Day 86 - 6/6/12

Got the moldings to fit pretty good by beating the metal down. Then I re-welded them up and will grind it flush along with the other sheet metal.

Here's a better shot of the passenger side, all welded and ground. You can see where the titanium putty will go I was talking about a couple updates ago, in those funny little holes.

 Lower passenger side all ground down. We made a little patch that will sit right there floating over it all. I'll have to weld it in.

Back to the driver side, got the lower corner ground flush. It looks like somebody did a braze repair many years ago! I believe we're going to float over it and/or work around it.

Day 85 - 6/4/12

So the wheels Dad brought down were looking a little scratched from previous use of trim rings. I prefer the look without them and don't want to spend the big bucks to buy new ones, so it's a win win situation. I also don't want to have to worry about them either. So I hand sanded to my hearts' content.

The rears Dad bought from the Chevy store so the paint was really thin and pretty easy to prep.

The fronts on the other hand and been repainted and started to rust where the rings scratched the paint off. So I spent some time and sanded the lips smooth so hopefully the scratches won't show through. (The left is after and right is before)

Day 84 - 6/3/12

Since we're going to the effort of replacing all this metal, might as well make the window moldings fit good! So I broke out the moldings out and we saw where the new metal had to be formed to make the molding fit the best.

Doing a visual fit, the upper corners had to come down a little becuase they sat to high, you can see in this picture here.

It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but we made a incision along the corner. Then we'll beat it down and re-weld it up!

Day 83 - 6/2/12

I got a big urge and finished all the welding/grinding along the upper rear window! It was fun leaning over everything being left handed trying not to grind too deep into the metal. But now that part is done, thankfully.

All flush, and to think all this goodness will get covered up. You can see my attempt to avoid melting the quarter windows with the towel from showers of sparks from welders and grinders.

Day 82 - 6/1/12

All most finished up the welding on the rear window today. The upper corner on the passenger side was very thin an kept blowing out. So I'm not going to try to fill the little rust holes along the roof line, we'll put a little titanium putty there.

You can see the seam where there the 3 cars' metal come together. Lots of spot welds at a higher heat to really get a good bond. I couldn't well to much on one area at a time other wise it would warp it!

Still had to weld up the lower corners! We still have to figure out a piece in the actual window channel. (Above the welds in this picture)

I've been looking forward to this. Dad brought down some of his Rally wheels from the "old days" being right around 27 years since he last used them.

15x7 up front from like a Monte Carlo or Chevelle and 15x8 out back from a Corvette. The fronts have been painted a couple times but the rears have the original GM paint on them. I'll sand them down and repaint them the GM flat silver for that "timeless" look.

I really can't get enough of a reversed deep dish wheel! Still working on tires...

Day 81 - 5/27/12

Today is another day of brakes, the last one! We managed to finish it up, all the many components went together pretty smooth. I'll have some peace of mind knowing now I have new brakes under me when I'm cruising around.

New parts from this weekend include:
Master Cylinder
Flex lines to front calipers and rear end
Pads up front
Rear shoes
Rear wheel cylinders
Brake fluid
Re-packed front wheel bearings
Shocks all around
Front sway bar end-links

 Cleaned off the spindles, and repacked the bearings. Rebuilt the original calipers using new flex lines and installed new pads over the original rotors. I'm good to go for awhile!

My new master cylinder from Rock Auto.com, all shinny and new.

New master cylinder already bench bled, ready to be hooked up to the lines!

If you remember, I cleaned up all the springs and such awhile ago. Installed the freshly re-lined shoes and new wheel cylinder along with the clean springs.

Got it all to fit in there and then slipped the original drums on. The original rubber plugs for adjusting the shoes on the drums are still intact, I thought that was kind of cool. You can see the new rear shocks in place here too. 

  Then after we got it all put back together, we bled the brakes. I had never done that before, kind off fun stuff. You can see the new sway bar end-links here too.

Day 80 - 5/26/12

Today is spring day! The rear of the car sags to one side, so with the shocks out they basically fall out. So we flip flopped them side to side. Then dad showed me an old trick to get the fronts out!

A little help of a pry bar and they're out.

 

Jacked up the arm, and loosened the lower nut, but not all the way. Then we used a hammer attachment on a air chisel to break the taper fit from the spindle. The spring's tension helped break it apart.

Loosen the nut all the way and the spring will push the arm down!

I borrowed a coil spring compressor from the local parts store to make it possible to take the springs out!

Cut about 2/3 of a coil off the bottom. We'll see if that's enough, probably not!

Day 79 - 5/25/12

Friday night, lets keep tearing it apart! Jacked up the rear, getting ready for rear brakes too. Since we're taking everything apart up front, this is a great time to take the springs out to cut them a little. Sits way to high.

Removing the sway bar end links to replace them and make room to take the springs out.

Ready for new parts!

 

Removed all the shocks because they're shot. I'll have to buy some of those too! Peter's working on his Civic in the background.

Day 78 - 5/22/12

Well, I got a little tired of the intense grinding, so we moved in another direction. The entire brake system and the front bearings need to be repacked, so we started on that. Today's Tuesday, so hopefully we'll be done this weekend.

Step one, jacker up!

The calipers where a little sticky, but they are the brakes so that made sense why.

Hopefully we can reuse the rotors and calipers, they seem to be in decent condition.

Got the bearings out, and they look great! The spindles look beautiful as well.

Both sides are in great condition for 40 years old!

I scooped out the majority of the grease out of the rotors, and then used our handy solvent tank to let every thing soak.

Last thing we did today was drain the master cylinder and remove it.

Day 77 - 5/20/12

Almost done with the metal work in the rear window. One last push after today will get it.

Day 76 - 5/7/2012

Time to get back to the rear window fabrication adventures! I got the vertical sides all spot welded and ground down, a very tedious task, that was both stressful and fun at the same time!

Got to grind it down so the vinyl top will sit flat!

Got all the paint stripped off. Used one of those 3M stripper wheel/pads to get in the crevices in preparation for filler and paint.

Kept working along the top area, it was real thin on the passenger side. Lower heat welds and titanium putty to come. Working around the lead was also a fun task! It had to be all dug out and welded underneath were it sat.

Also I keep stripping the original roof paint some more, being careful to not warp the thin sheet metal.

Day 74/75 - 4/27-28/12

Oh man where do I continue where we left off? It's been six months since an "update", but luckily I've been taking pictures since then. It's currently mid November 2012, and I've been dailying it since the end of July 2012. So yes, you could call it "done", but there is always something to do/fix. I'm not going to spoil it anymore so I'll just keep the story going where we left off in late April 2012...

Day 74: 4/27/12

My dad sourced some of this awesome stuff called titanium putty that he uses at work to fix molds. It has high build formula that dries hard and takes a grinder to form down. Great for fixing some thin pitty areas in my roof. 

We also used it around the windshield area to fill the seam a little where lead was originally.

Day 75: 4/28/12

Got that titanium putty ground down and dad gave the area along the passenger drip rail and the A-pillars a thin layer of filler. I learned that filled areas should be at least primed so less contaminates get in it. The primer really brought out what the roof skin will look like when it's all done! 

This area is still a little "green".

*Edit:* (Being made on 8/8/15) So after going through my brother's picture folders on the computer, I found some more pictures that Dad had taken with my brother's camera. Enjoy the update!

Continuing to work on the rear window...

Dad jumped on the roof and snapped some pictures of me sanding away.

There you guys go! And as usual, have a nice day.