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98 Metro "Dump Truck"; Starting With The Rear Wheel Wells
Topic Started: Sep 11 2010, 11:59 PM (5,990 Views)
mazade
Jack of All Trades, Master of None
[ *  *  *  * ]
Coming out from my lurking closet finally...
Also here to provide some shots of my attempt at repairing the understood late model metro 'rear wheel well rust-out', which this metro has/had.
This will be the second metro to be torn down & rebuilt here, the first one was a '92 4-door 5-speed that we got for $250 early last year and it has now served us well for one full year and 13K miles... this '98 2-door 5-speed I picked up for $100 and might have been in near-to-the-same beat-up condition as the '92 when we got it.
Somewhere in my head I've got a number of planned mods for this '98 as its getting worked back to life, and part of that is to make this Fun Sized vehicle as utilitarian & durable as possible, while still pumping out some improved MPG's.
The "Dump Truck" phrase comes from my dad's random accusation of someone in the household treating their(or his) vehicle like a dump truck, inside or outside :P
This is going to be one nice designed-to-take-the-abuse metro, or so I hope.

So, on with a few pictures:

Rebuilding & Patching the Rusted Out Rear Wheel Well - only the front halves rusted it seems...
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Still To Come, The Drivers Side Rear Wheel Well Rebuild
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The Overall Car Shots, as it is right now...
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This is and has been my back burner project for a few months now, a '77 Olds Cutlass resto has been the front burner project for as long as I've had this metro. I just finished that grate-work today so it was a bit of a milestone in getting the car back together.
Well Duh, already I've had one of the two G10's that it came with machined, rebuilt and ready to put back in, and the 2nd G10 is torn apart just waiting to be sent to the machine shop. The interior has all been bath-tubbed(a process I tried before and found to be super effective at getting all the fabrics clean) and the seats re-upholstered with the original fabrics(vinyl repairs were made as needed) and all of that is tucked in a closet waiting for the metro body to be finished. So I suppose I haven't been all too slow at working on this... but it really doesn't see that much attention.

Anyhow, I really hope to be of good use to this forum and its members.
I do appreciate all the good contributions you people have made thus so far.

Ok, this lurker needs to shut up and go back into the closet for now... :-/
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zippy
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great project and good luck to you! could you explain your "bath tubbing" of the interior? mine is super dirty :/
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bogs
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Duct tape heals all wounds

Looks like a great start, nice intro :) Welcome aboard.
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idmetro
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Ditto on the "bath-tubbing" Even though Bogs managed to get his metro in the back of a pickup I can't seem to get mine to fit through the bathroom door to access the tub...
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Johnny Mullet
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Fear the Mullet

I seen the rear wheel wells in my 98 Metro when I removed the interior panel. I put the panel back on and acted like I never seen it.
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t3ragtop
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Turbo3 and Twincam Tweaker

Johnny Mullet
Sep 12 2010, 07:44 AM
I seen the rear wheel wells in my 98 Metro when I removed the interior panel. I put the panel back on and acted like I never seen it.
note to self: don't pull the rear interior panels. :P

if i don't see it, i won't be compelled to fix it. ^o)
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bogs
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Duct tape heals all wounds

Ditto :lol
Parody of the Matrix
 

JM: Do not try and fix the wheel-well. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Metro Owner: What truth?
JM: There is no hole in the wheel-well.
Metro Owner: There is no hole in the wheel-well?
JM: You will see, that there is not a hole, if your interior panels haven't been removed.
:lol
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mazade
Jack of All Trades, Master of None
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Thanks for your interest and questions.
Well, I got to thinking about weight issues and what a good load might do with less-than-well-supported rear wheels/shock-towers, that concerned me...

