Wagon Travel and Deer Strike Pics. (Edited: Full Accident Repair and associated Mods Thread w/pics)

Had a fantastic time in my '96 Roadmaster touring in the Texas Hill country....right up until we hit the deer on the late-night drive home.   It was a great day with all my kiddos right up until that happened.    Here's pics from the 21st.   Such Fun!

















None of the kids were hurt...that's what matters the most of course.   I'll fix the wagon soon...better than it was before.

Never a dull moment in life folks.   Again hope everyone had a great holiday wherever you are.

-Mike

Merry Christmas to Mike and family

Ouch!! Everyone is OK and not too much damage, so that is good.

Do you have the whole gang back with you now?

Tom

Glad no one was hurt.

My extra three kids are still living about 40-miles away with their Dad, but I had them for three days this past week. I try to get them whenever I can. Miss them.

And yes, so glad nobody was hurt! As much as seeing my wagon damaged hurts me, I can fix it. If something had happened to the kids that would have killed me!

-Mike

Wow, so sorry to hear about this but as everyone has pointed out no one was hurt. Deer are always my fear in late night mountain driving.

Yep, never a dull moment!

Ah man, that sucks! Thank God no body was hurt (except the deer of course). Damage certainly could have been worse. How long/difficult do you think the repairs will be?

Nobody hurt? I imagine that deer is a bit sore. But, metal and plastic can be fixed. I hope this all ends well for restoration of the wagon as well.

The deer didn't make it.   The Roady, will.

-Mike

Akron eh? Clean for there really. Hoods interchange, did you get the grille? Was it good?

I'm going to be picky on fixing my car..  

whoa !!! a 96 limited w/red interior? I know there were only a little over 200 red interiors, have no idea how many were limited  NICE!!!

i looked all over for used orange parts,...

no luck,..

Red guts yes, Limited, no. My '96 had the standard Leather interior trim. I'm OK with that, ha!

And Phantom, why is it so hard to find orange parts in the junkyard??

Nice to see you found some of the parts you need . I would have loved to have the tailgate off that wagon had a small accident and my tailgate needs some attention . But nice score on the fender .

My nephew Hunter was in town, the weather was great, so took advantage of the help and the great weather and backed the Roady out of the garage for the fist time since the deer damaged it.


Amazingly the hood still latches and pops...wow.


Hood up, time to document the damage and start removal.


Damaged hood latch and radiator support


My son Eddie Massey and Hunter tearing the Roady down. Hood off, working on removing the bumper cover.


Good work guys!!


Since I'm ordering paint, decided to re-paint my rear bumper and mirrors too...since all have scratches and pecks from age and use.  Eddie and Hunter removing the rear bumper cover.



Ouch!


Removing front door panels to take off mirrors for painting




Poor thing


Trim removed for painting


Yarding in Austin.  65K mile 94 LT1 tow-pack rust-free Austin Texas-since-new Roady!!



DOOR PANEL IS NOT CRACKED!


Tailgate dented and wood faded, but no rust!







Totally complete 65K mile LT1



Sadly both the hood and the fender are dented, and the wood is too faded. Last pic before the stripping starts!


AND I tore it apart....done. In addition to me, folks showed up and took the entire exhaust, tail lights, rear wiper and 3rd brake light, and air compressor. She got stripped!!


I nabbed this uncracked driver's fender. I can SEM-dye it to match mine if my current one ever cracks. These are getting RARE now!


My haul! Radiator support, concensor, fan, power antenna, grill mounting and latching hardware, bumper trim under headlights, corner air dam, liwer fan mount, and ECM plastic "box".



Complete radiator support with all mounts, hardware, decals, and condensor. WOO-HOO!


Fender Try #2 - Found by my friend Rich



It's off.  Well the trim is shot but wood looks darker, and no dents or rust.  Picking this up this weekend.  Hope it's a good match!
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Envious of those yards,nice...hell,great stock!

I've done a TON of yarding in the past three months looking for parts to fix my wagon. Still have not found a decent-enough white hood (want the proper finish on the underside so looking for white).

