Hello,
Moving over from CC. Haven't posted there for a while and now I was convinced to move over here by some members. Thanks for informing me!
The car is a base 70, F8 green, 383 4-speed car. Not driven for almost 30 years but before that it was rusted, crashed and rusted again. Lot of repairs would today be considered "non professional" but they helped the car stay alive and that is why it's still here. No bad feelings about bad repairs :D. Rear quarters, wheelhouse, trunk extensions, rear panel, dutchman panel, trunk gutters, all had to go. Roof had some dings and had to be repaired and left rocker panel had some rusted, so also other parts of the car. All that is fixed now and I'm working with the front fenders. The whole tail of the car was off-center by an half inch to the left. Some of you that are into metal working might perhaps find som parts of the tread interesting. Also made some movies and uploaded them. A whole bunch of pics are coming.
Picture of the car when i brought it home.
Starting of with some pics of left an right wheelhouse repair. they were rusted and crash. Had to use the new quarter panel fixing the wheelhouse lip/edge or what you call it to the quarter panel with screws. Fix the quarter panel to the car and build supports for the edge and then remove screws. removing quarter panel and starting patching the wheelhouse together. There was no other way to insure that the repaired wheelhouse otherwise would fit perfectly to the quarter panel when time came to install quarters later. Or at least I couldn't come up with any better solutions at the time. First pics of right wheelhouse is an old repair.
The video: https://youtu.be/qkCojL0y6Xo
Welcome to this site. That will be a great car when done!
same procedure on the left side. Bare metal was treated with antirust converter and then with zinc primer. And then some seam sealer . The white stuff is seam sealer and not bondo :smile: I know, third picture look kinda weird, but there was some chemical rust eating business, transformation going on. And it was apparently supposed to look like that.
Nice metal work. Hope mine is as good when I do my trunk floor! :bravo:
Trunk extensions in bad shape with previous rust repairs and so on. Made my own extensions from a piece of sheet metal. Some work but great fun :)
The video: https://youtu.be/GytoyYc1UlQ
Rocker Panel needed a patch, on the inside aswell.
The movie about fabrikating the rocker panel part: https://youtu.be/DG1mPDd-t_w
The movie about getting it on the car: https://youtu.be/dh5goe5-Qtk
Nice work! Thats how we had to do it back in the 80's & early 90's... These days there are very nice reproduction inner wheel houses & trunk drop offs so most guys don't have to learn how to make their own.... Good to see someone still knows how it can be done.... I still have a couple of the contour gauges like your using in my tool box.....
Quote from: 1 Wild R/T on March 09, 2018, 01:15:59 PM
Nice work! Thats how we had to do it back in the 80's & early 90's... These days there are very nice reproduction inner wheel houses & trunk drop offs so most guys don't have to learn how to make their own.... Good to see someone still knows how it can be done.... I still have a couple of the contour gauges like your using in my tool box.....
Thanks for kind words. I know there is a lot of nice repro parts and I also use them. But It's great fun and I enjoy shaping metal the old fashion way when it can be done. could be nice to have all the fancy tools they got today in body shop places... What I would need more is a new pair of shoulders, mine are worn out.
Also replaced trunk gutter.
some pics are gone and some are left.
made a small video about that to: https://youtu.be/iBJP1QsDA7A
:welcome: from Central Illinois! You should be proud of your ability to fabricate body panels and not have to rely solely on replacement parts. Nice work! :cheers:
Nice work! Yes I remember when all we had were bad quarter skins and I had to hand make the outer wheelhouses on my 69 GTX. Good on you for doing a bang up job on it rather than waiting a few months for the taiwan parts.
Some photos i took while working on the roof. It had some 10 dents, a part that was "oil canning" and damages in right rear pillar. took me many hours to get everything ok.
some pics of the engine bay after paint.
awesome work. I like F8 green myself. It looks great with the right amount of clear/shine.
Some photos of the trunk and rear quarters.Trunk floor has had some surface rust so after removing that i used self etching primer.
