Whats the general feeling here about removing the woodgrain from my 95 roadmaster wagon? I am thinking about removing it and the trim package and getting it painted a pearl white. I saw a few olds cruisers and caprice wagons in the gallery here without the woodgrain and they look pretty good. I am open to suggestions at this point.
Won't be easy. If it's the same way my 94 was, and I assume it is, the trim strips above and below the wood are attatched via body rivets. So you will have to remove them, then smooth them down, and you will likely have holes that will need filled in. I wish I had a picture to show you, but unfortunatly I never photographed that part of the bodywork on mine. It would be easier to explain with a picture lol
Go for it. I like the '91-'96 B-Body wagons better without it, breaks up the flowing curves of the body too much, makes them look lower/squat and too wide in the back. The 91-92 Custom Cruiser is the best looking one of them all IMO, they never came with woodgrain. Be cheaper in the long run to remove the woodgrain even with the extra bodywork than it would be to remove and replace it. No big deal grinding off rivets and welding up or leading in a few holes. On removing the vinyl I used a bernz-o-matic with a radiant heat head, heat gun, hair dryer, and a lot of single edge razor blades to get it off my former '71 Vista, it was a real pain. Whatever weapon you choose remember that too much heat is bad, don't want to melt the vinyl or warp the panel.
There is a hole at the front and rear of the door moldings, as well as the tailgate. Then those stupid little rivets every so many inches down the entire car. The door handles and gas tank door have a slather ass tan spray job done to them to help the wood blend in. Peeling off the wod is easy, a heat gun or a good quality hair dryer that will pump out some good heat will do the trick. Heat a good size area up and slowly peel it away, pulling it back overtop of itself, not pulling directly out away from the panel and you can get the whole panel to peel in one piece, if you heat it properly and peel it back slowly overtop of itself. You could always peel the wood off the molding and buff it out to a mirror like shine and reinstall it on the car. I have seen that dome before and actually looks good. Or 2 tone it, with white pearl over the main body and tint the clear with blue pearl additive or different color pearl over the wooded area to give it a 2 tone look in different lighting.
Or... cover it up with a different type of vinyl decal! Sign shops can do almost anything in vinyl that will resist 7 to 10 years of exposure. I think a Carbon fiber pattern decal would be neat and then you get to keep the trim. The nice thing about it is that it too can be removed with a heat gun when you are tired of it. Flames? Stripes? Flowerpower?
My feeling is that if you take off the wood, you should also remove the moldings surround. I don't like the look of a wagon with the wood removed but the moldings are still on. Oops, sorry if I just offended anybody who has a wagon like that; It's just personal taste.
The problem is the dents that are behind the wood grain........I have a buddy who is a body man and is gonna give me a price to do it all. As long as its not too expensive, I think I will let him have it for a couple of weeks. here is the look I am hoping for.......picture from the gallery here.
Flames? Stripes? Flowerpower? I like the flame idea. But the flowery design is for hippies and guys with female issues. I always liked woodpaneled wagons but they seem to eventually involve lots of work and expense. Here in the Sunshine State fake or real wood doesn't last long. punksdad I like that white wagon. Looks clean that way. I even thought that if leaving the trim a person could use contrasting paint inside like the 1957 Chevy Bel Aire spear was. So many ideas, so little ambition or money.
yeaahhh.. Like there is ANY guy who does not have 'female issues' ... Sadly,, yes,, 'wood' is costly and a PIA but man oh man does it look fantastik... :banana:
I didn't want to mention it but I meant as in GAY ! Personally I also have female issues but after all these years I think I'm winning. At least that's what she tells me!
OK, Dad.... Where are the dents (what panels)? If they're on the fenders and too big to do a paintless dent repair, then the easy solution would be to find used fenders - which can be done. Then you just remove the outer trim around the woodgrain, mask, and paint to match. Same thing for the doors. Only problem area is the quarter panels. If you have large dents there, you're going to have two options.... Strip off ALL the woodgrain on the entire vehicle, and then A) Replace the woodgrain with some aftermarket stuff, which you can pick from many different selections, but nothing is out there that will exactly match the original,from what I understand * or....... B) Paint it. * This is the crux of the whole problem. The original woodgrain 'Di-Noc' material is no longer available. Just to give you an idea of what you can do...... This one's airbrushed (fairly expensive) This one done up with REAL WOOD.... http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=267068 Thread on ISSF on taking the wood off... http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=263534
those 2 cars look pretty damn good...........ok, for the dents, there is one on the tailgate, one on each rear door (at the chrome trim line) and on small one just behind the passenger front tire, and down low. Nothing too huge, but If I decide to fix it they need to be addressed. I guess I could just throw some skins and wheels on it and fix that pesky radio hole in the dash and drive it like she is!
See if you can get some decent pics of the dents up here...... Some of them may be a candidate for paintless dent repair - which would be the way to go as far as least total cost. With PDR, there could be some small residual wavyness with the panel, but a good PDR guy is a magician! To find your PDR guy, go to the best body shop in town, or the one that does all the BMW or Lexus work and get their guy....they're usually independent contractors....
If you're going to leave it naked, that makes me cringe a little lol. The amount of wood-paneled ocean-liners out there is depleting. However, it's your car and you should have fun with it!
