Prepping the Roadmaster for bodywork
Before the snow flies I decided to finish up the outstanding bodywork on the Roadmaster wagon. A few weeks ago I discovered that the roofline had rusted through due to a poorly installed bit of weather stripping.
I figured I could save a bit of labour, and potentially cleanup, by removing the interior myself before delivering the wagon to the body shop. Overall the removal of the interior was hard work but very simple to do. With the front and rear seats already removed finishing up the hollowing out of my pride and joy was just a case of taking out the rest of the plastic trim and wrestling out the rear seat back. I left the rear cargo seats and carpeting in but everything else came out.
With all of the parts removed I proceeded to fill up my garage with everything that came out with plans for cleaning what could be cleaned and finishing up the restorations on the driver’s seat frame to make it match the passenger seat work I finished up a few posts ago.
Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, once I got the last of the plastic trim and garnish out of the cargo area I discovered that my wagon had fallen victim to another one of the B-Body manufacturing issues. It seems that the factory undercoating on these cars was sprayed onto the body before the last of the mounting holes were drilled in the body. I discovered that the rear seat belt mounting bolts on the passenger side looked to have been installed after the undercoating just as I’ve heard some other B-Body owners mention. Needless to say, those bolt holes right in the top of the rear wheel well didn’t fair too well during the last 16 years of Canadian winters.
Finding rust damage this extensive is always bad news. I’m taking comfort that it’s fortunate that I discovered this now before it got much worse. Since the car was going in for some body work anyway, now’s the time to get this repaired.
With the wagon away again I now have a pretty hefty collection of interior parts to work on in my garage.
It’s much later in the year than I had planned for me to still be working on the wagon. It was my hope to have the bulk of the repair work completed well before now and be taking the wagon on some road trips around the area.
If everything went as planned, it wouldn’t be quite as fun now would it.
