86 WH1 restomod

[Mike E]

I brought my new to me 86 T-type WH1 home yesterday. It's a high mileage car that is pretty worn out. It has spent the last 10 years of it's life sitting in the corner of a shop collecting dust. Luckily other than the t-tops it is rust free and fairly complete. My plan is to build a drag race/ restomod car from it. The interior and exterior will remain relatively stock looking. The engine and trans were pulled from the car 10 years ago and the trans was used in another car. I haven't made up my mind about the details of the drivetrain, but most likely a th400 and a max effort stock block motor for the first itteration of the car. I have a fab/ machine shop in my garage, so this car will get a whole lot of custom parts and fabrication.

The crome on the car is in very good shape, but the paint is pretty rough. The bumper fillers were completely rotted.

The passenger door has a big gash in it, but I have a mint rust free door to replace it with.

The motor was in pieces, so I roughly assembled it to be used as a mock up motor when I build headers, brackets, etc. The block is .060 over and the deck surface has had some weld repair done. I don't trust it, so It won't be used.

 

[Mike E]

I spent today tearing it down in search of rust. The floors are rock solid. The only rust I found was under the t-top weatherstriping. It's not terrible and could be fixed. I'm not a huge t-top fan anyways, so I'll be swaping it over to a hardtop.

Do any other G-bodies share the same roof with the Regal?I know the quarter windows are different on a Cutlass, but is a Monte Carlo the same?

 

[SilverBulletGN]

Wow great project.... Good Luck... I know all about them..... I love it though.

 

[Mike E]

I talked myself out of swapping to a hardtop. After digging into the t-top trim further I decided it wasn't as bad as I first thought. Luckily the passenger front corner is fine. I'm going to order the stainless weatherstrip pieces from g-body parts tomorrow. The rest of the rot will be patched in.

Too bad the rest of the roof didn't fare this well.

Cancer surgery in process on the passenger side.

I also swapped in the rust and dent free door on the passenger side. But in the process I think I broke a hinge bushing. So it will have to come back off so I can rebuild the hinge.

 

[jlat]

hello people; That looks like my car but I have a sunroof. And now I can see a car without the bumper fillers and the bumpers mounted. That's a big space there but you have to do what you have to do.You have some work to do but it should be worth it. Good luck. Thanks for posting the pics.
IBBY

 

[Mike E]

I've got all the rust cut out and the patch panels are made, just waiting on some weld through primer to spray the backside of the patch panels before I burn them in. I'm tig welding everything, so I have to get the area as clean as possilbe. I melted out all the lead from the factory roof-quarter panel joint.

There are a few small holes right in the middle of the front of the T area that I'm going to weld up with some silicone bronze rod.

 

[The_Six]

Glad to see you saving it that is what I was looking for before I bought my GN I love the Wh1s even thought abought painting my GN to look like one.

 

[Mike E]

I burned in all the patch panels today and welded up the small holes in the front of the T section. I sectioned in a piece of weather strip rail on the passenger rear side. I'll glue down the drivers front rail after I do a little more prep and paint.

I also cleaned up the floor pans and removed all the loose seam sealer. I had to weld up one small tear in passenger rear pan, but overall they are in good shape. I sprayed the rust with SEM rust mort and I'll lay down some POR-15 tomorrow.

 

[Mike E]

I gutted the engine compartment and pulled the front sheetmetal off this weekend. I spent a few hours today underneath the car with cleaner and a pressure washer, but it didnt' do much on the thicker buildup. Next on the agenda is pulling the body off the frame so I can get the frame blasted and painted. while the frame is out, I'm going to paint the bottom of the car.

This is the last time the car will see daylight for quite a while.

 

[regal81455]

This is the last time the car will see daylight for quite a while.QUOTE]

Know the feeling!! Word of advice - if you have a pressure washer get the sandblasting attachment from Northern - WORKS WONDERS!! A little messy but better than a pot in my opinion. Then any residual cosmoline left over can be removed fairly easily with a heat gun and a rag soaked in mineral spirits.

PS I don't think Ill be needing the section of channel BUT many thanks for the offer anyways!!

