Waiting by the mailbox - Weekend Plans

My new grill is supposed to come in TODAY. I'm so sick of looking at the broken one! Can't wait!

Now if I can just keep the kids out of the ER and my wife from assigning me housework Sunday, I plan to have a fun weekend. I have a LONG list of to-do's in the wagon. Don't know how much I'll get done, but at least I have a PLAN! I've got to do this before the weather gets really hot. Supposed to nudge 90 both days this weekend, ouch!

- Take broken grill off and remove GS emblem and install on new grill, then install grill on the car, and touch up the white paint that got rubbed on the upper bumper where the broken edges of the grill rubbed it. (then stand back and and smile)

- Remove battery and sand and paint white inner fender area there where the two Roady sedan horns will mount. Sometime in the past the car had a battery leak, and it ate the paint in spots and there is surface rust in those spots. THEN mount my two new sedan horns and run the wire to the horns on the driver's side, and then honk my 4-note tugboat horn until the neighbors complain.

- Do a light sand on the black part of the front bumper and the black pad part on the top of the rear bumper, and repaint both those. I'm guessing I'll need to buy Bumper Black spray paint, but if someone has had better luck with something please let me know.

- Lower tail gate hinge STILL needs to be done. Want my Dad there to help so will have to plan that out. Little scared of that heavy project. May set a full afternoon aside for that.

- Remove and bondo the driver's door panel, and replace the plastic clips on ALL four door panels. Tired of my panels rattling when I close the doors and creaking while driving. Whoever fixed the power windows before I bought the car was a flipping moron, I'm shocked the windows still work fine considering how poorly he re-attached the door panels. If you lean your leg against the passenger side front door panel arm rest while riding in the car it creaks. ANNOYING! Will fix this right.

My custom-blended SEM interior paint came in, and I want to paint the used tan interior door handle trim I snagged and then install it when I put the repaired door panels back on. Anyone ever remove the speakers from this trim? Will need to do that to paint them. I'm guessing I'll just have to glue the speakers back on after painting the trim?? Advice??

Lastly, if the SEM is a good match, I'm going to paint the vinyl parts of my steering wheel where the black is just starting to show through.

I know there is NO WAY I can do al this on Sunday, and I still have the kids to my self Saturday. But at least I have "a plan".

-Mike

Oh and PS, I heard a rattling from the rear of the car when I had the windows down the other day. I climbed under the back, and it's one of the exhaust heat sheilds between the tail pipe and gas tank on the passenger side. Its the smaller, nearly square one, that mounts the same direction as the rear axle. One of the metal mounts broke. I drilled a hole in the shield and the longer rectangular shield and zip tied them together. Still get a rattle over bumps. I'm scared to remove it totally or I'd just take the damn thing off. If anyone has one of these shields please let me know. The one on the blue wagon at Wrench-A-Part was also damaged. Doh!

-Mike

Oh and forgot I want to repaint the front and rear windshield wiper arms when I do the bumpers. Been meaning to do that for a long time.

And for sure not this weekend, but soon, I'm going to sand and tape off the black trim behind the Vista roof and along and above the rear side windows. It's not worn through yet but it's thin from sitting in the sun and will wear through soon. Also that black paint has some small cracks above the passenger side door behind the Vista glass...it "checked" like 80's GM paint used to do. I'm debating if I'm going to paint all that trim in Satin of Semi-Gloss. If anyone done it, what looks good?

Hey Crovo, Oh King of the Rattle Can, got any tips??

-Mike

Sounds like fun weekend Mike. Funny, I have cars on tap this weekend too. Heading out to my buddys place near Boston, going to hit up a junkyard that supposedly has a few wagons for me. And some Subaru parts for him. I'll keep an eye out for a heat shield. The same one is broken on my wagon too

Cadet57 wrote:

Sounds like fun weekend Mike. Funny, I have cars on tap this weekend too. Heading out to my buddys place near Boston, going to hit up a junkyard that supposedly has a few wagons for me. And some Subaru parts for him. I'll keep an eye out for a heat shield. The same one is broken on my wagon too

Did you take the shield off or just rig it back on like I did?

Good luck at the yard! Take some pics if you can. Love yard pics!

-Mike

81X11 wrote:

Cadet57 wrote:

Sounds like fun weekend Mike. Funny, I have cars on tap this weekend too. Heading out to my buddys place near Boston, going to hit up a junkyard that supposedly has a few wagons for me. And some Subaru parts for him. I'll keep an eye out for a heat shield. The same one is broken on my wagon too

Did you take the shield off or just rig it back on like I did?

Good luck at the yard! Take some pics if you can. Love yard pics!

-Mike

Thankfully mine still has two bolts holding it on so I left it at that, but one of the bolt holes is forming a crack so its gotta get replaced. I wonder if the sedan uses the same shield...

Nope. sedan is different. Already tried that.

you know mike if you spent the time it takes you to type out your week end plans about all your little projects and actually get started on them, you would be half done your list of projects by now....

buickestate wrote:

you know mike if you spent the time it takes you to type out your week end plans about all your little projects and actually get started on them, you would be half done your list of projects by now....

I type fast, and I'm between projects at work. Hard to work on the car from my cubicle...but I can THINK about it!!

How do you lean against the passenger door panel while you're driving? You must be taller than you look.

No tips for the rubber. LMK how it goes. I want to paint mine white. Use a spray can trigger. Scotchbright makes for a great surface to adhere to...

toomanytoyz wrote:

How do you lean against the passenger door panel while you're driving? You must be taller than you look.

I'm a big fat guy remember....smartass...Ha! My wife and Dad gripe that the arm rest on that door is for "looks only" when they ride with me. That's what I meant.

