Both doors were replaced. Prior to painting the shell (or even hanging the rear 1/4s) the door hinges were disassembled, new bushings installed, painted, and reassembled. The replacement doors required some rust repairs and body work, but were in better condition than the originals. These doors were test fit to the body and all gaps set, before anything was painted the final body color. As with the hood, the out surface was stripped by hand and all the rest was sandblasted. to remove the rust. Both had some rust in the lower front corners. In the background you can see the rear 1/4 extensions being painted too.
Wow, the photo of the hood standing on it's end looks absolutely amazing. That lighting looks killer! Wow! (Have I said "Wow!" yet?) Wow!
The one original fender that was used, required the lower section to be replaced. The replacement section was taken from a fender that was rust-free at the bottom but too badly damaged in other areas to make it a useable fender.
Gary, WOW your dad does great work. What I wouldn't do for a place to work on my car inside. Will keep checking back to see progress. Tim
Hi Gary....that was my brother-in-law with the 66 Malibu you met. I sold my SunCoupe to Buickone. My new project is a '72 GS455 and with the exception of the roof is close to being just as rusty as this car. Your Dad does incredible work, I would to come up for a visit.
Gary your dad is an artist. Few body men could or would take the time to do this car this way. It is a resurrection and not just a restoration.
Gary ...How about an update? Your father has a huge talent. He has done phenomenal work on this car. JJ
The original trunklid was rusted pretty badly on the bottom, along the rear edge. It could have been saved if nothing else was available, but our gold '71 parts car had this lid and it was a better piece to started with, so it was used. As you can see, it wasn't a beauty or anything, but it had less rust under the rear lip and would save some time. It had minor rust holes, which were repaired after the bottom side was all blasted.
The car originally came with 14" Super Sport wheels (painted road wheels with stainless steel trim rings) but they were long gone when we got the car. Stepping up to a nice set of 15x7 reproduction chrome road wheels was considered, but the final decision was to go with a set of 15x7 steel wheels with the standard hubcaps. A couple of factors helped to make this decision: 1) we like steel rims and hubcaps 2) we already had a set of hubcaps and buying a set of 15" steel wheels would be much cheaper than the reproduction chrome wheels. A few of the wheels were rounded up from a local Pull-A-Part junkyard (about $15 ea) and the other two were given to us (free) from a local scraper. These were all 80's model 15x7 wheels that came off of a GM full-sized car. Before ANY effort was put into them, the first step was to take them somewhere and have them spun to make sure they were not bent. We were lucky that they were all true and straight. The wheels were sandblasted, any minor rust pits were filled and sanded, the rear side was painted black and the fronts were painted Aqua Mist to match the body color.
The next part of the body to be painted was the inside of the trunk. This is an area that my dad is picky about. He will not use the splatter paint that is available in a spray can because it leaves a very rough texture, unlike the factory trunk paint which is rather smooth to the touch. He's purchased and tried just about every type of trunk paint that he could get his hands on over the years and none seemed to suit him. So now he just makes his own splatter paint. The first step was to paint the entire trunk the dark base color. Then he uses an old spray gun (with a 1.8 tip, I think) to spray latex paint from the hardware store that was matched to the original splatter color. It took a little practice but now he says its pretty easy to do, cheap, and not a rough texture like a spray can.
At this point the body is all painted except for the dash, and he needs the rotisserie for a Chevelle he is working on, so the Buick body was removed and placed on an extra rolling frame that he used to move bodies around. This frame is just temporary until the chassis is completed and ready to accept the body.
The original plan was to reuse the original frame. However, it had DEEP rust pitting on the entire frame, someone had welded the frame mounts into position for a 350 engine, they also welded the transmission xmbr into position for a 350 trans, and the part of the frame that goes across the rear to connect the two sides of the frame was also broken. It could have all been repaired but the time involved to make the original frame look good would be tremendous and just couldn't be justified since this car is not matching number. So the decision was made to replace the frame with something a little bit better. A good friend (Mr Big here on the board) had a '70 Skylark parts car that was a good frame donor. So they hauled this car to me dad's place and stripped it.