Here's some Facebook yarding Albums. I hit NINE yards in the DFW area just this fast Sunday. These are all Public pic folders so anyone can look if you like. I like oddballs remember...so some may question some of the cars I took pics of. Tons of Roady sedans in Dallas! Got that awesome Ruby Red sedan rear seat, floor mats and red door panel on this most-recent run. Won't fix the deer damage, but could not NOT grab those parts. Ha!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10208707616118476.1073742094.1553678810&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10208753923996144.1073742098.1553678810&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10208762214203394.1073742099.1553678810&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10208829484405107.1073742106.1553678810&type=3

I'm planning to yard here in Austin again this coming Saturday...for the hood, and then hitting the hill country to pic up that fender from my friend. Slowly gathering parts.

-Mike

Jay's a good guy, I'm surprised he hasn't been able to help you find a hood!

i.d love a nice texas clean rad cradle condensor etc,.
It's coming time soon to fix the oinj car,..
I,m trying to scare up enough funds for a suncoast hood,..

Finally found a decent hood on a light-blue '93 Caprice at Wrench-A-Part. Dirty but zero rust or dents. My friend Richard nabbed me that fender too. Woo-Hoo!! Drove all over Central Texas on Saturday but it was worth it!





Got home late Saturday, and yesterday I backed the Roadmaster out of the garage and set the new-to-me fender on it to check the woodgrain color match....and I'M HAPPY! It's not an exact match, but it's close enough that I can live with it.







It's somewhat wild that after looking in salvage yards from San Antonio to Dallas/Fort Worth and over to Houston that this fender was located within about a mile of where I hit the deer up near Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country. HA!

I'm taking the hood, fender, both front and rear bumpers and the door mirrors to the body shop at lunch today. With a little luck I'll have my wagon back together and looking beautiful again by the end of the month!

-Mike

Nice match,score one for the good guys!

Good match! Put a few coats of wax on the new one and it will match the shine of your old wood

Hey, where did you get those SS centercap decals???

Had those SS caps made years ago. Guy up in New York, but sadly I don't think he's in business anymore.

Update on my Roadmonster wagon that killed Bambi over the Christmas holidays. Finally made some real progress this weekend.

New-to-me front bumper trim, two pieces from Washington State and one from Georgia. Wagon folks are the best!



Brand-New Radiator and A/C Condensor came in.


Every piece sanded and painted:



4/2/2016 - Gorgeous Saturday morning. Let's tear this sucker down!!


Last look at the damaged rad support:


New-to-Me Used support sanded and painted with Chassis Black paint:


Damaged radiator and Condensor OUT. God Bless PB Blaster, after spraying the fittings nightly since last Monday the trans and engine cooler lines came right off!


Good Lord...



Assembly of radiator support. Using the old bent one as a model for what-goes-where on the new one.



Let the cleaning BEGIN!!




Inner front bumper, front frame horns, and lower front inner fenders painted Chassis Black. Also cleaned both the water pump and alternator:





New radiator hoses. Had to drive down into Austin and go to three different parts stores for these...when did they become rare?? Also one of the short ones was $30!! Jeez!!


Also decided to tackle this mess. The Evap hoses were totally rotten. I cut them off with a razor knife, but still my hands turned totally black. Nasty job, but could not leave them there like they were...would have driven me nuts.
Before:


By the way, these run through the rad support into a "T" near the battery. They do NOT attach to anything...they vent to air there. Weird but I verified it.....

After:


We have a straight radiator support!




AND everything back together...short of the body parts! Really got a lot done this past weekend. Everything underhood got painted or cleaned, new radiator support, radiator, condensor, hoses, fans, and all wiring mounted and working!





4/3/2016 - She's Running! Runs Great! No Check Engine or Airbag faults. Radiator burped, three quarts (!) of trans fluid, one gallon of coolant, and 1/2 quart of oil. She's a LIVIN THING! Ha! The mechanical work is done!


The hood, fender, bumpers and mirrors should be back from the body shop by next weekend. Have the new headlights and marker lights in the garage waiting, and found an NOS grill in Florida that is in shipping now. Getting CLOSE to having my baby back.

Full resto album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10208321417463751.1073742083.1553678810&type=3

Mike,I do admire your tenacity when it comes to your projects. Looking real good.

