Priya's SX/4 project

[priya]

Thanks guys.  I've been thinking some more about it and I'm removing and reinstalling the wheels quite a bit so far and I'm not sure if the car is going to need brake work, balljoints, bearings, etc. in which case there'd be more removing and reinstalling of wheels.  I don't want to scratch the new wheels so I'm tempted to leave them off until hubby can tell what other work is needed mechanically, if any.

[shaggimo]

That's a good idea, how close are you to taking your joy out for a test drive?

[priya]

That's a good idea, how close are you to taking your joy out for a test drive?

Well, its going to be a while.  Very little of the interior is installed, but I think that is going to go fairly quickly now that the outer trim is in place and the hatch release motor is wired in.  Hubby was saying something about redoing some of the wiring in the dash and I might be getting a cruise control unit for it so I can't really assemble all of the dash until that's done.  The motor and trans are in place, but no radiator, power steering pump, alternator, distributor, manifolds, etc. are installed yet.  I've been wanting to do some assembly on the motor but keen on installing the rad first so I can hook  up trans cooler lines with nothing in the way but the rad had a loose bracket and hubby didn't want me attempting to solder it so it waited until he had time a couple of weeks ago.  Then we notice the rad drain tap is missing, we searched for one in town but couldn't find a match, have ordered one from the internet and are waiting for it to arrive.

Adpating the 79 Monza seats to work with the Eagle seat mount/sliders has taken a fair bit of Ward's time, he's got both assembled, but the driver's seat is a little cockeyed and the passenger seat hasn't been put in the car yet to see how that fits.  I'm wanting Ward to adjust the driver's seat but that is no small matter as it takes cutting apart the adapters he made, trimming or refabricating them and rewelding.

[shaggimo]

All in due time, lol, I still haven't fully reassembled Eaglegirls yet, lol there needs to be about ten more hours in each day, then maybe work can get done,  . The monza seats sound interesting though.......Comfier than the SX seats?

[priya]

Well, I don't really remember what the SX/4 seats felt like, I only drove the car for about 1/4 mile when I bought it.  They were pretty beat up, the vinyl torn, the foam worn to the springs.   The Monza seats were cloth which I really wanted over vinyl for a winter car, I much prefer the looks of the Monza seats to the SX/4 seats, and when I was driving the Monza I was really impressed with how comfortable they are.

[Canoe]

I'm looking for something that doesn't need any surface preparation.  I know in Ontario its common to spray the undersides of cars with used motor oil but I'm thinking there may be something else that can go directly on panels with surface rust.

Ask me! Ask me!

I'm in Ontario, and no! never! to motor oil, used, new, synthetic or otherwise. Too thick to wick into the nooks & crannies, and the used stuff has nasty stuff in it that eats metal, and is toxic.

I know exactly what to do.
From the really picky British car restorers, when POR-15 or it's competitors aren't good enough, two words: Penatrol & Waxoyl.

• Wash the dirt off the underside.
• Let dry. Thoroughly. Days required for all the nooks & crannies to be dry. Don't worry about stray dirt that finds its way on during the drying, it'll just get soaked with what is used to treat the metal.
• Penatrol oil paint conditioner. Brushed, rolled or sprayed on. Under $10 a quart in Lowe's in the States.
• Let the Penatrol dry. This takes a few days. Leave it a week to be sure. The solvent evaps off quickly, but you have let it "cure", as a major component (linseed oil) is a "drying oil" which means that it oxidizes to cure. It takes oxygen from the air, and from the surface rust it soaked into. Don't worry if you haven't got rust. It's a great metal prep/sealer coat.
• Once cured, you can top coat it with anything.
• But, you want to use the Swiss product of oil & wax emulsified together. Waxoyl. In rattle cans or larger cans.
  

Waxoyl

"Hard wax", for underbody undercoating
http://www.roversnorth.com/store/p-5727-waxoyl-hardwax-underbody-500ml-aerosol.aspx
it's black, really sticky, takes weeks to fully dry, but it does skin down

"Soft wax", for inside doors, floor pan, but also the seams in the hood and around engine compartment (I use a bit on nuts & bolts so I can get them apart another year)
http://www.roversnorth.com/store/p-5726-waxoyl-rust-inhibitor-clear-500ml-aerosol.aspx
this never really dries

I know the second one is called "rust inhibitor" not "soft wax", but as the undercoating one is "hard wax" it seems that the other gets called "soft wax" by those in the trade.


You can use the Penatrol on clean metal or rusted metal. When
* you're doing a perfect restore job, or
* when you need to arrest rust development on something until you get back to it later, be that in five years (check once a year and give it a fresh coat if there's more rust).
Remove the scale first. And you can scrub it into the metal with a scrub brush for heavily rusted spots.

If it's a beater but you need it to last: brush the Penatrol on, leave a week, rattle-can the Waxoyl Hard Wax over it.

