My 76/77 Buick regals going to the darkside!

Discussion in 'V-8 Buick Powered Regals' started by Norman Martin, Aug 14, 2020.

  1. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    Finally! Wore me out finishing the floor in 91+ degree weather. I got the floor done though. Just in time. I have to go back to work tomorrow. I have a good deal of dust in the primer but you wont see it under the carpet.

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  2. Max Damage

    Max Damage I'm working on it!

    Good Job. That is a lot of work. Hope your back is doing all right.
     
  3. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    My back is stable. I am taking it easy and trying to avoid sideways motions that seem to cause the pain.
     
  4. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    It is time for a pause. I am going to take a little break from the car to attend to some family matters. Specifically, a death in the family. My cousin played the Covid game and lost. Without getting into the politics of it all, he should have gotten the vax. Now his 3 children will go without a father. We are very sad but this was predictable and preventable. We will be travelling to attend his services.

    Second reason for the pause is to stack up more cash to do more mods. I have been aggressively paying off some stuff and I now will have to let the bank account rebound a little. I will be hitting it hard once I get back into it though. Trust me, This will not be one of those pauses where the build goes dead forever...OH no. That is not my style. I have plenty of supplies to allow me to work on stuff while I am building the funds back up. I am just gonna lift off the throttle for a couple weeks.

    The great news is that I have now paid off one of my vehicles and that means more $$$ for mods!!
     
  5. FLGS400

    FLGS400 Gold Level Contributor

    Sorry about your cousin Norman.

    I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread. Looking forward to more!
     
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  6. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    A minor but major item was accomplished yesterday. I was cleaning my garage a little since it is a mess when I had to move the old axle to side of the house bone yard and out of the view of my wife. I passed my other 1976 Regal and saw the white seat that I was never able to get out of the car due to rusted bolts. I realized that I had bought a battery powered beast of a impact gun that is simply amazing at whacking bolts off or breaking them if they do not want to budge. So I hooked my battery pack up the the car to move the electric seats for access and proceeded in whacking 3 of the fasteners off and stripping one bolt head from improper tool alignment. That nut was then knocked off with a grinder.

    YAY!!! finally I will be able to install the nicer bucket white seat in the drivers spot. Then the rain started to pour and I was not able to get to the passenger side. It should go the same way though. The seats have busted seams but are in way better condition than the ugly tan split bench seat.
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  7. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    Ok. A little minor progress happened.

    First, I mounted up the white seat in the car and it is super comfy. I just wanted to drive it again.

    Second, I installed a grommet in the big open hole in the firewall and then used duct seal to completely plug the hole from hot air escaping into the cabin. There was a little change but not nearly enough.

    Third. I ordered my lizard skin sound control, ceramic and the spray gun for it. Theres a crapload of heat coming from the floor and I have to reduce the temp alot by whatever means before any of my family can ride in there. The lizardskin products have great reviews so I am optimistic. I would like to get the interior comfortable before putting in the carpet.

    Eventually I plan to take the entire 304 stainless exhausf out and ceramic coat it. That should reduce even more heat. The headers are already ceracoated and it is holding up extremely well.

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  8. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Awesome progress
     
  9. Mark Demko

    Mark Demko Well-Known Member

    How’s this coming along?
     
  10. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    Slow going for now. Only been home for a couple days after the funeral. Looks like my lizardskin is getting delivered today and tomorrow so hopefully I will get it sprayed by next weekend.
     
  11. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    Thanks
     
  12. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    Got some stuff done.
    I removed the factory console from Granny's Regal to begin prepping for install into the working Regal. This floor shifter is one of the most stand out features of the car and therefore just HAS to go into the car. It is an old horseshoe shifter.

    I also received the lizardskin ceramic. I thought I was ordering white but apparently ordered black. No worries though. It is paintable.

    I may spray the sound deadener tomorrow if it comes in early enough. It has to cure for 24 hours before spraying the ceramic. Since it is really humid I will probably go for 48 hours though.

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  13. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    OH NO!!! It is happening again!

    My brain is on overload due to a Eureka moment. This one involves Car Audio matters and is now occupying my brain with all the possibilities. Let me explain.



    My absolute favorite subwoofer of all time is the JBL W15GTImkii and I have 5 of them. Two are in my SRT Jeep and 3 have been lurking in my basement.

    So I have been struggling to figure out how exactly I will be able to install the sub or subs in the Regal without the dreaded "WANG< WANG< WANG" trunk rattle that I hear so many older cars driving around. I think it sounds terrible. I like Crystal clear sound quality type audio but at higher levels (SQL). So the only option was to totally isolate the front wave of the sub from ever reaching the trunk. That would be easy if this was a modern car with flip down seats. Not so much with this old gal. Not only do I have only about 12inches in height at the rear seat in the trunk, but realistically, it is only 9 inches due to one of the rear seat hangers. So for a long time I have contemplated how the hell I am going to fit the sub in there and accomplish my goal.


    EUREKA!!