Prerequisite to bath-tub cleaning... ya gotta strip the seats of their covers, which will employ the use of diagonal pliers/dikes/wire cutters to cut the hog-rings that hold the covers to the foam & frame pieces. The first time I did that it was moderately intimidating, but after 3 vehicle interior de-cover/re-covering I don't think twice about it. As for re-attaching of the covers, here's the kind of kit you'll be wanting. I got the red handled, stubby nose, hog ring plier and have been quite satisfied so far.
I'd recommend against getting the seat foam wet, or too wet... this summer it took over 2 weeks for a set of seat foams to dry on another vehicle we're restoring.

"Bath-tubbing"
1) I'd recommend at least a utility sink of 12+ gallons(that's what I first tried), but a bath tub is more ideal since it holds more(i.e. easier to fit whole carpets and/or rear seat covers in it) and it's easier to drip/dry things over than a sink
2) Cleaning products used: Simple Green or better yet BioZyme (I've used this with great results), and for spots/areas that those two might not touch Citrus-Based Contractors Solvent
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For general scrubbing of the whole carpet/cover... and next,
Heavy Duty Nylon/Plastic Bristle Brush(A tooth brush will work also, but will likely take more elbow grease depending on the spot).
For drying/dripping I've stayed away from the clothes dryer and opt more for a 'hung & fan-dried' approach. Depending on the strength of your bath-tub curtain rod, some items can be hung from that, but for the whole carpet I've used collapsible clothes drying racks.
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Mind you, the thing bent and flexed pretty good under that weight, while in the bath tub o.0 ... but it handled it.

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So, armed with a tub, some scrub brushes, and cleaning chemicals... well, also I'd hafta say from some experience trying this, a good bright lamp will help to see and differentiate all the various stains/colors that you're trying to get out - especially compared to hanging over the tub and trying to work around your shadow >_<
-Fill the tub a good bit so everything is submerged, and add 1-2 cups(approximate guess here) of the Simple Green and/or the BioZyme to the water while it's filling... nice warm water works, not to mention it's somewhat easier to work in.
-Submerge the seat covers fully, as best possible, and let them soak for a minute or two followed by sloshing them around in the tub real good. You'll likely have 2+ tub drain/refill sessions before the water isn't completely black... be prepared to get grossed out. Once the water is decently see-through after re-filling & some more sloshing, it's on to stain/spot cleaning.
-General scrubbing of discolored areas & spots with the bigger scrub brush is a good start, have some Simple Green/BioZyme in there. For spots that aren't leaving without a fight, that's where the Contractors Solvent comes in, and it's performed very well so far without affecting the base fabric color - spray the spot and work it with the nylon bristle brush. Some spots/stains take some work, but that approach has gotten out most everything I can think of except for cigarette burns(whoever owned THAT car before must have hated it).
-In the rather dry climate here the covers took about 24 hours to get fully dried with a fan blowing over them, expect the carpet to take a day or two longer, especially if you leave the jute padding/backing on while cleaning(I did).

I'm good friends with an auto-detailer(who I got the BioZyme from - which has a really nice smell by the way, not that Simple Green smells bad either), but I'm still liking this method vs having things cleaned with an upholstery vacuum(soaks and sucks at the same time).

Um, maybe it was a bit of an extreme case, but this 98 metro came with the 'rear seat back cover & floor-cover thing' spotted with small oil spills, a finely spread cup-full of sand and generous dose of the leftovers from a hay-bale, or two, being transported back there. That was kinda miserable cleaning that part now that I think about it, but it does look quite nice now... still with a few small pieces of grass that are buried in that fuzzy carpet mess. I think I used the bigger scrub brush and basically combed out most of the garbage, and flushed the tub of the sand and dirt a few times trying to keep it from getting back on the cover.


Thanks for inquiring, I'll be happy to provide further information and/or pictures should it be of good use...
Edited by mazade, Sep 12 2010, 11:16 PM.
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mazade
Jack of All Trades, Master of None
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For a week or so now I haven't spent any time on the metro to speak of...
Today was different, aside from cleaning off the metro's 5-spd transmission, I spent most of the day working on the driver side rear wheel well, and it's looking pretty nice ^_^

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All of that performed with our Lincoln Electric 140C welder - no gas this time.
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Next major feat to tackle... rebuilding the underside of the passenger door... sheesh.

