504 bodywork

[Roo504]

Hi everyone,

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it's been a while since I've posted on the forum, and I realised that I should probably show you the work I've been doing on my 504 lately.

A few months ago I decided I would get louvres put into the bonnet to allow the heat from the engine to escape more easily. This of course meant that I'd need to respray the bonnet. The bonnet came up really well, so I decided I'd paint the whole car.

So I've now finished spraying the car, except for the two front guards and the nose, which I'll get onto next year. At the moment I haven't polished the doors, but they still look pretty good. I'm really happy with the crease lines down the rear quarter panels and the doors - the passenger side was pretty knocked about before I pushed dents out and fixed them up.
There was a little bit of rust around the bottom corners of the rear windscreen. This has been cut out and welded up now. I made sure to adjust where the drain pipes sit so that water wouldn't sit in that area again.

Eventually I'll pull the engine out and do the engine bay, but for now it's too much work pulling all that plumbing apart. The louvres work really well, you can see the heat dissipating from the bonnet when you idle!

Cheers,
Andrew

[BIGRR]

Your dual purpose louvers look good .

Not only do they let heat out but you should be able to tell quickly when you blow a turbo shaft seal, the wipers will work faster .

Keep up the posting, can I give you my 504 to repaint?

[rpieper]

Your car look great, this is exactly what my 74 white GL will look like once it gets resprayed, same rims even. I went just the opposite route with the louvres however and put an under the hood blanket from a 504 diesel in my car, definitely quieter but does run just a bit hotter. I would like to hear more about the repair of the rust patches under the rear windscreen, I've got exactly the same problem but haven't begun to deal with it yet.

[Roo504]

Your car look great, this is exactly what my 74 white GL will look like once it gets resprayed, same rims even. I went just the opposite route with the louvres however and put an under the hood blanket from a 504 diesel in my car, definitely quieter but does run just a bit hotter. I would like to hear more about the repair of the rust patches under the rear windscreen, I've got exactly the same problem but haven't begun to deal with it yet.

G'day,

fixing up the rusted sections in the bottom corners of the rear windscreen wasn't too big a job. Once you've got the windscreen out, you can pull back the upholstery and see just how far the rust goes down. Usually it'll just stay fairly close to the area where the water doesn't drain away.
Then all you need to do is cut out the rusted areas, plus a little more to be on the safe side. Get some good metal (approximately the same thickness as what you're working with), shape if to fit, and weld it in. I've never welded myself, so I had a friend help me out over a weekend (for which I was very grateful).
Make sure you've left room for the drain pipe to come back out the bottom of the new metal too!

Once that's done, you can clean it all up, treat any surface rust, and fill it with seam sealer to make a nice smooth surface. Following that, prime it, sand it back and paint it.

I was always pretty cautious about whether I'd try and fix rust myself, but it's not too hard - especially if you know someone who can do a bit of welding for you. And it's pretty rewarding getting the car back to a really good state of repair.

Cheers,
Andrew

[rpieper]

I haven't taken my rear windscreen out to see how extensive the rust is but I was assuming that the rust would involve the channel that the rubber and the glass sit in, and that I'd have to cut out a part of this channel then hope to recreate it accurately enough to still allow the glass to seal correctly - that's the part I was worried about. Did your rust involve the channel and if so did you cut a piece out of another car to replace what you removed? I agree that the repair would be much easier if the rust was only on the flatter surface below the windscreen.

Also, did you try to match the original color on the car when you resprayed? My 504 is Sable (1353), sort of an off white, not sure if I'll be able to match exactly

[Roo504]

I haven't taken my rear windscreen out to see how extensive the rust is but I was assuming that the rust would involve the channel that the rubber and the glass sit in, and that I'd have to cut out a part of this channel then hope to recreate it accurately enough to still allow the glass to seal correctly - that's the part I was worried about. Did your rust involve the channel and if so did you cut a piece out of another car to replace what you removed? I agree that the repair would be much easier if the rust was only on the flatter surface below the windscreen.

Also, did you try to match the original color on the car when you resprayed? My 504 is Sable (1353), sort of an off white, not sure if I'll be able to match exactly

G'day,

the rust will probably involve the channel, but it's not a very hard job to fix it up. The channel is basically just a curved piece of metal bent at 90 degrees. The easiest way to replace it (with little experience) is to weld in one piece first, and then a second piece alongside it to make the 90 degree angled section. This way you don't have to fabricate a curved 90 degree piece of metal. Just do it piece by piece and it will be fine. There's a reasonable amount of room for the window and rubber to fit in too - so as long as you're roughly correct in the shape and size of the new metal you're welding in, you won't have any problems with getting the new windscreen in. And no, you don't need to get a similar piece from another 504 to replace it - most of them have all rusted in the same place anyway.

As for the paint colour, I used a slightly brighter white than factory, but I'm pretty happy with it. A good auto paint shop should be able to match your colour though.

Hope this helps,
Andrew