Volvo P1800ES...kinda

Hmm... perhaps re-worked MINI latches?  The MINI bonnet uses a latch on each side, opened by a dual cable.  Simple loop on each side of the bonnet.  With your fabrications skills, you can probably make those work and the cables would give you release handle location flexibility. 

Yeah... if you can get a wrench on the hinge nut, you'll probably be ok. 

Yes, the black plastic slot grill does leave something to be desired.  I don't hate it, but I haven't been blown away by any other designs I've seen.  Anything shiny just doesn't look right to me.  Even more annoying is the weird clips Volvo used to secure the grill.  On my ex's car, we surmised the owner or whoever he had service the car never figured out the grill and thus never changed the air filter in 200K miles:

In reply to Ian F :

I have to agree on chrome or polished stainless not being the answer in the nostril of this thing. Fallback if the stock insert, but I gonna try the other idea just for something to keep the Minions busy!

And I also dont get the filter in the grill thing..I mean, it is a grat spot for it, but does the rad not need to come off in order to remove the grill? I have not really got to the point where I know how the grill shell attaches.

Thanks for the long post on the previous page. It's interesting to me, and I appreciate the time spent circling what you're talking about in the pictures.

And with a couple of hours of sanding, the DS is now done as far as making it flat.

Things to note are:

This is after a sanding off a guide-coat. Using the long sanding block, the guide coat should erase almost like chalk off a board.

The red shows the high spots in the panel. This is the point at which you have to stop sanding. If you keep sanding past the point where metal high spots show up, you ARE going to get waves in the finished panel.

The edges of the door all show up as metal high spots. A flexible ruler put across the door on edge will lay on metal on both sides and there should be no gap in contact across the door as you full it down the panel.

I finish the filler in 80 grit and will start the smoothing coats from there to eventually end up with 500 or 600 sealer coat to paint on...that is still a lot of work away.

DS done, on to the door on the PS

Funny thing to note...I sweep up the previous session's dust before I start a new session. I swear that it is the exact same amount on the floor each time; that is how little of this stuff stays on the car. That I just opened the third gallon of filler tells you how inefficient I am at this game. And Sandpaper, not a place to cheap out, you really have to get used to changing out paper even when it looks good. The stuff goes dull and when it does, rather than cut the tops off the high spots, it starts to follow the curves. When trying to wrap your head around the cost of a paint job, figure around $150 for sandpaper.

NOHOME said:

And I also dont get the filter in the grill thing..I mean, it is a grat spot for it, but does the rad not need to come off in order to remove the grill? I have not really got to the point where I know how the grill shell attaches.

Well, it's kinda difficult to describe, but I'll try.  Assuming your grill surround is from a '73 model you should see a some slots along the inner edge of the surround. If your grill is from the same year, there should be corresponding slots at the same locations.  Into these slots go a strange looking clip:

The bent part of the clip goes through both parts until it springs out and locks them together. However, removal and installation of these clips takes some practice.  I found a pair of narrow channel-locks works. You grab the clip exposed end of the clip on the grill side, flex it a bit and push it through the grill and surround into the cavity (where you hope it doesn't fall under something so you can find it again).  Then the grill comes off and you can service the air filter (and access the horns).

Sounds so easy when I type it, but damn is it a PITA for either step.  Plus, after 40+ years, the metal is brittle and they break easily. And because they are a two-year deal (were only used on the '72 and '73 E/ES cars) they are expensive ($4 ea from irollmotors). 

For my car, I'm tempted to modify the parts to accept modern plastic push-pins.

In reply to Ian F :

Interesting. I will have to sort through the box of clips and bits I got from the guy who sold me the car. It is quite comprehensive and I can only guess at what some are for.

The grill surround that I have has sheet-metal screw- nuts or whatever you call them. The light that is just coming on after your last post is that the grille surround stays on the car but the plastic piece comes out when doing a filter change?

Might be time for a dozen rare earth magnets and some epoxy adhesive.

And you are right, anything chrome-like in the grille opening is not going to work with the chrome surround and the chrome bumpers.

Pete

After 4.5 years of denial, I have to face the roof panel. It was another victim of the sandblast idiot and as a result has an interesting topography...roof panels should not have topography in case you were wondering.