Glad you got that grill, Mike.

Tom

I figured I needed to update this chain.   I'm not done, but am getting closer!   I've spend the past three weekends on the Roady, and am planning to do the same this coming weekend.  

Lets see if this works...

N.O.S. Roadmaster grill from Florida delivered today, dirty GM box and all. Awesome!


Freshly painted and polished grill emblem added! My previous GS grill emblem branded the deer and is on the side of the highway somewhere between Fredericksburg and Stonewall Texas!



4/8/2016 - Look at the goodies on my garage floor!





Freshly-painted rear bumper cover. Check out my idea for the upper bumper step-pad area...bedliner paint! Hopefully that will hold up to all the kids that want to ride in the tailgunner seat!



Removed dented tailgate trim to find 20-years worth of dirt hiding under there.


Cleaned and waxed area behind the trim.


Replacement trim installed. Re-used black rub strip from original trim.


Repainted bumper cover installed:


Assembled the front bumper. The Roady has quite a lot of trim on this. Lots of big and small pieces. The new wide polished trim came out fantastic!



Assembled fender with bright side and lower black trim. Have not installed the wood outline trim. Will be re-painting it and all the rest of the outline trim on the car this coming weekend.


Radiator support was sitting too low on the driver's side. That was giving me a fender alignment issue. Loosened all the mounting bolts and carefully jacked the support up, and then used shim washers to mount it in the proper position.


New fender and hood installed for the first time! Also forgot to note the re-painted door mirrors have been re-installed.


Everything bolted down tight, and hood lift struts installed.


Progress, refinished hood mat installed, along with front-edge weatherstripping, light, safety catch and grill mount.


Grill mount here. A bit of a Frankenstein, the hood itself and upper grill mount came from a '93 Caprice (all wagons used Caprice hoods), while the lower part of the grill mount (lower/deeper Buick-specific for larger grill) came from the 65K mile wagon I got the radiator support from. The upper mount on that wagon was bent. Mix-N-Match! Totally sanded and refinished...looks new!


Hood latch assembly installed. Set a towel on the bumper before fully closing the hood for the first time...just in case the bumper was too high...don't want any scratches in the new paint!


Everything lined-up, so could not resist installing the NOS grill. WOW It's Sharp!




Next up, the bumper install! Slid right on and everything lines up well!


Installed the hood latch and Collector's Edition hood ornament.



DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT?!?!? New headlights and marker lights installed, and battery and air intake re-installed.



Outside and in one piece again! Love it! The hood is not sitting quite flush...will adjust, and still need to paint and install the woodgrain outline trim on the fender, but LOOKING GOOD!

4/13/2016 - It's all about the details. NOS 1996 radiator support engine and emissions decals came in today!


4/13/2016 - Ok not "stock" but..I like it! Not a sticker but a metal-backed emblem!


Installed

I love your attention to "all" the details. Nice work,Mike.

4/14/2016 - I've determined my driver's side hood hinge is slightly bent from the deer strike, so I made a mad-dash to the yard and yanked both hinges off this '96 Roady. Poor thing, it was a cloth-seat Limited model. Loaded to the gills. These hinges look good, will clean, scuff, paint and install them this weekend. With a little luck my hood will sit right now!


Cleaned and painted the under-front-bumper plastics and air dam parts with Satin Black Fusion paint, and the hood hinges I nabbed with Grill and Chassis Black. All look good! More toys to install this weekend!



4/16/2016 - Replaced the original hood hinges with these freshly-painted ones from the gold salvage yard car. The originals didn't look bent, but must have been, as the hood fits MUCH better now!







4/16/2016 - Installed the under-bumper plastics and 3-piece air dam. I ended up having to replace the plastic on the passenger side, and two of the three air dam pieces were cracked. No cracks now. These pieces were not painted at the factory, just black plastic, but I painted them all with Krylon Fusion Satin Black. Think it came out well!

4/17/2016 - Since the weather is crummy and I can't paint the trim, it's door panel day. Found these Christmas Tree Clips at NAPA. These are MUCH better quality than the brittle ones I'd bought in the past at Autozone. These NAPA ones are exactly like the originals. $5 for a bag of 12. SOLD!


