[wwilder9]

It took me a few days but I got the dash all welded in, Good thing about welding if you don't like how your weld looks you can always grind it down and re-weld.

[wwilder9]

And here is the dash welded, grinded smooth, and sand blasted......And I actually considered replacing the whole cowl panel, But dash was in better shape than I first thought. I do have a question for all you Trans Am guru kings, Where can I purchace the two little rubber snubbers that go on the cowl panel for the hood?

[2manyT/A'S]

If you are referring to what you THINK should go on top of that round head slotted bolt that sits on the cowl behind the hood hinge,THERE AIN'T NONE!

That is what basically stops the hood from taking your head off when you stuff it HARD in the front end.

Have a look at the back end of your hood hinge (where it bolts to the hood) & you'll see what I mean.

That bolt/stud/ post is put there to catch the back of the hinge & make the hood buckle on severe frontal impact (saving your neck)!

[fbody_mike]

Great job. I did some welding on my rear window channel before turing the car over to the body shop. You are right, if your a bad welder, like I am, you always get to grind and weld some more. I hope you didnt make the little mistake I made and leave the speakers in the car. I had some fairly new Sony 6x9s in the back and with all the welding and grind I did I ruined them. The magnets picked up all the metal shavings and it destroyed the cones. Lesson learned. And keep posting pictures, it is like porn for people stuck behind a desk at work.

[wwilder9]

Stripped all the paint off the roof, also cleaned all the old tar/silicone out of the window channels it was a PITA to clean, also cut out driver side rear floor pan, it looked like swiss cheese after sand blasting it. Still need to cut out driver side toe board area, wondering where I can get replacement sheet metal for toe board, no one seems to sell it, if anyone know where I can get the driver toe board sheet metal let me know.

[wwilder9]

Pictures of floor.

[wwilder9]

Here are the dash and new roof in epoxy primer.

[wwilder9]

Well here are pic's of 1/4 panel before I cut it off.

[wwilder9]

Here are pics of parts.

[wwilder9]

Well, I cut off my driver side quarter, and cut off my tail pan.

[wwilder9]

Also bought a new complete trunk pan, made by dynacorn, dealer by my house ordered it for me because dynacorn only sells to resellers, not the public, but anyways Its a complete trunk with gas tank supports, exhaust hangers, and jack supports, only thing in doesn't have are the center bumper support brackets. Here are some picks of the trunk, what do you all think?

[wwilder9]

Some more pics for ya all, I know people love'm. They are like candy.

[wwilder9]

Pics removing trunk.

[wwilder9]

Any feedback? You guys have any advice? Anyone ever done a complete pan like this? I could not resist had to put pic of my 95TA in also.

[keith k]

I'm just enjoying watching your progress

Nice to see a rough one getting saved.

[70RAlll]

Originally Posted by wwilder9

Some more pics for ya all, I know people love'm. They are like candy.

I am going to sound like a know it all with this comment, but that really is not my intention. I see in your pictures where you primed all of the small metal parts before you painted them. If you really want an original finish, do not prime the metal parts like engine brackets,rad support pieces,parking brake pieces etc.. the factory didn't and most of them have lasted 40 years, so a single coat of semi black lacquer is what they had and worked just fine..
I too have a car that is going to need the complete trunk pan and rear metal tail panel replaced. I really am not looking foward to doing this. I just know I am going to screw it up and have to run with my tail between my legs with a bunch of parts to my body man.. he will probably charge me double after I screw it up..Going to try myself anyway!!

SIngle coat of black on just about any painted metal except the body panels etc.. that is how they were originally and they end up looking better that way. You can see the "grain"/streach/cut marks in the metal which always looks nice..

[70RAlll]

Originally Posted by wwilder9

Stripped all the paint off the roof, also cleaned all the old tar/silicone out of the window channels it was a PITA to clean, also cut out driver side rear floor pan, it looked like swiss cheese after sand blasting it. Still need to cut out driver side toe board area, wondering where I can get replacement sheet metal for toe board, no one seems to sell it, if anyone know where I can get the driver toe board sheet metal let me know.

One more idea for you. Since you are going to this length to bring this carback, I am sure you are trying to do everything as correct as possible. The metal part of the dash was painted with a special semi gloss lacquer they called "suede" which is just thier semi lacquer with a texturizing agent in it. This was done to cut down on glare on a sunny day. PPG still sells it and if you need their part numbers feel free to PM me. From what I understand, you can not get this suede effect with any of the modern paints, the PPG lacquer is the only one still selling the texturizing additive.I am sure they won't be much longer, but last time I checked they still had it..

[wwilder9]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Any and all advice will help. After all I was three years old when this car was built. One good thing about this car is the owner I bought it from saved anything he took off the car, so I have alot of commonly missing items.

[Grand73Am]

I'm enjoying your pics.

Concerning the dash metal paint, my paint charts show the metal dash part as being called suede also, but also called "flat", so it's not semi-gloss, which would be too glossy.

Modern urethane paint can be flattened to any level of "gloss" or "flatness" that you need buy using a flattening agent that would be mixed with the paint. PPG's flattening agent is DX685. There's a P-sheet for it that has the ratios of mix to acheive the appearance you want. There's probably a copy at the PPG auto paint website under DX685.

As for the other misc parts, I can understand and appreciate the correctness of using black lacquer on brackets, braces, etc., if your goal is to duplicate as close to the factory appearance as you can. But for me, I'd have to go beyond what the factory did and prime them with black epoxy and finish with semi-gloss urethane, for the extra protection and durability.

[70RAlll]

Originally Posted by Grand73Am

I'm enjoying your pics.

Concerning the dash metal paint, my paint charts show the metal dash part as being called suede also, but also called "flat", so it's not semi-gloss, which would be too glossy.

Modern urethane paint can be flattened to any level of "gloss" or "flatness" that you need buy using a flattening agent that would be mixed with the paint. PPG's flattening agent is DX685. There's a P-sheet for it that has the ratios of mix to acheive the appearance you want. There's probably a copy at the PPG auto paint website under DX685.

As for the other misc parts, I can understand and appreciate the correctness of using black lacquer on brackets, braces, etc., if your goal is to duplicate as close to the factory appearance as you can. But for me, I'd have to go beyond what the factory did and prime them with black epoxy and finish with semi-gloss urethane, for the extra protection and durability.

I think you missed what I was saying. It isn't the "flat" additive that makes this a suede finish. Actually PPG called this one "0" Glass, which is funny because it isn't flat paint. I think they called it 0 Gloss because the DMA 364 texturixing agent reduced glare-who knows why. Buy PPG also calls the 60% gloss paint "low" gloss,go figure??Looks more like semi gloss to me.
But the suede finish isn't just about flatness. The mix for the codes I listed below include the "flattener" as one of the additives, but the DMA364 texturizing agent is another. It actually causes a finished finish that has little "ripples",almost like orange peel-not quite the same, but close. If you look at any original car from this period, the dash is always "ripple'd". I have always assumed GM did this to cut down on glare from a sunny day. I had asked my PPG automorive paint supplier in our town if there was an alternative with modern paints and he said there is not.I have been told this from a Yenko restorer friend of mine also. I am not a "paint" man, so I could be wrong. But I do know this formula is still available from PPG and will replicate the original finish pretty close ,if not exactly original..