Fixing up a '71 Grand Safari

Temporary Vintilation

This past Saturday dad helped me remove the remaining windows from the car. He borrowed this tool to help with the job and it came in very handy. You push the wire behind the windshield and then attach it to one of the handles and then each person pulls back and forth in a sawing motion to cut through the seals and sealer. It had a wire on it when we got it but it was in pretty bad shape and lasted halfway through the windshield, which we tackled first. After that I started using old guitar strings I got from a friend. This is definitely a two person job. As I mentioned before the previous owners had crammed as much filler behind the mouldings as possible to try to stop a leak. It would have been much better and cheaper in the long run if they had just had the windshield removed and fixed correctly, but they didn't and it left me with a big mess to deal with. I thought the windshield would be the hardest but it turned out to be the easiest and in fact in the areas where there wasn't any extra filler it was almost downright easy.

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After the windshield was handled we moved on to the side windows. I thought these would be easier but they turned out to be much harder. The corners were very hard to get to along with the rust on the bottom and also the extra filler that people had added to try to stop leaks made these very difficult. The rear curve really gave up fits until dad came up with the idea to run the strings behind the top of the glass and back out the bottom to be able to get around the rear corners.

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Guitar strings definitely weren't made for this type of work and when we encountered rust or filler they didn't last long at all. I had relatively new strings on my guitar but fortunately I had this extra guitar at home that already had one broken string on it so we cannibalized it for our purpose. We ended up using 7 strings total, counting the ones I was given. The problem with the top 4 strings is that they were wrapped in copper which made them more coarse and better at cutting however the copper wrapping would come loose and then cause problems.

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The passenger side was actually really easy compared to the time we had with the driver side. There was much less filler, less rust, a few spots that didn't even seem to have sealer and also I used a razor to pre-cut the sealer. All this made for a much easier removal. We used a couple feed bags for protection and stored them in the loft.

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Here it is sans windows. It's really beginning to look nothing like a car, which is pretty scary and more frustrating as I realize just how much further I've gotten into this project than I ever planned or wanted to. I hate to say it but had I foreseen this we wouldn't have bought the old clam but we're already this far in. I just hope I'm able to keep costs down so I don't have to sell it to get our money back.

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It only took around 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get all the windows out. If we had the right string and there wasn't any filler I think this would be a very quick and easy job. After we finished we went to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. We have seen every Bond movie in the theater since 1995 and I also have every ticket stub to every single movie I've seen since that same film in 1995. After 17 years, it's getting to be quite a stack.

 

Good progress so far. I'm really loving the color of your interior - kind of 'copper' looking. Should look really sharp when you're all done.

 

Thats the same color mine was in my 74 olds wagon when i re-did it.I took the complete 71 poncho interior out dash and all and installed in 74 olds wagon! loved the color and the factory guages!

Oh and vetterman i removed all my windows myself lotta fun!

 

Another thing vetterman in that compartment where the rear door goes down in.on the right side where that pile of crap is there should be a factort elongated hole appx 4 inches long and anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide DO NOT SEAL IT! thats your drain and as u see you need to keep it clean or you get what you have a PILE! lol


Also all you guys pulling your own glass these windshields the ones WITH the antenna in the glass PUT your pull wire in at the center of the bottom by the antenna there is soft sealer there and it slides right in! the ones without antenna your SOL

 

Also, don't forget to disconnect the antenna. Ask me how I know...


Brandon

 

Damn man you should of pm'd me! If you do not break the windshield and did not rip it out flush you can wrap them back together and tape it fully and carefully and it will work fine.

 

I'm really hoping I can solder it back together. I forgot to look today and see how and where it broke. That will be a real drag if the antenna is not repairable.


Brandon

 

just make sure to tape or coat it with something to insulate as it can hit body or the metal cover. soldiering would be great if u can get it clean enough.

 

Great work Brandon and thanks for the . Has the 455 been run at all since the rebuild?
Sorry to hear about your sister's house.

