67 Superior Update

Jean-Marc Dugas

Jean-Marc Dugas

PCS Member
Spent the day yesterday test fitting the new pieces I have for the patient care area floor. After much work, here is what it looks like.

Some more work on it today to get it ready to be welded back in place tomorrow. Can’t wait.

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it is coming along quite nicely. starting to look like a car again. as you get to put things back to gather you can see the problem. no matter how hard you try you can't get the back sides of the panels painted. one would have to be able to dunk the car after it gets together to do that. as for the glass still leaking are we talking about the lower side or is it coming down from the top. we have developed a leak in the Seville. there is a water track running down form the top of the glass. so we will be redoing that soon. I'll post some pictures on that event. the ambulance has a leak in the cowl. vents and drain holes are open. but it's were I can't get to it. inside the box work. it runs out the bottom of kick panel on the drivers side and forms a small pool on the rubber rug. I have had it all apart and looked hard but can't find were it is coming in at. sealing the hole it's coming out of will only trap water in the void so as it's only going on the rug not under it I pick it up when I wash the car. still gets to me. I can't find it. has to be a hole drilled sometime in the building of the car then covered up. as we changed the glass in it we looked and it's not in that opening. has to be in box work some were. coming threw the glass not that's usually a simple fix. usually!! did you change the fule lines when you could do it from the top?
 
The time has come to hopefully finish the patient compartment once and for all. This evening, I put the electric heater in the car, waited 1/2 hour and started to remove the floor, trim, etc.

First thing on the agenda is to re-install the floor storage box and re-install the floor.

One thing I have to decide soon is how to fix the leaky rear windows. I am afraid that I’ll have to remove them and go from there. One advantage of doing this is that I can then also remove the chrome trim and send them away to be re done.

Anyhow, let the fun begging.....
 
if there leaking between the rubber and the body there will be rust under there you'll want to clean up anyway. taking them out is the only way to do that. but if you can't get the car inside were it's warm I would wait. with the way superior built that floor. spraying a layer of undercoating on the angle iron before you put the wood down will help keep the water from soaking into the wood and rusting it out again. that might be the best 10 bucks spent on the car.
 
I use cosmoline on bare steel that I want to prevent from rusting. It goes on easy and it is also easy to remove if you need to clean the metal in the future. I sprayed some bare steel with cosmoline and left it outside for a couple of years in rain, snow, sun, winter and summer. I checked it periodically, and there was no signs of rust or the cosmoline breaking down. You can purchase it in spray cans under the label of PDRP by Spray-On, a division of Sherwin Williams. Search Google for the product. Your local Ziebart dealer may be willing to sell you a gallon for applying by brush. As with any rustproofing, it is only as good as the applicator does the job. You need to get everything completely covered to get total protection. If you skimp on the application, then there will be bare spots when rust can still form. It does smell for a few months, but eventually, even the smell will dissipate, but the protection will continue. If you need to remove the cosmoline, use mineral spirits or gasoline.
 
While waiting for the storage box to come back from the welder’s shop, I spent some time this weekend removing the rear driver side window and trim. Did not want to do it, but I had no choice since it was leaking. Everything went well, the window came out without too much problem, the rubber is still in good shape and the trim came off intact. The plan for next weekend is to do the same on the passenger’s side. Removing the trim is actually something that would have to be done anyways if I get the care repainted this winter. None of the trim pieces were taken out by the folks that last painted the car and this is causing problem in some areas.

I think that the leaking problem is caused by the drying out and shrinking of the black sealer compound that surrounded the window and trim. It probably shrunk over the last 40 years and created some voids especially where the bottom trim meet both vertical trim sections.

Most screws came out without any problems except for 2 of the clips holding the window in place. This is not an issue, as the exact placement of these clips is not crucial as long as they are reinstalled close to the initial spot.

The screws that will cause issues are the ones holding the trim on the C Post. They are totally rusted and will most likely have to be drilled out.

Driver Side Window - Before
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Driver Side Window - After
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that is what I have found on most of them. one way to get the screws out is to cut a slot in the head. you could use a cut off wheel in a electric drill to do it. the heat will loosen the rust and the slot will except a straight driver that will let you back it out. I have a 3 inch cut off tool that is air driven that works good for that.
 
John,

I have used this method many times. In this case however, for the screws holding the bracket holding the windows, the head split in 2 when I applied pressure with the flat screwdriver.

