It's a very interesting car Duane, I'm glad you and Nick are the one's restoring it. You are moving along at a smoking fast pace, too!
Duane - if you need, my stash is available for pillaging. IFf you don't have my # still, PM me or Nick should have it
Alan, Well if you are offering.......................I need the 3 pieces of chrome that run on the back of the quarters and trunk lid. I am looking for very nice pieces to plate or finished parts. If they need filled then it would have to go to another shop and will not meet my timeline. Or if you know of a shop that could plate them within 3 months I could send in my old ones. Thanks. Duane
This is how I fixed that ugly trim issue. Mig welder and a touch of body filler.Lol All three pieces on my car were not only less than perfect, none of them lined up worth a darn. The two quarter pieces were installed different from each other and they were crooked.
Well it looks like Nick was busy again today. He had the sandblaster do the bottom of the car. The only place that needed fixed was under the driver side rear seat, and Nick will take care of that. Nick also looks like he painted, or at east primered the firewall and bottom of the car. Enjoy. Duane
Yes, I do have a date I am trying to hit. It's a personal thing for me, and I hope we get it done by then. The only reason it will be attainable is due to the volume of finished pieces we started with, the fact that the body was in really nice shape, and the amount of help I am getting from everyone, and especially Nick. I also want to thank my wife Beth, for coming up with the idea, and pushing her Chevelle back so we could do this first. I am not used to buying cars this nice. Usually I buy something that takes a year or so to get the body together. Here are 2 pics of Beth's Chevelle when I was ready to take it up to Nick's shop. This was actually the first time the body looked decent. Of course this was after I replaced 3/4 of the floors including the braces, 1 rocker panel, the panels under the rear seat, the entire trunk floor, the sections on both sides where the convertible top frame mounts to the body, the panel across the top of the windshield, and both dash ends. When James Weinman saw the car as I was taking it apart he told me they throw away better parts cars then this one. Oh well. Below is how it looks now. The only thing that was added since these pics is the White Convertible top was installed. Duane
Spit shining some trim this weekend... You never realize how much trim is on a car until you have to clean and polish every piece.
OK, Nick has been busy again. There was some rust along the bottom of the rear window channel, so we decided it was best to replace the tulip panel with a new one. Nick also cut out the rear wheel well area on the old quarter to repair the outer wheel house. He got the replacement panel from Don Eggers, and grafted in the pieces that he needed. Then, due to a series of vertical dents directly above the wheel house, (It looked like someone had slammed a jack handle into the quarter a dozen times or so.) we opted to put on a new Quarter Panel. I want to thank Tom Tutmaher for selling me his NOS quarter so this could happen. Nick has the pieces to fix the cowl area now, so I imagine those pics will follow shortly. Duane
At the rate you and your helpers (Nick and Adam) are going with this looks like you might be done well ahead of your deadline.
Nick fixed the cowl area in front of the dash. First he cut it out, then it was sandblasted, and finally he spot welded/bonded the new panel in. Duane
Duane and Nick, Thank you for posting all the pics. This project is looking great and you both are moving along at a record pace for a restoration. I am enjoying the info on all your doing to get this car back on the road. Its going to looks so good when its done and its also going to be solid. Nick you look like your really doing great quality work.