Step one was to remove the damping tiles that were glued to the inside. That is not a job I want to do again and one that I really really kick myself for not doing when this was on the rotisserie. But it is done. What still needs to be done is to clean off the remainder of the glue. It was some good E36 M3 because acetone wont touch it and if I stick my palm on the roof, it pretty much sticks there permanent.

The good news is that I can get at both sides of the panel to work it back into a more singular plane. Not that it will escape the Bondo all together, but certainly there is room to improve.

In reply to NOHOME :

Yes, the surround stays on, the plastic part comes off.  Looking at the picture of your surround, it looks like someone drilled holes for regular screws.  Not uncommon, so the wonky spring clips may be gone.

Oddly, on my car some of the roof damping tiles fell off on their own.

OK, so while me and the shrinking disc were  emotionally involved for most of the day, the minions went and converted a SS gravel sorting mesh that was worth more than I want to know into this...

I am having a hard time not liking that.  Push come to shove I might toss the brand new bumpers into the bin and go with nerf bars before I abandon this look!

I might have them make a second one and then tape the front with tape and spray flat black paint from the back to see what the effect might be.

The other good news is that me and the shrink disk seem to have arrived at a working agreement and I have made some good progress on the roof panel. It will never be perfect, but should not require more than a skim of filler and the oilcans have been coming out. I would love to have a talk with either the person who blasted this car, or the poor PO who was the victim of said  moron. Based on what I bought , it would seem that the owner delivered a solid shell to the blasters to be blasted and primed, upon pick-up he noticed that they had ruined the car. And attempt was made to try and fix the roof and doors (hence no paint or primer) before all parties gave up.

NOHOME said:

Push come to shove I might toss the brand new bumpers into the bin and go with nerf bars before I abandon this look!

 

Yes! Like Karmann Ghias, I believe it is almost a crime to put bumpers on these. Great work as always.

Maybe earlier, split bumperettes?

In reply to wheelsmithy :

Yeah, I do like the cowhorns. But the ones I have are stock 1972. 

The filler work on the valence should not have started since the bumper brackets still need to be fabbed.

Love the grill.  As far as bumpers - I've never been a nerf fan, but that's a subjective choice.  I'd just say -- keep the back end in mine when deciding about the front end, and go with as minimal a bumper as you can.  The front and rear lines are so pretty.

In reply to MichaelYount :

The conflicting thing is that I am trying to keep this looking like a stock restored P1800ES from 10" away.

In other news, I did mention that the shrinking disc and I arrived at a working compromise. While the shrinking disc is a magic want for fixing sheet-metal, if used incorrectly, it is a magic wand for making a mess out of metal. Trying to stay out of Column B

So, while it might seem that not much has changed in the "After" pics, this is going pretty well. The DS along the edge had about 4 oilcans pulled out and while it looks mottled, would not need more than 1/6" of mud to iron out. There were 4 good depressions that when pushed out would oil-can back in; the proper rood shape is now firm.

My strategy is to work both the edges first and then go for the issues in the middle. The red circles show spots in the roof panel that are kinda like a new-born's frenulum. Need to put the proper tension back into the panel so that it is not flaccid. Maybe a Viagra based primer is what I need for this.

On the PS we started with this. NOt much different than the DS. What is appears is that the Yard Ape that did the blasting had enough pressure going that he was pushing the tin into the braces on the inside of the panel. He pretty much traced every one of them on to the panel.

After a couple of hours with a dolly and the shrink disc we get this far; looking good up to the B post. Still need to get rid of some flacidness along the rearmost of the three interconnected depressions. It is not oilcaning back and forth, but it is not a nice solid crown either. This was about 6 hours of beating and bashing and My arms gave up.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion where I will actually pour half a gallon of filler on this panel, mix it on the roof and skim the whole damn thing with a drywall spatula! Course, it will all be sanded off by the time I am done but that is the name of the game.

One of these days I will tell you the story about the blue paint that is on this roof panel, but not yet, too soon and it will only be funny when this is all done.

[insert words of encouragement]

Re: the oil can effect / warped metal. Have you tried the blow-torch-then-sponge-cool-down metal shrinking method before? An Australian man named Jeff has used it to seemingly good effect to fix these sorts of issues in his horrifically intense 240Z restoration. Here's one of the examples (that I could find in a quick browse) at 11min 30s into the video-

Oil can effect fix (metal shrinking) @ 11:30: LINK TO VIDEO

Good luck!

damen

In reply to badwaytolive :

The shrinking disc works on the same principle. You run a flat piece of stainless steel over the high spot and let friction make it really hot. Then you smash it with a wet rag. The high spot magically goes away.

