Had To Run Her

This was in Dec 08. I had actually come to a point where after a year and a half I could actually drive it! So I did... So sue me! Good thing I did. I found that the cam was WAY too hot. Took off like a banshee but not enough vacuum to run anything... including my new power disc brakes. Lesson learned and new cam ordered. Going to learn how to install a cam I guess.

BIG Thumbs Up!

I bolted the right fender on temporarily to hold the radiator support in place for the test drive. You can literally feel the suspension upgrades. It was friggin AWESOME!!!! Handled like a dream and had so much power it actually surprised me!!!! Think it scared the wife when I hit the gas and we did a rather nice burnout then took off like a bat out of hell... the interesting part was trying to stop it with little to no brakes. Had to gas it to keep vacuum up while hitting the brakes. Now THAT was interesting!

Soundin' Good!

Did I mention how friggin killer she sounds with the Pypes Performance Race Pro stainless exhaust? Yeah.... my neighbors knew I was out on a test drive. Had one come over when he heard me drive by to see how it went.

Lookin' Good!

Back into pit lane after a successful shakedown run around the block. My neighbor said it was more of a qualifying run... HAHAHA! For some reason I love this shot. Love the lines of this car and this shot just highlights them. Simple but timelessly gorgeous. I like it better than the 69 even... I know... I know... you 69 guys out there are going to hunt me down and torture me till I take it back.

The Celebration

OK... so perhaps we haven't finished the race yet but the Crew Chief and I had to celebrate the year and a half long process.

POR Yet Again

For future protection I decided, since all was exposed, to put on a nice layer of POR15 on the lower package tray before the rear filler panel got welded in.

80% Done

Once I got the filler panel to lay nicely, I started by plug welding it in from inside the trunk using 5/16" holes I made in the inner package tray. Basically, I made the old broken spot weld holes bigger. You can see where the heat from welding burned away the EDP coating on the window channel.

Getting Rid of Unsightly Seams

I opted to weld up the seams between the filler and the quarters. Two reasons... 1) I think it will look better in the long run and 2) It wont be collecting water and rusting in the future... or at least there will be less of a chance.

Seamless

A little Metal 2 Metal filler and it should be smooth as glass. One thing that can't be seen is that I welded up all the seams in the window channel as well. All the sheetmetal (roof, quarters and filler) are now seamless in the window channel. There wont be any water seeping in through cracks from now on.

Next Time

Next time I get a chance, the last step will be to plug weld in the lower edge of the filler panel to the weatherstrip channel and then it's filler and primer time.

Too Many Curves

I had intended to make a single L shaped or Z
shaped patch to fill this area but it had too
many curves in so many different directions
that I chose to make one flat piece for
the top first. It took me 3 hours to shape it
alone using nothing but hammers and dollies.

Slightly Big on Purpose

The top patch was left slightly big. I used a
manila folder to trace the shape of this area
from the opposite side of the car that was
undamaged, then reversed the template
and traced it on to this side. The result was a
perfect mirror image and a great fit...
You'll see.

Shaped and Tacked

After the trim. A wet rag makes an AWESOME
heat sink for the welding. I didn't have
anywhere near as many blow throughs.
Also... weld through primer makes a HUGE
difference. Well worth 20 bucks (nicer welds)

Good Basic Shape

For a beginner... not bad.
I was freakin' stoked at the overall results.
Would have cost my first born at a body shop.

Take That $90/hr Body Shops!!!!

End product. The vertical piece is also a flat piece
with the bottom edge folded over towards the inside
of the car like the original. Butt welded in an L
shape... edge to edge. Also fixed the lower piece
in the trunk gutter and the upper piece where the
window channel ends. I mirrored the other side
of the car for the design.

The Fit

Here's a look at how it mates with the filler panel.
Keep in mind that the filler panel is still not
tacked on the top and bottom,
that's why it seems raised in both ends.
But when held down... All I can say is...
Thank goodness I didn't screw this up!

Back at the Doctor's Office

After the cancer was removed, here's what needs to be resculpted.

Notice how nicely the metal under the filler panel sanded down.

It was mostly surface rust. The filler panel took the brunt of the damage.

Here's the First Patch

Actually...two. The window channel was a flat piece.

Then it was welded to an L shaped piece I shaped with a hammer and dolly to match the shape/roundness of the quarter. The welds aren't beautiful now but they turned out much better.

Closer Look

A better feel for how the L shaped rounded quarter patch meets the flat stock channel patch.

The First Finished Quarter Panel Patch

It looks much better after I ground down the welds. All it needs now is the other 4 or so patches to finish this area and some All Metal filler.

With so much of the metal gone... I temporarily laid the replacement filler panel from NPD in place to correctly measure how wide the patch pieces needed to be and how long a flange to give them to attach to this new filler panel. Hope this works out or the panels will look like they don't align right.

Let the Major Surgery Begin!

Just a quick before shot before I pull off the rear

window/trunk filler panel. It wasn't in bad shape but

its window track area is a little lumpy from rust...

so why not play it safe.

Lower Bottom Corner of Rear Window Channel

A good view of what's waiting for me when

I remove the filler panel.

Not sure how I'm goint to fix these holes since

I can't afford to get a new quarter

How to Remove This Dang Thing?

No matter where I looked or who I asked no one could

give me a good answer. This thing had enough spot

welds on it that it was almost welded straight across

the whole piece. I decided to get a better feel for the

situation by removing as much as possible with a sawzall.

Where to Make My First Incision?

I cut as close to the upper end

(before the window channel) as possible.

Then cut on the inside of the butt joint

where the filler panel and the quarters meet.

