Bought my first car this week!

[Electronic M]

I think I may have finally ended the power steering/brakes leak...I started commuting in the Lincoln again in the last few weeks and the Tuesday after the ETF when I went back to work I noticed the engine was smoking profusely when the wheel was turned, and that the PS pump reservoir was totally empty, I topped it off and later had a look with the hood open this time the leak was obvious and large on a pressure hose coming off the pump...It used to leak a bit but only if I cranked the wheel to the stop and held it there. Since I knew what part that was leaking (never could find the leak before) I now could fix it.

I was able to get the line/hose hybrid off easily everywhere but on the end that connected to the brake booster...After starting to round it I bought a line wrench, which finished the job of rounding it...After some futzing I finally decided to commit to changing the line even if it meant a new hydroboost unit....I cut the metal line off at the stuck fitting on the hydroboost then ground the head of the fitting down until I could hammer a socket, the next size down, onto the fitting. The socket and breaker bar finally got that fitting loose (it did what a day of penetrating oil hosings, heat, and the proper tools could not).

T'was fun fishing the new line in. It goes under the car near the radiator snakes it's way along the frame/suspention, pops up between the steering gear and the exhaust weaves between break spark, and PS lines to the brake booster, in a way that took a lot of thought/skill to remove the old, and more still to install the new...

The good news is that it does not seem to be leaking anymore...bad news is I'm thinking about changing the pressure line/hose between the brake boost and steering gear, and and the return hoses as preventive maintenance...Before I got that stuck fitting out of the boost I tried to loosen the pressure line out of the boost and it did not want to go so if I get around to changing those hoses it probably will be 'fun'.

I think I'll wait till I change the wheel bearing on the GMC...I wanted to do that earlier, but I was too busy this weekend helping build a screen enclosed garden for ma.

[Electronic M]

I'm thinking about removing the padded faux leather vinyl roof soon. The roof has gotten BAD over the nearly 6 years I've owned it and I think it's past the point where I can keep hitting the ignore button. My plan is to strip the roof and it's trim off take what's under that down to bare shiny metal, patch the pea sized passenger rust hole (I recently got a BOTB Harbor Freight electric welder, but have done more lead based body work ) then paint it Black.... I'm considering recreating the look of it by reinstalling the chrome roof trim, masking and painting the formerly vinyl area with undercoating....I suppose taking it to a shop and having a new padded vinyl roof installed is an option, but I really want to hold onto my money so I can pay off my last student loan and possibly have a down payment on a house in the next year or so (or have enough money to survive if this Corona virus crap collapses the country).

Pictures of the rot below.
So what say you? Sound plan, am I not doing it right or am I nuts?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I'm thinking about removing the padded faux leather vinyl roof soon. The roof has gotten BAD over the nearly 6 years I've owned it and I think it's past the point where I can keep hitting the ignore button. My plan is to strip the roof and it's trim off take what's under that down to bare shiny metal, patch the pea sized passenger rust hole (I recently got a BOTB Harbor Freight electric welder, but have done more lead based body work ) then paint it Black.... I'm considering recreating the look of it by reinstalling the chrome roof trim, masking and painting the formerly vinyl area with undercoating....I suppose taking it to a shop and having a new padded vinyl roof installed is an option, but I really want to hold onto my mono so I can pay off my last student loan and possibly have a down payment on a house in the next year or so (or have enough money to survive if this Corona virus crap collapses the country).

Pictures of the rot below.
So what say you? Sound plan, am I not doing it right or am I nuts?

After patching the rust holes, look into possibly using a spray on bed liner as used on pick-up trucks or similar.
I remember, in the late 60's, they made a coating that resembled a vinyl roof.
It looked pretty good.

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

patch the pea sized passenger rust hole

LOL you clearly know nothing about patching rust holes. If you did, you'd know that if it looks pea-sized, it's actually at least the size of an orange! Honestly, leaving it to rot would be the easiest solution here.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by MadMan

LOL you clearly know nothing about patching rust holes. If you did, you'd know that if it looks pea-sized, it's actually at least the size of an orange! Honestly, leaving it to rot would be the easiest solution here.

Don't underestimate MR Carlson! I've seen his work and he has the patience that I never had!
He did body work on his Suburban that was impressing!

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Don't underestimate MR Carlson! I've seen his work and he has the patience that I never had!
He did body work on his Suburban that was impressing!

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm proud of what I did on the rear fenders, the rockers could have been a lot better especially if I hadn't waited till Christmas to buy my welder and just harvested and welded in a junk yard panel instead of hand bending and soldering in sheet metal.

