1964 Impala, oh dear!

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:58 am
Whoa nice progress on it.
Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee.



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PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 1:25 pm
Love convertibles! They can be challenging to fix but worth it. Glad you are saving this one.

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 5:11 pm
Thanks all!

Here's how I weld the panels together,

First I screw all the parts together, then one at a time I remove the screw and drill through just the upper panel.

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I use a special flat drill bit designed for removing spot welds.

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Weld it up and smooth out and you're GTG, one down, 175 more to go!

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You don't have to be perfectly smooth, a little divot helps replicate an actual spot weld.

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Got the seat frames all cleaned up and painted.

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And the underside of the trunk blasted as well.

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As you can see I was able to finally remove the bracing as all the welding on the floors are complete. Wouldn't you know it, the doors still opened and closed perfectly LOL! Must have done something right :)


cheers
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.

Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 5:56 pm
One step forward, eight steps back :realmad:

The morons that installed the rear 1/4's really did a horrible job. The right side is passible, but the left side is way too close to the top mechanism, once the new top gets installed it will rub on the trim, not good.

So today I started removing the panel to see if I could pull it outwards and get the proper fit.

Here you can see the bend in the top of the panel,

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Not enough clearance,

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Right side good to go,

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Plenty of clearance,

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The left the inner lip of the quarter skin and just went over top of it,

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Going to have to find a way of somehow shaving this to allow the required clearance,

I'm hoping not to have to remove any more, but we'll see.

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cheers
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.

Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09

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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2016 5:20 pm
So we have to replace all the body mounts due to worn old rubber. The rear brace is getting replaced as well.

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These are the captured nuts on the mounts above the rear differential.

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Floor pan all primed up.

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Using a laser level to get the IMPALA script nice and straight, the old section of the original panel was used as the template for the hole spacing.

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Old panel section,

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Ran tape along the laser line as an added guide,

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All drilled and filed,

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After scribing the holes I used a small drill bit to drill two holes inside the lines, then removed the rest of the metal with small jewellers files.

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Laided down five coats of high build primer over the epoxy, the last coat was mixed with some blue from another project. This will act as our initial guide coat for block sanding.

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When all the blue is gone you're GTG!

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And the dash is all back together, just waiting for a new steering wheel.

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cheers
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.

Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09

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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2016 9:43 pm
So did you get that left quarter panel straightened out?
Doing a great job on that car. I had a feeling when you first got it there was going to be problems with what the previous shop did.
1968 Coronet R/T


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PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2016 6:45 pm
'68 Coronet R/T wrote:So did you get that left quarter panel straightened out?
Doing a great job on that car. I had a feeling when you first got it there was going to be problems with what the previous shop did.


We got the 1/4 to about the 90% solution. There is still a small kink above the fuel filler door, but the only way to totally eliminate it would be to remove the entire panel, not happening. Let's just say I'm glad it's being painted white LOL. The previous shop messed up on so many levels it's unreal.

The trunk lid is giving us issues now as it was really warped from the fire...



cheers
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.

Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09

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PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2016 4:45 pm
The Impala script,

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Getting down to the short strokes now, hopefully have all the blocking done by Friday.

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cheers
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.

Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09

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PostPosted: Sun May 29, 2016 5:01 pm
Got the top frame cleaned up and painted,

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The shop is getting pretty busy lol!

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Floors are all done,

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Have to rebuild the frame where the rear body mounts are attached.

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Should have some paint on it this week!


cheers
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.

Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 7:09 pm
Well it finally got some paint!

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In the back shop starting the wet sand and polish,


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Starting to put the trim back on.

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cheers
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.

Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09
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