1987 Chyrsler 5th Avenue - Exterior Trim

Justwondering

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I deleted the images and uploaded them again. See if it works for you. A steamer... Its been out there all day with 78%+ humidity and 99 degrees F and still has wrinkles. So I'm sure it will need some TLC before it is installed.
 

lowbudget

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Justwondering

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I did find the body side and back door molding clips that I need to reattach the trim on the car at clipsandfasteners.com.
Neither clipsandfasteners.com nor auveco.com had the other rectangular nylon rivets.
I looked through quite a bit (but not all) of grainger.com

Thought I'd give McMaster-Carr a shot.
 

Justwondering

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More searching and I believe this is called a 'Christmas Tree' fastener with a flat top and seal. Top is .375 x .625 (or 3/8 x 5/8) I'll have to measure the length.

Checked rtspecialties.net but didn't see it. Rechecked a couple of sites using the christmas tree term. Did find a site that describes all the possible ways to describe rivets...http://www.itw-fastex.com/catalog/index.php/dw/op/a/7/c/17/p/12?m=no

Started to send Marty an email and realized the image is 1.1 meg so I figured I better resize before I send email. Need to go back and take a pic of the length, somehow that didn't make it on my camera.

I will be full of so much trivial information by the time I finish this project car..
 

Justwondering

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Worked on cleaning the roof edges in preparation for installing the vinyl.
This is what I found:
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So, would somebody guide me in how to properly repair a 1.5 inch and 2 inch rust spot just below the fiberglass bonnet on my fifth avenue?

My head is swimming with info from the web and I don't know what to believe now.

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lowbudget

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I'd be drilling out the rivets and have a look at the metal under the cap as I'm pretty anal about rust. I'd then spot blast it to remove the rust and etch prime it. I've never had any luck with the rust neutralizers and have never used the encapsulators. If sand blasting use care not to stay in one spot too long and heat up the metal. If blasting is not an option I'd use naval jelly and steel wool.
 

Justwondering

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Here are the photos with more context. The blue painters tape indicates rust location just at the edge of the bonnet.
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I used a putty knife and scraped a little. Seems solid and rust seems more surface level. The metal is not fatigued but the paint is compromised. Lowbudget, my heart echos your concern of what can't be seen under the bonnet. My brain wants to use a quick, chemical solution. But I'm sure the vinyl will wait another week as I drill out the rivets and remove the bonnet.

Appreciate all viewpoints on rust issues. Only body work I've done so far is bolt together. This is my first time to this rodeo.

More pictures, more thrilling discoveries.. Stay tuned.

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Justwondering

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Got my glowhut light strips in so I removed the opera light panels.

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Remove the chrome piece under the opera light insert

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Remove the fastener at the top of the insert and lift up the tab to move it off the window.

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Drill out the two rivets at the bottom (located above the blue painters tape).

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Marvel at the nasty leaves, wasp nest, dirt dobbers nest, and general yuck that was behind there.

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lowbudget

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I made it home. I'm showing 4057555 or 4229803 for those retainers. Marty has the 4057555
 

Justwondering

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Glad you made it home.
I understood Marty was out of the states til the end of the month so I didn't pursue the item numbers.

How wide was your EL tape strip when you repaired your opera lights?
 

Justwondering

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Big long delay .. life certainly tends to get in the way of getting the vinyl back on this car.

I tried two techniques to get the closed cell foam on the bonnet.
1. Make a pattern, lay the pattern on the foam, cut it out, glue it to the car bonnet.
or
2. Roughly cut the foam to the desired size and tape it to the bonnet. After all pieces are taped to the bonnet, then glue them on - one at a time.

Each technique had good points and bad points. Using a pattern worked pretty well; however, its tough to get all the pieces to line up using freehand drawing on curved edges.
And taping everything to the bonnet assumes you have no breeze as well as that you have strong enough tape to hold the foam but not so sticky that it distorts the foam when you pull it off.

Blue painters tape wasn't so good. The green painters tape seemed to work better. Its adhesive is a bit stronger (at least on the roles I had).

Create your patterns
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Tape the top foam on the bonnet.
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Create more patterns for each of the sides.
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This time I tried marking the cut line with dots and then connected the dots with lines before I cut the foam.
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My very fancy work area-- bed of the diesel truck with the bonnet sitting on the dog carrier with short wood pieces set on top to level out the bonnet. I didn't want to glue this up on the car since I would probably drip contact cement. No reason to get that on the car and I wasn't feeling the joy of taping craft paper over everything today.

Things you need to get this job done.
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gloves, gallon of contact cement, clear tape (because it is stronger than painters tape and it was getting windy), stir stick, clean roller, and a chip brush (any brush you plan to throw away).

You will probably be able to do this whole thing with a quart of contact cement, but I have the headliner inside and all the trim to recover as well. So I bought a gallon container.

Audition the foam on the top. Make sure the top piece of foam comes down over the curve on the top. I know it was on there like that on the sides. Since my vinyl top was alreay missing across the back, I am assuming it came down over the top curve across the back. Just pay attention to how the foam looks when you peel off the vinyl.

