Who wants to see RUST!!!!!

Discussion in 'Members Rides' started by buickgs350, Dec 29, 2009.

  1. techg8

    techg8 The BS GS

    IMO theres nothing wrong with bondo if youre going low buck.

    Not everyone can afford to do a frame off. Put your money where it counts

    Shoot some rattle can black on it, dump your cash into your 455 build and Get that beast back on the road where it belongs:3gears:

    good luck
     
  2. 71ConvtSkylark

    71ConvtSkylark Well-Known Member

    I agree, the key is to get metal under the Bondo. There are very few welders out there who can weld without warpage and alomst every body man uses Bondo after welding in patch panels. So if your Dad wants to practice, read up, then tackle it. If you get some warpage, hit it with a shrinking hammer, make it low and skim it with Bondo. Its not a show car, dont treat it like one.

    Jon
     
  3. 65specialconver

    65specialconver kennedy-bell MIA

    Why not let dad weld on it,then give it to your 4x4 buddy.Start building the 455 anyway,so what if the cars not ready for a motor yet.Your going to have to build it sometime,right?
    And why not a cali GS/post body,you know they are lighter dont you?
    A popsicle box,that's classic!:Dou:
     
  4. buickgs350

    buickgs350 Well-Known Member

    well your right it's not a show car, and I don't want a show car but I want a nice looking hot rod, I want it to be very very straight with decent paint. I want people to oogle it as I go by. My dad says i've got way to high of expectations but a car guy can dream can't he? He himself built that 70 Nova in 82, albeit back then it was easyer to find a non rusty car, and it already had the 396 and four speed, so all he did was build the 396, got a shop to build fender flares for him because there was a little rust there, but not really anywhere else, and got a shop to put the 4.56's in. He had it done in a year, however he was making I think 13-14 dollars an hour back then which would be a bit more now.

    I'm mortified to even think of trying my own sheet metal repair, like I said, I want an impressively straight body, and I know that without x amount of years experience it would look a mess. I thought about doing the flat black thing with crappy body but lots of go fast, but, if my dad can build a sexy black Nova that goes like a raped ape on cocaine in a year, I can damnwell do a small buick to big buick swap, and get the body done properly.
     
  5. buickgs350

    buickgs350 Well-Known Member

    I just like the look of the hardtop's I think it's a bit classier looking, dads got the post car, and it kinda suits nova's but I think it looks a bit tacky. The hardtop makes it look so much sleeker.
     
  6. buickgs350

    buickgs350 Well-Known Member

    Just for reference, heres dads, still sporting the same black laquer it's had since 82, and an older picture too, dads paint is definately not show quality, but it definately looks awesome, it doesn't have mettalic or 20 layers of clearcoat, any actually, lol. I'm not looking for anything fancier than this really.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  7. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    The only good thing about this is that poor car did not fall apart while you were driving!

    If you want a fun street car while you wait for a good 69 then buy my 76 Century for $500.... I have too many cars and I want to see the 76 on the road again... only 1 hour from you and the 76 has no rust, and it runs and drives... swap your 455 in that and have sleeper till you have cash for your dream car.
     
  8. Golden Oldie 65

    Golden Oldie 65 Well-Known Member

    Please don't misunderstand this because it is not my intention to cut on your dad, but I think all parents should do anything they can to encourage their kids to be the best that they can be and it doesn't appear that he is doing that. He built his own car and it looks great. Did anyone tell him that his expectations were too high? In my case, if you want to see me do something just tell me that you don't think I can. I've always been that way but that's just me.

    None of us were born with the knowledge and skills that we have now, we had to learn it, and most of us learned it through experience. You can read all the books and buy all the welders and tools you want, but without hands on experience you're never really going to learn it. If you really want to do that car then do it. Know from the beginning that you're going to spend some money on it and a lot of time. There will be good days and bad days and you're going to make mistakes. We've all made them. The best we can hope for is to learn from our experience, and if we're smart we'll also learn from our mistakes. What's the worst that can come of it? It doesn't turn out perfect? Don't worry, none of them are. Who knows, you might surprise yourself and have a super nice car when you finish and the best part is that you can say you did it yourself. And believe me, that truely is the best part. So go tell your dad that you want to do your car and you would really like his help and support. I think he'll come through for you. And if you need advice all you have to do is come here and ask. I am certain that no one will hesitate to help you through it in any way we can.
     
  9. 71ConvtSkylark

    71ConvtSkylark Well-Known Member

    Look at it this way.... to get a straight, very straight black car, it will run you about 10K in body and paint. Black is the absolute hardest color out there to paint because of the zero flaw you can have on the body. Personally, I would choose a more forgiving color and play with a welder. Youd be amazed how much wavy nature you can get out with primer surfacer. Anyhow, if you do this yourself and have parts totalling $2,500 then you can screw up 4 times before you are in the red.

    I know its intimidating, so go get some sheet metal pieces from the junk yard and start welding them together. Cut them apart, and reweld them. Play with but welds, flanging etc.... Practice on teh stuff you dont care about. Make yourself a welding cart instead of buying one. Build something for the house... Just practice practice practice.

