Chevelle updates

[Xplantdad]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JoeG</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Very cool coverage of body work raisin' a car from the &quot;brink&quot; I've seen in a while....My popcorn bill is overbudget........ [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] </div></div>


I agree with Joe...and I am seriously diggin' that blue as well!

[x Baldwin Motion]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JoeG</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Very cool coverage of body work raisin' a car from the &quot;brink&quot; I've seen in a while....My popcorn bill is overbudget........ [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] </div></div>

Yup! thanks for sharing this. Speaking of bills, are those body guys family members with a lot of dirty carbs?

[VintageMusclecar]

Budgets...<span style="font-style: italic">budgets</span>???...let's not talk about budgets right now. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/eek.gif[/img]

As far as the cast of characters;

Bodyguy #1 is a longtime friend of Bodyguy #2, and Bodyguy #2 is an older brother of one of my longtime friends. Bodyguy #2 also owns the killer green Challenger posted earlier in the thread. He and #1 did the restoration on it.

Just to break up the monotony of this thread a little bit;

My friend (mentioned above) and I built this Pro Street `67 Chevy II a while back; he did all the bodywork (natch) while I helped with the drivetrain and some of the fab work. His brother (mentioned above) squirted the color on it.







(don't ask me why he painted the engine yellow, I tried to talk him out of it lol)

Fully hand-built chassis/frame: 2X3 front rails with a Pinto cradle and rack&amp;pinion steering system, 2X4 rear rails with Alston ladder bars and coil-overs. The engine was a .060&quot; over 10-1 427: ported open chamber oval ports, Crane flat tappet cam, Weiand Team G intake, 1050 9375 Holley (prepped by yours truly), hand fabbed stainless 2 1/4&quot; headers (<span style="font-style: italic">way</span> too big for this engine, but a much larger engine was being planned for the car later and the notion of building 2 sets of headers wasn't too appealing), 400 turbo with a Coan 4000 converter, 9&quot; Ford with a locker and a 4.57 screw.

Yeah, it was quick. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]

Friend sold the car shortly after its completion (suffering from a <span style="font-style: italic">severe</span> case of project burn-out), went somewhere up to northern Ohio, then wound up in Florida where it was being listed for sale again on eBay.

No idea where it is now...kind'a miss that car.

[jasonL78]

Eric your 67 Is looking good. It brings back a lot of memories of the 67 Conv I did a couple years back. The color is very nice also. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[VintageMusclecar]

Jason;

Thanks for the kind words.

I remember reading about your build as well. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[VintageMusclecar]

It's back on the ground again! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

(yeah, I know...&quot;so what?&quot; lol...well, it's a milestone of sorts for me! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] )





Bodyguy got the rust damage on the interior side of the dash repaired and got the upper dash chassis reinstalled this week.



Still have a little patchwork to do on the outside, but that'll happen the next time the fenders are off, which won't be for a little while as he's now hard at work getting the repop <span style="font-style: italic">wibbly-worbly</span> (just coined a new term there) hood to fit.



Bodyguy wound up flying solo again today, and as it so happened, I wound up lending him a hand getting the rear edge of the hood into alignment with the cowl panel.

It's sort'a hard to see in the pics below, but the rear edge of the hood was well below the leading edge of the cowl panel and needed to be brought up to the same level. You can also see a bulge in the gap just to the pass. side of the crown line in the center of the hood where the skin wasn't properly folded when the hood was made. Nothing a grinder and a MIG welder can't fix, right? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]





With the cowl panel removed, a block of wood was placed on the firewall and the hood was closed. Bodyguy commenced to whacking away on the rear edge of the hood, and after a few whack/adjust/check sessions, the thing actually lined up. Now the gap can be dialed in.





Bodyguy had already been hard at work this week on the sides of the hood getting them dialed in. It took some pounding, some grinding, some welding, (and I'm sure a few choice words) but as always, Bodyguy emerged victorious. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

(sorry the following 2 pics are so dark, the flash sort'a put the whammy on things here)





(btw...in several of the pics I've posted so far, you may have noticed some gray overspray in a few places [core support, part of the bottom of the frame by the rocker panels, etc.]. I'm to blame for that, not Bodyguy)

Bodyguy said he'd probably be working on the hood all week to get it finished up. After that, the only major things left are the A pillar covers and the roof, neither of which appear to need any serious attention at this point.

I'm still in awe that the car has come this far this quickly. After all the delays and set-backs I've had to deal with on this project up to this point, it is a welcome sight to finally witness this kind of consistent progress.

More later.

[VintageMusclecar]

Not much to report for the week. Bodyguy has been slaving over the garbage POS repop hood &amp; inserts trying to make them presentable.



The finish work on the edges of the inserts looks like it was done by a blind monkey with a rat-tail file, and the contour of the inserts wasn't even close to the contour of the hood bulges, but as usual, Bodyguy has managed to make a silk purse from a sows ear.



You can't see it from the pics, but there's a ton of re-work just in these two insert openings; it took slotting the mounting stud holes, cutting &amp; welding the edges of the openings, and an all-purpose general beating to get things into line.



Bodyguy says the hood should be in DP90 by the end of the week, but there's still plenty of fill priming and blocking to be done before it's anywhere near ready for final prep.

I'll be dropping the old decklid off early in the week so Bodyguy can use it as a test canvas to squirt some color on it before I sign off on the final paint mix.

More eventually.

[Xplantdad]

Nice Eric!

[Dave Rifkin]

That bodyman sure is an artist with the patience of a saint; nice work.

[SS427]

I know first hand what your budget was for the bodywork on this car and agree with Dave. You are getting more than your moneys worth as your bodyman is going above and beyond to make things perfect not just pretty. That shows a lot of pride and integrity which you don't often see these days. Hats off the bodyguy! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]