give it hell its looking better all ready with all the holes closed up and the roof flashing gone that rig will rock when its back to solid and you lay some color to it
Thank you much, the side that looked good, well once I started with the wire wheel the holes got bigger so many a patch was needed, it's still better than the other side though. It's all solid now and POR15 ed, now the last quarter panel is going on. All the major work is done, I still have to do the lower outer skin on the tailgate and also the passenger door, but I'd like to find a better door, they seem to be around, not too expensive either.
OK, last patch panel is on, well the major one anyway, still have to do the tailgate, which is minor, I already did the inner skin. Here's all the rotten metal that was cut out and replaced, this isn't even all of it, there were many more pieces from the inner structure. This jigsaw puzzle was needed because El Camino quarters are not the same as Impalas, which are the only ones available, the bumper cove sits lower on the truck, I guess because of the tailgate. Anyway the whole thing has to be re-positioned lower. The final welding and dressing has yet to be done. Here you can see how it fits on the other side, it's an inch and half too high. She is starting to come together, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, this weekend will be one of heavy duty work.
Bondo comes in all shapes and sizes, maybe not good properties after all. We had this local body work scam going about 25 years ago. The scammers would approach people with needy cars, usually non-Americans and offer them a deal on body work. The work would be performed in parking lots and you'd drive by and see the "body man" applying bondo to their car, sometimes with the whole family watching the process. This wouldn't even be sanded most of the time and they'd apply a thin coat of primer, mostly around the edges so it resembled an urban camo pattern. The deal was to get most of the $$ up front and meet back the next week to have the car painted. Of course the scammers would never show up. Bob
Oh yeah, I shaved the tailgate emblem too, that was a lot of work, looks smooth though, lots of room for Anthony White to pinstripe on.
my 1950 ford even has bondo in the dash floors are bono with chicken wire and window screen all over rust and rot.
My old man, God rest his soul, died a year ago on Saturday, had a guy in front of our office 'fixing' his often damaged Allante, he paid the guy $300 to beat out a dent with a ball peen hammer, Bondo it and primer it, the guy even borrowed $10 to go get the paint. It was the shittiest job ever. At the first Rumbler's show in NYC, a Puerto Rican guy was doing the whole side street bodyshop thing. As the day wore on he got drunker and drunker and in the end he was telling us jokes and dancing with his shirt off, he was a hoot.
Figured I'd replace the bottom patch that was done on the bottom of my door. After what I found under the paint I ended up replacing the panel from the belt line down along with the bottom inner structure.
My Falcon has a ton of bondo in it. I was 16 when I started working on it and had no skills or money - like I have any now . I started with another guys parts car that was headed for the crusher. All I had available for welding was an old Lincoln Arc with a carbon arc attachment. For all of the rust through I made patches and brazed them in with the carbon arc. I couldn't find anything in better condition locally, all the yards had junk. One rear quarter had a long crease in the "fin" maybe 3' long. I tried pulling it, but not knowing how to do it properly I didn't get very far with it, I couldn't get behind it to hit it with a hammer. So to make up for my shortcomings I put a ton of bondo in the car to do the final straightening. It looked great for the last 20 years, but now the paint has some cracks over some of the bondo etc. Its still fun to drive and as you can see in the picts looks OK. Maybe, if I redo it again in the future I will do a better job on the body or if I sell it someone else will have the chance to do it. But again had I not done this to the car it would have been crushed.
Thanks for the motivation! I also plan on shaving my tailgate. Looks cleaner that way. I plan on leading the area so it doesn't crack under the stress of use & weather.
