Hibernation

The Clam is practically finished except for one detail, the rear tailgate leaks because of the rear tailgate and window weatherstrips.  I've continually worked on making new ones from universal pieces but the weather has gotten very cold and because of daylight savings it's almost dark when I get home from work.  It's just too cold to be getting wet while working with water leaks so I'm putting The Clam up until the weather warms up a little bit.  A neighbor has let me use his building.  It's very frustrating that the car is practically finished and April could be driving it except for the leak in the rear window.  It rains so much this time of year that I don't want this leak causing rust and damage to the interior.  This building is pretty far from the house and has no power run to it so working on cars here is not practical.  Oh well, I'm thankful to at least have a place to store it.

A Wheelie Tedious Project

Among the slew of water issues I've been trying to solve with the tailgate and rear window is this hole behind the inner panel of the tailgate.  I'm not sure if this is an access panel or if it had to do with the 1971-only ventilation that GM had developed, and later recalled due to it sucking exhaust fumes into the cabin.  This hole was covered with a plastic material similar to a garbage bag, but looked like a factory installation, and over time it had aged.  The problem is that the tailgate has a drain hole right over this area and the water drips right out of this hole if it is not plugged. 

In this picture, looking straight down onto the top of the tailgate, arrow A shows the drain hole and arrow B shows the hole in the back of the tailgate where the water is leaking.  The water is designed to drain through the tailgate and out drains in the bottom and eventually out through the lower panel the tailgate rests inside when open.

I didn't want to replace the plastic because I didn't feel that was durable enough for a long term solution.  I needed something almost paper thin that wouldn't rust.  I eventually came up with the idea of using the aluminum from a Coke can. 

Because of the relief cuts needed to unroll the aluminum from a round can to a flat panel the can would not have worked as a single piece if it had been even 1/16 of an inch smaller.  I made a template out of paper and then copied that onto the aluminum.  Then I used a new razor blade and scissors to cut it out, making it about a 1/16" oversized so I can use caulk-strip to hold it in place.

A while back April took a trip with some girls to go to a Church retreat in Indiana.  It just so happens that I found a set of the 5x5 bolt pattern Pontiac rallies within 10 miles of where she was going.  It took about a year of searching to find a set that was priced within reason.  The smaller cars had a 4x4.75 bolt pattern and are very plentiful, but the larger 5x5 rallies are getting harder to find.  After talking to the guy on the phone I arranged April to meet him, with escorts at a public location for safety, and she picked the wheels up.  After comparing color samples from the powder coater's to the factory rallies on dad's '71 Catalina I came up with colors I was happy with.  The powder coater shop agreed to powder coat the base silver and then let me take them back home and tape them off myself.  I wanted to spend the extra time myself and cut the edges out the best that I was able.

I set up shop in the den floor.

The shop gave me their heat resistant tape.  I began by applying it to the spokes on the rallies and cutting out the edges to be close.  Then, after thoroughly pressing the tape into the corners and seams for a tight seal, I came back and cut the edges with a series of new razor blades.  Here's a picture of the roughed in spokes with the bottom spoke having been finished.

Each wheel took about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to complete.  When I take them back they will powder coat the exposed inserts the darker color and when I remove the tape the tops of the spokes will be the bright silver color.  After the 2nd color is applied they will apply a clear coat.