Doing some work on the door panels before re-installing. Trying to get the crappy 90's-era GM plasti-wood REALLY stuck down. Like all LT1 Roady owners I too dream of door panels that don't creak or rattle. Dare to dream! Anyone need a clamp.?..I have a few...



More little details! New-to-me seat button on the left, and my old peeling-chrome button on the right. Nice Yarding Find!


Only 94-96 Roadmaster/LeSabre/Park Ave owners will appreciate how rare these are. These are the door panel power seat buttons, and the chrome tends to come off starting around the letters, and then gets worse. Found the one on the left on the passenger-side of the gold Roady wagon in the previous pic, and the other one on a passenger door a a LeSabre a few rows over. Perfect chrome on both. Interesting though how the markings on the Roady button are bolder than on the LeSabre. Same buttons, but the LeSabre was a newer car. Guess the supplier or something changed just a bit over the years. No complaints! I've needed these for YEARS! SCORE. Again...it's the little details!


Decided to try and prevent these very good power seat switches from chrome-peel issues. Clear-coated them, two thin coats, allowing drying time between to prevent clouding. They came out really well! Will be nabbing these buttons whenever I see them now, and will do this to them from now on!



4/17/2016 - Door Panel Day! Re-installed the repaired door panels. 3M tape, epoxy, and new Christmas Tree clips and new power seat chrome buttons. OH and I fixed the wire for the driver's door light, that has NEVER worked since I've owned this car. Panels are SOLID and tight, WOW!





Decided to replace the Christmas Tree clips on the rear door panels too. I'd never taken these off, but could tell a previous owner had, because they've always been a little loose. Sure enough, found new window rollers in the doors, but also broken clips and torn plastic here.


The plastic on this door wasn't torn, but found another broken clip on this door.


Rear door panels off. Time for Epoxy repairs and new clips!



Broken mount here. Used some junk plastic and epoxy to mount a new Christmas Tree clip here. Did the same repair in the other rear panel. Was broken in the same place, the clip nearest the arm rest edge.


Used white lithium grease on all the window tracks and pivot points, and then pulled out the trusty duct-tape to re-mount the plastic splash-guard correctly.


Rear door panels re-installed. TIGHT, first time they've been mounted really well since I've owned this car.

4/17/2016 - Stripped the woodgrain outline trim off my sprare fenders to pick the best ones to be re-finished. I have a LOT of spare trim. Set it all on my bench to pick the best ones out.



I did not have a good clip for the front of the trim spear, so used one of the regular clips there. Again Epoxy to the rescue! I ended up using clips from all three spears I had to make one good one with no broken clips. Will still need to sand and paint all this trim.

4/19/2016 - Well it's still pouring in Texas so I can't paint the woodgrain trim. Can't sit still so decided to attack the Sedan rear seat mod while I'm waiting for Sunshine to return!

This is the stock seat the Roadmaster wagons got. The leather on this one is still very nice, but GM made these very flat and boring in the wagons (and YES, there is some DIRT near my floor mat! Please disregard...I'm mortified and it HAS been vaccumed since the pic!)



Can YOU see the differences in the Wagon and Sedan seats?


Wagon Seat:


Sedan Seat:

4/20/2016 - Well that was a lot of work!

FIRST I unzipped the seat cover from the original wagon seatback (you have to unscrew the latch rod and pry the vinyl off around the lower spring pivot, and then pull the driver's side pivot bushing out..just yank, it clips in.

NEXT I removed the large inner plastic panel that the seat folds on, and set the original seat leather aside. I then mounted the plastic panel to the new sedan seatback with the zip ties (measured where the metal seat frame supports are and then drilled holes in the plastic, and ran the zips around them:





First attempt at joining the wagon inner panel to the sedan seat looked great, but was a massive fail. The seat sat WAY too high (big gap between the seatback and lower cushion, too far forward (zero leg room!), and would not recline enough to latch (seat sat near vertical!. Ouch. Fail!)

