Fighting Entropy, my '87 vert refresh

[validius]

I purchased the car in Sept of last year. It has already come quite a ways from when i first got it. I'm going to post photos I've took during the process chronologically.







It wasn't bad when i got her. PS was disconnected. AC & Cruise didnt work. The rear seats had split badly and the rear window had fully fallen out by the time it was in my driveway.

[validius]

First order of business, a new top.

Took the old one off


Checking fitment of new top. I think the black looks WAY better.


Figured out why the top never seemed to move right. Someone must have opened it at speed and sheared this shoulder bolt off on both sides.


Found one of the broken heads.


Taking a quick break for some brake work on the daily driver. I hate drum brakes.


Decided it would be best to work on the frame outside the car.


Some careful work with a drill and the old studs are out.


The entire top frame is a single part number. As such, the broken shoulder bolt cannot be purchased by itself. I decided to make one myself. Unfortunately, the thread is a super uncommon fine threaded metric size and there was a 2 week lead time from Fastenal.

When it arrived, i made a new shoulder piece based on the broken head that i found.

[phenryiv1]

I had the same issues with missing shoulder bolts. Fortunately another 'vert owner found some at the JY and sent them my way.

[validius]

Putting it back together. New shoulders look great.


After ALLOT of careful adhesive removal, brushing and repainting the frame went back in and got new tension straps.


Gluing the new top on.


Looks good! Not perfect but for my first time doing something like this i'm more than satisfied.

[TimeMachinE30]

Well done. What glue did you use?

[validius]

Now that i can drive the car without constant fear of a tiny sprinkle its time to get caught up on engine work. Last timing belt was at an unknown time so that came first along with a water pump and coolant flush.

Car never heated up properly. Think this was the problem?


Hmmm, should prolly put a new one of these in too.


One of the least fun jobs I've done:


With the car back driving I turned to the lack of reliably functioning power windows, mirrors and locks. I suspect this has something to do with it.


So many crimp connectors and a couple extra wires. Who would do such a thing? Oh, that's why. Some monkey at Circuit City had his way with it. Who ever thought aftermarket alarms were a good idea?


My parts car graciously gave up it's door harness to the repair effort. Next year i'm refinishing the wheels and putting them on the 'vert.


In general, i HATE crimp connectors. The weatherproof ones though are great. Heat shrink tube with hot glue on the inside. Forms a tight seal and provides strain relief. I had to do major repairs on the chassis side as well. My pin release tool was invaluable as i swapped connectors with the parts car and every single pin had to come out.


All set. Window and power mirrors now works reliably. Still no power locks.


Tape up all the holes in the vapor barrier. Why do people seem to think these are not important?


While i was at it, i stripped out all the heated seat wiring from the parts car and put it in the vert. Just gotta put in heat pads now.

[validius]

Well done. What glue did you use?

DAP WeldWood. Had to buy a gallon of it but it worked great.

[validius]

Been lax about updating this thread. It's hard to get things done when work keeps sending me to Mexico.

It's not all bad there though. Plenty of crazy drivers...

...and taco stands.


The iX parts car is gone and in its place I have an '89 vert. From this i should be able to harvest a fender, replacement drivers door and suspension components... I've decided that my winter/spring project is going to be taking advantage of this parts car to have a complete set of suspension pieces ready to swap in the spring complete with new bushings, welded reinforcements, suspension, etc.

Front subframe:

Removal


Off to blasting


Back from blasting


I'm going to weld in re-enforcement. I bought the kit from Garagetastic. It's OK. The gussets dont fit quite right. When i mocked it up my fears regarding them trapping water were confirmed. As they shipped they are way overkill. I'm going to do quite a bit of trimming so there are not only spaces for water to flow out but also for seam sealer to be applied and paint to be sprayed.

After that i'm planning on sending it out to get a zinc phosphate coating, new seam sealer and then a spray with Summit's Chassis Shield epoxy.

[TimeMachinE30]

Wow. Seems like massive overkill for the front subframe. How far are you going with the restoration?

My welder did no trimming of the kit. Tacked in one side, then bent it to allow for an all around weld.. Fitment within the pocket.

I noticed now the motor bushing cups have a tab which no longer fits. I'll need to grind them off.

[validius]

Wow. Seems like massive overkill for the front subframe. How far are you going with the restoration?

My welder did no trimming of the kit. Tacked in one side, then bent it to allow for an all around weld.. Fitment within the pocket.

I noticed now the motor bushing cups have a tab which no longer fits. I'll need to grind them off.

It is. Allot of this is just learning for me. I also work at a place that gets serious volume discounts on sandblasting and zinc coating. I would never have gone this far otherwise.

I've not decided how far to take the rest of the resto. I definitely want to keep making it better but i doubt i'll go too crazy with it.

[validius]

I ended up trimming the large gusset to make it fit a bit better. The corners didn't provide much strength anyway. It is off to zinc.



This weekend's project was a steering rack reseal. Sorry about lack of photos. I took one before i cleaned the rack up and after i was done, priming the metal parts that had shown some rust.

Overall, the job wasnt too bad. The seal in the middle of the rack was a bitch. I ended up having to VERY CAREFULLY pound a screwdriver between the seal and the housing coming from the hydraulic side of the rack. This is the side that you do NOT want to scratch. I also broke the new seal on the piston when i was trying to replace it. The old one slipped on just fine. If there is a bit of internal leakage then no big. I don't like heavily boosted power steering anyways.

[TimeMachinE30]

I love that photo of the chassis with wooden seat cruising down the highway. Got any more fun vehicles along the way you spotted?

[validius]

I love that photo of the chassis with wooden seat cruising down the highway. Got any more fun vehicles along the way you spotted?

Nothing picture worthy. I did see a lovely Brasília.

[rcsoundn1]

How "bad " was it to do the top? Where did you get the replacment from

[validius]

How "bad " was it to do the top? Where did you get the replacment from

The top required patience, elbow grease and attention to detail. Beyond that it was not terribly difficult. I was just posting about this in a different thread so i'll quote them.

I did my top least year. I bought the top and tension straps from the ebay user 'topsonline.com'. Their customer service was good, the top fit well and has held up just fine over the last year.

I used DAP Weldwood glue. That also worked quite well. I have the 3/4 of a gallon that was left over for sale if you are interested: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show....php?p=4619199

Yes, there are a couple others out there that are worth reading as well. Search around.

It is prolly overkill but i bought as many of the OEM fasteners as i could (rivits etc). The little aluminum brackets that are formed to pinch the side cable also will break extremely easily as you try and remove the cable. Expect to need to replace at least one of them unless you are a good fabricator.

Clean Clean Clean. I spent a LONG time removing the old glue and prepping the surfaces. I sprayed all corroding or scraped spots with black rustolium. The 'citrus' adhesive remover i used needed lots of time (30 min plus sometimes) to soak in but it did its job.

My top had a couple complicating factors that i wrote up here: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show....php?p=4619333