Technical Who needs to buy an English Wheel when you have Bondo?

Please don't shape your car using mud. I thought I had seen a lot through the years. This car has them beat.

It took me a year to bring myself to get this 54 choptop. I knew it was rough but the thought I should try to save it. What was I thinking? Every mod they did they did it wrong. Chop is bad and everything is full of mud. The roof was full of mud even covering the rain gutters.??? This is just plain sad someone would do this to a car. This is all Bondo from under the headlight, covering up this brazed and spot welded junk they used to mold in a Buick Grille. The Bondo is 3 inches thick in some spots.

 

After an hour of digging out Bondo and grinding their spot welded crap off it looks a little better. Much better!

 

holy moly what a load of plastic filler , unreal , nice repair after cleaning out the bondo

 

Wow! Hope you find solid metal on the chop you can work with like you did on the fender.

Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Damn! My 51 had some major sculpting done to it with bondo also. But just take your time, piece by piece and it'll get done.

 

Whooo weee ! That some kinda skill set to get 3" of mud onto dog shit patches sculpted.
I feel your pain.

 

SWEET!!!!!! some people dont know there ass from a hole in the ground.

 

You must love a challenge!

 

You're going to need shorter springs now..

 

Well, on the other hand, just think how much work you'd have had to do to get rid of a customizing job that was just ugly? This way, a couple hours and you're back to a good starting point. All the mud chipped away easily, and the poor welding came apart to reveal the original metal unharmed. It could have been worse!

Brian

 

You haven't seen the hack job chop top. 3 plates welded in the roof. Sliced down the middle and window seams don't even line up. He must have been welding without a helmet. It's a hardtop Bel Air and I have always wanted one but they ruined it. The car is a basket case. I think it destined to be a jalopy I race at the track. For the time invested in fixing this I could buy a nice 54.

 

Pics above is the first day I got it home. I have no idea what the metal is for on the back window. The car was done years ago. White and black tuck in roll inside. A friend had it for 17 years just as you see it. He never touched it. Looks like it had some great work done to it at one time and then someone later did a few things and found a semi truck of Bondo.

 

Did they mold in the rear section and shorten the truck?

 

Holy bondo! That must have been expensive and taken forever to get that thing sculpted! Just think if they would have had the skills to do it right, it would have been cheaper and even taken less time! My Falcon has had some major body work done to it on one side. Not going to worry about it though. Bigger fish to fry


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I would display those "trophys", and say I FIXED THIS SH$T!

 

Holy crap! Do they sell bondo in 55 gallon drums? Those guys seriously must have gone broke buying bondo because even the cheapo brands are costly.
"We're gonna grab a burger, then on the way back to the garage we'll stop and buy 4-5 more gallons of filler". Must have mixed it in a blender.
Maybe the builder was a plasterer by trade...

 

didn't know they had a shotcrete gun for bondo . could have saved me mucho time instead of beating out panels over the years .

 

If it was lead instead of bondo it would have been a Barris job.

 

...and when they were done shaping all that bondo, they proudly congratulated each other on a job well done.

 

Rad that your going to save it!!


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Just noticed the I beam front axle under it, whats the story behind that? Bob

 

Yep.. Also cut out the cool taillights and stuck in a set of Stude lights.

 

The front had hydros crudely put on. Top cut out with a torch and looks like it had been bounced around for many years that way. The back had a torch taken to the rear springs and both ends on the spring was heated and bent up 3 inches past the eyelet so the leaf itself was touching the frame. The back has air shock on it just to get it up enough to roll it. After going all over this car it's just not worth my time to bring it back to a nice custom. It's just too far gone. I'm going to clean it up, fix a few things and race it. I stuck the I beam in it a couple days ago. Clean it up but leave the chop, fix the back end sooner or later if I can find a rear clip and go with a radical gasser look for now.

 

"Having the project is what makes me happy, finishing it isn't something I think about"

This will keep you happy for a long time and you probably won't think about finishing it.

I got a headache just looking at the pics. Good luck.

 

I've done that before... got the thing home and started on it, held my head with both hands and pleaded, "God what have I gotten into?"

A crack of thunder, and this booming voice reminds, "Son, I tried to talk you out of it for one whole year, if you remember. One whole year. But, no, you wouldn't listen!"

Then the wife comes from the house and says the same thing. Darn, don't you just hate it that those two are always right, rebstew.

 

^^^^^^ Thats my line, not his. Bob

 

If you think that is bad just think what the guy could have done with a torch.

Charlie Stephens

 

OR A GRINDER! The star of the car is the nicely cut green tinted windshield that is in it. Today I started cleaning the 20 + years of crud off the glass. I shouldn't be surprised but I was bent to find out they didn't cover up the windshield while they where grinding on some metal. Burned, metal peppered spots in the glass.

Oh well enough of the cry baby crap. Make due with what I got. This stuff is not new to me but it gets old finding stuff done to these old cars that should have never been done or could have been prevented by a welding blanket over the glass while welding or grinding.

 

don't all cars , need a back window, its the law aint it ?