    I was playing around with a 15 inch cutout that I had laying around and decided to put it in the back to see where I can fit the sub and realized that....Ummm Hello, I am a metal shaper, and DUH, I am doing the upholstery custom anyway. So what I am thinking is that I am going to break out the old welder and cutting tools to do one more modification to the metal on this thing. Some of the inspiration for the idea comes from the cutouts for emblems in some 60's cars like the 64 Impala photo attached. The only difference is that I will hide the sub behind a grill that will be built into the back seat or some kind of rear seat console like many hotrod guys do these days.


    So plainly put- I am most likely going to be cutting a big old honking hole in the rear seat metal, metal shaping new metal to weld back in with reinforcement and installing a wicked 15 inch sound quality subwoofer in either sealed or ported configuration with no trunk rattle. Use your imagination to understand where I am going here. For anyone has doubt that the metalworking part is within my skillset, Please refer to my previous posts. I am proficient at making metal do what I tell it to do. Photos will be uploaded in a few.

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  14. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    Another example of what the final product will be similar to. I did a sub in a buddy's Pontiac G8 years ago.
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  15. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    I have been busy with other stuff but I did take the time yesterday to accomplish another task. I have been struggling to get the passenger seat out of Granny's car for a while now. The floors are just so rusted that the fasteners were locked into place. I usually use a torch to heat up the fasteners but this one is surrounded by plastic and old carpet. I did not want to start the stuff on fire and I did not want to melt the plastic. I finally decided to just do it. I used my makita "thumper" impact gun after I heated the bolt carefully and doused it quickly with penetrant. It did not budge. SO I hit it with a breaker bar and it finally cracked. I turned it a little more and then used the thumper to finish it off. The rest of the bolts came off pretty easily or took the surrounding metal with them. So now I have all the white seats ready to go in.


    This weekend I plan to finally scuff up the new epoxy in order to spray the Lizard skin deadener followed by the ceramic. Once complete, I can finally start getting carpet back into the car. Iwould like to get the car to the point that the family can take a drive with me without the crazy heat coming up through the floor.
     
  16. Max Damage

    Max Damage I'm working on it!

    Any chance of adding some insulation between the exhaust/headers and the floor? I mean outside the passenger compartment?
     
  17. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    In the winter, I am going to pull the motor/trans and then blast, sand and paint the underside of the floor. I will then add another layer of the lizard skin deadening and ceramic. I should not need more than that.

    There will also be other layers of stuff under the carpet helping the issue. from the underside of the car it will be in these layers. I should not have any issue once I am done.
    -interior
    carpet
    foam
    MLV (Mass loaded vinyl)
    foam
    lizard skin-ceramic
    Lizardskin-deadening
    primer
    metal
    primer
    paint
    Lizardskin-deadener
    Lizardskin-ceramic
    __Possible Raptor liner----
     
  18. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    I finally started spraying the lizardskin. I got a layer of deadener on before bed. I will spray another in the morning. It looks pretty cool.

    EDIT...Sprayed the second coat this morning.

    I only sprayed areas that have been prepared with primer.
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    Last edited: Aug 4, 2021
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  19. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    Today I have sprayed the first coat of Ceramic and I will say that I am pretty impressed with this stuff so far. The floor is about as dead as I have ever gotten with Dynamat style deadeners and I can only assume that the added bonus of the ceramic heat reduction will make it even more impressive. I will be able to test the heat this weekend as we have more hot weather coming in. While I am impressed, I will say that the dynamat products are easier/Quicker.

    With this stuff you have to spray, wait a couple hours, spray then wait 24hrs then spray, wait a couple hours and finally spray and wait 24 hours again.
    Dynamat you just start appling heating and rolling. When you are done, you are done. but you do not get the added benefit of a seamless application.

    Either way, I will still be using Dynamat style deadener (KNU Kollosus) in other areas of the car since I have the stuff already and since I need to utilize the "bridging: properties of the butyl deadener. Specifically, I have a couple small holes that I found after primer that would have made no sense to gring down, weld up and respray. I thought I could "fill them in" with the spray stuff but it did not work out. I will simply place a sheet of the deadener over the holes and roll it in really well. I have no doube that my floors are structurally solid ans every surface has been sandblasted. These small holes are in areas that are not critical. (Under the rear seat)

    So in about 30 minutes, I will spray the final coat of the ceramic spray and then after the 24hr cure I will be ready to begin the re-upholstery phase. I can finally start laying Mass loaded Vinyl (MLV), closed cell foam (CCF) and carpet.

    Exciting!!!
     
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  20. Norman Martin

    Norman Martin Well-Known Member

    Ceramic spray complete. Tomorrow it should be cured enough to put the seats back in to drive it until I am ready to install all the floor carpet, etc.

    I decided to take the leftover ceramic in the cup to brush into the small holes like seam sealer. Once that cured for 3 hours, I sprayed a layer on top of those areas to blend into the rest. I am 95% pleased with this product. This weekend, once I confirm that the ceramic is working, I will upgrade that to 100%.


    Now I have to decide how I want to topcoat the stuff.
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