1970 Stage 1 Frame-Off Restoration Project - "Kokomo"

Discussion in 'Members Rides' started by BUQUICK, Jan 11, 2011.

  1. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    This body mount location was rotten, so that same section was salvaged from a less rusty parts car and used to repair this car. Just repairing something like this takes many hours and will never be seen by anyone when the car is put back together.

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  2. John Stevens

    John Stevens Well-Known Member

    Hard to argue with that.......
     

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  3. John Stevens

    John Stevens Well-Known Member




    FOR ANYBODY THAT HAS NEVER DONE THIS....THIS MAYBE THE GREATEST UNDERSTATEMENT EVER POSTED ON THE V8 BOARD!!!

    He obviously does GREAT WORK.....KEEP IT UP!!!
     

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  4. leo455

    leo455 LAB MAN

    Wow! my 71 GS455 is better than that, but only by the roof. Great work.:3gears:
     
  5. TroyGS

    TroyGS Well-Known Member

  6. staged70

    staged70 RIP

    Air shocks or Big car / station wagon springs. Looks like every car I had in high school when it was cool to have it jacked. Most popular air shocks were called Gabriel Hi Jackers, go figure
     
  7. kevin mcculloug

    kevin mcculloug 72 GS 455 Convertible

    Thanks for posting the progress. It's nice to watch every winter as somebody undertakes a project. When I see a car that needs this much work, I feel that if it was a Stage 1 , a convertible, or a four speed Buick, ( or any combination of the three) it is something that COULD be worth the time and effort. Since the bodywork is being done in-house , thats a huge savings.But I remember not too long ago that a new member got a Skylark for next to nothing and planned on restoring it. Almost everyone who chimed in told him to save his money, part it out and buy something more solid. I wish him well, but I think down the road, he's gonna wish he had listened. This on the other hand, will be a beautiful car, with all the options desired, that can be driven and enjoyed.And its a Stage 1. Best of luck with it and keep us posted!:TU:
     
  8. Grandga

    Grandga New Member

    Wonderfull, great job !:gp:
    I know I have to replace the floor and trunk pans on my 71 convertible and these nice pics give me an idea of what expects me (or better said my son)
    Very important when you have to order the stuff overseas...
    Thank you for sharing
    Gabe
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2011
  9. ToddsGS

    ToddsGS Founders Club Member

    Cool project. Keep the pictures coming!
     
  10. 70staged

    70staged Well-Known Member

    any more updates??
     
  11. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    I'll try to get some more photos posted soon. The car is coming along (Dad works on it almost everyday) and when I checked his logbook about a month ago he already had over 700 hours of labor into it. So as you can imagine it is a lot farther along that what I've posted so far.
     
  12. Postsedan

    Postsedan 13427 L78

    Gary,

    The 5 P`s.....Please Post Progress Pics, Please :TU:
     
  13. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    Wow time flies. I'll try to post some pics very soon. My dad retired from his regular job yesterday after 32 years, so his time to restore cars just went up by about 45 hours per week which will mean the only thing holding him up now will be the cost of the parts.:dollar:
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2011
  14. kevin mcculloug

    kevin mcculloug 72 GS 455 Convertible

    Loking forward to pics of this projects completion. Then , DO ONE OF YOUR 72s!:laugh: :beer
     
  15. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    My 2-year-old son and my wife are in bed asleep so I can now post more photos :)

    The inner rocker area and front floor on the driver's side had some rust:

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    When he replaces a front floor pan he makes sure to fabricate it so that it still appears that the lower firewall overlaps the floorpan. From the top or bottom, someone would have to look closely to know that this section of the floor has been replaced.
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    I'm skipping many, many hours of work, but here's another photo of the body as the roof is being stripped to bare metal:
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  16. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    There was a "hidden VIN" on the firewall in this location. The VIN is usually stamped in this location on almost all the Chevrolets that he has restored over the years.
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    Also, those little rust holes around the heater box opening were repaired later, I just didn't include a photo in this thread.
     
  17. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    So here's the bottom all in primer:
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    And here it is after being sprayed:
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  18. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    The area around the body tag was sorta crusty so my dad removed the body tag, sandblasted the top of the firewall, and filled in all the rust pits. While the body tag was off the car it was bead blasted with a fine glass media so it would not lose any of its detail. The tag was then reattached with a set of correct rivets, and everything was painted at the same time as the floor pans.
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  19. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    This one still has a long way to go, and one big road block is that the money that would have been used to build the nice Stage 2 engine, was used to purchase the orange '72 Stage 1 convertible. More than once, my dad has pointed to the '72 convert and said "there's my engine money sitting right there..."

    When this '70 is finally completed, I think my dad is going to help me finish my '69 GTO (Buick brothers, please forgive me) which has been 1/2 completed for a long, long time. The car shown in my avatar on it's side, is my GTO in about 1992! After the '69 GTO is completed, we're not sure which car of ours will be next, but it will be one of these: '72 Stage 1 HT, '72 Stage 1 convert, '67 GS 400 convert, '71 El Camino SS454, or maybe put paint on my wife's 52k mile '70 Nova.

    Of course there will also be cars in there that belong to other people. The current project for a customer is the '69 Chevelle SS396 sedan (pic posted earlier), then the next car scheduled will be a '69 GTO RA3 convert or a '70 GTO Judge HT.
     
  20. BUQUICK

    BUQUICK I'm your huckleberry.

    Before he painted the bottom, he finished all the body work for the shell and had it basically ready to paint. So after the bottom was painted, all he had to do was do was tape it all up, and do some final prep before the body could be sprayed with the Aqua Mist paint. If you look closely you'll notice that the trunk hinges are also taped up. That's because he went ahead and sprayed them with the base/clear Aqua Mist so that they would be really slick and nice, and not have to work about trying to keep them wet while painting the trunk jambs.

    The dash is taped up here, but not because it is painted, this is just to prevent over-spray from getting on it which would just have to be sanded back off.
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