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I finally decided on the headlight treatment, as well. Since it's more of a "concept car" look, than a Kustom, I wanted to use the stock headlight bezels. But I also wanted to change them up a bit. I decided to cut off the outer part of the pot metal bezel, and just install the inner. Which meant fabricating the outer out of sheet metal and welding it to the fenders. I used a 3/16" round rod as the edge.

Man, I really like that look! Smooooth......

Nice work and looks great.

Have you ever tried to fix pot metal parts. The tailpanel on my GTX is pitted and has a crack in it. I can get a reproduction replacement for it but they are slightly over $1000 with the matching tail lights.

68 Coronet R/T, as a matter of fact, I've been honing my welding skills on doing pot metal. The Olds has pot metal vent window housings that have to be shortened 1 1/2" to match the chopped top. Since no one around does that type of work, I'm playing around with doing it myself! It REAL tricky to do!

My stuff is extremely corroded and pitted, so I am thinking of just buying new.
Have you heard of this stuff: https://www.muggyweld.com/

It would take me a full day just to drill out all the spots like they are saying to do.

chopolds wrote:I finally decided on the headlight treatment, as well. Since it's more of a "concept car" look, than a Kustom, I wanted to use the stock headlight bezels. But I also wanted to change them up a bit. I decided to cut off the outer part of the pot metal bezel, and just install the inner. Which meant fabricating the outer out of sheet metal and welding it to the fenders. I used a 3/16" round rod as the edge.

I know that I have said it before, but My Gawd! you fab guys just plain amaze me. It is a good thing that I don't live close to any of you as I would be over bugging the crap out of you all the time!

OldFatBald, I'd love to have more people interested, to be able to hand down some of the old ways! I've had many assistants, friends, young relatives, seem to be interested in doing restoration/customizing, and all, except 2 or 3 have given up. Too hard, too dirty, too long to finish, etc. It's a pleasure to spend time with someone with passion to learn! C'mon down!

68 Coronet, Yeah, welding would not be the answer, then. It's so easy to just melt away a hole in pot metal, MUCH easier than aluminum! So, the more repairs to do, the more likely to fail. Thin stuff is extremely dangerous.

'68 Coronet R/T wrote:My stuff is extremely corroded and pitted, so I am thinking of just buying new.
Have you heard of this stuff: https://www.muggyweld.com/

It would take me a full day just to drill out all the spots like they are saying to do.

I bought some of their stuff 1 and 5 I tried on a Alum radiator didn't have much luck my first try with the stuff. Haven't tried using it to fill Pot metal pits yet for chroming.

Some of that Mopar stuff is just Unobtainable You got to do what you got to do to save it sometimes.

Long time between updates! Did some work, not a lot that's photo worthy. Still doing lots of "customer" work...a mild custom 51 Ford, and a complete bodywork/paint on a REALLY rusty 57 Olds 98.
With the radiator mounted, the fan extends below the radiator. With the 455, I need max cooling, so I built a shroud, out of aluminum. So, it took longer than expected. Engine is all hooked up and ready to fire. Just have to figure out a place to put the "Haywire" fuse box. It's quite long and there's not a lot of available space under the dash.
Removed the shifter from the column, bought a new repo steering wheel, fixed dents in the dash, and painted it. Also added pods for AC ducts.
Also, had bought a brand new windshield out at Carlisle, last fall. Attempted to cut it, and it broke on me. I've only broken 2 curved windshields out of the 30+ car's I've chopped! The new ones are a bit thinner than the originals, maybe contributing to this. Local glass shops cannot get me a new one, and this spring, Auto City did not have an Olds windshield at Carlisle. Might have to wait until fall (glass is $400, with 250 to ship it!)