Projects garagefind/ survivor 40 coupe build. FIRED IT UP!

I know what you mean, I've had the hots for a 40 P/U lately, but I know it'll get in the way of the coupe.

 

I'd rather see LARGE pictures and scroll

 

I just went back and edited the last post and I think you're right; plus I'm starting to get the hang of it now, so it should be faster.

 

I started the body repair next, after mocking up all the drive train stuff. The body had been hit and repaired in 2 places on the left side before I bought the car. I didn't find this until I started removing the black paint. The repairs were made with lead, but the quality of the metal finishing wasn't very good. Certainly , it was not up to standards I've seen on the HAMB.
Most of the rot was in the trunk area. It was weak and swiss cheesy, so I replaced it with 3 pieces from Paul Bradley and they worked very well.
The first pic was after blasting off the red patina and scraping off most of the black paint. The original primer is tough sometimes, so I DA ed all the panels with 80 grit, prepped the metal and applied DP40LF.

 

These are the rust repairs on the front fenders. There were cracks in the beads and the mounting flanges that needed to be welded also. Maybe a dozen places total; not bad. The little triangle pieces are the reinforcements after the holes were patched.

 

Awesome you kept it all these years! Gonna be fun when it's done, reliving your high school days!

 

Thanks, but I never even thought about selling it. I do regret not starting sooner; you know- eyesight,memory,knees,back and running in the house to pee.

 

Cool project and story.

 

Glad to see you used the straight axle

 

I've only changed 2 things ,from my original plan, since I pulled the FH. I was originally using a 4 speed and I messed up the original frame ( long story ) and had to get another years ago.

Thanks!

 

I have only a few pix of the rear fender repairs. The bottom of the fenders behind the wheel had some rot and the drivers side had a couple of lead repairs that I wasn't happy with. I had to wait until I found a donor for the LR to finish it. These pix span about 1 1/2 years. The 3rd pic is where the patch for the right taillight came from. The 5 th pic is the piece I removed from the RR fender. When I was 16 I paid a body shop to add the second tail light. Live and learn.

 

Looking good...I really like the pictures!

 

I found some more Sheet metal patching pix. First is the tailpan area, where I used EMS pieces on the tool compartment and on the outer skin. I didn't need the whole piece in either case, but I had to rework them to get a proper fit.
Tool tray was pretty solid , except at the bottom.
outside fit up and ready to tack. This piece was 3/32 in short from side to side and the bend radius was too large, but the hammer and dolly stretched the bends and tightened the radius at the same time.

 

Are you getting tired of body work? I sure was ; how about this for a break?
I bought this in 68 from a guy visiting a neighbor in the same apartment building. I was off duty ( Navy ), washing my car and this guy had the back doors of his van open and was unloading stuff. He walked upstairs and I walked over to the van to get a better look. When I confirmed it was a man-a-fre, I backed off a few feet and waited until he came back to the van. After 10 or 15 min he showed and I asked " whatcha got there"? " race manifold off our D Altered; we went to injection" " want to sell it"? He went inside to call his partner and I gave him my appt. no. ; about 1/2 hr later he knocked on my door and said " OK, $165" and I gave him the money. I know it sounds cheap, but that same year I bought a Chet Herbert roller cam ,lifters and springs for less than $200; I can't remember exactly.

 

Thats an awesome set up, that will be a jewel of the engine room!

Are you still planning on running a 327, or is that still in the A?

 

Yep! I found a large journal forged crank on epay 2 years ago and had a 0010 block that was +.030 with new TRW flat tops. The block had set for probably 10 yrs so when I unbagged it, it had some of that orange stuff on some of the bores. I took it to the machine shop to touch them up and the block had not been honed with torque plates. I had it honed to +.040 and bought new pistons. I now have a completed short block waiting for paint. I'm trying to get that done this week.
The original 327 was a 63 365 hp short block with a set of either 461 or 462 heads on it and Offy 3x2 manifold with J2 carbs; it went with the A.

 

Back to the fender repairs. This is the left rear Where It was repaired and cracked because the metal was too thin from filing/ grinding. The lead work held up really well; whoever did this knew what he was doing, because there was no leaching, paint bubbling, or buried rust. Anyway, I cut up another fender for the repair.
You can see crack near the reinforcement. I removed that and fit it to the patch. The fender pieces were bolted to the body to lay out a radius cut.

 

I clamped the pieces together to maintain the fender contour as it was tacked. Few more pix
I welded both sides of the seam so when I ground the outside I had some strength left.

 

You're doing some nice metal work there, it's really coming along nicely.
Great project.

 

Your doing an excellent job and your long term project deserves no less. Be sure to keep us up to date as you get this one ready to put a big smile on your face.

Frank

 

This is sounding way too familiar. Glad I`m not the only one.

 

I'm still filling in history, but a couple more posts and I'll be in the present.

Actually, that's why I decided to post; I think there may be many who are as slow as me.

Thanks, the camera probably improves my metal work

 

This is the probably the most recent metal repair. Another collision repair that preceded my ownership was in the rear of the front fender and lower cowl on the drivers side. After melting the lead out, I tried to straighten the skin, but no luck. The pix tell all.
First is the "eagle beak" that fills in between the fender and curve of the hood. I chose to cut it out and replace it with a piece of a cowl I had. second pic is the hole from removing the mangled area and third is the mangled piece. I tried a stud welder, but it only moved so far. you can see the braces that made it very difficult it hammer.
The fourth pic is the replacement piece and the rest are the trimmed up hole and the new metal tacked in place. In order to help the door fit I moved the A pillar some what. I was trying for 3/32" but got a strong 1/16". I also found some small "kinks" in the firewall and inner cowl supports which I straightened. All this I'm sure came from the side impact.

 

Nice work.

Mart.

 

Thanks, Mart. I've been in the garage prepping the engine for paint; hoping to get it painted today. Here are some more history pix.
this is the patch where the LR fender was gashed and leaded. The fender needed to be worked and the leaded area resisted, so I replaced it.

 

This is the PITA repair; the top pic is the damage, which I filled the vertical pits with silicon bronze rod. The inner lip was an angle piece run through the stretcher and the weld seam is in the bottom of the channel. A lot of screwing around to finish that weld.
this is that rear panel welded in. That tool tray is done now except for seam sealer.

 

The engine is about ready to paint. I'm going to wipe the bare block with metal prep tomorrow and paint if I'm not interrupted.

 

Here is the paint work that I have done so far.
It's Deepwater Blue, a 67 GM color.

 

Sweet! I look forward to seeing more!

 

Man, you are not messing around. Great progress!