Great thread! Very impressive!
I will be following this thread for sure.
Do you happen to have retained the video of the "oil canning" on the roof work?
Quote from: cuda hunter on March 10, 2018, 02:49:43 PM
Great thread! Very impressive!
I will be following this thread for sure.
Do you happen to have retained the video of the "oil canning" on the roof work?
Thank you! Yes, I think so. There are 3 parts. The dent repair, oil canning and ther lead soldering of the quarter panel seam to the roof and the repair in the same area. I had several problems with the videos. My computer memory was full so I used an external harddrive but that really slows everything down and so on. I will try to upload them. Also had to delete some movies because of the radio playing music in the background and youtube.....
You've got some great skills there. My Cuda also needed rear quarters, trunk floor and extensions and dutchmand panel. Fortunately the wheel wells and rockers were okay. I don't mean to be stupid, but what do you mean by "oil canning?"
Great work! You've got some serious metal working skills being able to fabricate the panels. I'll keep watching. This will be nice when completed.
Wes
Quote from: usraptor on March 10, 2018, 04:14:47 PM
I don't mean to be stupid, but what do you mean by "oil canning?"
:popcorn:
Happens on metal panel roofs at times.
Installers have you acknowledge that it is possible and not a defect, they say.
That sucks when standing seam does that. Costly replacement!
Quote from: cuda hunter on March 10, 2018, 02:49:43 PM
Great thread! Very impressive!
I will be following this thread for sure.
Do you happen to have retained the video of the "oil canning" on the roof work?
Here are the 3 parts I have made so far:
The dent repair movie: https://youtu.be/bPwwfz1aXEQ
The "oil canning" repair: https://youtu.be/M8BSmmym9Y8
The lead soldering repair of damage: https://youtu.be/eJ0MzgVdbDQ
Have additional material on the lead soldering of the seam between the roof and the quarter but that is rather basic so I don't know how interesting that is. Of course these repairs are also pretty basic for professional but my idea is to show that it can be done also with rather simple tools and that people perhaps should have confidence to try themselves and like me having great fun doing it.
Photos from before the quarter panel replacement. Before striping of all weld, lead and 1/2 inch of bondo.
Quote from: usraptor on March 10, 2018, 04:14:47 PM
You've got some great skills there. My Cuda also needed rear quarters, trunk floor and extensions and dutchmand panel. Fortunately the wheel wells and rockers were okay. I don't mean to be stupid, but what do you mean by "oil canning?"
Thank you for your comment. Perhaps there are better wordings for this phenomena or pain in the a.. as I would describe it because its not that simple to fix. Perhaps it is for professionals but not for me. The upright arch is kept by a tension and if damaged, someone sits on the roof e.g, or a previous crash then tension is lost and the metal becomes all wobbly. If you look at the video you se: https://youtu.be/M8BSmmym9Y8
Quote from: Ifixmycarmyself on March 11, 2018, 01:34:15 PM
Quote from: usraptor on March 10, 2018, 04:14:47 PM
You've got some great skills there. My Cuda also needed rear quarters, trunk floor and extensions and dutchmand panel. Fortunately the wheel wells and rockers were okay. I don't mean to be stupid, but what do you mean by "oil canning?"
Thank you for your comment. Perhaps there are better wordings for this phenomena or pain in the a.. as I would describe it because its not that simple to fix. Perhaps it is for professionals but not for me. The upright arch is kept by a tension and if damaged, someone sits on the roof e.g, or a previous crash then tension is lost and the metal becomes all wobbly. If you look at the video you se: https://youtu.be/M8BSmmym9Y8
Oil canning is the accepted term... basically the metal gets stretched & when you push on it the metal acts like a spring, it flexes in, the springs back out... When your tying to block a panel & it has even the slightest oil canning going on you can't block it... Big panels like the roof of my wagon are the worst... You've got to shrink the metal to get it as tight as possible, another thing you need to do is make sure the panel is straight when your cutting with 36 grit, cause on a panel like that when you go to 80 or higher the panel is gonna move.... If your pushing down at all hard on the sanding block the metal will flex... Light steady pressure, like the paper do the cutting.... Don't be cheap, replace the paper often..