My O/T beater is a Chevy van, so I pulled side doors off an '88 GMC Starcraft conversion van to replace the rotty ones on mine. Now this thing is in the junkyard and it's solid, looks like it's original, blue paint with lighter blue stripes that are all pretty evenly faded out. I accidentally bent around the lower hinge slot on one of them pulling it off the hinge - and here it has like 1/8" to 1/4" of bondo in it, all around the hole, that I cracked a bunch of off. I didn't bother to dig into it to see how far it goes - my paint to match is coming out of a Rustoleum can - but the doors looked fine otherwise, no signs of being hit or anything. Now a lot of these Starcrafts have like 8-10 pinstripes across the bottom below the lowest bodyline, so it would be tough to match one up unless it was still fairly new. But I tore apart the interior for some bits on a second Starcraft and it was shoddy - basically was made with no provision to ever take it apart again - so it wouldn't surprise me if the bondo's been in it since it was new.
Here are the rust holes under the bed moldings being fixed.There was a 1/4" inch thickness of Bondo on this tail fin for no reason, just a minor little wave that I pulled out with my new HF stud puller, the slide hammer is junk but the welder works great, only $100. Holes in the tailgate Other side Yikes, I had to copy this section for both sides, it was a PITA, I have no sheet metal break, so it's all hand made by bashing metal over angle iron. Piles of the enemy.
I started polishing the stainless, of which there is a ton, this piece was all kinda bent, it looks good now after a couple hours work
I fixed this valance, it was crushed in the corner, it looked irrepairable but I went at it with my torch and hammer and fixed it. It just needs a little more work with a pick hammer and some dreaded Bondo and it'll be good as new.
lookin good nads...didnt think that there would be so much rust under the bed moldings...what are you using to polish the stainless with?..they look great..
First I straighten 'em with pointed hammers, improvised tools, bolts or whatever, then after they're close I DA them with 150, followed by 220, then 400 and 600 grit. Then I polish them on a 6" bench polisher with different grades of compound. it's very time consuming but I'm gonna have a nice paint job and I don't want to distract it with ugly, dull, stainless. That rust in that pile is not all from under the bed moldings, it's from all over the place, I swept the bed and picked up all that crap earlier, there's a lot but it's been an easy fix so far, the roof and rear window might not be.
Here is some more... found this today on a 52 Olds we just started on. Most of it was 1/2"-3/4" thick, some parts were as thick as 1". coated from the dog leg all the way to the rear valence.
Egads, Jalopy Kid, it coulda been done right so easily. Muncie, it's just a Harbor Freight polisher I used with their compounds that come in a stick. I have an ancient US made Baldor polisher but it's a jeweler's type with screw on pads that aren't easy to find. I broke down and bought the $39.95 one, it's on sale. I'm not a pro and I don't need heavy duty gear that runs for hours on end, so it works fine even though I hate giving my money to China.
I'm envious. I've been stuck inside for days now, because of this rain. How do you gather the steel block from the butt weld clamp after you tacked together the sheetmetal. Is there a trick or a tip to it? Jay
I didn't use any clamps, I just held the panels and zapped a spot real quick, then just went methodically around until they were welded solid. I didn't even take any measurements hardly, I know it's not the right way of doing things, if you saw how I worked you would be startled. I have used those HF clamps in the past and they are awesome, they really help out on long flat panels, but in the front parts of the quarter panels I couldn't have used them anyway, there's no way to access the backside. It's been raining like hell down here too, always does in these months but I have a garage, for now, so I'm taking advantage of it. Here's a beer run pic from earlier tonight, the truck's running and on the road, it keeps me motivated.
B-double-E-double-R-U-N, beer run! looks good Nads! can't belive you passed up on such a great opportunity when asked how you "polished your trim"...hahahah
When I fix the next piece I'll take detailed photos, it's not hard, you just have to go easy, stainless is weird, it's hard and fragile at the same time. The main tool I use is the anvil on my vice and both ends of a weld slag chipping hammer.
I can't wait to start in on the bodywork on the Chevy- it should provide some nice pics for this thread.
its crazy how people cheap out on body work, its easier to do it right the first time, not that i can do it myself, but being around my uncles shop i see all the fuck up they have to fix! nice job by the way!
well that answers the "what were they thinking?" question. ... and my nominee for 2010 photo of the year:
The Jalopy Journal
