Cdn. Cuda Resto

[lilian]

one fast clean job 

[Canadian Cuda]

well it's been a while since i posted so i thought i'd throw in an update. I've made lots of "progress" on the car if you could call it that. I'm now ripping it apart to fix the last of the rust.i found some big holes in the corners of the cowl, going into the firewall, also hood hinge mount, innerfender along the firewall braces and on the top of one shock tower. luckily i'm getting a mig welder in a month or so, so i can begin reattatching metal. i've made all the patches for the fenders and currently working on the cowl patch.

these are old pics before i started to cut her apart. i've got all the wheelwells stripped and primed now and making good progress. and good thing is i finally got a camera so i've been tracking all my current progress so recent pics will hopefuly be up soon.

[74chall]

Dude this thread kicks azz. Way cool man i was doing the same exact things you were doing 7 years ago. Cleaning parts and making things better. Glad to see kids still into muscle cars. Stick with it bro your doing an awesome job. the interior looks killer and i like how your rolling with the steelies. Cant wait to see more. I enjoyed reading this thread more then any resto thread yet.   

[Canadian Cuda]

Got my camera set up with the computer so heres some more pics of the ugly stuff. i ended up cutting out both corners of the cowl so i have lots of access to the rest of the inside of the cowl. I am saving the driver side corner and just goin to patch it up since i wont be able to make that corner. I will be cleaning out the inside of the cowl with wire brush, then just going to soak it with rust bullet.
 The hole by the driver vent is going to be a pain. i am going to cut the vent "flange" in half then fix the rust and piece it back in. 
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt6/weyless/002.jpg
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt6/weyless/001.jpg

The pass. side is much better and only has a couple holes.
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt6/weyless/023.jpg
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt6/weyless/022.jpg

I got the rust off the framrails and inner fender tops pretty well with just some pitting. Ithen gave it two coats of rust bullet to make sure.
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt6/weyless/052.jpg
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt6/weyless/003.jpg
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt6/weyless/005.jpg

lastly i got all the rust off the sides of the firewall, applied new seam sealer and primed it.
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt6/weyless/043.jpg

So my plan in the next while is to continue to cut out the rust and make patches. by the time i'm ready to weld  i should have my welder.

sorry bout the links. havent figured out photo bucket yet.

[dutch]

hey geoff,

your doing a nice job there 
what welder are you after?     

Photobucket....    if you place the cursor on a picture, a little window with 4 choices opens. click left on the one at the bottom , [IMG]  , copy and paste here 

[Canadian Cuda]

hey geoff,

your doing a nice job there 
what welder are you after?     

I'm looking at this Miller. i can get locally for a grand with gas and everything included.
http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/millermatic_211_autoset/

[dutch]

looks like a great welder to me       set it up with .24 wire . .30 will work fine but .24 works better    

[Jimmy]

Cool project! Good luck on that awesome 'Cuda!

Big Block Jimmy

[bb71challenger]

I dont know how I missed this thread. Great story (except for the divorce) and nice car. Looks like you got the bug bigtime. Looking forward to seeing this project progress. You are doing great work, keep it up.

[the_engineers]

Great story and great work.  Keep it up! 

[Topcat]

Looks great.   

I've been happy with the results of the Rust Bullet myself.

When I took off the front section of the firewall like you did, I used a small detail gun and sprayed Rust Bullet in all kinds of different angles. I did 2 coats and it went just about everywhere up inside and all over. Just thin it a little bit with a reducer or laquer thinner. Then have at it.

[Topcat]

Here's a pic on how mine came out after spraying Rust Bullet inside.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6566/cowl5.jpg

[Canadian Cuda]

so made some more progress. cut out the vent section and made a patch for the fire wall on driverside, made template for pass. side cowl, soaked the inside of cowl with rust bullet and seam sealed it,and did most of the top of the cowl that had any bit of pitting.







i did find another rust hole above the brake booster but i can't imagine many more. I'm trying to smooth out all the sheetmetal so it's better than stock (spot welds, pitting, ripples)



My plans now are to paint all of the inside of the cowl with black rust paint since i have good access right now. I'm just going to continue chipping away at removing and stopping the rest of the rust. 

[Canadian Cuda]

I also moved on to removing the UCA and shocks so i can get at the shock tower etc. i'm pretty lucky, almost all bushings on the front end are great. i'm just putting in new bump stops, UCA bushings, and sway bar bushings. unfortunately cash is pretty low right now and i can't afford to buy more rust bullet so i only finished one side. but i've got lots of stuff to keep me busy.




Almost have the front suspension and brakes fully primed, just a little on pass. side.  I did get the sway bar cleaned and cleared, also taking ever bolt removed, cleaning it, and clearing it.
Also making plans to pull the engine soon so i can finish up the engine bay.



And i don't know about everyone else but the front of my car seems like it was driven into a pile of gravel. the k-frame and top of the frame rail by the shock tower was packed full with gravel and sand . plus the left side was oil soaked so it did not want to come out. i did the best i could for now to clean it out, but came out pretty good.

[Topcat]

Your work is coming along nice.

In case you haven't found out or didn't know.

Mig welding at areas that have Rust Bullet on them doesn't work very well...If at all. You'll have to use paint remover on areas already done that are already coated with Rust Bullet. Then laquer thinner, then a wet rag over area after. Wire brush real well and it should tac a weld. I found out that the Rust Bullet leaves some kind of a residue on the metal that makes it really hard to weld even after sanding it off.