[Chipper7]

Yeah its a little different. I am thinking of building a 461, but it is up in the air going over things with my engine builder. Plan on starting on the motor this winter.

[Chipper7]

Question is a power gearbox on a 64-76 chevelle the same as on a 1969 GTO?

[Chipper7]

Well its been a while since I last posted but I have been doing things on and off with my project. I did rebuild and cleanup the original gearbox that was on the car (just hope everything works ok) and now I am starting to work on the shell.

[Chipper7]

We just got done refinishing a 1963 Lemans for a friend that just found it. The car is pretty cool and only has approx 38,000 miles. I attached some pics not too sure about the color though.

[tom s]

is that 63 lemans in SoCal?Tom

[Chipper7]

No I am located in a suburb outside of Detroit.

[tom s]

Thanks,there is a powder blue one here.Tom

[Chipper7]

Well I finally found a decklid from Ponticaguy. I would like to thank him again for being patient with me and shipping it out. I got it last week and started working on it as you can see in the pictures I had to fix the lock cylinder and weld up the holes. Also i did find some weak metal on the one corner that had to be patched. This decklid was by far alot better than the one I took off the car.

[2002Z4CSS]

It's coming along very nice.

[Chipper7]

This car is full of surprises but I knew it could be. I thought the doors were pretty solid which they were just solid of bondo. After i sanded down about a gallon of it from the doors I decided I needed to put skins on them. The panel was to far stretched and oil canned and I would of been fighting it to try to fix it.

[nytrainer]

I assume those skins are repro's and not NOS? Which ones are they and how did you like their fit? Those tire dollies are awesome. I've seen them but can't remember who amkes them and who sells them.

[Chipper7]

You are right they are repops but I will have to check on who made them. All and all they are not bad came with the upper brace and fit was good. Tomorrow I will show pictures of the gaps. There was a little modification need to one of the upper braces but nothing major. The dollies are a life saver in moving the car around and I got them at Harbor Freight.

[6869GTO]

Hey great work. Did the old trunklid rust at a welded seam? Looks to have been patched before. Your making great progress.

[Chipper7]

Yes my original decklid was patched in about four different spots and whoever did it used the thinnest metal to patch with. Also the inside frame of the decklid was rotting out. I was able to use the lock cylinder from my old lid and put it on the replacement one I found which you probably saw in the photos.

[Chipper7]

Well I took photos of the new door skins on the car. The gaps and body lines turned out pretty decent. I also stripped down the decklid and sprayed epoxy on it then I can continue finishing up on the body work.

[nytrainer]

I'm curious about your technique regarding the door skinning.
Do you hammer and dolly the folded edge or do you use one of those edge rollers?
Also do you punch/drill holes on the outer skin fold and buttonhole weld to the door shell edge or? Some folks use the 3M two-part epoxy to adhere it to the door shell edge.
Do you use anything on the inner side of the skin (undercoating or some other sound deading material)?
Do these skins (drivers side)have the proper mount holes for the sideview mirror? For remote mirror?
Lastly do you prime the door shell edge that the skin folds over and do you seam seal it?Not testing you, lol, just asking questions that many would probably benefit from knowing the answer too. Obviously you know what you're doing Chip.
Thanks,
Dave

[Chipper7]

Dave not a problem at all. First of all I hammer and dolly the new skin to the door frame and when attaching it I use a SEMS two part panel bonding adhesive. We use it on all skins, roof panels and quarter panels when doing our collision repair work. The product was tested and approve as a proper repair method from pretty much every vehicle manufacturer. There are numerous other products that do the same thing, 3M or Lord to name a few. I like using the panel bonding rather than welding because it reduces the chance for corrosion and it also acts like a seam sealer. I will eventually prime the inside of the door edge where the skin wraps over and still put a seam sealer over that edge where the two meet. As for the inside of the door 3M offers a self adhesive sound deadning pad that you can cut to size that I will probably use to reduce noise and it will help eliminate and tinging sound from the outer skin when opening and shutting the door. As for the skins they came with the upper inner brace already welding in and the driver side had the opening and the back reinforcement plate for the mirror. Hope I answered all your questions. Thanks for all your comments and I will keep the pictures coming as I go.

[nytrainer]

Excellent info Chip. So you start the foldover then use the two part gun and lay a bead of the bonding adhesive to the interior side of the door shell as you go or do you lay the bead on all three sides and hammer away? Not sure of the working time with that product.
If you were putting on a quarter panel lower patch would you overlap the existing panel and use this product for that too? I would think in that scenario you would want to weld the seam. What do you think?
After removing the rusted section of a quarter panel for example, I used to screw the new panel on with a 2 inch or so overlap and make sure I like the fit. Then I would slice through the middle of the 2 inch overlap (cutting the new piece and the existing panel at the same time). I would do this, remove the outer panel waste (above the cut line) and the inner panel waste (below the cut line) removing some screws along the way, and tack weld as I went while finishing the cut. Makes a perfect buttweld seam. Same idea as overlapping wallpaper, slicing with a razor through the 2 pieces that overlap, removing the cut pieces and getting a perfect seam. The difference is that the seam on the patch is as wide as the cutoff wheel disc thickness (1/16 inch or so). Kinda hard to put this method into words, pics would probably make more sense. Not all scenarios work with this method but for panels with good access on both sides it works well.
Did you use the panel adhesive when you replaced the floors? I would think it would work well there too.

[Chipper7]

I first run a bead of the panel bonding adhesive on the skin where it would meet the front edge of the door frame then I start hammering the edge over. Any excess adhesive is just wiped off. The adhesive I use I believe has a 90 min work time, there are quicker ones but I like to have the extra time so if you need the skin to move on the door frame. On your quarter patch I would have welded it as you stated. The only part I would of bonded would be where the quarter panel meets up to the outer wheelhouse. The floors are all plug welded with a mig welder or I used a spot resistant welder no bonding there.

[69Customs]

Great work! Nice thread!
Do you keep track of how many hours you have into this? Just curious.