Let's try again. I cut all the zips and removed the plastic panel, and then used my whizz-wheel to cut about 2-inches off the top of the plastic panel, and also cut down the sides that sit behind the seat bolsters. That helped a lot, but I still could not get the seat to lean far enough back to latch. I removed the hog rings from the upper corners of the sedan seat and actually bent the metal frame there forward a bit. THAT did it, it latched right in place, sits perfect and is SO comfy, and looks fantastic.






****OK now some advice for those that want try this mod. I was told the lower corners of the seat frame (where the bolsters are) need to be cut off to allow the seat to lay forward/down. I went back and forth about it, and finally decided not to cut my Sedan seat frame. I'd rather have the added support there for when folks are sliding in and out. Also, if cut there to lean down, when you go to lean it forward it will bunch-up the leather side bolster too (unless you want to cut the seat leather itself to mirror the notched wagon seatback design), and I don't want to do that (and I really don't want to cut/notch the leather, it's WAY too nice!!).

The new seatback will lean forward enough to get to the lower release pivot, and I'm going to take a suggestion and will be on the lookout for another spare stock Ruby Red wagon seatback just to put in the attic, for the very-rare times I might need to have a seat that lays down. I can swap from the Sedan back to the Wagon seatback in less than 5-mins. The 94-96 seatbacks just unsnaps and slides out. My wagon is only used for fun cruises and car shows, not WORK, so I hardly ever folded down the middle seat, but if you do this mod, it's something to consider!

I just dropped off the Frankenstein'd seatback yesterday along with old wagon seatcover to my interior guy to have the carpet added to the back. He's swamped so it will be a week before I get it back with the carpet sewn on, but I've still got a long list of projects on the wagon for the coming weekend (TRIM PAINTING AND INSTALLING), so that's not an issue. I will post pics once I get the seatback picked up and then finally installed. I frankly CAN'T WAIT, it looks SO MUCH better in the car, and it's AMAZING how much more comfy it is back there!



Updates to follow!

-Texas Mike

I like this mod,a nice subtle improvement.

Sorry, I had to take a nap half way. That's a lot of work Mike good job.

If I ever hit a deer, I'm going to have Mike fix it.


Tom

Man I love your wagon. Looking at the most recent pics you wouldn't be able to tell the deer strike ever happened if you didn't know about it beforehand. Seriously, that is one beautiful b-body!

Thanks for the kind words all, and all tips and help this forum gives! Could not have "Saved this Whale" without all you folks!

Plan after work TODAY is to wet-sand the black roof rack and all the woodgrain outline trim on the sides, then tomorrow morning I'll be masking the car all up, and tomorrow afternoon will be painting (Nutmeg Satin for the wood outline trim, and WAS planning to go Satin Black on the roof-rack, but I had SUCH good luck with that Black Grill and Frame paint I used on the radiator support and underhood parts that I'm thinking of using that for the roof rack too). That frame stuff goes on smooth, has some sheen but not too much, and once dry it seems hard as nails. We'll see!

I'm really looking forward to getting all the wood outline trim all painted and the missing trim on the new fender re-installed. That will really make the car look FIXED!

Should have the Sedan seat back from the interior guy on Wednesday, and I can't wait to pop that in!

Late next week the car goes to my restoration buddy that painted the body parts, for a final wet-sand and polish, some minor touch-ups and tweaking (I did my best putting the car back together but there are some scratches from my amateur re-assembly. He's also going to install the new condenser fitting O-rings, accumulator and orifice tube and evac and re-charge the a/c for me.

The LAST step will be taking the car for inspection, and getting new plates for it. The front plate was damaged in the deer-strike. I'm not putting bent plates on this car.

For plates I'm considering vanity ones finally. I checked and both 96 ROADY and GRZWOLD are open here. I like both of those, but am open for ideas if you guys have any!

Thanks again for the encouragement!

-Mike

Excellent work, Mike!

looks great mikey!!

love all the details

Nice work on the repairs and especially the additional detailing, keep it up.

I think you are getting to the point with the quality of the car where just refinishing the trim in the existing nutmeg color is going to detract from the look of the car, maybe something to look forward to upgrading down the road.

If you are concerned with removing the upper trim, it really isn't that hard once you know how.

On occasion, I will pull a piece or two just to properly clean underneath (they all look like what you saw under the tailgate trim).

