The '70 Vista Pro Tour Project

[ent72olds]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I will hopefully be pulling in my brother's '70 VC after the holidays for a body resto! We've done much under the hood already and once the nose comes off we'll continue. I'll be posting pics throughout and be looking for advice. I'll also give the story of the car coming soon. Stay tuned!

[ent72olds]

Just to be fair and honest with everyone up front, I started this project over 4 yrs ago....it started as a resto, but as I discovered this site, the direction of the project started to take a different direction........... It is a pretty extensive thread, and I am trying as I can to get it caught up to the present! I will add when I can...

[ent72olds]

Finally got car inside this past weekend for disassembly. Started removing trim. Will start posting pics this week! Car was found locally on e-bay. Original owner's daughter was selling it. Since he passed about 10yrs ago, they continued to insure and inspect it every year. They would take it to his grave on the anny of his death every year. That's the only time it was moved other than to and from the service station yearly. She finally decided it was too much $ to keep the car. 119,000 mi. protectoplate, most of original paperwork etc. All there, even the optional hood lock!

[ent72olds]

OK...My bro and I started on his '70 VC project and I must say, so far we are pleasantly surprised! Removed all the fixed window glass and found virtually no rust. All trim came off without incident...well ...almost. There were 2 clips left on the top of the windshield moulding and I asked my brother if he wanted to give it a shot. The first was no problem. The second was accompanied by a high pitched sound. He didn't realize but I said instntly, "you just cracked it!" Sure enough...hence my other post about the windshields being interchangeable. He wasn't too upset. He kind of wanted a new glass anyway! I'll have a pro remove the glass this weekend. May not remove the skylights. Channels look super clean, and I rather not risk it if I don't have to. The rear qtr glasses will have to come out for sure due to some rust. Took some pics of the action so far on the right side of the car. Car has add-on air-condition in the rear wheel area. Dogleg is gone. I found patch panels from opgi. Don't look great, but we'll make do. Floor board on pass side is spotless. Amazing for a northeast, island car! Also posted some pics of motor after de-grease(car did not run when purchased) then after I "spruced it up". Runs like swiss time! Stay tuned!!!

[ent72olds]

Here are more photos!

Bear with me as I'm having technical difficulties with the size of the photos...these are all located in another computer, and I'm trying to get them off the other site I'm at......

[oldsmobeast72]

Sweet, gotta love a pt wagon . Ill be following this

[ent72olds]

Thanks...don't know how I was able to post the first 2 pics, then all the others came out tiny! I will have to find the thumb drive where all the pics are located so I can post these properly. The body is ready to be put back on the chassis, and motor should be back within the next few weeks! I will try to catch this thing up this weekend......this thread is pretty worthless without pics....

[ent72olds]

Pulled the rear side glass and windshield out but after removing all the trim, elected to leave the tinted vista glass in! It looked very good around the roof glass and we felt it wasn't worth risking. The side glass revealed some damage though! Not very surprising. After stripping and blasting the rough areas, the holes revealed themselves. I figured I wasn't going to get away without a little welding in these areas! I posted some photos of the swiss cheese. We were very happy to find the cowl area (base of windshield) and windshield pinchweld almost pristine Got lucky I guess! Next will be the welding of the holes, and stripping of the roof...I will post more soon! To be continued...

[ent72olds]

Pics of the cowl and windshield pinch!.....

[ent72olds]

Well, we've been working when we get the time and I'm happy to say that the roof and window channels (except vista glass) are stripped, holes patched and welded and bodywork done. We decided the factory leaded seams (and there are a lot on this roof) were pretty nasty. They were wavy and it looked like they were finished in 36 grit before being painted. So we went ahead and smoothed them all out. The back of the roof above the tailgate was also very wavy so we took care of that! Also fixed a couple of dents in roof. We'll get it in primer this weekend then we will work on straightening the rear bumper before we remove it and send out for re-chrome. Tailgate will also come off next and be stripped. I bought a couple of dogleg and wheelwell sections from DVAP that I'm waiting on to replace the rotted ones on the car now...until next time!!!

[ent72olds]

A couple more pics...as you can see, I started this thing by doing all bodywork first, before moving to chassis and running gear...

[ent72olds]

Well, we finally got the roof masked and into primer and surfacer today. Next on the hit list will be the tailgate! Here are today's progress pics!

[ent72olds]

We disassembled the tailgate and pulled it off the car this weekend. Word of advice, take plenty of pics and notes. The dual action is a pretty intense set up, especially the swing-out hinge spring on the left side. Overall, very good shape w/only minor welding needed! Sand blasted the inside shell on the bottom to be sure. Stripped the woodgrain off with heatgun and razor blade. Here are some pics.

[ent72olds]

We stripped the outside of the taigate and did find a few dents under the woodgrain and the bottom edge was very wavy from the factory so I filed the bottom edge where it will only need a tight wipe of filler and picked and filed the dents with the help of my uni-spotter to get them very close. Only thing left is a tight wipe and some primer and surfacer. We also "unearthed" a pretty big rot hole in the bottom of the rt rear qtr behind the bumper and under the taillight. Will tend to that next

[ent72olds]

Got the plastic work done and got the tailgate into primer last night. Disassembled rt rear door. Will be stripping and repairing that this weekend. I figure 1 panel a week...of course the qtrs will take longer being they need much more work. Still waiting for the sections to come in for those. As most of you know, when you only get a couple hours here and there during the week and trying to juggle the project with the family on weekends it can be difficult!

[ent72olds]

Sandblasted some areas on the inside of the rear door this weekend and it was surprisingly solid...not even worthy of any pics! The outside of the door was a different matter. Had several nasty dents and the skin was stretched due to some of the dents. Spent quite a bit of time with the unispotter, file, hammer and grinder. Got it pretty close for some thin plastic and thin coat of poly. Primed and completed. Just got home about 1.5 hours ago. I owe my wife big for Valentine's...maybe even chocolates! Here are the latest pics of progress!

[ent72olds]

Check out the smoke from the duals!

[ent72olds]

We scored a sweet console and shifter (don't get mad anyone...) for free today out of a '77 Buick Regal. I get some pics this week of it. Think it would look pretty trick in the VC with a set of original buckets. We can probably get the tilt out of the same car also. I'm pretty sure it would work in a '70 Vista

[ent72olds]

Started the rt ft door this weekend. Disassembled and removed it. Stripped it and found not many dents, but some rot inside and out. I decided the rot on the outside just needed to be plug welded as well as some holes on the inside corner. But the front inside corner of the door was like swiss cheese...had no choice but to cut out and make a patch. Here's the end result...

[ent72olds]