Day 92 - 6/16/12

Today is another one for the books, as I get to observe my father in his element from the old days of BPE (before Peter and Ethan). I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 The roof is all shinny and clean, literally as an array of solvents and cleaners were used on the bare metal to clean and prep it for the body filler. As you can see, we went straight to the line of where the vinyl roof was and will be again very soon.

It looks pretty thick here, but most of the filler will be grated and sanded off as necessary. Yes, that piece stained the quarter panel, and yes I was a little upset. This being the second drip I called a timeout. We taped some paper up to the line to continue to try to save the original paint as we have done up until this point.

Action shot: cheese grate time!

A few 'coats' over a period of time over the sail panel. Both sides were pretty bad, but I'd say this side was worse having the pit holes in the 'new' upper rear window piece and rust/pits around the quarter/roof seam.

Time for a little primer and inspection!

Day 91 - 6/14/12

Today is yet another cool day, as I believe it is the last day of metal work on the roof before it's body filler time! Dad crawls on inside the car to reach the awkward mid roof section and I tackle the body seam below the windshield.

The rear part of the roof was still a little uneven so it needed a little more love.

But wait, more rust! I started picking at this seam awhile ago and realized it needed to be looked at too. 

So I picked/wire wheeled all the original seam sealer out of the seam and prepped it for some titanium putty, new sealer and a coat of new black paint.

Day 90 - 6/11/12

Quick update today, doing some odds and ends while trying to keep everything moving forward. My Dad sourced some of this amazing stuff called titanium putty. It's a pretty amazing product, and for my application it seems to be working wonderfully. In a few areas of the roof the original skin is thin, but not enough so that we needed or wanted to patch pieces in. So, after a little grinding to clean up the spots, the titanium putty is worked into the surface and let to cure. After the putty is cured, it's as solid as a rock. It takes a grinding disk to shape it to the rest of the roof.

Only got a few good pictures of this step, but if you look closely the gray is the putty. Some had to be applied along the body line above the rear window on the roof side. Some rust/pitting took place above the roof/quarter panel seam and this is where Dad is sanding the putty down here.

Day 89 - 6/9/12

I changed gears a little today, trying to keep everything rolling at once. New rear bumper guard rubbers were gifted to me and I hand polish the tail lights to brighten them up before reassembly in the bumper.

The pretty decent repro pieces come straight and require being bent to my specific application. 

I started on the flat part of the plastic and got excited, so continued and the results are pretty amazing.

Day 88 - 6/8/12

Today we clean up the damage we caused on the roof (literally). The rear window needs a little more feather grinding to be smooth with the body and the sail panels are examined and ground a little. We also begin to sand, grind and work the roof skin that will eventually be covered up with vinyl. We're getting there!

If you look closely, we drew a sharpie line across the rivet holes across the trunk filler panel that we spliced into. This is where the molding went and will go again that covers the seam between the vinyl and painted surface. This is a point of reference, of what we can and will grind up to. 

Lots of rust from years of buildup and moisture that found its way in-between the vinyl and the sail panel.

The rust got extremely close to the visible paint line and this is a challenge we will have to continue to face.

You can see the original gray primer on the roof from when the body was dipped so many years ago.

We clean it all off however, to prepare for a clean surface to prime for the second time in its life.

Day 87 - 6/7/12

Today's a pretty cool day. We're almost done with welding and grinding on the window openings on the roof! All the Monte Carlo roof is spliced in front and rear, and all the little patch panel/pieces are in. The window moldings fit good, just as good or possibly better than factory!

Rebirth, Regroup, and Recap - July 2015

Well guys, it's been a awhile, and I think I'm long overdue for an update!

Wow, it's been 3 years, and a lot has happened, I mean a lot. We've been through a lot, and I have learned and grown so much over these last couple of years. Turns out if you wait 3 years your Picasa account (Google's picture web hosting site) quadruples in size! Time to get uploading and typing I know, I hear ya. Thank you to all of you who have been so patient!

I, Ethan, am currently 20 years old and have been driving the Chevelle off and on for 3 years and have owned it now for 4. I daily drove it to high school my senior year and since then park it for the winters and pull it out for the summers. We have done some updates along the way mostly relating to the drive-ability, but I really just like to just drive it as much as I can as is! The summer of 2014, last summer, I hit 126k on the clock and that was a mile marker haha. 10 thousand more than it had on it when we brought it home. Very cool to say, I could have never even imagined that way back in 2011 when I was a punk 16 year old kid getting the keys to my first car, a project car that would require so much hard work and dedication. It's been a labor of love though, good old Clarice found me, I didn't find her.

Stay posted, the story will continue as it happened and eventually we'll get to the present. Thanks guys, see you soon.

Ethan