolt) and decided that since the bumper is going to be away for quite some time, I may as well do it properly and derust and paint all the associated frontal areas. The pics show the front sheetmetal that is normally hidden and the braces and horns - all lightly wirebrushed, sanded and treated with rust converter. I also cleaned up the red paint that is normally virtually unreachable with the bumper in place with rubbing compound, cut & polish and some wax. I'll chuck some paint on the derusted bits tomorrow and will deliver the bumper to the powdercoater on Monday.

Did you know that those chrome bumper bolts actually have a little metal cap on them? I had to hold one of the heads with vicegrips in order to get the rusted nut off but nothing was happening. I knew I had the head firmly gripped but the nut wasn't loosening. It was when I closely inspected the bolt that I noticed the cap had deformed with the vicegrip pressure. I pried it off and then no problem.

Am currently sourcing replacement bolts - normally an easy task but there are 2 that are longer than the rest, so I need 8 x 1" long ones and 2 x 1.25". If it's too hard, I'll just get 10 x 1.25". Naturally there are several diameters - B bodies use 7/16" if anyone's interested.

[64 kiwi boni]

4 hours ago, Wrongway said:

Sounds like you need to start a part time power coat business. We all know how much free time you have. 

Nononono !!! 
our local power coat guy … Peter .. he does a great job but every time I see him his face is covered in dust … I wonder what his lungs must look like !!! 🤢

1 hour ago, Fitzy said:

Today I did it the easy way and simply unbolted those 4 big bolts and the bumper just slid out, although there is some massive reinforcing bar that sits inside the bumper near the top - probably to assist in ramraiding ATMs, not that there were any in 1965.

The bumper is a real mess and I'm glad I finally got proactive with it. I unbolted the various supports (one snapped bolt) and decided that since the bumper is going to be away for quite some time, I may as well do it properly and derust and paint all the associated frontal areas. The pics show the front sheetmetal that is normally hidden and the braces and horns - all lightly wirebrushed, sanded and treated with rust converter. I also cleaned up the red paint that is normally virtually unreachable with the bumper in place with rubbing compound, cut & polish and some wax. I'll chuck some paint on the derusted bits tomorrow and will deliver the bumper to the powdercoater on Monday.

Did you know that those chrome bumper bolts actually have a little metal cap on them? I had to hold one of the heads with vicegrips in order to get the rusted nut off but nothing was happening. I knew I had the head firmly gripped but the nut wasn't loosening. It was when I closely inspected the bolt that I noticed the cap had deformed with the vicegrip pressure. I pried it off and then no problem.

Am currently sourcing replacement bolts - normally an easy task but there are 2 that are longer than the rest, so I need 8 x 1" long ones and 2 x 1.25". If it's too hard, I'll just get 10 x 1.25". Naturally there are several diameters - B bodies use 7/16" if anyone's interested.

I have some spare bumper bolts if you would like them ? 

The 64 has  that big steel strap inside the front of the bumper too … have no idea why ! 

Edited May 13, 2023 by 64 kiwi boni

[64 kiwi boni]

Oh mate !! You know the real fun is when you go to put them back on by yourself !!

not only do they weigh a ton . It’s a battle justA holding them up !! Been there done that 

[Wrongway]

Did your powder coat guy say how long it would be before you get the bumper back??? I can't wait to see it.

[Fitzy]

7 hours ago, Wrongway said:

Did your powder coat guy say how long it would be before you get the bumper back??? I can't wait to see it.

I think it's going to be a while, since he'll have to actually order the powders from the US. I know you're keen to see the result, but realistically I'm thinking about a month?

14 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

I have some spare bumper bolts if you would like them ? 

Kiwi - I would love those bolts. I'm assuming they're in reasonable condition, the correct 7/16" diameter and 1" long? I still need 2 x 1.25" long as well. If so, let's do a deal, otherwise I found a set on ebay that's going to cost about AU$70 by the time it gets delivered here. Are you sure you won't need them for one of your many rusty relics?

[Wrongway]

Yes, I'm very interested bro. I've got other things I need to finish up before I'm ready to think about the bumpers. But I'll be waiting for the pics 

I did also check out that website. They have some really cool, bright, poppin colors!

Edited May 13, 2023 by Wrongway

[64 kiwi boni]

2 hours ago, Fitzy said:

I think it's going to be a while, since he'll have to actually order the powders from the US. I know you're keen to see the result, but realistically I'm thinking about a month?

Kiwi - I would love those bolts. I'm assuming they're in reasonable condition, the correct 7/16" diameter and 1" long? I still need 2 x 1.25" long as well. If so, let's do a deal, otherwise I found a set on ebay that's going to cost about AU$70 by the time it gets delivered here. Are you sure you won't need them for one of your many rusty relics?

Mate don’t buy stuff off eBay !

I will find you the best and take sone pictures … I have two whole spare front bumpers with all those bolts on them !

I can justA post them over to you 

[64 kiwi boni]

just got home from Auckland and went and had a look .. I have 3 front bumpers ..👍

Edited May 14, 2023 by 64 kiwi boni

[Fitzy]

Okay - the minimum I need is 8 x 1" & 2 x 1.25 (or longer)." The longer ones sit just above the indicators on my car, ie. that's the upper ones inboard. Anything outside of and underneath those are 1", all 7/16" diameter. I don't need washers or nuts. Let me know how you go - there's no hurry. Thanks, man.

I found a nice little website called Allen's Fasteners where they are cheap as chips but the shipping is ridiculous. I also found the other extreme - try $74 for ONE PAIR.  Check out the screenshots.

Okay...Yee Haa! Hillbilly Paint Shop was open today. Gave GP front hidden sheetmetal and bumper braces & horns a good coat of rustproof paint, loaded the bumper into the ute and off it goes tomorrow. I also wirebrushed, cleaned the threads and lubed up the old bolts, washers & nuts I can reuse, so they'll certainly go on much easier than they came off.