Colossus - the 1970 Concours frame replacement project

OK, had a day off to take care of some appointments, so before that got out early this AM and started washing things down. After the appointments, got out the paint. I am now ahead of schedule (shouldn't have said that...).








Had some left over paint so I put it on the previous repair:


And didn't want the tire cover to drop debris into the clean well, so pulled of the rotten hide:


What undercoatings have people here used for repairs like this? Any thoughts?

Moving forward, and getting closer!
Tom

 

For relatively small areas like that I would just get some rattle-can undercoat. There is also a bed-liner type product in rattle cans now too. I have used it for small areas (like where gravel hits on the tongue) on trailers etc. with good success....not so much on larger areas especially if flat: really hard to get it on evenly.

 

Just went back and read much of the thread. This is an impressively well-executed job you're doing, and so well documented to boot! What a pleasure to be able to follow the progress!

 

WWBob,
going to try to find some spray on stuff this weekend. Lots of stuff on various forums about buying the correct stuff and using a schutz gun, but I don't have one of those, so I guess it's spray can time for me.

90Merc,
Glad you are enjoying the thread and the journey, and thank you for the positive feedback. I hope the info here will help someone sometime on their project.

Best,
Tom

 

90Merc,
Glad you are enjoying the thread and the journey, and thank you for the positive feedback. I hope the info here will help someone sometime on their project.

Best,
Tom[/QUOTE]

Great Tom, that's exactly my thought, because you're giving step-by-step how-to's on what you're doing - truly a wealth of information.

 

just wish I was better at doing some of these things I'm "how-to"ing. Sometimes you can best learn from me what not to do!

 

like my Pa always said...'dont learn from your mistakes...when you can learn from other peoples'....

keep up the good work pal

 

OK, minor update, no pics, cuz I forgot to take them as I did the work!

At some point in its life the car had been high-sided on the drivers side rocker and rocker trim. 12" long cave in of the rocker. It would be covered when the straighter trim is installed on the car, but while the body is nice and high on the cart I decided to try to pull the dent as much as I could.

Ground out much of the paint, got out the stud-welder and went to town. took about 4 applications of pin, pull a little add some pins, pull some more, remove som pins and add more and pull. You get the idea. Some pulled out, taking a little disc of metal with the pin.

Once all was said and done, and I wasn't seeing any more improvement, I pulled the kick panel vents, pulled out the leaves and debris, vacuumed and then hosed out the cowl and rockers. Once the water was clean called that done. Last night I welded up all of the little holes and crossed this off of the list.

Also undercoated the outside of the rear well with a Rustoleum undercoating product from Autobone, and was able to get the remaining bushing supports I needed for my urethane bushings.

Need to paint the firewall, and have to go over the chassis one more time, check brake lines for tightness and may try to bleed the system assembeled but without the body installed - the factory did this on some carlines. Also need to check chassis paint for touch-ups where the tarps rubbed against the frame. Then it's body drop time. Don't use smileys much, but think this one sums it up:



Then the next bits of fun start - motor, trans, sheetmetal, wiring, it never ends...

 

trunk coating

not sure if you finished of your trunk well yet..but the product i used for mine was called "Herculiner" Its a brush on rubberized undercoating that seals up very nicely and is extremely durable as well as water resistent when dry...cant remember how to link the pic...but its under the thread i started listed under "Station wagon projects"...."wheels and tires for the 71" ....great stuff (stinky)..but I am totally sold on it...wil be using it for the complete inside and under body to totally seal the metal...just in case i drive into a lake....lo l

 

Westender,
I will see if I can find some of that stuff, may have uses on other parts of this as well.

OK, was reading some of my previous posts, and emails to friends, and contrary to what I thought, I didn’t get the body on this Summer, or Fall, or any of that.

But I am really, really, reeeaallly close now…

Pulled all of the remaining brake system parts together (master cylinder and weird “don’t call them proportioning valves” valves) and sand blasted them. Made some plugs using tubing and flair fittings, tubing crimped on the end to seal it off.



All painted nice and pretty.
Put

the distribution block into the system, plugged as it was sitting over night.


Mocked up the master, valve and lines on the booster on the firewall, which told me the booster looks pretty ghastly. So does the firewall…


Master and lines on the frame. System was then vacuum bled until no bubbles showed. May check again after body drop if brakes feel odd.


Remember the grungy booster? Bolted a core master to the front and heavily taped the back and blasted it clean. Painted it with a base of flat black, some silver, then a fog of bronze. Not resto correct, but should help break up the colors under the hood.

 

Ok, so now that all of that looks so nice, just gotta do the firewall. I'll do the top of the cowl later...

Stripped it down and scrubbed the heck out of it. Nice warm Thanksgiving weekend was sure appreciated!



Found a bad weld joint from the factory, badly done and completely sprung, so fixed it up.


Clean…



Caulked…



And ready for paint…

 

Remember how I originally wasn’t going to clean and paint the area around the wipers?

Well, decided “While I’m here, wouldn’t it make sense to…” Isn't that how most projects go over budget???




Hung the booster.




Decided to caulk and paint the floor seam, used up the caulk in the tube and the paint in the gun.

 

Last thing prior to getting the body back home was hosing off the frame and quickly fogging areas that had gotten worn thru from the tarps and general sitting around. So now it looks better again.



Need to lift the body off of the cart and onto some sawhorse supports, clean the body bolt hole threads, add some antiseize to the threads of the bolts and the bolt holes, lift and align the body and bushings, and put it all together.

Easy.

Getting reeeaaallly close…

 

Great job. Looking good.

 

Go, man, go!
Looks great.