Work continues on the battery tray, firewall and floor boards.
Dash to go! The dash pads for this car are actually for the 1973 1800ES as the grain is much coarser than the 1972 and older pads. Why Volvo decided to change grain on the very last year of this model is a mystery.
I suspect that when the car was restored in the 90’s, this was all the Volvo dealer had left in stock. There were no aftermarket solutions at the time.
These pads are like new but they just don’t look right in this 1963 car but don’t feel bad, I have a plan! I have new replacement pads on order and these will be recycled on the Hooligan 1800S BEAMS car.
Damn, them are purdy gauges!
They will be all sent out to be rebuilt and calibrated. I have made notes on each as well as included better chrome spares and lens. A little robbing Paul to pay Ringo! (Baby boomer joke!)
These are the vent doors that resides under the cowl vent. A little clean up and lube is all they need. Let’s see if I can leave them alone beyond that…
Nope! Had to take them apart! Those rivets are plastic to one has to be very careful when disassembling.
All parts were blasted and painted. 662968 is the part number for the vent to body gasket.
A fully restored vent that will be hidden under the dash never to be seen again. However, you, me and the internet knows they were fixed up!
Yup, this battery box have seen better days…and probably some battery acid! Back in the day, I don’t think there were any options other than flooded acid battery and they will be hard on the metal around them.
Going forward, this car will have a sealed AGM battery.
The paint in the engine compartment is nice so I would need to touch up and blend the paint around the battery box. Since the box have some rust on top and a weak bottom, I am just going to replace the battery box.
First I cut the majority of the box out with a reciprocating saw. This leaves just a strip of metal that is spot welded to the body.
In order to remove the spot welds, I use several tools. The best one is this pneumatic Spitznagel spot weld drill. You can adjust the depth of the drill bit so you will not dig in to the host metal.
Now you can get under the metal strip and start to lift it. As you can see here, the driver’s side battery hold down tab is welded to the box frame so it has to go as well. The passenger side tab is welded to the body so it can stay.
After removal, the poor tab looks like swizz cheese so I have to make a new one.
Initial test fit. Not bad but will need some massaging.
Using a cheap cross slide vise and a drill press I can pretend I have a vertical milling machine.
Here my Saintly helper is showing off the results.
Since I am gluing the box to the body, I need to spot weld the ear to the box prior to install.
The new box got a coat of etching primer except on the mating surfaces as they need to be clean metal.
I was initially going to spot weld the box in to the car until I talked to a “modern” body man.
When you weld anything, the high concentrated heat will absorbs moisture immediately and it will start a corrosion process right away. Of course, it will take years to rust through so most auto manufacturers were happy to have a 10-12 year life span on a car.
It is also very hard to reach between two spot welded flat panels to apply any kind of rust proofing.
Lastly, how do I weld in a battery box in a car with pretty paint on it? Well, you don’t!
We are going to glue it in! Yup, glue. Not Elmer’s, not super glue but…
3M 8115 Panelbond. When used properly, it can be as strong or stronger than a weld.
Panelbond will securely hold a quarter panel, roof or door skin in place. My body man just did a roof replacement on a 1968 Dodge Charger. No welding, it was glued in place!
The bonding agent also have rust inhibitors and it will seal the joint completely.
More cool facts: The Panelbond also have glass beads in it so you can’t over-torque the panels when you do the initial install. How cool is that?!
The 3M gun is specific to this product as it mixes 2:1 ratio. With the special nozzle, it mixes the product with the reactor automatically inside the tip so it’s ready to apply immediately. There are lots of YouTube videos on these products and it’s applications.
I used self tapping sheet metal screws to hold the box in position. The hex head makes it easier to tighten up and remove later. You have about 60-90 minutes before it sets up. Once the Panelbond is set up, I can remove the screws.
I caulked around the box in those few places the bonding product did not fill.
For caulking I use 3M Automotive 08362 caulk. It is sticky stuff and perfect for seam sealer. It is also paintable.
After removing the screws, I countersunk the holes and used a small dab of All Metal filler. After paint, it looks like it never happened.
With the battery box in place, I can focus on the floor. I wanted to make sure the floor board were in good condition and it’s hard to see under old insulation so I removed all of it. They are in excellent condition on this California car but it will be nice to paint, seal and install new sound deadener and insulation.
With the dash removed, it exposed old crumbling jute insulation under and behind the dash. When I eventually install the new beautiful new red carpet, we don’t want crusty old insulation or jute falling down. That would be a bad!
This is the inside of the pedal box. After 50 years of brake fluid in this area, the paint is gone and the surface is rusty. This was a good reason for removing the hydraulics and pedal assembly.
“I-MUST-FIX”
First coat of primer in the rear area…
…and the front part. Painting upside down SUCKS!
In the midst of the floor work, I noticed that the rear glass weather stripping was very dry and falling apart. Also, they used a copious amount of Butyl goop to seal it. So…Say after me again: I might as well do that…bla, bla, bla…!
WD-40 works great to remove the Butyl and it is easy on the paint…but what a mess.
It took hours but the good news: The car was originally treated to a windows out paint job so it will look great with a new gasket.
The rubber for the rear quarter window was also crusty so guess what? Out it went.
The new emblem on the sail panel looked fantastic except…but it leaned about 1 mm as it was installed. As I kept looking at it, it started to look like a meter! While the glass is out, it is easier to get to the back of these emblems. So…With the glass out, I MIGHT AS WELL…uhhh…fix that too!
I figured I could just install new emblems but they were the reason for the lean! Also, turns out, the reproduction “flags” are larger in size and only fit the reproduction script.
“J.Fray Ltd” in Birmingham proudly made the original emblems.
I ended up cannibalizing FIVE sets of emblems and using the above original script and an early reproduction or possible NOS flag! Puh!
Nice!
When the car was restored, it looks like all chrome was redone. However, there were no caulking under this chrome and that would allow for water intrusion. So it was a good thing that I decided to replace the rubber.
3M 08578 is string caulk, perfect for sealing chrome to body.
Caulk in place.
Also, that little joint piece between this chrome and the gutter chrome was missing so this was an excellent opportunity to install it.
Glass with new rubber is in. I will work on the chrome trim next.
Between the “larger” tasks, I fiddle with smaller project to keep it interesting. This is the hood lock mechanism. It is made of chrome plate brass and someone PAINTED it. That is a FELONY!
Maybe I can just steelwool the shiny bit and lube the mechanism?
NOPE! I had to take it apart to clean and prep.
This handle is just a piece of art really. What a shame it goes under the dash!
All together and ready to install.
BTW: I am running out of room on the “ready to install” table. Better get busy!
More later…