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Body shop visit update

36K views 86 replies 23 participants last post by  Lok 
#1 ·
Saw the goat today to check on the progress and all the paint was stripped. I'm proud to say I'm in the club of "This is getting more expensive than I originally thought!" :lol: Soooo, the hunt for a new bondo free front fender starts!
Here are some pix:
 

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#13 ·
I was talking to the sandblasting shop and he make the suggestion that I should powder coat my inner fender wells. Apparently, it's all the rage here in KC (or at least that's what I was told) and the price was pretty cheap so I figured "why not?"
Anyone else have any experience or feedback on doing this?
I pick up the frame Saturday and the fender wells on Monday. I'll upload some pix when I get them back.
Plus, I've read the threads and we have been discussing mixing paint and rhino liner to paint the under body with. Were these originally painted body color or maybe even unpainted?

Now if I can only track down that elusive radiator core support...
 
#15 ·
Picked up the blasted frame and the new powder coated inner fenders today and drove them to the body shop. Wow, what a difference it makes taking all that rust and crud off! And the fenders look great too!
 

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#19 ·
Anyone ever work with Duraglas? Stopped by to drop off the gas tank support (only to find out my guy needed the trunk pan support 'meh') and he used some Duraglas along the quarter seams. I've seen my share of bondo, but this looked like pretty cool stuff!
 
#20 ·
Little more progress

The repro quarters are stripped, the deck lid is fitted, driver's floor pan is fitted, rear seat pan is fitted, firewall had everything removed and wire brushed and some filler to smoooooth out the lines.

Even found a rat's behind the firewall which explained why there was so much shredded padding when I stripped the interior!
 

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#22 ·
Engine coming along...but that color doesn't look right. Right?

The engine should be done in a couple weeks or so and I'm 99.9% sure the color should be a silvery blue, right? This looked like a 70's Trans Am color. Any help here? Anyways, the short block looks awesome!
Is it worth it to do roller rockers during the rebuild? What about a double timing chain? Questions they asked me if I wanted, but wasn't sure how to respond.
The tranny got dropped off and it was filthy! My rebuilder was nice enough to tear it down in front of me while I snapped pix. He did it in about 1/2 hour while telling me what everything was (my eyes glazed over after he got through explaining what the valve body did!) and whoever invented the auto tranny is a genius! At the end, with everything laying out, it reminded me of that Seinfeld where the mechanic stole Jerry's Saab and they found one in a warehouse.
"Whoever did this didn't just dismantle it. I mean, they took
their time. They had fun. They were very systematic. They went out
of their way to gouge the side of every piston and the turbo was
separated from the housing and shoved right up the exhaust pipe." :rofl:
 

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#24 ·
Is it worth it to do roller rockers during the rebuild? What about a double timing chain? Questions they asked me if I wanted, but wasn't sure how to respond.
It all depends on how deep your pockets are, both are nice upgrades. I'd get the roller tip rockers for longevity over aluminum rockers for a street car. The rockers aren't worth that much horsepower, and the timing chain is for longevity, but the normal chain will last forever in a limited use car.
Coming along nice, congrats.
Love the Seinfeld quote, funny.
 
#23 ·
In primer now!

Getting block sanded and checking for pin holes. Looks really cool in a uniform color even though it's just primer! Took my 6 week old son to see it today and he started crying. Hope he's not a Mustang fan because I can't afford to do this again! Or maybe he's upset he saw where his college fund is going! :lol:
 

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#25 ·
:agree Roller tip rockers are good for reducing friction and that's going to show up under your right foot, and also in longevity. That is, of course, provided that you get -good-ones. They are more complex, having more parts, and having one of the roller tips come apart on you isn't super cool wonderful for your engine's welfare. Just that one modification alone isn't likely to make enough difference to show on a time slip. Personally, I'd probably never use the rockers that have just roller tips but still e employ the factory style rocker balls at the pivot point. I'd use full rollers instead.
Timing chain is another topic -- you definitely want to nuke the plastic toothed cam gear if you still have that and go with a solid steel gear. Othern' that, I've recently read an article/opinion where the position taken was that the double roller chains will actually stretch more than the factory style chains/gears with the wide teeth. I am running a double roller in the Beast, but whenever it's time for a rebuild I'll definitely look into the topic a little deeper before I decide. One advantage might be that usually double roller sets are available that permit easily advancing/retarding the cam to several different settings, but you can accomplish the same thing with the factory style gear sets through the use of offset keys.