Time to take care of the fenders, rusted in the usual places and a lot of dents. Are they even worth repairing..? complete teardown of the whole fender. some photos.
Here, you'd probably not patch them as new replacements are available, if not cheap, but where you are and with your abilities, I'd say go for it. What have you got to lose? One question if I may? Why didn't you knock out the two dents in the firewall before you painted it? Just curious. :huh:
Quote from: jimynick on March 30, 2018, 09:03:13 PM
Here, you'd probably not patch them as new replacements are available, if not cheap, but where you are and with your abilities, I'd say go for it. What have you got to lose? One question if I may? Why didn't you knock out the two dents in the firewall before you painted it? Just curious. :huh:
Yes, guess I would to if were sane... Cost is one issue over here, but not the only one. Have a lot of replacement parts i bought for my next restoration project, 70 V-code, but I can't make up my mind to use them or not. Wile boxes pile up in that garage I see a common issue... made in China. Nothing wrong with that, probably the easiest way to get your money back. Smack it together, a nice paint job, sell it and you double your money. But... is it still an American car or is it a Chinese/Taiwaneese car that looks like an American muscle car from the 70'. Perhaps a philosophical issue that deserves a topic of it's own on the forum. like.."my father replaced the handle on my grandfathers axe and i replaced the blade" is it still my grandfathers axe??
About the dent on the firewall. Easiest explanation would be to say i forgot it... But...In some places I left small signs of the cars previous life, no rust or other bad things, just small signs like the two dents there. In my mind the car has a soul of some kind but I don't know were it is. In respect of that i would not want to erase the cars entire history or soul and until I've found out were it is I would leave some minor signs of previous life. In my mind the cars history is what makes it really unique, not the odd options on a fender tag or build sheet. Some would argue that the build sheet and tag is the most important piece of history and the rest can be replaced, and I respect the argument but I don't share it at this time. Perhaps this also deserves a new topic here on the forum :)
I like what you're doing. I would have fixed those fenders as well.
I like your philosophy of repairing damaged sheet metal rather than just replacing everything with Asian reproduction parts. :bigthumb:
When I restored my T/A, I found good original fenders, doors, tail panel, even a trunk floor for the project to replace the rusty originals. I bought repro quarters when they first came out and my desire was for the shop to use the lower half of them to restore my originals. They instead replaced my quarters with the new ones, and even though they look good, I will always regret that the quarters are aftermarket. I should have gone the extra mile to find some good used originals or even NOS. :(
Ha, ha: Yes the cars do have soul. My 66 Hemi Coronet had the tailpipes replaced and they were cut at an angle parallel with the ground rather than at an angle to the ground (hey so I'm a freak and notice these things). It really bugged me until one day I was at a car show with it and this guy checked out the tailpipes and told me he was a previous owner from 1973 until 6 months before I bought it. He recognized those darn tailpipes as well and I was kind of okay with them after that. The history of these cars is always interesting.
Fender restoration done! They were disassembled, paint removed, patched up and sealed with leading, straighten out with hammer and dolly, rust converter and anti-rust paint on inside and self etching primer on outside. link to the video on fender restoration part 3: https://youtu.be/mZE2zQKgjUc
:clapping: Wow, that's very inspiring. I was going to save one of my fenders now I'm thinking maybe both. 8)
Nice work, but PLEASE wear a respirator when you're power grinding solder! I will use a vixen file w/o one, but the airborne particles are the most dangerous ones and we'd like you to live long enough to actually drive this car that's receiving a restoration. :yes:
Starting with the doors. The doors has some rust to take care of, some minor dents but also a dent that goes along half of the door length. But they are anyhow too god to be trhown away, in my opinion. Will have to remove the inner "side impact" reinforcement do beat out that dent. Some pics.