If you need help, we certainly can start another thread to document the trim removal & installation process, if there isn't enough already posted out there to guide you.

And on an administrative note,

You probably should consider resizing the larger photos. as their size makes the thread a little hard to follow.

Also, the amount is beginning to cause some difficultly loading on this end, we can discuss splitting this topic into two parts if you wish, but perhaps just resizing alone will be enough to alleviate it.

Lastly, excellent description of how you are adapting the sedan seat to the wagon frame - haven't seen a depiction that so aptly conveyed what is actually required to enable the two to mate together, well done.

- J

Sorry about the size of these.  I'm moving them over from my Facebook Album and this is the size they show up as.  

4/23/2016  - I spent ALL DAY Saturday and half the night on the Roadmaster. Took a LOT longer to sand out the roof rack that I thought, and then masking the car off took forever too, but the roof rack trim and woodgrain outline trim are all repainted.   Looked really good...in the dark.

Starting at 9am Saturday morning.  Installed the new plastic trim clips in hopes of having painted trim to install!


Trim painting weekend. The black roof-rack trim has been both faded and cracking from sun damage. Time to sand it and paint with frame and grill paint.


You can see the cracks in the roof-rack paint here. Lots of sanding ahead!


This is the center of the roof, trim right behind the Vista glass.   Paint totally missing in spots here.   Been wanting to fix this for some time!


Worst area of roof-rack trim paint cracking here.


Removed the roof-rack rail. The chrome end-caps look great, but the anodized center piece is faded and won't polish out with my compound. Dropped this off to Russ at Central Texas Metal Polishing today. Hopefully he can make it SHINE!



Wet-Sanding is SO MUCH fun..... Not.




Took me a few hours to get the roof-rack smooth, then had to clean the car really well to get it ready to paint.  This was the area that had badly cracked paint. Had to sand all the way through to bare plastic.


Also had cracked paint here. Funny, the passenger side was more cracked than the driver's side.


Lots of elbow-grease here in the center of the roof too. It came out smooth. I wonder what I could do to improve the looks of the rubber trim around the Vista roof glass there? See how bad it looks too? Didn't want to paint the rubber weatherstripping..hmmm. Hopefully can find some way to improve that too.


Used 250, then 500, then 1000-grit paper. Going with a satin finish so did not have to go finer. If anoyone has ideas on what to do with the rubber trim around the Vista glass, please share. I'd like to make it look better too...


This is the driver's side. The paint on it wasn't cracked, just a little faded. Only took some light sanding to be paint-ready.


Also wet-sanded the woodgrain outline trim. Will be painting this with a new shade, going to Rust-Olium-brand Satin Nutmeg Tan.   This paint is a little less brown and a little more orange....think it will match the main wood a bit closer.  Am not removing the trim, just masking it off.



The spare tire bulge below the right rear 1/4 panel had some light road chips, so wet-sanded it too and will re-shoot it with the black frame paint.


Worked from 9am-7pm sanding and prepping.   Yikes!

7pm 4/23/2016 - Getting the patient ready!


That's a LOT of plastic!!




8:40pm 4/23/2016- First coat done! Getting dark, boo! I painted the black roof first and then the lower tan trim. Box on tailgate glass is covering the freshly-painted window handle. Did not want to get Nutmeg Tan on the black glass handle! Ha!




4/23/2016 - 10:30pm - Coat #2 done. I HATE painting in the dark!!



Can you spot the freshly-painted driver's-side front fender trim hanging from my trees? Ha!




UNMASK! UNMASK! Well it's dark-30 on Saturday night...well actually SUNDAY MORNING 4/24/2016. Worked on this project all day! Roof-rack and wood outline trim all re-painted! Now to see it in the daylight tomorrow!

Sunday 4/24/2016 - So this is what painting in the dark leads too. The trim on the passenger-side front fender looked terrible in the daylight. It bubbled up and had runs too...dangit!   Sanded and FAST redneck masked the car back up (tarps, blankets, newspaper, TOWELS, HA! Had to be done!)


Painted...again


Unmasked, and fender-lip trim added.  Went with a lighter color this time...little more orange and less brown...Rust-Olium Nutmeg Satin Tan.


How's that look?


