VIN 11596 Frame Swap - a rolling frame-off restoration

[82DMC12]

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I bought a new drop glass and new divider which was joined with urethane for me before shipment. There are two dimples in the glass which must be evenly spaced with the grooves in the carrier. The new glass was perfectly aligned. My old glass.... was not. Yet it still closed normally and worked well. This meant my glass guides mounted to the door were not lined up correctly for the new glass. Damn it! I spent about 45 minutes shifting stuff around and re-aligning things until I had it down and working as expected.









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New vapor barrier installed with butyl tape. A lot of clean up of the old adhesive was necessary first. Messy job! But, I'm weather-proof now. I also wrapped up and zip tied a lot of wires to keep them from rattling around inside the door.






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After installing the divider and outer wipe seal, I had to lay a bead of black silicone in this gap. It turned out OK if a little bit too glossy. I am going to wait and see if it really annoys me before I tear it out and try something else. I understand there is a roof flashing polyurethane that looks a bit better if you want to deal with a huge cartridge for just this.










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I used painter tape to triple check how much of the drop glass was going up into the divider so I knew it was getting inside evenly and completely. I had to bend the divider inward on the seal slightly to get it to push all the way in the forward section.

[82DMC12]

Today I started a new project - restoration of the underside of my hood! My main problem here is the ugly seal that was damaged months ago near the striker when my hood release cable came off the latch. So, I knew it wasn't watertight anymore and I was tired of seeing this yellow adhesive everywhere on my trunk lid. Apparently the seal had been loose in the past because someone, now at least 25 years ago, used epoxy to try to keep the seal stuck to the hood.

First I enlisted my wife to help remove the hood and flip it over onto two sawhorses covered in moving blankets. Now I had a comfortable place to work. I started by removing the old seal which came off fairly easily and only left remnants attached to the hood in a couple places. Then I used a heat gun on LOW for only a few seconds, about 6 inches of adhesive at a time, to heat the adhesive and aid scraping it off with a gasket scraper. If it weren't for the epoxy all over the passenger corner, it's possible I could have removed the old seal and gotten away without having to refinish the black part of the hood. Unfortunately, the epoxy was tough to remove and all I can do is sand it down with sandpaper which means the hood has to be refinished. Oh well. Not a huge deal.

I was able to remove the yellow adhesive with the scraper, heat, lacquer thinner on a rag, and some red scotch brite. I tried a couple of air tools but the plastic heads that won't damage fiberglass weren't much more effective than plain old elbow grease, especially after slightly heating the stuff up. In about 90 minutes I was mostly done with just some sanding left to do.

My plan is to sand the epoxy smooth, then rough up the rest of the black paint with a red scotchbrite, wipe down with isopropyl, then spray two coats of SEM Trim Black. Once that has dried for 24 hours I should be able to adhere my new hood gasket.


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Old gasket looked like this all the way around it.... just ugly.








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Current state of things.... mostly cleaned up, just needs touch up and final roughing and masking before painting , possibly by tomorrow.









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Epoxy has to be sanded down, no other way to remove it. Tiny bit of fiberglass damage in the corner too but it will be mostly covered up by the new gasket.

[82DMC12]

Yesterday I finished sanding down the stray epoxy and giving the hood a quick rough with 400 grit everywhere else. I was considering removing the carpet sections from the hood but it turns out the carpet is very old and thin and not able to take much tugging before it deforms. I tried to use a heat gun on low for just a bit to help release the carpet, which worked, but the carpet is extremely heat-sensitive and the pile got some heat damage in one spot so I am replacing that piece of carpet. I then opted to mask off the carpet with paper bags and tape.

As usual, I spent a very long time prepping and masking while the actual painting doesn't take much time at all.

We have a great auto paint supply store in Olathe who carries SEM products so I got a can of SEM Trim Black Satin. It was enough to give the hood two thin coats with a third coat in a couple areas that needed it.

The hood looks great, for the most part, however there are a couple orange-peel looking spots that I am told is caused by contamination under the new paint. Probably from back-to-black products that have soaked in over the years. I went back to the paint supply store and picked up another can of Trim Black as well as High Build Primer. My plan is to wet sand the the trouble areas, spray some primer, sand again with 400 grit, and then respray where needed.

Overall the hood is good for the first attempt but I know I can make it even better. Might get around to spraying the primer tonight. Stay tuned!

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Hood masked off and sanded, wiped down with lacquer thinner, and just about to spray the first coat.








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Found this little QA sticker under the lamp.








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Two coats finished and drying.









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A few areas turned out like this which is kind of ugly under harsh light. I think I can clean this up with sanding, primer, and another spray.

[82DMC12]

Here is what the hood looks like for the most part - very nice satin finish and close to OEM. It will really look great when I'm done messing around with it.




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[SupercoolBill]

Was this area originally painted at the factory?

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[82DMC12]

Yes - Everything that is gray/white in this picture is the underlaying fiberglass. If you sand the black down you'll see the substrate underneath. In my case there was epoxy all over in that corner and then I had to sand and use a wheel to remove other miscellaneous adhesives. The other sides of the hood where it's still black and looks good is what you HOPE you would find after removing the old gasket and adhesive. The old original adhesive comes off pretty decent with a heat gun and scraper. Too bad someone tried everything under the sun to keep my old gasket from coming off. It worked though, the gasket was not loose for 25 years.

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[82DMC12]

I decided I need a result that looks closer to PERFECT for my hood, and the mottled look in a couple spots was not going to it for me. Last night I wet sanded the flat surfaces with 175 grit and wiped down, then sanded dry with 400 grit. I was more aggressive where the mottled look areas were. I wiped it down really well and then let it sit all night before hitting it with two coats of SEM High Build Primer. I could tell pretty quickly that THIS is what I should have done in the beginning. The primer dried super flat and smooth and hid all of the mottling.

I did two primer coats with 10 minute flash between them, then waited 90 minutes to put the first coat of Trim Black on it. You only need to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for the second coat so I did that too. MUCH BETTER! I came out an hour later and I see no defects like I did before. I'm going to let this dry for at least 24 hours before removing the tape and paper and then reattach my missing piece of carpet. Then wait another day before I put the weatherstrip on.

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Here is the primer that I used this time










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2 coats of primer just a couple minutes after spraying








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Primer - very flat, even appearance.







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Just after spraying two coats of Trim Black








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Close up of the Trim Black a few minutes after spraying

[FLUX @88]

looks good Andy.. lots of work

[82DMC12]

looks good Andy.. lots of work

Thank you!!

[SupercoolBill]

The million dollar question....is that paint fuel resistant? Not for your use but incase I wanted to use it in my engine bay

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