It makes since that you don't want a seam right across the area that the vinyl roof material has a seam. Less likely for water to come in.

Put some tape across half the the top on the paint can. You can wipe your brush against that and it won't get cement all over the top of the can. Makes it easier to keep things clean enough to put the top on and back off again if you have to take a break.

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Paint the fiberglass bonnet (only half of it). I did left and right. It seemed to work well for me.
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I rolled the foam back over the other half of the bonnet. I made sure I put a 2x4 up there to be sure the foam didn't migrate as well as give me a place to put my roller and hand into to smooth out the foam.

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Justwondering

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I used the green painters tape to anchor the foam as well.

BIG NOTE: I found the contact cement make the foam 'relax' so that as the cement sat up for 15 minutes waiting to get tacky so I could bond it to the fiberglass bonnet, my foam wound up being about 1/2 inch to wide. You'll notice there are vertical seams in the portion across the back (with the window). I was able to use scissors/carpet knife to cut down the side pieces; but there was no way to do that the that hole across the back.

Just be aware that you will have to adjust the foam. The carpet knife with a fresh blade is definitely the way to go.

As you start in the middle laying the foam to the bonnet, use one hand to smooth it down to the bonnet. Follow that with the roller. Carefully uncurl more of the foam onto the bonnet til you get to the edge.

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As I pulled the top piece of foam down to cover the curve, you have to cut out a notch in order to get the foam to lay flat.

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I used the carpet knife to do a better job of trimming the foam.

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Before I had the contact cement on the foam, this piece across the back fit perfectly. Notice the overlap. I had to cut that much out of the piece to get it to lay flat. Otherwise it would have been too wide for the rear window cutout.

Then you finish off with one final picture and a reward for getting this part finished.
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Justwondering

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Nearly there.

Today I got the vinyl put on over the foam on the bonnet. It does not relax nearly as much as the foam. It is more forgiving about being repositioned than the foam. A roller was a waste of time. I used one hand to very firmly pull the vinyl into position and the other hand to separate the foam and vinyl and get covered in contact cement.

Biggest issue is getting the vinyl lined up correctly. I almost got it right.

So far I've used almost a half gallon of contact cement and 4 chip brushes. I'll use another couple of brushes before I am done because I am not doing everything in one day. The contact cement creates a skin on it if you leave the can open more than a few hours.

Pictures:
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Put your vinyl on the bonnet and cut out some of the material where the back glass would be.

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Ease the tension in all 4 corners by cutting slits within about 2 inches of the edge. Don't cut too far because you need to pull the vinyl over the sealer edge and to the back of the bonnet. Extra material will be glued to the backside of the bonnet.

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I folded the back vinyl back over the top. Put some craft paper between the layers. Then coated the fiberglass bonnet on the back with contact cement.

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Then coated the backside of the vinyl.

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Notice the notches cut out along the seam. This is to ease the tension on the curve. You'll do something similar (cutting slits) around the back window. You don't need to cut notches and remove material on the back window, just cut slits to relieve tension. DO NOT cut to close to the inside edge of the bonnet. It has to wrap around to the backside.

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The backside of the vinyl is now coated as well.

From here on out I have no pictures until I was complete.
My hands got covered in contact cement and I had to work quickly to avoid it sticking and wrinkling.

The good news is the vinyl is much more forgiving about being tugged into place than the foam. The foam just curled or went limp. The vinyl relaxes very little, but when it is close to being in place you can pull firmly to get it to lay correctly.

I tried using the roller to get the air bubbles out. Did not work.
Finally used an old t-shirt and rubbed it firmly with that. Worked much better.

The service manual says to line up the seam on the top/rear curved edge. While it was dry, I pulled and moved and yanked and smoothed etc that vinyl trying to line it up and see how it would lay. It did not want to lay flat. It didn't seem like it would fit left to right. Like it was too narrow. Plenty of material front to back.

I started the right side and worked to the left. Used one hand to lay the vinyl down and the other to pull it. If I needed to reposition, I put my hands between the layers and got them gooey with contact cement to encourage them to separate. Then used the same hand inside the t-shirt to smooth the material as I pulled with my clean hand.

Wrinkles until I pulled very firmly on the vinyl.

I got the top seam almost right. Its a little lower on one side than the other and the vertical seam on one side is a little further to the front of the curve.

Once I got the back done, I pulled the top, clean, dry vinyl back and draped it over the back. So the vinyl sides were touching each other and the the bonnet top and sides were now open to the air.

Painted the bonnet with contact cement, painted the backside of the vinyl with contact cement. But stayed about 6 inches away from the edge. I only painted enough vinyl to cover the side of the bonnet area and the top.

Once the bonnet was tacky, I began turning the vinyl material back over the top.
This part was a pain. You have to work quickly. You have two corners that have to be flipped over and everything wants to stick. I pulled things apart and repositioned many times before I liked the look.

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