My usual response to 'is it worth it' questions is to say that it depends on whether you think the benefit justifies the cost - and that's up to you.

Engine color should be whatever is right for the year of the car. I love the Pontiac Metallic blue engine color myself... Eastwood has it in a 2k ceramic formulation and that's what I used on the Beast.

I hear you on the tranny.... I've got an extra TH400 in my garage that I'm going to go through myself "someday" just so I can learn about them.

Glad to hear that things are coming along for you :cheers

Bear
 
#26 · (Edited)
Finally, some paint!

The frame got painted and looks great after it was sandblasted! The hood, front valence & bumper are primed & sanded too. It should be painted by Christmas so I'm shooting for a March "first cruise" after I get it all back together.

Plus, removed the dash, but had a casualty with the dash pad. It cracked at each corner due to the stress of removing it and its age. Are these repairable or is it best to go repro? Probably need to get new chome vents too...and knobs...and a glove box.

Deeper and deeper I sink. :lol:

Also, who does dashboard refurb like rechroming the rings & polishing the lenses AND can go through the gauges? What about restoring the steering wheel's few minor cracks and the column? Any advice there?

Finally, who is the Quadrajet guru that can rebuild it & also redip it to look new?

Thanks!
 
#27 ·
Oops. Shrunk the file size.

I'll put some new fittings, lines & brackets on it to dress it up from its "stealth" look.

For those of you scoring at home, that's a 1970 Challenger RT 440 parked next to my frame waiting for some funds from the owner to finish it. I've already offered to help the current owner out of this financial burden, but apparently there's a line of people willing to help!
 

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#28 ·
MO Goat wrote:"Also, who does dashboard refurb like rechroming the rings & polishing the lenses AND can go through the gauges? What about restoring the steering wheel's few minor cracks and the column? Any advice there?"

For the dash bezel/glove-box door and trim escutcheon, I am very happy with the work that I had done recently. The company I used was Vacuum Orna-Metal in Romulus, Michigan. Here's the thread:http://www.gtoforum.com/f12/plastic-plating-vacuum-orna-metal-excellent-39516/


The colors look black in the pictures, but they are the exact, correct green/blue. There are more pics in the thread...they did a great job.


My steering wheel was cracked iin several places; I did it myself. "Vee" out the cracks and use PC-7 or similar epoxy to fill the gaps. You can find "How-to" articles on the web. The process is fairly simple, but time consuming.

Pics of my wheel before/after:
BEFORE...All the white areas are the first layer of epoxy filler after opening up all the cracks. As you can see, there was a lot of repair work to be done:

AFTER:
 
#29 ·
Very impressive! Thanks for the tip and I'll give them a call & look up some "how to" articles on the web for the wheel.

Did your gauges function properly or did you have an electronics shop go through them? I'd like to be sure I'm not pulling the dash off again.
 
#33 ·
Earlier this week, I sent my gauges off to Auto Instruments in VA and talked with them yesterday about what I wanted to have done. They can can do a full resto with new numbers/letters. etc. or do a cosmetic restoration with an acid dip. Since mine weren't in too bad of shape and since my car isn't anything special, I opted for the latter and am having them redo the fuel gauge since it yellowed pretty badly, repaint the needles, convert the clock to quartz, recalibrate the speedo, polish the lense and reset the odometer to "0" miles. They're also beadblasting the casing and repainting it at no extra cost. They can do a custom package for what you want so it's probably best to call them, but I think just a tach rebuild is about $175. (Link below)

Speedometer Repair Tachometer Clock and Gauge Restoration for Musclecars and Vintage Automobiles

I found them easy to work with, very friendly and very helpful. I can tell you more regarding their work when I get them back in a few weeks.

Hope that helps.

Anyone you recommend to rechrome the dash? I'm leaning towards Performance Restorations in Keller, TX.

My Quadrajet has been sent to the Barker Gang Garage in Denver and my bumper is at LMK in MN getting rechromed so things should be coming together nicely after my car is painted in January.
 
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