Easier to Find the Spot Welds

With the filler piece now pulled/rolled slightly towards

the rear it was a lot easier to find the spot welds on the

upper end, the weatherstrip channel and the flanges

that mate the filler to the quarter. Notice how much of

the quarter flange needed to be cut off though.

Ought to be a joy to fix.... WHATERVER!

OUCH!

Though I knew some metal was going to

have to be replaced... DAMN!

Not this much! This shape will take a lot of patience

to reproduce and I'm a beginner with no funds

to buy a new quarter. Ought to be a growing experience.

Again... WHATEVER!

Overall Look

So here's a view of what I found when the panel was removed.

Look closely and you can see the metal missing on the

passenger side quarter. Look closer on the driver's side quarter

and you'll see the marks where I intend to cut the quarter

and fabricate new pieces. Again... I've never come

close to tackling something like this before.

Never welded until I got my hands on this car.

Pray for me... Really, really hard.

Extreme Close Up

I may not be the best welder or body guy in the universe but

I'm quite happy with my third sheetmetal repair.

The entire repair was fabbed from scratch

out of flat stock metal. You have no ideas how many

little patches this actually includes and how

many compound bends there are.

Perspective

Here's a better idea of the size of the

repair of the passenger side quarter

My Car Models

Here are the professional car models I got to pose for me.

Dang they're expensive!

The before shot

Here's a good before pic of the radiator mount and

all the accessories before I began.

It really looks far worse than it actually is.

It was mostly surface rust.

Much Better

Finally starting to get that new car look!

75% Complete

Finally got the radiator mount POR'ed and mounted

YEAH!!! Progress!

Finally got the engine and tranny onto car.

I guess it isn't half bad since this month is the

one year anniversary of us getting the car.

You Like It... You Like It?

Awwww... you know you do!

All I had time for today was the install of the headers, plug wires

and some of the accessories. Dang plug wires takes longer

than you'd expect when you're cutting them to size.

Wiring Time

Now it's time to tackle the spaghetti of wires this thing has.

Nope... not replacing them. Wish I could but can't afford it.

Don't worry.

I used to handle aircraft avionics issues once upon a time...

We can make it better... stronger ... faster...

We have the technology...

Stop Looking at the Hose

Yeah... yeah... I know. Looks horrible.

Ran out of cash for the rest of the year.

I guess I'll have to live with it until I

can the A/C system squared away.

Driver's Header

Here's a side view of the Summit Racing brand

$178 ceramic coated headers. I know a lot of people have

questions about their fit and ground clearance.

I can't see how anyone should have ground clearance

issues with these. They barely hang lower than the subframe.

You'd have to come damn close to bottoming out

the car to do it. Front tires would probably take out the

inner wheel housings if you did and you'd have

bigger problems than a bent exhaust.

Header Side Differences

Here's the difference between the left and right ceramic Summit headers. The passenger side went in super easy. The driver's side was an extreme pain. It wont drop in from the top NOR go in from the bottom (it wont clear the power steering box or dipstick tube). My solution was to raise the front end so the wheels are off the ground then remove the steering box attach bolts and push it down. The wheels will want to pivot in strange directions since the links are still attached (that's why I had the wheels off the ground). Now I had plenty of space and once the header was in place I put the steering box back and the alignment didn't get messed up.

The Before Shot

Well... what do you expect from a 40 year old engine?

It even still has the canister style oil filter.

I had thought it just needed new valve cover gaskets and paint but I found huge deposits of sludge and carbon on the valves and intake. Some... unknown substance in the oil pan and the water jackets were nearly clogged with rust and hardwater, so off to the machine shop it went.

Tape and Prep

Since I still needed to clean the surface before paint, after the trip to the machine shop, I taped every openning with EXTREME prejudice. I used vinyl tape. It held up like a champ with no peeling, melting or loss of adhesion. There was no way any of the POR metal etching/cleaning liquid was going to mess this up now. Check out the yellow color and hazy gray it gave the metal. You should see it up close. This stuff's amazing. I'm hoarding the left overs.

POR Engine Enamel Results

POR engine enamel looks great when done.

Drawbacks- because it uses black POR15 as primer it needs a lot of coats to cover and it is super thin so you can imagine how many. Also, it's so thin, brushing is WAY too difficult and looks bad.

Good Points- The POR engine kit comes with more than enough paint. It also dries fast, so you can do multiple coats in a day, I started early morning and finished in the mid afternoon.

Suggestions- Spray this stuff dont brush it. I sprayed it and I'm EXTREMELY happy with the results! It shines like you can't believe. I'd recommend this stuff in a second!

POR 20 Aluminum

After red dried, I brushed on the POR20

aluminum high temp paint.

Looks good so far, let's see how long it lasts.

Correct Color

Sorry Purists- Orange is just not my favorite color ;-P

This pic gives a better idea of the true (real life) red color.

I was hoping for a more fire engine tone but

this is all POR carried in red (kind of a wine tone).

Front View

Here's a look with valve covers and Pertronix II

distributor installed. I had planned to paint the

Chevrolet script on the covers with silver but

that turned out to be harder than expected.

So I left well enough alone.

Money Shot

Here's a nice shot. Gotta say I'm impressed with the

look of the POR-20 high temp aluminum paint

Nice Closeup

What can I say

I just liked the way this looked

So Close Yet So Far

I'm so close to setting the car back

down on four wheels that I can taste it!

Low $$$ Wheels

I know these are not top of the line wheels but

I still think they look killer. Looks much better with

discs showing than when the drums were installed.

Minne Me and Minne Her

Here's the pit crew admiring Dad's handy work