 

Nope, the engine hasn't been run since the rebuild. It's anxiously awaiting deployment from it's current engine stand in my garage. Also, one of the pieces of tape I blocked off the spark plug holes fell in the cylinder so I'm going to have to find a way to get that out. I have no idea how that even happened. It was a wad of tape too big to even fit in the hole.


Brandon

 

Gettin my face shot off....

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get much done last week. Because of Thanksgiving we traveled up to my in-laws place in Indiana on Wednesday and stayed the rest of the week. Unfortunately as well these were the last warm days of the year. It is now very cold, dipping into the 40s during the day and into the 20s at night, but still at the time I didn't want to begin sand blasting the window channels and then needlessly leave them in bare metal for an entire week, especially when it was going to be raining and there would be tons of moisture in the air. Flat panels aren't as bad because any flash rusting can be easily sanded off but because the window channels are not smooth it is impossible to get into all the crevices and remove any flash rusting. I took the days I had to do the smaller things that I hadn't been able to get around to yet like removing the remainder of the interior parts that were in the way of being taped off, fixing the glove box door that hasn't ever been able to close and various other small things like that. I also scraped all of the old hardened sealer from the window channels. This was a pretty hard job and there was no way to remove 100% of it. After sand blasting I still have had to come back and scrape some more.

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Here was a surprise. This is the bottom storage area where the tailgate goes when it is retracted. It was filled with dirt and rocks. It was so thick and compacted, in fact, I had to chisel it away with a screw driver. I used a vacuum cleaner to suck up all the loose dirt after and soon noticed something wedged under one of the tracks. It was covered in dirt and all I could tell was that it was round. At first I wasn't able to tell if it was part of the car or something stuck. So far in the fenders and body panels I have found two matchbox cars, two sparkplugs, an antique screwdriver and hammer and a couple other small odds and ends, so there was the possibility this could be something foreign to the mechanics of the automobile. After a little prying I saw it wanted to come loose but was stuck so I ran the screwdriver up into the drain holes that are right below the object and began pecking it loose. When it finally came loose, I found out it was a live shotgun shell. I'm lucky I didn't blow my face off, or at least give myself a heart attack had it gone off. I don't have any pictures of what it looked like at first but after cleaning it all out I put it back where it was just to show the location of what I'm talking about. It was so old and dirty, there was no way to tell what it was at the time. It looked more like a piece of round wood.

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It took an entire day to tape off all of the openings to the car and cut paper to fill the gaps. I know it won't keep all the sand out but it will keep most of it out. I go through about 4-6 bags of sand during this process and without these holes covered the majority of that would be inside the car.

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I finished all the door jambs, windshield channel and rear window channels and gas door opening. Next will be the quarter panels, tailgate storage area and small parts of the rear. Here are some before and after shots.

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The areas that are still body colored are actually areas of seam sealer. This is a sealer used by the factory to seal body panels together and keep out dirt and moisture. This will not sandblast away, which is a good thing, however it will not change color when sand blasted. By blasting it I'm basically just cleaning it so it cane be primered back over.

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With such a small compressor and small blaster this process is very time consuming and can be very frustrating. I have managed to find a pretty good rhythm that allows me to use up the reservoir of sand in about the same amount of time it takes to use up my air pressure and then go fill up the sand again in about the same amount of time it takes to have the compressor fill the tank back up. About every 4 tanks of sand requires me sifting another load of sand from the bag, through the screen door into a cardboard box.

When it was time to put the car back in the barn I asked mother come down and steer it for me again. I hooked the chain to the four wheeler and pulled it near the barn and then unhooked it and pushed it, using the momentum to carry us over the hole in the concrete. I told mother to not touch the brake until I said so so that we could make it past the holes. Because I have removed the rear portion of the tailgate cover there's now no where to push the car from behind with the four wheeler without causing body damage. She had one shot to fit it back in the stall and she made it in fine.

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The things you find! I bet there were a few prayers of thinks when you discovered the shot gun shell intact! Have to say, Brandon, that car is looking spectacular! It will be way better than new when you are done. Keep up the good work.

 

It is amazing what you find down in that area! Thats why they put those covers on em but i don't think anyone actually took them off to look lol.

 

I am LOVING this thread!