I brushed Penatrol onto the parts of my rebuild that I couldn't get to until later. It stopped the rust from progressing.
If I'd had Penatrol and Waxoyl I'd still be driving the '81 Eagle Wagon instead of it dieing of rust.

[priya]

Thanks Canoe.  My husband found some of the Waxoyl for interior body cavities and I've been using that inside the car.  This stuff is pretty hard to find in Canada but I'll look for the other products you mentioned.

[Canoe]

Thanks Canoe.  My husband found some of the Waxoyl for interior body cavities and I've been using that inside the car.  This stuff is pretty hard to find in Canada but I'll look for the other products you mentioned.

I have Rovers North ship mine to the UPS store in Ogdesnburg, NY. I drive down and bring it across.
I pick up the Penetrol from Lowe's in Ogdensburg, NY.
I haven't seen either in Canada.

[priya]

After my last post I decided to tackle modifying the Monza to Eagle seat adapters to straighten out the front seats.  After a couple of weeks I got them tweaked pretty well and they fit fairly nicely now.  I'm going to wait to install them until the rest of the interior is done as it will be easier to do dash assembly and wiring while the front seats are out.

I originally bought carpet for a wagon as at that time carpet was not available for the SX/4.  Just my luck a couple months after I bought and fitted the wagon carpet carpet was released for the SX/4.  After much internal debate I decided to shell out and buy the SX/4 specific carpet.  I ordered it with the "mass-backing", an extra thick rubber like backing that's supposed to insulate more and dampen sound.  When it arrived I noticed the sides were creased over badly and I wondered if I should send it back.  I decided to put it in the car and see how it looked and it fit poorly.  I asked Ward about it and he said it'd probably fit better once I trimmed it.  I trimmed it and it still fit poorly and then I wished I had returned it.  The wagon carpet with part of the middle cut out actually fit quite a bit better and I spent a couple of weeks debating whether to use the wagon or the SX/4 carpet.  I eventually decided that although the SX/4 carpet didn't fit as well, I preferred wrinkles over a cut from one side of the car to the other.  We pushed the car outside on a warm day, removed the carpet and placed it upside down in the sun so the black side could heat up.  After a couple hours we quickly put into the car, pushed it into position and put various weights in the footwells to push it into position more.  That helped somewhat.  The carpet for the hatch area fit pretty well so I was satisfied with that.

Before installing the carpet I put down more insulation in the car:


Here's the carpet after it was trimmed to fit and holes cut for the seats, seatbelts and shifter:


Here's the carpet in the hatch.  I placed the duct insulation in the quarter panels and on the wheel wells as well as around the tailights but the pictures of that were accidentally deleted.  You can still see some of it in this hatch carpet picture:


The interior quarter panel trim pieces and interior tailight cover were next.  I insulated them with carpet padding as well.  I got the idea from nest member Draekon, here's how mine looked:


The plastic on the rear quarter panel interior trim pieces had shrunk over the years and they were a real bear to install.  I had to start screws in one place and then with Ward's help, pull, push, and vice grip into place the other parts of the panel, insert screws and at the bottom of the B piller drill new holes as the original holes several inches back didn't hit the inner rocker as I assume they were supposed to.  I replaced both those inner rockers but duplicated the factory panels so I have no idea why the factory panel holes didn't line up to the inner rockers.  Here's how it all looked after I finally got it into place:



The rear seats were next, I pulled them out of the van we were storing them in and....Ewww!



An hour and a half of vigourous scrubbing later:



And then finally to install the rear seats, they put up a bit of a fight but I won in the end:

[Whuntmore]

Looking awesome!      Too bad you don't have time to post a video of the car on You Tube... Do you?

[priya]

LOL Regalwizard, I'll have to slow down, don't want to have a car to drive when my other car goes into storage for the winter.

[rollguy]

WOW!   I will even say it backwards: !WOW      That looks so cool!!!     This site does not have enough eggs to give you (others may need them as well), but I will throw some your way to make it an even 100!

[priya]

Looking awesome!      Too bad you don't have time to post a video of the car on You Tube... Do you?

Thanks Whuntmore.  Maybe if I get the car outside I'll take a short video for you.

[priya]

WOW!   I will even say it backwards: !WOW      That looks so cool!!!     This site does not have enough eggs to give you (others may need them as well), but I will throw some your way to make it an even 100!

Thanks a million Rollguy, I'm really thrilled with how this is coming out.

[rollguy]

WOW!   I will even say it backwards: !WOW      That looks so cool!!!     This site does not have enough eggs to give you (others may need them as well), but I will throw some your way to make it an even 100!

Thanks a million Rollguy, I'm really thrilled with how this is coming out.

We would love to see your car all finished at the International Meet some year.  I know you probably will not make it this year, but maybe next?