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Edited by mazade, Oct 9 2010, 10:57 PM.
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cdmccul
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Looks like a great project!
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Bad Bent
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Facetious Educated Donkey

:+1
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mazade
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So, following Doctor Bill's guide, I've been playing with the 5 speed manual last-night and today - it's so "cute!"...
I checked in the '92 Metro Factory Service Manual, Page 7B-15, where it describes a difference between the 1st and 2nd gear synchros in the 'notch' width, which occurs three times around the outside circumference of the synchro.
The 1st gear synchro is described as having notch width of .32" and the 2nd gear has .38" notch width.
I measure the intended replacement 2nd gear synchro's notch width at .325"
Is there something wrong with this...?
I've waded through pages of "synchro" search here, but not come across anything about this.
Edited by mazade, Jan 5 2011, 04:05 PM.
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mazade
Jack of All Trades, Master of None
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So it's been quite a while since I've even been around the forum - the time passed has been a total blur for some time now.
There hasn't been any great amount accomplished on getting this metro back on the road, but I do have some updates that are worth noting.
- Aside from the 5-speed mentioned in my last post(which is rebuilt & done now), I've ended up working on, and repairing, the 5-spd in my brothers '92 Metro. The first linkage point inside the transmission had it's bolt back all the way out and found me unable to shift/drive, and stopped along side the road a few miles from our place. After dropping it from the engine bay and opening the case it's working beautifully now, and with all the loc-tite in there it should stay in great condition for a long time. The worn-down 2nd gear synchro has also been replaced; that repair was both fun and easy.

-The rebuilt rear wheel wells are quite sealed up now, utilizing numerous tubes of Vulkem 116(amazing single component rubbery Polyurethane adhesive/material), and a tube of Permatex seam sealer(this felt and behaved no different from Sub-Floor Adhesive - I wasted my money buying this stuff).

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-Played around with some more rock-protection for the radiator and engine components. The lower opening used 1/4" Hardware Cloth(metal screen), and was sealed over with Vulkem 116. The upper half will take advantage of heavier Expanded Metal and be left open to air-flow. This stuff will see further smoothing and be painted over to match.

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-Now comes a recent creation of particular coolness - check out the replacement 'third brake light'

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Although I designed it to fit the '98 metro 'third brake light' space, it's actually too big to fit within the rear-hatch-glass black border, and would be a much better candidate to replace the third brake light on the '92 metro's which don't have the black border on the hatch glass. This is going in my brothers '92 metro :rocker

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I also laid it out wrong for the LED's I used too: what you are seeing is comprised of 45 sets of 4 led's(180 LED's total). I assumed that these LED's were 3.0V each, but it turns out that they are 2.0V each, which means that I could effectively make them into series-sets of 6 or 7 LED's per set; so in the future I can practically go about sizing one up to fit the '98 metro hatch brake light spot, and get away with much less wiring.
Also, the 'suspended' blue things on the back side are 470-ohm 1/4-watt resistors, they will keep the LED's from killing themselves when the vehicle is running and putting out more than 12.0V, which is pretty much all the time.
Sometime I'll provide specs, parts-lists, and details for those who want to try this on their own.

Still on the sooner To-Do list:
-rebuild underside of passenger door
-body work on drivers side

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Old Man


Johnny Mullet
Sep 12 2010, 07:44 AM
I seen the rear wheel wells in my 98 Metro when I removed the interior panel. I put the panel back on and acted like I never seen it.
With age comes experience....... I saw the dust on top of the plastic spring covers and refused to remove the interior panel.......I did notice that when I drive in the rain the dust turns to mud !!
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Coche Blanco
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I don't like that you stole my idea for the 3rd brake light.

;)

I have wanted to do that for a while, I just never got around to it.
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