Good job as always.
WOW !! :unbelievable: WOW!! Great thread . Enjoyed watching your work !! You definitely have talent ! :worship: ...and patience !
Really beautiful work. :wave: Thank you for sharing with us and welcome to the site. I've never been associated with a better group of people than the ones you will find here. :veryexcited:
I recently started working on the car again. Was going bananas over the small garage so I had to build a new garage, myself. You could call it Ibuiltmygaragemyself, but thats a story for a different forum. The garage is not totally finished but I was eager to start working on the car again. will post som update pictures. I also had to get myself diabetes and was a little struck by that but now I'm back.
Bodywork is done. it has two new rear quarter panels, rear panel, trunk extensions, dutchman panel and new hood. Restored the doors, inner wheelhouse and both fenders. Now I'm testfitting everything to se if it lines up well and it seems ok, straight as an arrow, bare metal and no "bondo".
I will leave gaps rather wide, or at least no narrowing by bondofilling and razorblades cut out action going on here as seen on TV. This is going to be a driver and no showcar.
:banana: :popcorn: It's great to see you back at it. I love watching your work. New members, check out this thread and his youtube videos, a true artist!! 8)
Car looks great. There's nothing more frustrating than being hindered by an undersized space while restoring a car. Many of us have been in that situation and I really hate spending large amounts of time moving stuff around or looking for tools/parts rather than working on the car. You must be much happier with the larger garage.
This thread is truly an inspiration to anybody who likes to fix things themselves, it looks like there's nothing that will scare you off, and best of all...another one gets saved :worship: :twothumbsup:
Quote from: anlauto on May 23, 2020, 06:19:03 AM
This thread is truly an inspiration to anybody who likes to fix things themselves, it looks like there's nothing that will scare you off, and best of all...another one gets saved :worship: :twothumbsup:
Thanks for kind words but you are the pro. I've been beating on this car for four years. It's good I don't have to do this for a living. I would be out of business soon. I had to restore another fender and spent about 25-30 hours doing it :headbang:
Some picture soon.
continuation of door restoration.
Unfortunately another of my cars were in desperate need of a new door and fender so this door and fender had to be painted semi orange and fitted to that car :(
Had to star all over with another door and fender.
Quote from: Ifixmycarmyself on May 23, 2020, 05:01:41 PM
Quote from: anlauto on May 23, 2020, 06:19:03 AM
This thread is truly an inspiration to anybody who likes to fix things themselves, it looks like there's nothing that will scare you off, and best of all...another one gets saved :worship: :twothumbsup:
Thanks for kind words but you are the pro. I've been beating on this car for four years. It's good I don't have to do this for a living. I would be out of business soon. I had to restore another fender and spent about 25-30 hours doing it :headbang:
Some picture soon.
I couldn't get my cars done without the help of my "PRO" metal guy, or the hard working guys in the body shop, I know what it takes to do the work and I truly appreciate the fact you're tackling it all yourself. It's true hobbyist like yourself that deserve the kudos :worship:
Time to make an update. Since I'm restoring the whole car myself I'll have to paint it myself swell, otherwise it wouldn't count in the end :)
I had the opportunity to borrow a paint booth and have been busy a couple of weeks with sanding, filler, more sanding, more filler... The first yellow coat is epoxy primer on bare metal, rear 1/4, deck lid, rear panels, hood, fenders and roof. The second coat, dark grey, is a sanding primer on which filler is applied. Third coat, white, is an epoxy sealer. On top of that is the green F8 base coat and last but not least, 4 coats of clear. Yellow primer is a Swedish brand, Hagman and the rest is Glasurit. (none is water based). When the clear is really hard I will sand buff and polish. Metal/bodywork was rater good and I didn't have to use more than 1 1/2 jar (2 kg or about 5 pounds) of filler with isn't much and majority of it is anyhow sanded away and ends up on the floor. Its going to be a driver car, no trailer queen, so no filler fixing and perfecting the door gaps or trunk gap with filler, they will be at least 1/4 inch or a little bit more to be on the safe side. Hate when paint is chipped in gaps when body moves, these cars have somewhat weak bodys and move a lot (my experience :dunno: ) maybe due to the bad roads around here.
