63 Biscayne

[SRD art]

Sweet project!

[85coupe50]

Very nice...

[Schwartz Performance]

I say paint it orange like it was... ;)

We figured there would be some rust hidden beneath the bodywork, sorry to hear it was so much! Hey at least it's a learning experience.

[renegade6]

Finally got some time off of work to drop it off to get it stripped and pick up my front end pieces that have already been blasted. Not too much rust and only one big dent that I didn't expect. Looks like I need to order some fender bottom patches. Surprisingly, there were some pinholes near the top of the fender (along the inside edge) but, a little brazing and those are taken care of.

[renegade6]

Have had some extended time of work, something that I haven't had in about eight or nine years. I took advantage of it and spent quite a bit of time on the car.

Prior to this, I primered the fenders and did some repairs to them. I was able to get a lot of the dents out without any filler but, not the case for all of them.

Also, was able to get it blasted using the dustless blasting method. Each of the methods have their advantages and except for one area on the trunk lid, ended up with zero warpage however, I did have to deal with a bunch of flash rust. As it sits now, it is just about all epoxy primed using SPI epoxy with a bit of reducer. Intent was just to get something on it to keep it from flash rusting.

I also made a mock up of a 6L90E transmission so, that I have something to go off of when I build my floors and transmission tunnel. I used welding rod and brazed it together to get an outline.

Next order of business is building the floors and making the mini-tubs.

Pictures follow:

[renegade6]

So, spent another day on the car. Finished up the priming, just enough to keep it from rusting, I will have to hit it again. I am really impressed with the SPI epoxy, it sprays on great and is so much easier to sand than some of the other epoxies I've used.

Braced up all of the car and cut the floors out. Also, removed all of the bracing on the package tray in preparation for the mini-tubs. Hope to get the mini tubs done next Saturday. In the interim, brought a door home to get it finished this week.

Goal is to have the car completely painted by the time I move next summer.

[renegade6]

Managed to get a little bit accomplished this week. Patched and welded most of the rust in the drivers side rocker panel, make a replacement for the front floor support and fix the lower cowl.

Nothing really exciting. Hopefully next weekend I can get the mini-tubs done and then on to the floor.

[renegade6]

So, after much researching on how to do these, I was only able to find one source of documentation on how to do these. The source was the Muscle Car show and like all things on TV, there wasn't a lot of details and it looked fairly easy.

Like most things, it wasn't easy and I'm glad I had some help to do these. I would say there is about 20 hours in doing these and if I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't. But, on a positive note I did manage to buy myself a new welding helmet and it's amazing how much better you can weld when you can see clearly.

Since I was back there, I went ahead and did a few other patches on some rust. Hopefully next weekend I can get started on the B pillar and quarter panel. Goal is to have this painted by next May.

[renegade6]

More pictures

[Motown 454]

Your doing a nice job. Its looking good.

[Zoomin]

What a great skill to have, it's gonna be so cool when you're done.

[renegade6]

Thanks. I'm working on the welding skill, still need to work the cutting twice and measuring once skill.

[Zoomin]

LOL, when you figure that out, be sure to let us know what it's like.

[YankeeWhite]

I used to get a kick out of seeing your car cruising around main post.

[renegade6]

it was just OK to drive...As long as it wasn't too hot or too cold.

[renegade6]

Finally got to the part that I was dreading. The B pillar had been hit at some point and whomever the piece of humanity who painted it before fixed everything with a gallon of bondo. The B pillar was a bit intimidating because, the replacement part came with the entire inner window structure and it isn't an exact match for a Biscayne.

After looking at it for a bit, we decided to go ahead and cut out the damaged portion and graft the new piece on the old one. I'm very happy with the quality of the replacement B pillar however, I can't say the same for the quarter panel patch.

The quarter panel patch is a POS. If anyone has to do one for an early Impala, Biscayne, etc., I would recommend going with an entire quarter (believe these are stamped better) and cut out the portions you need. The quarter came out OK, had to add in a piece of metal and some welding rod to fix the door gap and that is still a work in progress. I have a high spot on the back of the patch and a few low spots but, nothing that can't be fixed.

BTW, I'm getting very comfortable with stitch welding and plug welding

[renegade6]

Well, I've made some progress with the floor with a lot of help. A bit of a learning curve with doing bead rolling and oil canning but, nothing that we won't figure out. So far, the floor boards are done with the first part of the transmission tunnel. Not a lot of sexy stuff here so far...I figure I'm about six months or so away from that.

[renegade6]

I didn't get much accomplished this weekend. I've been out of commission for a few days after having my wisdom teeth removed...Finally. If I can give some advice to the younger viewers. Do it now and do wait until you're in your 40s.

I've been looking around for a mock-up block so that I can have better measurements when I build my firewall and new inner fenders. A new plastic mock-up engine is about $300 so, I figured I would check out the local junk yard to see if they had anything scrap that I could get.

Well, $200 later I have an 5.3 LM7 out of a 2002ish Avalanche and from what I can tell, the only thing wrong with it is the intake and oil pan are cracked from having a tree fall in it. As you can see, the cross hatching is still there on the cylinders and when I pulled the valve covers off, there was zero sludge inside.

I may go ahead and use this at least to get me going and save up for some more for what I want or, mod the hell out of this.

I will have to attach pictures later, the board is kind of flaky tonight.

[renegade6]

Been kind of slow on the updates. The reason is that I've been busy with a lot of help.

As a result, the floors, trunk and firewall are all finished, with some minor welding and a bunch of grinding to finish up. Now on to the hard stuff...Fixing dents, finishing the rust repair, sanding, sanding and more sanding. I am extremely pleased with how everything came out and without some help, I'm afraid of what it would have looked like.

On to the pictures.

[renegade6]

Nothing too exciting to update on.

-took the car off the frame and on the rotisserie. To help hold it up, decided I needed to make some cribbing blocks
-managed to fit the late model GM windshield wiper motor. I saw Hunter's switch on here and had to have it.
-finished removing all of the rest of the rust and undercoating under the rear half
-re-fitted the center body to frame supports
-capped off all of the floor supports
-made a driver's side rocker patch and welded it in
-welded and capped off the rear trunk supports
-welded in the trunk firewall
-fit and started welding the driver's side quarter patch...Would have finished if I did run out of gas and wire. In case you are wondering why the patch is such an odd shape it's because I'm trying to save as much original sheet metal as possible. The quarter patch panels are absolute crap.





As you can see from my list that I conveniently wrote on the side of the car, I have a crapload more to do...Before I have to come up with the next list.