    Jon
     
  10. guyrobert

    guyrobert Guyrobert

    I'd go for it!
    Look in the interior for a parts car, or clean body.
    I'm slowly putting together the parts to redo my beater 75 Lesabre convertible with about the same amount (maybe more) of rust.
    I picked up a 4 door post with a really solid 455 from an estate of a 94 year old lady for $900.00
    Will swap the front clip and rear, salvage the floor boards and rockers and do this over the next year.
    I expect a really strong driver that I don't have to worry about where I park or if it's raining.
    Good Luck.
     
  11. 69GS400s

    69GS400s ...my own amusement ride!


    Excellent Post, Bill :beers2:

    My first real car was a '69 Sky back in 1980 when I was 18 yrs old. Got it for $100 .. it had the chevy L6 250 in it that didn't run too good. I didn't know ANYTHING about cars, had no tools, and Dad wasn't too encouraging either ...

    ... but I went to the Library and read, bought the chiltons, borrowed some tools from my neighbors and ripped into it. This was the beginning of the summer - I had a motorcycle at the time and in the fall was to start college in Buffalo NY (where bikes aren't real good transportation Nov - March).

    I worked on it all summer with parts of the motor all over the garage, and about a week before school was to start Dad said "Come on - lets call a tow truck to take it up to the corner mechanic and I'll pay for him to put it back together"

    HA !!! That REALLY pissed me off - I knew I was close, and by the end of the week I had everything ready. At about 10pm I turned the key and prayed ... that massive Rochester MonoJet Carb I rebuit the week before (first time rebuillding a carb...) sent huge volumes of air/fuel down the intake I had gooped on ... and it roared to life. That nite, I think I put about 1,000 miles on it just driving around with the biggest of smiles. That Sky had 110,xxx miles on it then and 6 years later when there wasn't much left to the body, I had almost 300,000 miles on the clock

    When it broke up at school, I fixed it because I couldn't afford to pay someone else to do it. I didn't know how, but figured neither did the mechanic at one point.

    30 years later Im still not a great (or even good) mechanic, but Im not afraid to try ...
     
  12. jsevans12

    jsevans12 #'s matching 72 GS350

    looks like my car but mines a 72 GS and is pretty much a rust bucket
     
  13. buickgs350

    buickgs350 Well-Known Member

    thanks for the encouragment guys. funny you say that it's good that it didn't fall apart while driving, when i took it apart one side of the front clip wasn;t even bolted on, and the other bolt was finger tight. Im not dead set on black, it's either going to blue or black. the frame is fine everywhere but the last couple feet, its pretty rusty, has a couple holes and is very thin. no offense taken, i wont get into it but my dad is not exactly wonder dad. Im still pretty unsure that I want to tackle welding my car up, my moms wanting me dead or alive as it is just for pulling thr car apart in her garage. It seems like a smarter move for me at this point anyway to try and find a clean car. w'ell see what happens. Id like to be able to concentrate on putting the drivetrain together and building the mill is by far the best part.
     
  14. buickgs350

    buickgs350 Well-Known Member

    Let me try not to be longwinded with this and clarify a bit of why dad doesn't support me with this car, because I know it seems quite odd. When I was 14 dad left my mom after 20 years of marriage for a younger european girl. Long story short it wasn't a pretty divorce, and he likes to lecture me and my young bro and mom bash whenever at his place. Im not fond of him in the least.
    When I was 16 I was really starting to get into cars in a big way and wanted a chevelle. He convinced me that I should get a Nova, so he helped me buy a 70 327 2 door Nova. It was 4500 dollars, I payed what I had, 1500 and dad and grandpa loaned me the rest. I worked the money owing off, and handed dad the cheque one day and he wouldn't take it, he said don't worry about it, it's blood money. Well as you can imagine I wanted to build a cool hotrod, do the engine, trans, and rear end, etc. And do bodywork last. Well apart from the mom bashing and lectures everytime I went over to work on the car or otherwise, one day he decided my car should have a frame off resto, I came one day and the whole front clip was off the car and he was loosening frame bolts. he knew what I wanted to do with the car but inspite of that he decided to pull the whole thing apart without consulting me.

    Anyway, time wore on, a couple years went by, I had the frame stripped, painted por 15, we completely disasembled the front suspension, sand blasted everything and painted, looked brand new. We installed new balljoints, every new bushing, new disk brakes, new brake lines, line lock, new rear leaf springs, new rear bushings. Damn the interior was mint in that car, like brand new, and it had never been replaced. I built a pretty wicked little 350 for it, ported double hump heads, shaved, stainless 1.94 and 1.60 enlarged exhuast valve, comp 268H, roller rockers, flat tops, headers, edelbrock intake, moroso stamped valve covers. It was trick, arp head studs, super thin steel shim head gaskets, arp bolts all through. Would have made about 340-350 horse, 10:5:1 compression.