For the screws that hold the trim, I can’t use a cutting disk. The screws they are too small plus they are counter sunk in the trim itself. Even using my Dremell tool, the disk rubs against the trim.
 
those tiny ones are really hard. superior used so many different types of metals in there construction. you will tear up a lot of bits but you can use the #1 to round off the points and give you a good starting center for a bit and drill them out. use a bit big enough to just remove the head. then relocate if you can. surprising a number of then are just seized in the aluminium molding. you get the head off and you can thread out the shaft from the hole with your fingers. I have one of the older hammer blow drivers that I will always try first. before drilling but you have to jump on it before you damage the head. most of them one can do the hammer on the end of the screw driver trick to loosen them then if that doesn't work the thumper then the drill. got into a number of Stainless Steel #1s on this last one. I ended up cutting the molding around the screw with the spot weld cutter to get it off. then grinding off the head when the molding was removed. we will drill a new hole to reinstall it. like your doing on the window clip. tell me did they do there usual trick and squirt the glue around the hole then press the rubber to the glue on the inside using the clips to hold it tight?? or did they hook the grommet over the pinch weld? superiors trick was to just press it up agents the opening on there caddy's. I have yet to get to take apart a poncho.
 
John ED Renstrom said:
tell me did they do there usual trick and squirt the glue around the hole then press the rubber to the glue on the inside using the clips to hold it tight?? or did they hook the grommet over the pinch weld? superiors trick was to just press it up agents the opening on there caddy's.
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That is how it was done. There is a layer of glue between the window and the hole with clips on the other side of the window holding everything together. I don't think the water was coming in from the seal between the window and the hole, but from the gap in the moldings.

I'll see if I can take some pictures to illustrate this.
 
they way they did it if the sealer hardens in any place it will channel the water inside. when you put it back together your best choice is to use a tube of black silicone, even if it looses the bond it will still form a gasket with the clamp. if you look at the grommet you will find there is a flap that could be hooked over the pinch weld. but the way they put the molding on won't let you put it in that way and see the molding
 
May 13 2010 Update

I left the 67 at the body shop this morning. The plan is to take a hard look at the body and the paint to determine if we need a full strip down to metal and paint the car type job, or can we look at fixing what we can find and go from there. There was a new paint job on the car probably 4 years ago, so there may not be that much to do.

Over the last couple of months, I have removed as much of the trim as I could and in the process found out quite a few spots where water was coming in. All of the trim around the rear side and rear corner windows have been allowing water to come in, and by the amount of rust that can be found in some areas, I’d say that it has been leaking for 40 years. On the good side, all of the window rubber is still in great shape. The water was coming in from around the trim pieces, not from the window rubber.

The issue with the leaky windshield has also been found. There is a gap between where the fibreglass roof meets the metal above the driver side driver door which allowed water to come in, follow a metal channel and come out about 3 feet further behind the windshield. This gap was behind the trim that is above the drip rail.

In order to remove some of the trim pieces, I had to detach part of the headliner. This was relatively easy for most of the car because it was held in place by staples and wood strips. The hard part was the removal of the headliner sections that is above the 4 side doors because it is held in place with a metal say tooth strips. I used a tip from John Renstrom and was able to take care of it relatively easy. Thanks John.

I also found 2 of the risers that hold the bumper and even maybe the rear sill that are compromised because of rust plus a section of the riser that hold the rear door with a big hole into it. These will all have to be replaced.

Other odds and ends include the replacement of the mirrors on the driver and passenger side doors. The ones currently on the car are rectangular, the originals were round. The Pontiac logo on the nose of the car will be replaced, the rear side windows will be sent to the sign shop to replace the graphics, the leaky power steering will be fixed, electronics will replace the old points, and because of the cost of it all, we will not be finishing the basement this year.

This just to say that just because a car looks good, it does not mean that there is no work left to do on it, and at the end of the day, if you would have seen the car last year and compare it to what you would see when it comes out of the shop, you could probably not see any difference.
 
that's the worse part when it comes back and all the trim is back in place you'll never see it. but your looking at typical superior construction problems. the one good thing is they are constant. in there assembly techniques. and they did last the necessary 10 years they were designed to. still Damn why did they not is not worth asking but it's sufficient to say that newer materials will seal up the car and prevent father water damage inside under the trim. it's normal to find big jagged holes cut were wiring goes threw and holes drilled in braces were access to a trim screws was needed. then just left exposed to rust . it's the way they did it. every now and then one finds a cut with a torch and is not used. as long as they got it covered up that was good enough for them. so don't over restore the car either. but check to be sure its in trouble before replacing a lot of bracing. sometimes you fix one thing just to cause the same problem a a foot away. not painting under the trim and resealing is were the last job failed. it' vary important with anything this old to do that. a good oil base primer inside will stop or drastically slow down any rust forming were your can't see. limited use of the car will let it last a long time as will as dry storage. your all ready doing more the superior did to help that. but then you want to keep the car not sell more.
 
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