Friday, June 7, 2013

I know this is late in the process, but I was looking at some old photos of the '67 Coupe that were taken about 3 years ago. This is right after I got it delivered to our house by my buddy. He was storing it for me at his place after we relocated from Florida. He was passing through where we live now and was nice enough to trailer it up with him from Florida. Anyhow, here are some before shots of how it looked before I started to tear it apart. Now I have had this car since around 1989, and it was all gray primer when I originally got it. I had it painted once and this is how it looks after many years setting outside in the Florida elements.

      Below picture, the Door to quarter seam is tight due to the rusted out/sagging A Pillar (Door Post)

                                                            Image Below>>>
                                 Car showed up with Both Front fenders damaged.
My Buddy had to stop short on I-75 on his way up from Florida, because some JackWagon changed lanes in front of him in a construction zone. Well, the tie down straps broke and the car lunged forward onto the tongue of the trailer. Not liking this next part, it makes me Cringe every time I think about it. The road construction crew offered to help get it back on the trailer. So how do they accomplish that you say???? They looped a snatch strap under the front of the car in front of the wheels and picked up the front with a big Front end Loader to roll it back in place. Well, the way they did it the fenders got pushed in when they put tension on the strap and BAM,,,,, Buckled fenders.
                                                 *****INSERT ANGRY FACE HERE*****
 I guess it could have been much worse, right? Oh well, guess that just means more body work for me to do. Yay..... :>(





                                               Rusted through the quarter and filler panel.
     This car was an S Code Big Block with a Toploader 4 speed originally, so the '70 302 that's in it now will be replaced by an original 390 FE big block in the future, along with the correct 4 Speed.
                                                
                                        Below, the Rusted Door post and kick panel. 






And there you have it.....

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Finally more progress.

Well, after a long break of not working on the '67 Coupe over the winter, I am back at it. This time, I finally got somewhere :-)

While taking a much needed week off of work, I was able to finally get this A Pillar put back in along with the Cowl Side panel (aka. kick panel). I still have a bunch of grinding to do, in order to clean up all the welds, but atleast it's welded in now. Only a few plug welds remain to be done where the cowl side panel meets the back of the A Pillar on the inside where the door closes. No pics of this, but my blog followers will know what I am referring to.


              Think I had the wire feed speed up a bit high, as there is more material in the welds
              than there should be. Nothing an hour or so of grinding won't cure....Yuck :-(
     
                                                        Windshield post welded on.


Still need to weld in the top outer section that I had to remove to get at some rust on the inside of the winshield post. This will have to wait as it's soaking in Evapo Rust to remove the excess surface rust.

I was shocked at how well the door lines up now that I have a solid A Pillar in place. The door gap is near perfect :-) Not bad for a Novice, Huh?

And now I have to give thanks to my Wonderful Wife for my early Anniversary gifts to help with the process.
A Welding table from Northern Tool and a Weld and Sealant assembly manual from CJ Pony Parts.

She's the best. Even though I had the work week off, she still gave me a few hours in the garage this morning to finish welding the pillar to the cowl side panel.

Thanks Dear :-)

Hopefully I will be able to get back to working on this regularly over the next few months.
We will see how it goes.

Till next time,
           See Ya...........