Rust repair on the '64
 

I started in on the metal work. I got the rust cut out of both quarters and wheel wells and new metal welded in. I haven't even put the first coat of mud on it yet, so it's not beautiful right now. The only rust left to weld up is the lip under the trunk lid. It's moving right along.

How the trunk looked when I got it. (notice the daylight)

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...hevelle004.jpg

The driver's quarter and wheel well fixed.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...project001.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...project003.jpg

And the passenger side.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...build/0013.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...build/0022.jpg

No more daylight leaking in the trunk!

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...0build/003.jpg

It'll be a couple days before I can get back to it. I have to work on some customer's cars so I can afford to play with my toys.

Nice job, looking good.

Looks great ,I wish I had your skill and patience .

Thanks guys. It probably would've gone fast if I didn't have to make the patch panels. The passenger side has a lot of compound curves going on right behind the back wheel. I think it looks pretty close. The lip over the wheel came out really well. That should only take a light skim coat to get perfect.

A little mud work and a whole lot of disassembly and I'll be ready to lay some primer down.

I finally got back to cutting some rust out of my car.

What I started with.....

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...lebuild001.jpg

After it was cut out and cleaned up.....

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...lebuild002.jpg

And finally new metal welded in.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...lebuild003.jpg

There's not much more rust to fix on the old girl. I hope to have it all welded up by tomorrow. Then I can start on the mud work! Woo Hoo!

I love seeing that kind of repairs being done ,it looks great .What are your future plans for the car color wise and what drivetrain ?

It's going to be solid white with the buck skin interior. 327 Small block, Th400 and 3.55 posi. Just what my car had in High School.

I got the other side done under the deck lid. This side was rotted worse because someone decided to help me out and fill the rust with expanding foam and fiberglass over it. So, of course, the metal rotted worse because the foam trapped the water against the metal.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...velle002-1.jpg

I had to repair the trunk floor extension before I could repair the lip over here. At least I don't have to worry about the rust coming back anytime soon.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...velle005-1.jpg

And here's the finished repair on this side.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...velle006-1.jpg

I had another spot on the trunk seal rail that was missing. This is as close to surgery as you can get on metal work. Three separate pieces of metal 1 1/2" X 1/4".

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...velle007-1.jpg

Here's what I cut out over here. Who does this? Just fix it right and be done with it!

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...velle001-1.jpg

Alan, I wish mine had been in as good of shape as yours when I started. But it certainly looks like you are making great progress. I think it is going to look sharp with the color combination you have chosen.

More progress from today. I got the mud work done on the right quarter. I found it was painted FOUR times and one of them was Imron. If you don't know about this paint, picture trying to sand concrete off of the car. It's brutal stuff.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...rogress001.jpg

Looking very nice.

Not much went right today. I got the wrong radiator from Summit, A trade deal I had worked out got pushed back until tomorrow, a car that was supposed to be done tomorrow won't be because of the wrong radiator, etc. etc, etc.

I'm having a heck of a time removing the old paint off my car. I got the whole quarter, the deck lid and filler panel done today. I'm a big believer in "one paint job per vehicle". This car had FOUR on it.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...rogress001.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...rogress002.jpg

My oldest daughter came out to ask me something, and I asked her if she wanted to paint my car. She ran in and changed clothes and came back out. She did pretty darn good for her first time. She's a natural. We talked a little about cars and such too. It was good end to an otherwise tough day. Here's the car primered with the painter in the front seat. I'm pretty dang proud of her. :D

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...rogress003.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...rogress004.jpg

She and you did a great job ,its looking good.

It's moving right along...looks good!

I had to paint the filler panel and deck lid for her. Short stack couldn't reach it. I could barely reach it. I have the back jacked up to make it "easy" to work on. I forgot just how much trunk is back there. It goes on for while!

There will be days like that, you just keep moving ahead. Car is looking good.


Ray

Nice metal work. Most guys I see out there can't fab up patch panels and opt for whole panel replacement when it isn't needed. I still believe the GM stuff from 1964 is better than the Taiwan stuff from 2011. Good to see someone with a kid that wants to get out and do stuff. My nieces and nephews are bumps on logs glued to video games and facebook.

Alan the memories that you have with your daughter are priceless. It is so cool that she was so willing to help you. Are you going to let her pick the color ?

Better yet are you going to let her drive it ,I hope so ? We need to get the younger ones interested in our hobby to carry it on.

I already decided the car will be white. I'm cloning a car I had in high school. Right now I'll say NO to letting her drive it, but who knows how I'll feel in a few years. She wants a first gen Camaro to build, so I have my eyes open for a decent project.

good job! looks good

Work looks good....;) Been nice to have widened those wheelhousings a little while doing the sheetmatal work back there,get some nice big 315 or 325's under that badboy. I don't think those stock wheelhousings allowed all that large of section width off the assembly line.

Since I'm cloning my high school car, I'm going with 205/70R14's on aluminum slots. I think it looks fine like that. I don't want a race car. Just something to cruise around in and take the family to car shows with. I plan on having LOTS of fun with this car.

....but I know what you mean, the rear wheel wells are quite small.

Yes, I can appreciate that. Some models just weren't designed too carry a larger wheel/tire combo and require some fab to "make" them fit. I was fortunate that my 64 Biscayne has enough room to clear a 315 M/T Drag Radial ....Tight but it fits ;)

Yeah, the hardest I ever worked to get tires under a car was my '83 Olds Cutlass. These are 29.5 X 10.5W X15's. It was hard to get the tires to fit, it was even harder to make it look like I didn't do anything to tub it.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...a/100_1107.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...8/100_0967.jpg

Well, I got to tinker around with the Chevelle again. I thought I was all done with the rust, but I found a few pin holes on the driver's side rear wheel well. I know if I just mudded over the pin holes, I would hate myself later. So I took the time to cut it all out and weld in new metal.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...llerust001.jpg

I've been following your progress on Facebook and you've been doing a real good job!! You do very good work!

Thanks, Boyd! There's no sense in doing it half-hearted. It'll just come back to haunt you later. This paint job will be good for 10-15 years with proper maintenence.

Awesome...might have to bring you down some work when I get home.

I'll be here!

I go home in December and don't come back over here until April. I might have to drop it off the next time I leave.

I got a little more sanding done on the driver's quarter. I still have to strip the old paint off and skim coat the quarter. Apparently, whoever owned this car for the better part of it's life, had a hard time judging where the back of the car was. The ripples aren't bad, but they're there for sure. I'll try and get some more pictures up soon.

Alan it sounds like you are really putting your heart and soul into this car. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Its going to turn out great .

Thanks. I think this is the last hotrod I'm going to build for myself. I only want to do it once, so it'll get done right the first time.

Besides, every time I do a car, I try to do it a little better than the one I did before. Even though this is going to be white, it'll have a body straight enough to paint black.

Progress has been slow since the cold weather set in. I got the mud work on the driver's side done and threw on some spray bomb primer for now. I'll go back and finalize everything before it gets sanded off and re-prime everything.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...rogress003.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...gress001-1.jpg

The car now has ZERO rust on it! :D

looking good Alan