(It is July 22, 2006 and I am just home from a 4 week vacation to Africa. Don has been busy while I was gone and here are the progress reports.)
The chalk line shows the area to be cut out and replaced with the new floor panel. You can see all the rust holes in the floor here. This Chevelle had seen better days but when we are done with this frame off restoration it will be better than original.
Here is where Don starts to cut out the rusted floor panels.
While it is rusty, the brace is sound. All it needs is wire brushing and primer and paint. This is the brace under the floor. The floor was spot welded to this brace approximately every inch. Don had to drill out the spot welds with a spot weld cutting bit and then use a power chisel to cut the floor away with out damaging the brace.
This is a test fit of the replacement panel.
Here the panel is screwed in place in preparation for welding. After the panel is welded in place the screws will be removed. Don would remove one screw, weld, then remove another screw and weld again. He did this until the entire assembly was welded completely around with a solid bead. He worked in alternating areas to keep the stresses low as he welded to prevent the heat from deforming the new panel.
The left side in this photo has been welded in place. The screws are gone and Don has ground down the weld beads. That hole in the floor is a relic from how GM primed this car. They dipped it in the primer and the excess ran out through that hole!
It is now VERY hot in South Carolina and Don is only able to work on the car for a few hours each morning early and then for a couple of hours from 9-11 PM each night.
June 27th, 2006
Don worked on many small parts that fit in his shop sand blast booth. The hood hinge shown shows one side pre and the other post sand blast.
Don is going to re sand blast the center assembly that is pitted. He will check if the parts we have from the other car is in better shape and use that one or he will use the filler primer and repaint it. This piece is down in the hood and not visible but we dont want to hide problems.
June 29th, 2006
Don wants to get the body back on the frame by the weekend, job progress permitting. Here you can see a skim coat of filler that Don used to smooth the firewall.
July 4th, 2006
Both floors are painted underneath now. The rear floors (under the back seat) are installed and ready for paint, Don is still hoping to get the car back on the frame by this weekend. Vernon and Don are going in the morning to get a 1966 Chevelle convertible that a guy gave him. This car, the second 1966 will also supply us some parts for the project.
July 12th, 2006
I think right in this time frame I was off messing around in Africa. Don hurt his back and had to take some time off.
This area was rusted out too....this shows all the rust cut out and just needing a final sanding and primered. Don replaced the rusted metal with new metal that he cut out of the convertible. Don does not have the frame under the car, because he wants to make sure it is ready.
July 14th, 2006
In Don's words - "I hope to have the body back on the frame tomorrow. The heat index is 106 here today, I had to come in awhile. The firewall looks pretty good now. I did it in gloss black since that's what I did the inner fenders in. I plan to nap awhile then go back out about 9 PM". (this guy is a glutton for punishment :-)
July 15th, 2006
Don has the body back on the frame!
In the next photo this view you can see a chalk line that shows an area that will be cut out and replaced with a purchased patch panel made specifically for this type of repair. This was such a common area for rust in the Chevelle that these panels were available to fix it. The area will be cut out, the new piece welded in, then sanded and painted. The rear bumper area is standard and not cut like I thought when I first looked at it. There is a valance piece that goes over this edge and then the bumper goes on over that.
July 25th, 2006
Don has been sanding on the car for a few days now. This is long slow work. He finished the top and windshield areas. Look at the windshield sections as the came out of sand blasting and then scroll down to the the area as of today.
After sanding Don put another coat of primer on the car in final prep for painting. After all the primer and sanding there will be a light tack coat of paint, a second tack coat and then the heavier final coat. Then wet sanding and then repeat.
Don replaced the rusted out assembly with a replacement parts as shown here.
If you look here you can see that the channel for the windshield is a water trap. Most of the Chevelle's are rusted out in this area because of it.
July 30th, 2006
Don sent these photos today... You can see the gloss of the firewall and in the middle shot their is some glare from it. This will be repainted with semi-gloss. The final shot is of the fender well. Again we will be repainting here to cut the gloss.
Aug 4th, 2006
It is still summer in SC :-). That means it is so hot that Don is only able to work on the car a few hours a day. Don gets up early in the morning and works for three or four hours, then he knocks off for the afternoon and goes back out after supper and works for an hour or two.
These photos are of the flat area between the seats and rear window. This the area before the top panel is installed.
Aug 5th, 2006
Scope out the firewall and front floors on the inside now. It is painted and ready to go. The first picture is a reminder of what Don started with.
This is what it looks like now. Truly amazing!
