The beater is getting a new grill! WOO HOO!! When I got the 70 GS, it was popped in the mouth pretty good. The bumper was pushed in and there was little that remained of the original grill. There were two L shaped pieces of it that were basically just laying in the opening. I was able to salvage the painted lower piece which was bent up pretty good, the J moldings and the emblem. The rest was junk I finally got tired of the "no teeth" look. Plus a 70 GS grill is one of the coolest grills ever. CorkGS hooked me up with a perfect candidate for the beater for a great price to boot. I did a few quick repairs to it and installed the parts from the original grill. Miraculously, I even got the painted piece straightened out. I used rusty screws just to make sure it looks "period correct". Looks awesome !! Its going in this weekend. Pictures to follow. Should transform the look of the car. Currently, it looks like this-
Right now I have a replacement carb on it and its running like a top. I need to find some time to put the original carb back on it and figure out what going on with it. So we haven't put that one to bed yet. Yup, Im walking a fine line here Brian
It's going to look great. Looks like you've got the proper "aging" to match the car....one of the signature pieces of a GS vs a Skylark so I definitely feel you are doing the right thing!
It was fixed early on in the project. I basically did it old school- used the tree in front of my house, a come along, a few blocks of wood and the handle off my floor jack. Good as new!
Grill is in! I had to take the bumper off as an assembly with the brackets, cross bars and hood latch support. Everything was rusted up. After heating all the fasteners up with some acetylene, I got everything loose. The bumper was all sorts of messed up. This thing was twisted, tweaked, bent and torn. It was still really pushed in, in the center. I had to put the bumper on top of some 6x6's and basically step on it in the center just to get it close. I took a picture of my "bumper fixture". Once I got it back on the car, I tweaked it and persuaded it back in shape using some pry bars, a long extension and whatever else I could find. Bumpers bend pretty easily. After a few well placed shims, I got it pretty dang close. The hood latch support was bent up like a pretzel at the base from the prior bump in the nose. I got that back into shape with a pair of vise grips, a dolly and a 32 oz ball peen hammer. Must of test fitted that thing 15 times!! The grill had one missing stud and the mount for it was broken. I was able to tap threads into what was left of the mounting hole and use a piece of threaded rod cut to length. I cut a piece of 3/8" steel fuel line to act as a sleeve and spacer. It hides the threads of the rod to make it look more factory. The grill really transforms the look of the car completely and still maintains it's "rattiness"! I love it
Looks good! Let me know when you wanna part with it. It could be fun taking one of my 600+hp motors and throw in there, LOL.
It it its sooooooo purrteee.....gittin kinda choaked up ...sniff sniff gotta go got some rust er sumthin in my eye Lookin good buddy and I mean that all complimentary like
That car is too cool for school j-cook! But be careful, the new grille spruced it up a bit, you don't want to make it too nice!! Then it'll lose that grungy-cool factor!
Those rust stains on the paint might come off with a scrubbing with Ajax...... IF you want to make it look better. Yardley did that on Ken's Wildcat, it did wonders for the appearance.