'69 Firebird - Project Reconciliation

[ehummelman]

Sweet, another 69 Bird! The rear will drop a little more, but honestly not that much. I would get either 2 or 3" drop leafs in the back. Also definitely move your battery back there, that'll add a bit of weight.

[Blue Bayou]

It's been a long time since I've updated this thread so I thought I'd put out an update.

After several months of little to no progress on the car I went and picked the car up from the shop it was at to finish it myself. Once we got it back to my friends shop we discovered that the repairs that I was told had new sheet metal welded in was just bondo'd over and had rust bubbling under the paint, major runs in the paint, DA marks visible in the paint, visible dents in multiple places on the car and the list just went on and on.

We decided to take the car back to bare sheet metal to know exactly what we were working with and to straighten the body and crisp the lines. Here are some pics of what we found...

[Blue Bayou]

At this point we had sanded both doors, trunk and roof down to bare metal to check everything that was supposed to have been fixed. At this point, of the 2 patches we had found, they were bad fitting rusted pieces of metal that were patched in. Small rust holes as indicated in the previous picture I posted were found in a few spots. The rust that coincided with the dent in the passenger quarter made us to decide to go ahead and use the short quarter panels I had for the car. (really glad those didn't sell at the swap meet over the summer)

Here are some pics of the work that had been re-done to this point.

[Blue Bayou]

Here are some pics of the car with the first guide coat applied. I also added a picture of a patch that we cut out and replaced on the fender.

[Blue Bayou]

Here are some pics of the second guide coat. At this point the subframe and rear suspension had been removed and the car placed on the body jig. Both quarters were replaced and the drivers side pedastal on the rear spoiler had to be built up with some fiberglass to fit correctly.

[Blue Bayou]

For New Year's we went to visit my dad in Texas and when I came back, my friend had laid the new color!

[Blue Bayou]

Wheel well moldings, emblems, weatherstrip, window fuzzies, headliner, sail panels, hushmat, rear spoiler, and all new gas and brake lines have been installed and are ready to go.

The subframe is back under the car as is the rear suspension.

Lots of work left to do!