Aug 10th, 2006
Don has continued to work on the body as shown here. He is beginning to paint more and more of the areas. The paint is a semi-gloss black. the area where you would rest your arm in back and the pillar posts is gloss black
Don reports that the car looks better than the pictures show.
Aug 14th, 2006
Don repainted the firewall to semi-gloss black. The gloss black was clearly going to be a nightmare to keep clean. Every speck of dust would show on it.
Don has now installed the insulation in the roof. The original material was a tarpaper like material. He installed a new high tech sound and thermal insulating material. This is a sound deadening and insulating material. It is heavy aluminum foil coated on both sides with a foam mat between the layers. He got it from Lowe's home improvement and we think it is a great replacement for another famous material used to do this. The other material would have cost more than $1000, this cost $57.
The next two shots are of the replacement dash he found. Don is doing some preliminary sanding and will sand blast this part in the next few days. He ran out of sand blast grit and has to get some more.
Sept 6th, 2006
Don worked on the trunk today. This is a mess and these pictures show it being revealed as he opens up the work a previous owner did on it. Don will cut this all away in preparation for the installation of the new trunk panels.
In these next two photos you can see that the braces are rusted. We ordered replacement body braces and will change these out as the restoration of this area proceeds. The gas tanks mounts under here so this has to be rock solid.
Sept 7th, 2006
Today Don finished cutting out the trunk floor. He also cut out the bad repair done by the previous owner on the drivers side rear quarter panel. He still has some final cuts and grinding to do before he starts fitting the replacement panels in here. Don allowed two weeks for the repair on this area and he is well ahead of schedule so far.
September 15th, 2006
Done started to lay in the new truck floor panels today. Don has to grind away all the old welds so it will all be smooth when he is done. He pre-fits the floor inserts and once he is satisfied with that he will start the screw down, weld in process.
September 29th, 2006
Don has been working on the trunk and rear window area for the last few days. The trunk floor is cut out so he can stand on the garage floor and work more comfortably on these areas. Don is making new sheet metal inserts for these rusted places and welding them in and grinding down the joints so you can not see where the patch was made.
October 8th, 2006
Don shot this picture to show the progress on the rear window frame area. He has put a lot of work in this area making it sound again.
Here is a shot from the front showing the newly installed headlights.
October 12th, 2006
Don has installed the grill.
November 10th, 2006
I returned from South Carolina 2 days ago. I spent 10 days with Don, fishing and working on the car. I got a chance to do a very little bit on this project and to talk to Don at length about it. The last section I will do on the website will be a lessons learned, and their have been many. Now for some new photos showing what we have been up to.
November 2nd, 2006
Today we sanded and prepped the fenders for paint. I got an appreciation for how much work this will be. The fenders as received had a coat of primer on them in these photos we are roughing that up in preparation for final paint. The guy in the red shirt is me Bob and the handsome one on the right is Don :-)
November 3rd, 2006
Today Don shot the final paint on the fenders and the door hinges.
November 6th, 2006
Today we hung the doors. This is a big job. With the two of us it took approximately 1 1/2 hrs per door. The hinges allow them to be bolted in place in all three dimensions. You have to align front to back, top to bottom and around the centerline matching the gaps all around. We got them as close as the factory would have. The car is going into a body shop to have a number of small dings pounded out and they will touch up this alignment as well.
This next shot is of Don adjusting the Zoop's billet pulleys and custom brackets. We added an A/C system to the car which made Don have to move things. There is limited clearance and we are getting to the point where this needs to be done before the fenders are in place. It is sort of a dance from here on in the engine compartment. The inner fenders have to go on to allow Don to mount A/C components and route cables and hoses.
Here we are with both doors on and both fenders. We did find we had a hitch here... we had used the inner fenders from the '66, they don't match... argh. We have ordered the new ones and Don should have them in 3 days. They need to be painted then, installed and the fenders can be put back on at that point.
November 11th, 2006
The new inner fenders came in and they will soon be painted and ready to install.
Here is the inside of the trunk lid painted and ready. to be flipped and painted on the outside.
This is the front cowling, Don had to paint this twice. The first time he had it fish eye in the paint, so he had to sandblast it back, re-prime and repaint it.
After a careful inspection of the original gas tank we decided to go with a new replacement part. The following pictures show it painted with a protective paint that matches the original color of the unpainted and unprotected metal the car shipped with. Weird huh. In these photos it is just sitting in the trunk.
November 26th, 2006
There has been cold wet weather for a week in South Carolina. It was cold enough to make work uncomfortable and to make painting impossible. The temperature has to be above 65 degrees F for the two part paint to work.
The weather has warmed back up and a few day ago Don got the hood sanded and primed. yesterday he painted it.