Anders
Well, that looks much better!
Fantastic...I really like that color.
Really nice progress. You're certainly making the most of getting access to the paint booth.
That looks incredible :worship:
First of all, my jaw is dropped and my hat is in my hand (humbled). I'm also restoring a 70 F8. Yet I'm spoiled by a large shop on my property and great parts availability. For sheet metal, I've bought both AMD quarters to replace 1990 styled rust repair, trunk pan and Dutchman panel. My rockers were like new as my car was warehoused 30 years. Minor rot in the lower wheelhouses at the trunk pan, extensions were like new. I'll admit that when I began reading this thread it was the F8 that caught my attention. Not initially noticing where you were from, my first thought was "why the hell isn't he buying a new piece?" When I saw you were from Sweden, humility kicked in. Then I saw how you fabbed up the trunk extensions and realized I was witnessing a talent I could only hope to aspire. As my project progresses toward paint prep, I'm beginning to get nervous as I haven't done a mopar metallic in 35 years when I worked in auto body. Then I saw your paint in that booth and literally shouted an obscenity out loud! You sir, are to be commended! I probably have ten favorite threads on this forum and you just wedged your way in with honors!!! Mine too had been kissed in the right quarter and wheelhouse, yet slightly less than yours. Fortunately my roof is unaffected, but I gave in and replaced the right B pillar as it was sprung inward, left that way after the poor 1990ish impact repair. No floor or rocker damage, frame still perfect. All of this being said, you have boosted my confidence off of the scale and you'll continue to be my inspiration. Rock on and post often!
Great thread! This is a very impressive work! :twothumbsup: :worship:
Quote from: 7E-Bodies on August 29, 2020, 05:42:57 PM
First of all, my jaw is dropped and my hat is in my hand (humbled). I'm also restoring a 70 F8. Yet I'm spoiled by a large shop on my property and great parts availability. For sheet metal, I've bought both AMD quarters to replace 1990 styled rust repair, trunk pan and Dutchman panel. My rockers were like new as my car was warehoused 30 years. Minor rot in the lower wheelhouses at the trunk pan, extensions were like new. I'll admit that when I began reading this thread it was the F8 that caught my attention. Not initially noticing where you were from, my first thought was "why the hell isn't he buying a new piece?" When I saw you were from Sweden, humility kicked in. Then I saw how you fabbed up the trunk extensions and realized I was witnessing a talent I could only hope to aspire. As my project progresses toward paint prep, I'm beginning to get nervous as I haven't done a mopar metallic in 35 years when I worked in auto body. Then I saw your paint in that booth and literally shouted an obscenity out loud! You sir, are to be commended! I probably have ten favorite threads on this forum and you just wedged your way in with honors!!! Mine too had been kissed in the right quarter and wheelhouse, yet slightly less than yours. Fortunately my roof is unaffected, but I gave in and replaced the right B pillar as it was sprung inward, left that way after the poor 1990ish impact repair. No floor or rocker damage, frame still perfect. All of this being said, you have boosted my confidence off of the scale and you'll continue to be my inspiration. Rock on and post often!
Thank you for the kind words and interesting to read about your car. I'm happy if I have inspired you and others. Yes it has been a lot of work. Nearly five years since I started. To be honest other things came in between. One thing that took a lot of time was building a new garage. The metal fabrication and bodywork is a part of the hobby that i like a lot. of course I could have bought more aftermarket parts and I did buy some parts. Maybe you saw the videos about the restoration of the fenders and that is something that i almost regret. It took forever to completely disassemble the fenders and repairing them, easily 50 hours of work, or more. Just like you I also painted some cars in mid 80's but never professionally. Had the clear running in several places and it needs to be polished but I guess I'll wait another week or two. Good luck with your paint!