When people do this with the torch, they always seem to be beating on it with a hammer when it is red-hot. That would stretch the metal. So I don't get it.

Shrinking disc is slower, but more controllable and less likely to cause a screw-up that I can't fix if I overdo a shrink. This is not a game for the impatient. There will be an easy 20 hours into this roof panel before I sling the mud. The good news is that any fear I had that the roof could not be repaired by me are pretty much put to rest. It's just a lot of work at this point.

Pete

I has a funny story about shrinking metal...I was maybe 11, Dad was fixing some crunched metal on the hood of our old Wagoneer. He was heating it up with the torch, holding an ice cube on it to shrink it, having good success from what I remember. Then he let me try it. Heated it up cherry red, called him over to check it. And then the metal just...fell out. A 2 inch hole where there used to be hood. I was sent home at that point.

NOHOME said:

In reply to badwaytolive :

When people do this with the torch, they always seem to be beating on it with a hammer when it is red-hot. That would stretch the metal. So I don't get it.

Hammering on the panel hot is usually all off-dolly so there isn't any stretching so long as you strike in the right place, have the right dolly placement, and you're not hitting too hard. 

With the right combination of heat and pressure in the right spots you aren't really shrinking so much as forging the high spots down. 

If you go that route you should use an oxy/ac torch to get it hot fast enough to keep the effected area localized. A propane torch (like the lead torch in the video above) heats a very broad area and typically distorts the metal (creating a crater) before it gets hot enough to effectively shrink with a hammer/dolly. The guy in the video above was probably doing little more with that spoon than ironing out the crater he put into it with the torch. 

In reply to Crackers :

I think I will stick with the shrinking disc. It does not wear out and it is quite controllable. Of course, same as the torch, it takes a while to figure out what the berkeley you are doing. It also does not harden the metal like the torch does. When learning how to shrink metal for this kind of repair, going slow is not a bad idea.

spent a few hours on it last night and making good progress. Another ten hours should do it!

The thing that screws most people up is the idea you have to get a panel red hot to shrink a panel. 

You don't actually have to get the panel hot enough to change color, let alone start glowing just to shrink a panel be it with a disc or a torch. 

I don't really advocate either way, my point was mostly that it's a very misunderstood process, even more so with a torch. 

In reply to Crackers :

The trick I learned for oil cans is that you need to find the spot outside of the oil can that “locks”  lt. Push around with a finger around the area until you find a spot that stops the oil an from going back. Shrink that spot. Repeat as necessary. It is not an exact science.

Pete

I think that's about what I do as well but I approach it differently. 

If you outline the dent and find the most unstable point there's usually a crescent directly opposing that needs to be shrunk. 

When you go to push it back out there's usually a small crown along that crescent that raises up proud of the panel before the dent pops out. The inner half of that crown is usually what's causing the oil canning. 

if i can derail the metalwork for a minute, a long way back nohome did some beautiful seam sealer application. 

im hoping to do the same in the next few days/week. what was the tricks/tips? i have a lot to do from where i did a bunch of seam welding. 

In reply to badwaytolive :

You know you spend too much time on YouTube when you start to recognize other YouTubers in the comments. LOL

One of Jeff's videos has a comment from another YouTuber I recognized as a member of the forum.

Not sure if posting to vent, celebrate or brag, but man, it sure feels good to have spent 3 hours in the shop last night and accomplished two tack welds!  That I cant even see!

Recall a while back that the side brackets for the dash were a royal pain, and how happy I was and then how bummed I was when I got the job done but had to cut it back out. Took till yesterday to get the last two upper mounts fabbed and in place. I sure hope they get to stay this time.

Picture is of the first attempt and you can just see the bracket. When the dash was re-positioned, it tilted this upper mount forward just enough to make it invisible from the backside when your welding torch is trying to do its thing. So it was a case of blind waving of a MIG gun until it accidentally tacked the bracket to the firewall. Did I mention the firewall is coated in nice flammable rocker guard that does not weld all that well?

Anyways, now I can pull the dash out, weld the brackets in solid and call this job done. I tell you..progress does not always feel like it!

Pete