 

[charlief1]

This is the last time the car will see daylight for quite a while.QUOTE]

Know the feeling!! Word of advice - if you have a pressure washer get the sandblasting attachment from Northern - WORKS WONDERS!! A little messy but better than a pot in my opinion. Then any residual cosmoline left over can be removed fairly easily with a heat gun and a rag soaked in mineral spirits.

PS I don't think Ill be needing the section of channel BUT many thanks for the offer anyways!!

Thank you for the info on the water blaster set up. I thought about using it myself but I wasn't sure how well it would work.

Car looks like a nice find and I hope you get her in shape Mike.

 

[The_Six]

I would get that blaster I have used one on a truck frame it worked great. I wish I could take my GN apart and redo it but I know if I do it would never get back in one piece. I did smooth the fire wall out some while I have the engine out got tired of looking at all the spot weld dimples extra wiring holes and wavy sheet metal under there . Also make sure you take the rest of the brake booster mounting off the fire wall before you paint in case you ever decide to go to vacuum brakes or hydro boost I painted my fire wall and then went to hydro brakes and had to repaint that part of the fire wall.

 

[Mike E]

I pulled a few more parts out of the car this weekend, but I wanted to do something other than dismantle for a change. So I fired up the mill and lathe and made some new go fast goodies. I made a set of fuel rails and mounts for my stock intake, an EGR block off plate and a new water neck to replace the pitted stock steel piece.

The cylinders between the fuel rail and intake are "mock up injectors" I use to set the height and position of the fuel rail correctly.

 

[The_Six]

Those fuel rails are sweet Ive been wanting a set of the the champions with the stock fuel pressure reg mount. I always thought they would look better then the stock pipe that it has stock as a fuel rail. Are you going to make the EGR block off the the same shape as intake is or leave it . I would love to have the tools and know how to do that type of work.

 

[Mike E]

I'm going to leave the EGR plate as is. I think it looks cleaner as a square rather than narrowed at the bottom to match the intake. It's just for looks anyways as I'll be running aluminum heads and welding up the EGR passage in the plenum.

 

[Sal 87WE2]

When you start working on the exterior I have a suggestion. When I had my wh1 about 15 years ago I bought some bumpers from junkyard and had them painted black. It really completed the look IMO. Good luck!

 

[WillRideAgain]

Good looking work MeanMike!

 

[Mike E]

This weeks job was rebuilding the door hinges. I found a pin and bushing kit from Goodmark (pn; 4046-402-69S at Summit Racing) There is no rebuild kit for the detent roller so I made my own.
My hinges were easy to get to because I have the front sheetmetal off the car. It could be done by removeing the door and pulling the hinges off, but realigning the door would be much more time consuming.
Driver side top first. Remove the hinge.

Clean the door and a-piller of rust and paint the bare metal.

Remove the door spring with a GM door spring removal tool.

The hinge pin is deformed on the end so it can't fall out. Cut it in the middle and remove the halfs from each end. Take note of how the bushings and pin are oriented for when you reassemble the hinge.

I use a cut off wheel to carefully remove the deformed end of the detent roller pin so I can press the whole shaft out.

 

[Mike E]

The detent isn't supposed to be rebuildable. The roller is held on with a 5/16" pin that is pressed into the main shaft. Using my lathe, I cut the end of th e pin off and remove the roller. Then I cut the pin out of the shaft with a 5/16" drill.

Then tap that hole 3/8"-16.

The factory used a plastic bushign pressed into the roller. The roller is hardened steel, so I made a new bushing from 4140 chromolly. With my setup, the roller will float on the new bushing. The bushing will be held with a 3/8"-16 bolt. The bushing ID is 3/8",the OD is .445" and the overall length is .550".

 

[Mike E]

Grease the bushign and roller and add some loctite to the bolt and assemble.

Since I cut the excess material from the shaft, I have to weld it back onto the hinge bracket.

Clean the rust off and spray some new paint on the brackets.
Reassemble the bushings shaft and hinge brackets.

Reinstall the spring.

Bolt it back on the car.

Now do the same for the lower hinge. The lower hinge doesn't have a detent roller so it's much quicker.

Reinstall and add some paint.

Repeat on the other side and your done.
My doors have no more creaks or groans and sound much more solid when you close them.