Anders
Quote from: Smallblock340 on August 29, 2020, 11:22:08 PM
Great thread! This is a very impressive work! :twothumbsup: :worship:
Thank you for kind words!
Anders
Just got caught up on this thread. All I can say is what others have said, you have mad skills. My hat is off to you for your skills. :worship: :unbelievable: :clapping: Fortunately for me my best friend is a paint and body man and did all the metal work and paint on my car, otherwise I would still be waiting for it to be finished since I don't have the first clue about how to do bodywork. Any updates?
Quote from: usraptor on December 07, 2020, 10:39:14 AM
Just got caught up on this thread. All I can say is what others have said, you have mad skills. My hat is off to you for your skills. :worship: :unbelievable: :clapping: Fortunately for me my best friend is a paint and body man and did all the metal work and paint on my car, otherwise I would still be waiting for it to be finished since I don't have the first clue about how to do bodywork. Any updates?
Thank you for kind words! Bodywork is fun and rewarding and have never been easier because there are so many people sharing knowledge on forums and youtube. Don't be scare about it just give it a try :D
About an update.. I need to sand and buff the clear before assembling. Meanwhile working on this project I also built a new garage and had to do some final work on light and heat. Garage is ok and winter is approaching and I will have plenty of time to buff and get rid of some clear runs. Will post pics.
After Covid and 14 days in hospital and some time for recover I'm back in the garage and it's Time for a small update.
Car was painted last year. The paint looked good directly out of the paint boot with some minor clear runs and some orange peel in some places. Now it has been sitting over the winter and oddly some more orange peel has developed in some places. It's time for polishing, starting with a 1500, 2000 grit wet sanding and the 2000 and a 4000 grit polishing pad (Abralon). Followed by polishing. I'm not an expert on polishing so I had to try some different methods and products. What works best for me right now is the 3M Fast Cut Rubbing (big bottle on pic) on a medium corse pad with the rotary machine followed by the Rupes Fine Polishing Compound (yellow cap) on a fine pad with the dual action machine.
Great to hear of your recovery! :clapping: Cars will wait!
Uploading some pics from the restoration. The carb No. 4367
The starter was dead. Usual problem easy to fix. Bad connection between field copper grounding wire and housing. Also replaced bushings and brushes.
Four speed transmission had a bad noise from rear main bearing. Car was also shaking badly when clutch was operated. had to measure off-center, install off-center studs. then I replaced the cast iron bell housing with a correct aluminium bell housing and had to do the exercise all over again. Main bearing, the 308, has a odd dimension and was not that easy to find. Bought a whole restoration kit were it was included.
Made also a Youtube video while doing the restoration:
https://youtu.be/6ATqV_71CkM
Leaf spring bushing replacement
The dashboard needed some care. Built a simple stand for the dashboard and placed it on my table. Kind of copied someone else on the forum with the stand. Was a good idea and much easier to access all parts of it.
Nice dash stand!
Can you take a picture from the backside showing how you mounted it?
I recall one of our members used a stand and it swiveled on him damaging his pad.
Quote from: larry4406 on November 06, 2021, 04:52:55 AM
Nice dash stand!
Can you take a picture from the backside showing how you mounted it?
I recall one of our members used a stand and it swiveled on him damaging his pad.
Yes, Had to angle away the upper beam for the reason you mention. Now I use original upper dash holes to secure it to the stand.
Wow man, amazing fab work! Truly an inspiration :clapping:
The car is finally done and this is what it looks like. Thank you all for kind comments advices and inspiration during the build.
My next project is already in the new garage and I hop it will be faster, this car took 6 years.
Quite the journey, you should be proud, looks great.
Well done!
Beautiful car! Well done and congratulations!
You must get such a sense of accomplishment doing mostly everything yourself :worship: , beautiful car :twothumbsup:
Great job - looks great!