No tips for the rubber. LMK how it goes. I want to paint mine white. Use a spray can trigger. Scotchbright makes for a great surface to adhere to...

Misty had a crappy '87 Thunderbird when we first were dating, and all the black on the bumper rub stripes had faded off to the yellow bumper material behind it. Looked horrible. I sanded it and taped it off an shot it with Bumper Black and it came out really well. Pretty sure that's what I'm going to do on the wagon.

Thanks for the tip on the Scotchbright. Will run by Wal-Mart and see if they sell that.

-Mike

Hey Pat I was thinking the same thing.Mike it sounds like a lot of work when you break it
down the way you do but overall its really shouldnt take that long to do.Sorry I forgot who
I was talking too.Yea Mike figure you are going to be busy ALL day and then some.Knowing
you someone will need to visit the ER and then you will need more gravel after you finish
cleaning up the truck BEFORE you pick up the gravel and you cant park a dirty truck so
more cleaning to do.
Now last night I fixed my AC with one simple removal of the positive side of the battery
cable.Tightened it back up and AC compressor now functioning and blowing cold and it took
me all of 2 minutes.Good luck Mike you have my sympathy.
Be Careful and use those jackstands
Jim Gordon

Good deal on fixing you a/c! THe easy fixes are the best!!

Your wait would be cooler if your mailbox was flamed, which is something I'd be happy to help you with, BTW.

do you think mike will cry when he opens his mailbox to find the box with the grill in it folded up to fit in his mail box?

Or that thanks to the pending government shut down the grill goes undelivered.

Went home after meeting Dad at lunch and the grill was on the doorstep. It's GORGEOUS! I SO wanted to put it on, but I'm going to take my time, mount the GS emblem, and do it right.

It's sitting on the roof of the GTO in the garage right now where my kiddo's hands can't reach it.

Is it 5pm yet???

For the heat shields, I put some globs of polymer roofing tar onto them. That dampened out the ringing, so they are a lot quieter now.

The passenger door on my wagon is squeaking and rattling because the panel is missing some of the tabs that hold the 'christmas tree' fasteners. I'm not sure how to deal with that.

Nick Danger wrote:

For the heat shields, I put some globs of polymer roofing tar onto them. That dampened out the ringing, so they are a lot quieter now.

The passenger door on my wagon is squeaking and rattling because the panel is missing some of the tabs that hold the 'christmas tree' fasteners. I'm not sure how to deal with that.

Duct Tape.

Yeah, I tried double-sided tape on the driver's side door. Now the panel isn't quite right, and it rubs against the A-pillar. So both doors squeak. :mad:

Nick Danger wrote:

Yeah, I tried double-sided tape on the driver's side door. Now the panel isn't quite right, and it rubs against the A-pillar. So both doors squeak. :mad:

For such GOOD cars GM sure cheaped out on the 1994 door panel redesign IMHO!

I never had door panel, power window channel, or tail gate hinge issues on my boxy 80's GM wagons. But those never had LT-1 power either.

Mike you are right about that.The doorpanel on the 91 OCC seems to be much better made
than the 95 RMW and yes the RMW is cracked too.I guess we should blame on the LT-1
engine.Makes no sense but it just sounds better. "Too Much Horsepower" yea thats the
ticket!
Jim Gordon

And your 305 OCC had a tach and full gauges too, right?

What was GM thinking on the 94+ ????

Grill is on, GS emblem installed. Looks "right" again.

Dad came over when I was in the middle of swapping it on and made fun of me...I was waxing the painted lip of metal on the edge of the hood that's covered by the grill once it's installed... I told him I was preventing rust.

It's a real shame the original grill got damaged. The chrome on it is still gorgeous, much better than any other used grill I found.

On to the next project tomorrow!

-Mike

No new Roady work done today, but here's some grill pics from yesterday evening:

Old broken grill....one last time! SUCKS that it broke, the chrome on this one is awesome.


Perfect new grill!


New grill in front of broken grill


As for TODAY.......

It got up to 92 today, and was humid..yuck. Wind blowing from the south bringing gulf moisture and heat...figured it was time to get the home a/c alive and kicking. I'd been putting it off trying to keep the electric bills down. Most of the fall, winter and spring we just keep all the windows in the house open. Enjoy that.

SO this morning I took the cover off the outside a/c condensor unit and totally flushed out the condensor coils to get all the dust and dirt out of it, then blew the drain line from the inside a/c evaporator unit out, and replaced the filter. Then took the intake vent off behind the couch, washed it, and vaccumed out the intake box.

My 10-year-old Rheem central air system will hopefully make it through one more Texas summer. Set the home a/c at 73 and it fired right up, was 78 in the house at 2pm, was 73 at 2:15. Woo-Hoo!

Spent the afternoon cleaning the house, putting laundry away, put the dishwasher dishes away, and made sure the house looked "right' for Misty's homecoming tonight. Then went and did about two-weeks worth of grocery shopping. I AM Mr. Mom.

Once ALL the work was done loaded the kids up, picked up Dad, and went to the cruise-in. Fun times, posting pics from the show now.

Hopefully I can get some Roady work done tomorrow!

-Mike

Oh and the 67 GTO makes a SUPER work bench... I'll be going to hell for that sin soon...

I feel ya on the door panel thing. My driver's door is not clipped at the bottom and one of the screws has pulled through. I will address my panels this weekend when I replace my speakers. I got the stereo installed last night and the sound is already greatly improved!

the grille does look great glad someone who really neede one bought it seeing as i wasn"t going to be using it since i no longer have any wagons.

Good point, crazyboutcubes!