Fixing up a '71 Grand Safari

around here woodgrain was about half and half

 

I am intrigued by the roll on woodgrain. At this point, I'm not sure it's in our budget to pay $600 or more for vinyl woodgrain for this car.

The long dreaded roof insulation was finally on the agenda today for the '37, but first I had to go take care of the business of the new compressor that, after one month, went bad on The Caprice. I essentially replaced all the air conditioning components to get the air working on The Caprice. Yesterday, the new compressor locked up. When this happens it's required that you replace the dryer, too. Since the dryer and compressor were bought at two different places I have the hassle of dealing with getting the two different places to warranty each piece. This doesn't seem to be entirely too uncommon with parts houses today for their new or remanufactured parts to be bad or quickly go bad. With as much money as I spent for these pieces and the labor it cost to have the dealership put them on it's pretty frustrating to deal with having the 134A removed from the system and now having to make time to take all the old parts off and install them back myself and then having the system recharged. If the world were right, the parts house I bought the compressor from should have to cover the cost of the parts and the labor to make it right.

When I finally got home I started on getting the old vinyl woodgrain off of the sides of the wagon. This. Is. Terrible. I borrowed a heat gun from work and tried some yesterday. Even just getting the trim off is pretty difficult because of the bolts and screws that hold on some of the parts.

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I bought some plastic scrapers, but in order for them to do any good it requires getting the vinyl so hot that it melts them. In some places the vinyl took the paint with it.

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April came out later on and started scraping on the roof insulation inside the '37.

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This stuff is absolutely terrible. It's a toss up between what's worse, the vinyl or the insulation. It's made out of a thick, tar like substance.

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After a few minutes April said her arms couldn't take it any more so we switched and she started on the vinyl.

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She got all of the driver side door finished and started on the rear door.

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Great report Brandon. What a girl! Great to have a spouse that share's your hobby isn't it? And for rating in resto category.

 

Man that is alot of scraping.

 

Man thats alot of work...I think I'll never do my 83 ever


I see in your pic, your wood is pritty much sun baked on allwready. I'm wondering if the heat gun as close as it's being used may just be adding to the problem....your baking it on even more? It's clearly dry and hard, and your doing a repaint anyways.... mite be a idea to try a chemical soulution to"soften" the wood then scrape and clean. Mineral spirits, some sort of paint stripper, etc.



Nice to see old wag being saved

 

When my sister-in-law went off roading in her Colony Park, the body shop told them that matching the factory Dy-noc would be extremely expensive and difficult. He suggesting doing the wood grain with paint, instead. I know the base colour was a coppery metallic, and what he did after that, I have no idea, but the price was reasonable, and the results were terrific. Best of all, put clear over it, and sun damage is much less likely to be a problem down the line, too.

 

I'd of been more than happy to tell you how much FUN that woodgrain was going to be! at least mine was in much better shape and not sun baked just faded with rust underneath in a few small places! i know ya'll have sore arms !

 

Oh and just so you know the woodgrain will take the paint off in places i really don't think the heat amount is a factor mine did the same.it's like it chemically bonds to the paint in places.

 

I love this wagon, I would love to find a "woodgrained" '71 Grand Safari. This car here reminds me of the one in the 1971 Grand Safari ad that you would occasionally see, which I think is also the pic in the 71 Pontiac wagon sales brochure...

 

Awesome picture. If I had a garage like Jay Leno, I'd have that printed on the wall behind where I parked The Clam.

Brandon

 

Yeah, its a cool pic. Its the twin to your car for sure, even the interior is the same color and exact right down to the hubcaps. If you ever decide you want to sell that gem, let me know!

 

The Scrape Goes On

Here's a few more pictures of the continued process.

I had the air conditioner replaced on my '78 Caprice. After about a month the "new" compressor from O'Reilly's went bad. Today I took the new bad one off and got a new, new one. As I was filling it with fluid today it locked up before I even put it on the car. So while I was handling all that, April started on some more peeling.
I bought one of the eraser wheels. I bought the one that looks like a tractor tire and had to go to the hardware store to make a piece for it to fit to my drill. It worked well. My woodgrain is in very, very poor shape so anything above the belt line was really bad. After getting as far as I could with The Caprice I started on the wagon with the eraser.




April got almost the entire passenger side done today






The tailgate is by far in the worst shape




And here's the driver side

 

That is one cool car! Its coming along nicely. I noticed in the pic with the door open a couple of options I see your car has... I notice it has power windows (which a really neat and not too often seen on these cars) and I notice it also has the door courtesy light option as well. My 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville sedan has those and you dont see it too often. Even my 1972 Buick Electra didnt have those. I also notice yours has the power gate option. Makes me wonder what all other options are in that ride... tilt, cruise, power locks, auto-climate control A/C, power seats? Back then all cars were all so differently optioned, you could get individual options back then rather than option packages, so they were all unique, unlike todays vehicles.

 

That's hard work, Vette....nice job!

 

Geeez.....I hope you gave that woman a raise !!!!!

I cant even get mine to vacuum the car.....even when her and her kid make the mess