Roof-Rack painted. Frame and Grill Black. Satin finish. Looks good!





Good shot of the freshly-painted woodgrain outline trim. Satin Nutmeg Tan.



4/24/2016 - DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT?!?!?! - Finally got all the trim on the driver's side, including the new front fender that had to be replaced from the deer strike. She's basically TOGETHER again!




Took four months of budgeting, parts-locating and elbow grease work to get here!   The entire car is in much better condition than when I started, even before the deer-strike.   This got me motivated to do a lot of work I'd been dragging my feet on!

Before and After!   In addition to the damage, you can see the slight change in color of the woodgrain outline trim in these pics.  I like the new color a lot! Think it matches the main wood a lot better.



4/24/2016 - Almost done...well..for this round of work..ha. Roof-Rack Rail is still being polished, Frankestein'd sedan seatback is still at my interior guy, a/c still not re-charged, and needs new inspection/registration/front licence plate....but getting SO CLOSE NOW!


Thanks again for all the help this forum gives.   Really appreciate everyone here.  Love these cars, and wagon folks are just the best!  

-Texas Mike

Best method for stripping that trim above the wood grain?

Andebe wrote:

Best method for stripping that trim above the wood grain?

I peeled off the original stickers years ago, when I painted the trim the first time around 2010. What didn't peel off, I used sandpaper on. Happily on this go-round I only had to do this again on the new deriver's side fender trim. The already painted trim on the car just got a quick 1000-grit scrub to prep it for the new paint.

FYI, I got that Satin Nutmeg Tan Rust-Olium at Wal-Mart. About $4 a rattle-can, and a tip, shake it up a LOT as it will come out too thick if you don't, but it really is a great color match for the main woodgrain. I used another Satin Nutmeg color in 2010 that I got at Lowe's..it think it was Lowe's brand. It looked good for the past 6 years, and was a little darker/browner. This new color has more orange or yellow in it, so it's lighter.

To each their own. I know lots of folks like the much-lighter off-white color similar to the stock wood color the trim had. It does give more of a contrast between the wood and the body color than what I've done. Again to each their own.

My personal favorite is to have this trim polished, so it looks like chrome. I may start collecting spare trim when I see it in the yards, and then might attempt to polish it, or take it to my friends at Central Texas Metal Polishing. I think that would look awesome. We'll see.

One other idea is replacing the lower-body black trim with polished bright trim from a Caprice. The trim along the bottom of the doors and front fender. I like brite trim on Buicks!

-Mike

Question for you folks. In my repairs from the deer-strike I’ve replaced the radiator and the tow-pack transmission oil cooler that mounts in front of the a/c condenser. My question is, how much transmission fluid do those hold, combined?

When I first got the car back together and re-started it took 3 quarts of Dex fuid while idling before the fluid showed up on the trans dipstick again. I had my son shift the car into drive and reverse a few times once the car warmed up that day while I re-checked the fluid, and then topped it off to the Full mark. A day later I checked it in the garage while cold, and was worried that I’d overfilled it, as it was quite a bit above the Cold mark on the stick. I left it alone as the car still did not have the front sheetmetal installed yet, but was thinking I might have to loosen the trans pan a bit to drain some off after final repairs.

My car has the original trans (125K miles, serviced with new fluid/filter at 60K and 122K), and has always shifted great. Don’t want to overfill it.

So since the car is finally basically back together, last night I backed the car out and took it on it’s first short actual DRIVE since the deer wreck in December. I drove it slowly around the neighborhood first, watching the gauges and listening with the windows down, and then once the gauges stayed where they should, and after feeling no weird shifting or hearing any odd sounds, I drove it to the local gas station and back. Car ran and drove perfectly, just like nothing had ever happened, but when I got home I left it idling in the driveway and re-checked all the fluids. Now Hot, the trans fluid was only on the very tip of the dipstick now. It looks like I need to add at least another pint of Dex, if not more. No leaks at all under the car.

It just seems wild to me that it’s taking that much transmission fluid to re-fill the trans cooler and radiator. It sure didn’t seem to spill that much when I removed the old parts…but I didn’t drain them more than want leaked during removal.

Thoughts??

-Mike