Looking very good Jetslide, the satisfaction of doing something yourself is far greater than paying someone to do it for you. You have quite the project ahead of you and it looks like you have the skills and mind set to finish it. You have already done far more than most people would or even could do, just keep pecking away at it and soon it will be back on the road. Thanks for posting. Godspeed MrC.
hey jetslide. that poor old chevy got fucked hard. it takes a master to correct that much damage. i'm so glad you're saving another old gem from being crushed. you've got my support brother. -Haywire www.BrooklynLeather.com
thank you MR C, i do totally agree with you,the best feeling is the satisfaction of knowing you build the car,
you said it wery hard too. if you need masterskills to fiks this car, than i`m in trouble, he he, glad for your support CadillacTed
last days work has been trying to line up the quarterpanel, since i have no reference point its been alot of tweaking and testfitting, but finally i got it, one of the the problems with welding in the new panel is that in the door jam, the orignal b-pillar has very sharp egdes compared to the patch panel that has much more rounded egdes, so its been a lot of hammering, trying to fit those two parts, the new panel has so thick steel that trying to shape it was impossible without destroing it as you can see on the last pic it seems that the now panel doesnt line up with the original in the door gap, but it is, the rounded egde has to be leaded up to match the rest. trying to figure out the rest of the quarterpanel, since the previous owner has fucked it all up i`, trying to hammer and dolly the top egde, but it has been warped so much that i maybe have to make a new piece to fit in, after hours with hammer and dolly it`s started to straighten up, but far from good trying to figur out how much i have to fill in, and so far it looks like it`s missing an inch trying to see if i can make a new piece, but since i don`t have gotten the dies for the planishing hammer, and the bend is little to narrow for the english wheel, i have to go old school and make it by hand, with hammer and dolly, and so far, not good, but i`m trying
you're very busy on that car and the perfect example for learning by doing it, i love that, man! i'm sure your Chev will come out pretty nice! Carsten
Wow, you take on a real project there and show you got booth balls and skills my friend. I love those Chevy sport coupés with its short roof and long ass. I will follow this great thread. Keep up the good work! Per
he he. thanks per, balls yes, skills? up for debate, he he, well, i dont think it`s possible to make the care any worse than it allready is, so hopefully it will only be a positiv progress,
well, sneaked out in the garage for a couple of hours today and tryed to figure out the left quarterpanel, i`ve been calling around the world, and norway up and down trying to find a panel that is better than mine, and no luck. gave it a go making the panel myself, and usually the steel you buy here in norway is the hard type steel, and is almost impossible to bend and work with, talked to a friend of mine trying to get my hands on medium hard but it costs way more than the hard one and had to wait a week or two for it, so i started cutting in the old one, shaped som metalstrips from the right panel to to see how fucked up the left one was, and to my suprise, it wasnt much that actually needed to shape it right, so unless a good samaritan calls the next couple of days saying he has a panel for me, i`ll try to save to one thats one the car, here`s some pics of how much i have to fill in made a strip of metal to match the right panel and with alot of work with the hammer and dolly, a strip of metal i may save this panel
my steering colum is from a 79 monte carlo as well as the wireing harness and fuse box.all worked out great plug and play. turn signals and all.
so nice, was it much work figure out the wireing to the turnsignal? havent gotten around to think about wireing yet but someday i will get to that problem guess it will be something from painless wireing maybe. it followed a s-10 sterring colum with the car, i havent gotten so far that i have checked if i can use it, but i dont think it will be a problem,
And i thought my project was challenging,but i guess mine is nothing compared with this. You have a good start with it,keep it up!
i`ve seen your thread, and i dont think so, hehe, i don`t have the same rust issue as you have so thats makes my project easyer i think anyway, fine car you have, can`t wait to see your car finished
no wonder i have problems shaping the left panel, it`s in 14 gauge steel, hard as hell, but with a little determination and a big hammer its possible to dress up the panel, i`m cutting the panel into many small pieces to reshape it, but first i have to fiks the inner wheel weld, som wery poor repair and welding job has been done there nice attempt of the previous owner to try to shape the metal cutting the welds up and straighten them helps alot on the finish
Thanks man! Well,i think rust issues are easier to handle than align issues.I had slight align problems with the doors,but they were solved just fixing the door hinges. Good luck with the build!
thanks finnrodder getting your car ready for a-bombers next year?? maybe my car will have its first trip in 2020, he he
You're doing a great job so far. I feel you pain...we repair a lot of really bad cars like yours in NJ as well. Lots of salt on the roads in winter! Whenever I find really bad repair work on a car, I've found it easier just to cut it all out 3 inches outside of the poor welds. Then fabricate a new piece, unless something is available as a patch panel. I would have recommended your buying a shrinker stretcher when you first started your project, as well as a small, cheap English wheel. It would make fabbing up new pieces a lot easier. Give you confidence to do larger and more complex pieces, too! But you're doing fine, keep up the good work, and keep us updated!
i totally agree with you, it would have been so much easyer to make the panels myself, i have a english wheel and a planishing hammer, but a shrinker stretcher is high on the buy next list, but as for now i have spend way to much money at once, so i have to wait little bit for the next investment. used to work in a bodyshop once where i had access to all the necessary equipment to make all the panels i nedeed. but i dont work there anymore, so i`m back to basic metalshaping untill i have upgraded my garasje, the second problem is that the dealer that used to sell me the metal thats soft enough to shape has gone out of business, and it seems that the only metal you get over the counter is to hard to work with, i have ordered medium hard sheet metal, but it was minimum 14 days deliveringtime, so untill that i just have to work with what i got
Well,i am not sure when i am done.Making deadlines just kills all the fun,but hopefully all the bodywork + chassis sandblasting etc are done at next summer. A-bombers could be cool event to see,maybe i'll do a motorcycle trip there or something,we'll see..
Hi Jetslide and Antti, would be nice to see ya both in Sweden next year, i will be there after my long time resto.. Greets, and good luck, you both are doing nice stuff! Carsten
I've been watching your progress and it's good to see there are still "He He's" in your replies which means you still have it in high gear. Great job dude! I'll be watching.
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