57 Rustbucket 1957 Chevy Bel Air

1970 Triple Black 402 Big Block Monte Carlo
Page 2


1970 Monte Carlo

December 5th 2012

Front fender
Time for the front fenders!

As you can see there is a nice dent at the front and some expected rust at the lower rear to be addressed.
Removing trim
Started by removing the trim from the wheel opening and marker light and stainless.

Kinda rusted on a bit!
Rust
Fender work Fender work
Fender work Fender work
Rust repair
Digging in to find out what I have to work with.

Looks like one mans idea of rust repair was a gallon of body putty to cover it up.
Body putty
Marking area
I'm gonna take a little different approach and actually REPAIR it!

Left is the area marked off to leave me only good metal. Right is the same area cut.
Area cut
Spot welds Spot welds Spot welds

There are four spot welds on the rear edge that my spot weld cutter makes quick work of.

Bottom welds Bottom welds

Two more on the bottom....

Removed section
..and there is all that's left.
Patch panel Tacking

I cut and fabbed a small patch panel, epoxy primed the back side and began the slow process of tacking it along the seams slowly moving around to reduce warpage.


December 7th 2012

Welds complete
After completing all the welds and grinding everything smooth. It will only require a skim coat of filler to look perfect!
Ground smooth
Dent repair
The dent in the front was slowly massaged with a hammer and dolly to get it back to where GM had it in the first place. This is not it's first repair as evidenced by the putty and holes drilled to pull it back into shape on a previous repair.
Hammer and dolly

December 17th 2012

Door hinge Door hinge Door hinge

Been a bit of a delay in updates. Had a couple other small projects to do.

I attacked the door hinges, the bushings were worn and allowing the doors to sag. They are BIG doors! Above is a top door hinge, fairly easy to remove the pin and worn out bushings.

Upper hinge Lower hinge Door check

Top left is the upper hinge reassembled and nice and tight. The center and right pictures are a lower hinge. Not only do I need to replace the hinge pin but also the door check, thats the part that holds the door open.

Spring removal Frozen pin Reassembled

Once the spring was removed the hinge pin was removed. On this side the pin that holds the roller for the door check was badly frozen into the hinge. I had to cut it in half to remove it. All put back together on the right!

Hinges installed

Hard to see, but all cleaned, painted and reinstalled. They work great!


Updates almost daily I hope!

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