[bgadow]

I was in the auto body business; those tops can hide a lot of nastiness. If you're not picky (and by the mention of bed liner, I don't think you are!) you should be fine. I'd try not to do something that couldn't be easily reversed in case you decide to go vinyl again at a later date, or just go to a straight painted top.

[Electronic M]

I've been getting crap from ma over not making it pretty...

I spent most of my free time last summer on the suburban replacing the missing back door rockers, leading edge of passenger rear fender to door jam (good Lord was that a huge cluster of bad old Bondo over bad rusted old shit welded patch),fender liner too, baseball sized holes in the rear fenders, and more... anywhere there wasn't old Bondo rust through was mostly limited to the hole that could be seen.

On the Lincoln I am expecting the unexpected, the Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python is going to be dissapointed if they show up ), and or terrible BS. It might not be as bad as I think though.

[MadMan]

Well I suppose seam sealer would be better for the seam, it's mean to be a bit flexible. I mean, you could probably just use ordinary painters caulk. Hell, bondo would work as long as you get all the old seam sealer out, but I suppose it really depends on how that seam is constructed.

[bgadow]

We used to use panel bonding epoxy to replace that seam sealer. Incredible stuff, but can be pricey and generally requires a proprietary applicator. At least one company used to sell it in a unique tube that would fit a caulking gun. If I were going the body filler route I'd get something like Fibre Strand or Tiger Hair.

[Electronic M]

Since the seam wasn't really a tight seam like on a van but a 1.5" wide ~1/4" deep wavy bottomed dish in the body panel a few days ago I filled it with Bondo. I didn't remove much of the seam sealer maybe three 2" strips where there was obviously rust under it and ground down to metal a good way past the edge of the rust.... that showed me that aside from the bad spots I went after the metal was rust free under the old seam sealer....I considered patching the rust with new metal but I'd need a sheet metal brake or a new body panel to replace the largest spotty parts. There is a big hole on the edge of the passenger opera window that due to the curves is well beyond my tools and skills to recreate in metal.

My solution was to grind the metal till the orange of the rust was 98% gone and just black spots then hit it with locktite extend rust neutralizer to turn the spots completely black then Bondo over it...so far it has gone alright. I just need to get the surface a little smoother on both sides and resand the top of the roof and I can prime and paint it.

After some deliberation about deleting the roof chrome trim I've decided my years old impression of pictures cars ordered with factory vinyl roof delete is correct...It looks BAD without the roof trim. I now need to find new trim mount clips for it since a number of the originals had disintegrated and some of the remaining ones I destroyed grinding the rivets out so I could fix the rust beneath them...
I also decided not to under coat over the roof area....a test spray a did on the plastic back of a used up sheet of sand paper showed that the texture doesn't remain even after drying. I'm probably just gonna paint it Black matching the body color and leave it that way.
To reach these conclusions I painted one side black (I'm going to sand that off to finish smoothing the Bondo under it) and set all the trim back on.

One job in it's self was the rear window trim.... until I removed the vinyl I wasn't sure I even had a useable one... the vinyl covered it completely and asside from some glimpse of what I thought might have been it I had no way of knowing if was even present till I stripped the vinyl. The trim had tar adheasive tape sealing it's edges to the body and the roof was glued to it so it looked like hell when I dug it out....it took easily 2-3 hours of scrubbing it with paper towels soaked in goof off and scraping with fingernails to get that crap off of it. It wasn't bad underneath. The top sections had the same rainbow iradescent brass like plateing that speakers and chassis of some 70's Asian made audio amps have (it was mostly gone from the bottom) which I polished off down to normal looking stainless underneath. Most of the bottom clips for the rear window trim are orange dust so I'm going to either have to get more or redistribute the good ones to hold things good enough...

[Electronic M]

I've got it filled and primed...the primer reveals I need to improve the fill below the rear window and that I need to sand the sides and top with finer grit to hide the sanding marks.

[Electronic M]

Entering the final stretch. The final coat of paint is on... except for 2 spots where tree debris landed on the wet pant that I'll set sand at 600 and touch up.
Once those spots have curred I'm going to hand rub the whole thing with turtle wax polishing compound (possibly clay too if needed) to even the sheen at transitions between original and new paint. Then a coat of wax.
I also need to install the opera window and back window trim (instead of just setting it on to see how it looks). I plan to reinstall the roof trim too but I need to source new clips for it first.

[WISCOJIM]

I honestly thought it would look odd without the fabric top, but it looks just fine. Nice job, Tom.

.

[Adam]

Looking good

It'll look even better with that chrome trim back on. I had a 72 Impala that was just one solid color (green), and I added that trim that goes around the back of the roof (I pulled it from a car at the junkyard that had the vinyl roof) and I really liked the way it looked with the addition of the trim even though my car didn't have the vinyl top.