78' Malibu Build

[Wraith]

And time flies.......

Spent most the year going over the motorcycle again and riding the crap out of it again while the Malibu sat in the corner. Trips to Colorado, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania made it worth it.





I did help a buddy out with a LM7/4L60e swap into his Volvo wagon so technically I was still hot-rodding.





After getting his dyno tuned last Friday I am getting back in gear and moving forward. I swung out and picked up a refill on my welding gas, ordered up the frame extension for my Hooker LS trans mount plus some Global West tie rod sleeves to replace the ****ty Pro-forged ones I had originally bought. I scheduled time with the Volvo buddy to bring home a plasma cutter and tomorrow morning we are cutting the rear frame rails to narrow them for a little more tire.

Pulled the body off again for tomorrow's festivities

[Wraith]

And fun was had by all on Saturday.....well, those that didn't help.

I had a buddy bring over a plasma cutter from work, a Hypertherm 30, we fought it for one side before resorting to a 4" grinder for the passenger side, it didn't have enough horsepower for the double wall stuff, but they are cut.






I'm not sure how many burns and burnt spots of hair I have yet but I'm sure there will be more before this is through.

[Streetbu]

Looking good! I just did mine last winter. Wasn't as bad as I thought. Did you just go to the seam? Make sure not to follow it the whole way. It is not parallel.

Best pic I can find of mine.

[Wraith]

Looking good! I just did mine last winter. Wasn't as bad as I thought. Did you just go to the seam? Make sure not to follow it the whole way. It is not parallel.

I did go to the seam for the drivers side although on the passenger side of mine is almost parallel, I noticed that using the grinder. Still wonder if I shouldn't have just bought a new pair of rails and moved them in....

I am planning on lots more measuring to get them parallel and even then reinforce them inside the rails between the arm mounting points before welding the outer back on, I don't want any dreaded wrinkle in the quarter.

[Wraith]

Sunday I felt lazy and just dropped the engine and trans back in, oblonged the required holes for the engine mounts and bolted it all down, the Hooker mounts made it easy.

[Wraith]

So back in the beginning of 2015 I whipped up a tip-tissorie based on pictures from the internet of other designs, Home Depot supplied materials as well as Metal Supermarket. I had bolted it up but other than tipping it up a few feet I had never tried to tip it over with the windows in. Today with the body stripped out, I decided to try it again, I need to get the bottom seam sealed and shoot it with undercoating.

First video didn't get recorded so we pulled it down to flip it again





And tucked back to the side to work on it



Easy peasy.

[Streetbu]

Wow, looks like a great idea!

[Wraith]

Back in the garage today.

Spent time welding any voids left over from the floor pan install and fixing the rear gas tank mounts, not sure how it happened but every corner looked like this.




And then welded back up





Then onto the wheel wells to scrape out all the original undercoating/seam sealer, which thankfully wasn't much.





I took the time to scrub the entire underside with carb cleaner and a scotch brite also, that sucks. More parts on order, main things being the inner bucket seat mounts to get welded on before I seam seal and paint or undercoat it to drop it back on the frame, hopefully for the last time.

[Streetbu]

Must be nice to have a generally rust free car to work on... LOL

[Wraith]

Must be nice to have a generally rust free car to work on... LOL

LOL IT's a good thing for me, if there were rusty wheel wells I'd have been tempted to tub it and really narrow the frame. Hate to cut up good metal.

[LERM]

The "tip rotisserie" is an outstanding idea. Too cool.

[Wraith]

Time in the office for work also means time to shop for parts. Ordered up new inner bucket seat mounts, body bolts, 22 circuit wiring harness, and rebuilt tilt wheel/floor shift column.

[Wraith]

So parts came in this week and I keep moving forward as I have a finish date in site, Drag Week 2017 with a backup plan of October 10, 2017, one day before my 45th birthday, this will be my birthday present to myself.




Got up and finished grinding down welds from floor pan installation and sealed it all up with Corroless before I seam seal and undercoat with U-Pol Raptor liner.



I also have a spare tire delete panel from Scott Rod Fabrications I need to rivet in before I undercoat.





Went ahead and knocked out the delete panel Sunday too



Now it's ready for epoxy primer in the wheel wells and seam sealer, Raptor Liner is on order, may be able to get it all sprayed next weekend.

[Wraith]

So project for the day was to buy a crappy/cheap split bench seat of CL, mount it in the car with the new inner mounts, then weld them in.

Mission accomplished!




And cleaned back up plus recoated





Now to just fix those pesky spots marked with blue tape and I am done welding on the bottom of this car

[mikester]

Good choice on the U-Pol. A friend of mine uses it all the time in his shop. I wish I knew about it before I did both of my cars in Body Schutz.

[Wraith]

Good choice on the U-Pol. A friend of mine uses it all the time in his shop. I wish I knew about it before I did both of my cars in Body Schutz.

I hope it is the right decision, I anguished over just paint or undercoating, as long as it sprays fine I'll like it.

[Wraith]

Spent more time in the garage this weekend and finished patching the mounts above the axle, buzzed up the last couple firewall holes, and ground down the last of my welds from the floor pan replacement






Then today I spent time with the heat gun and razor blade in an effort to save some money for other parts, I really need to invest in a long handle scraper, my fingers are cooked from my short razor blade holder.

[Centerforce]

Your rolling rotisserie idea is blowin our mind! What a great DIY solution instead of buying one. We had some doubts at first, but after seeing the video, we can tell it is very sturdy. Props for your ingenuity, sir!

[Wraith]

Your rolling rotisserie idea is blowin our mind! What a great DIY solution instead of buying one. We had some doubts at first, but after seeing the video, we can tell it is very sturdy. Props for your ingenuity, sir!

Thanks, wish I could claim the concept but I saw it years ago when I was into VW's used on a Rabbit, I'm just happy it holds a full size car too!

- - - Updated - - -

Just scraping away



Nice surprise on the roof, guess that's one way to hide a dent

[Wraith]

More scrapin', more sandin', more weldin'