    Basically I got fed up with dads control freak attitude towards my car, he wouldn't even let me put it in my name, I was sick the day we were going to pick it up so he put it in his. Not to mention his 2 hour long rants about my mom, and other things. So I gave up, I flogged the car for 2500 bucks, after all that work, I sold it without the motor, which is now rotting on the floor of his car tent since a couple years ago. So captain dumbass that I am basically gave up the one chance I had at building a decent rod. It was 3/4's of the way there. This infuriated dad, you don't even want to know how mad he was. And then I sporadically bought the GS and he went through the roof. I never asked for his help with it, but even so he basically told me that i'd made my bed and now I have to sleep in it, when I discovered all the **** wrong with it.

    So here I am today, probably out a good 12000 dollars since I was 16 on both cars, WASTED. It's not easy to build a car without some help from a dad.

    Sorry guys, I hate telling this story it's getting old.
     
  15. buickgs350

    buickgs350 Well-Known Member

    Here are some memories.
    ****, this thing was pretty straight, I think about this alot.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  16. Golden Oldie 65

    Golden Oldie 65 Well-Known Member

    Sorry to hear about all this. Looks like you had a nice Nova going there.

    I guess I am one of the lucky ones. My dad was into old cars but when I was growing up his old cars were Model T's, Model A's. 30's and 40's cars, etc. He gave me my first car, a nearly totaled `64 Ford Galaxie XL hand-me-down from my sister, and told me if I can fix it I can have it. So I bought another body at the local junkyard and removed pretty much everything but the roof and hauled it home. Dad helped me with some of the body work, although dad's way of helping often times was to show me how to do it and then leave me on my own, which, in retrospect, was probably a good thing. I got it ready and he sprayed it for me. I've had the curse of being a perfectionist all my life and the car turned out pretty nice. I was only 16 at the time but I was probably more proud of that car than many I've had in my lifetime because it was my first.

    I wasn't always the little angel that I am now :laugh: :laugh: and dad and I didn't always see eye to eye and had our ups and downs like most everyone else. We got closer as we got older and I know this may sound impossible to you right now but don't be too quick to give up on him completely. My dad passed away in 1986 and I still miss him terribly.

    I hate to go on and on here but when my son was about 9 I bought a `63 Nova SS for him. I got a good deal on it and put it away with the intention of that car being our father/son project when he was old enough. Well, he never got interested in cars. Not even a little, and he is now a theater/music major in college. This makes my wife and I a little nervous but we still support him 100% and who knows, maybe I'll rub off on him eventually and he'll want an old Buick :grin: Right now he wants a Prius :ball:
     
  17. tlivingd

    tlivingd BIG BLOCK, THE ANTI PRIUS

    I'm going to say go for it and do it yourself.

    You will have some body filler over the steel EVERY patched car has some.

    I'd look in your area for night or weekend classes for welding. I'm not sure about your area but they have returning education classes and the like. You maybe able to contact your local welding supply and talk to the sales guys and see if they know someone or somewhere to get lessons.

    sheet metal is one of the hardest things to learn to weld on. find some scrap steel (bed frames make good scrap to practice on. First learn to lay a bead on a single piece of steel. next try to join 2 pieces. etc etc. Next go to a junkyard and get a long door. Try to get a 70's vintage as the steel will be similar in quality. Cut portions of the inside of the door out and try to weld them back in. Dont forget to clean the paint and rust and oil off of the parts first.

    Then head toward the outside of the door and basically cut the door into 2 pieces and try to weld it back together. Look on youtube and other parts of the internet for instructional videos. However a night class would be your best bet.
     
  18. tlivingd

    tlivingd BIG BLOCK, THE ANTI PRIUS

    Find a wrecked Prius and put the drive train in the Nova. It is a chevy after-all :laugh:
     
  19. 71ConvtSkylark

    71ConvtSkylark Well-Known Member

    Makes me appreciate my childhood...... However, my Dad was not into cars... not even a little. Everything I learned, I learned the hard way or through friends. Not having your Dads help or advice doesn't stop you, it just means you have to find alternative sources for information. His loss..... Keep your chin up, you did the right thing here, regardless of money. I bete everyong here on the board would attest to spending more moeny that he/she ever got out of a car. Its part fo the hobby.... you dont come out ahead on this stuff.

    Jon
     
  20. buickgs350

    buickgs350 Well-Known Member

    Thats cool, 64 galaxie is a reaally cool car. And those shoe box Nova's are where it's at, a nice solid cammed 327 with dual quads and 11:1, really well balanced would just hummm in one of those, especially with a four speed. Im sure your son will appreciate the car one day. Im still pretty unsure of what I'm going to do, deciding to just go for it is all well and good, but I don't mean to sound lazy but I'm not looking for a 20 year frame off resto project, I want to slap a 455 in, get decently straight body, have all my pot metal re chromed, paint the bottom black, and voila, hotrod. I just can't even begin to comprehend how I would go about creating rocker panels out of thin air. and somehow putting metal where there isn't between the wheel wells, and the trunk, and replacing the trunk pan,, seems like a lot. The car needs to have everything rebuilt as is, needs balljoints, disc brakes, bushings, new front sheet metal except hood.. I hate being at sqaure one again. Theres pretty much the same two options I started with here, somehow try and fix it, or get a clean gs, and swap in the 12 bolt and build the 455.
     

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