So It Starts! - 1970 Chevelle Resto - Page 4

Windshield came out Friday and most all of the vinyl top is now off.  I was really worried about rust through on the roof, but things are looking quite managable!  The biggest problem I have found so far is the passenger front corner of the roof.  The rest is pitted, but that can be managed.  Things are still looking quite hopeful for not having to go back to a vinyl roof!

Here is the problem spot I was talking about:

CLICK HERE for the album.

Even in pieces... That's a hot car.
 
Keep up the swanky work!

I wish I had a muscle car project and the space to do it!! Lookin good kyle, can't wait to keep seeing progress as you proceed!!

If I had the money right now... I'd have a 12 - 13 second '88 Suburban

I think I might have found a semi-local yard that I can harvest parts from. 

I'm not sure that I should be as worried as I am about the passenger front of the roof, but I'm apprehensive about it.  I really want this thing to be without the vinyl top and I'm going to have to do a damn good job of patching that area or it will be very noticable!

Anyway, I made some more progress (didn't take any pics though) on the trim/window removal.  There are only 3 things keeping me from lifting the body off.  The rear window, trunk lid, and the body mount bolts (ok so the first two aren't keeping me from lifting it off)! 

I really love A Body cars. I have done a similar job before.
 
Keep up the good work;)

Well, some of the project got moved...  To my garage!  LOL

I brought the doors and front fenders to my house to be able to work on them more.  Setup some nice (and hot) lighting in my garage so I could see what I was doing and got to work on the driver door today.  Skin is off and all of the areas that need patching are marked up.  Tomorrow I will be getting some 20 gauge steel and maybe welding some things up tomorrow night!

Here are some pictures of the day...

Documentation of where things go?

Patches to be made:



Patch areas from the outside portion of the door frame:


Frame without the skin:


More pictures can be found HERE.  Most are just documentation of where things go and what they look like so I do not get confused when I put this thing back together in a few years (LOL).  I will be sand blasting the whole thing before I put anything back together.  

Anyway, just wanted to show that there was at least something happening!

Looks great. Some really nice progress. I can''t wait to see what''s up next.

All I have to say is Im envious, the ''70 Chevelle SS is my ultimate dream car and I can only dream of doing what your doing, someday Ill have one. sweet car man!

Ok well, no one around here has the steel I need.  Had to order a full 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of 20 gauge!  I''''m going to use up some 14 gauge stainless I have laying around to patch up the inside support.  I''''ll have more pics coming soon.

Some more great news!  I don''''t know how I missed it, but today I was poking around in the pile of parts under the barn when a piece of paper caught my eye.  I found the build sheet for the car!!  It was in the bottom seat cushion actually crimped into the springs on what is the driver side of the lower cushion!!  I couldn''''t believe I had over looked it when I took the car apart initially.

Here are some pictures. 


I''''m scanning in the build sheet right now and will update the post with that picture.  I need to figure out what everything means now!!

*EDIT* - Here''s the build sheet:

*caution - large image*

Oh Man! That''s awesome that you found the original build sheet for the car. Everything looks good and before you know it, it will be put together and driving her around!

It''s going to be a beautiful car swartllk. I''m really looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I''ll make sure I follow along as you update us on the build progress.

The patch areas on the doors looks like hard places, ( corner and 3 angles) looks like its going to be a tough work. What do you thing about that? are you gonna cut that part from a donor car or produce a patch part? If you gonna produce a patch part how you gonna do that? The reason for asking is I want to learn if there is a practical way to do that.
 
Im really looking for to see some progress.

More good news!  I just emailed H&H Chevrolet, the dealership who sold my Chevelle!  They are still in business.  Now lets hope they have good records and have some stuff they could send me regarding my car!!

About the doors, no, I will not be patching these areas with donor pieces as these areas are VERY common for rot.  I have broken the surfaces down to mild contours that I will hand form and weld individually.  With both doors, I had to remove the lower support that ties the lower hinge into the rest of the door frame to get at the back side of the rusted areas as well as repair rust in the supports themselves.  These pieces will be sand blasted by the end of the week (hopefully).

Once I have the frames complete, I am planning on having them galvanized to protect everything.  I''ll then install the new skins and

Shippensburg, eh?  That is about 45 mins to an hour west of where I live.  I do not know what opportunity I would ever have to meet up with you but if you need something from there I could work something out.

To bump this up again, I just got off the phone with the dealership (H&H Chevrolet) that originally sold the car.  Not only were they able to find the original bill of sale, but they are going to be sending me the additional carbon copies from the original along with a copy of the original BOS (keeping the original top sheet for their records)!  

I am going at finding the history in both directions, trying to follow it through from when the car was originally sold as well as back through the person I purchased it from.

Really wish I could update my door post...  Oh well.

wow kyle....all that original paperwork is really gonna bring some value to that car.....

To the right person, maybe.  I''m just interested in compiling the history of the car.  I know I''ll never get the money out of it that I have and will put into the restoration.  But then again, that is why I''m building it for me and not for some auction somewhere.

dunno if you remember me telling you about my dads chevelle....well its finally on the road.  here''s a pic for ya kyle.  ill post the rest in another thread

Any more work done these days Kyle?

Slowly.  I''ve done some more work on metal replacement on the passenger door frame.  Problem is I can not work on it after 7PM in the garage cause I make enough noise to keep the kids up...  I''ve been working on them about 4 hours a weekend between fire training and other activities.  I was working on the inner support, but that is a royal pain to form.  I started building a form to use in my dad''s press to form the contours that I need for these pieces.  14 gauge steel is not too nice to move around and form complex contours.

I also have been building some baskets for my dad''s torch rack that I have been using and designing a 21 foot beaver tail car hauler that I will probably buy steel for in a month or so.  Right now the trailer is only on paper.  I''ll be moving it over to CAD for the actual layout drawings.

very nice 

Another update...

I had an AVET class (accident victim extrication training) where we tore apart a 1996 Astro AWD.  When we popped the hood off, I noticed that it had a hydroboost setup for brake assist instead of the more conventional vacuum powered booster.  A hydroboost setup uses hydraulic pressure generated by the power steering pump to assist the brakes.

It just happened that the chief of my department was the one responsible for the disposal of the van after we were through with it.  Gave him a call and he said I could take whatever I wanted off of it.  So I grabbed the booster, master cylinder, MAF sensor, TB, ICM, coil, distributor, and other miscellaneous weather-pack connectors.

So now I need to fab up a mounting bracket that will allow me to bolt the hydroboost unit to my firewall.  It actually looks quite easy.  1/4" plate of steel and 5 holes!  Free power brakes and no concerns for engine vacuum if I decide to go with a bit of a wild cam!!

Here are the pictures:

Nice find!

chevelles are great..70''s are even better.i love mine. you have a really good starting point on yours