[Silver Judge]

Looking mighty sweet there.
Looks almost like a '67 GTO that's been taking steroids

[grandville455]

Man thats sweeeeeeet!!!! I want my body done now!!!!!!

[Coach]

Your pics are coming at a great time, they are getting me fired up to work on mine and we just closed on the sale of the project house. I should be finished with the book keeping in about a month, which means I will have some "down time" and I get paid finally, time to order the seat parts and get the bumpers done! ! !

[koertd]

Coach - here are the before and after pics. Its hard to get a picture of the distortion that you see as you move back and forth over the section of bumper that had the dent in it. You can kind of see it in the pics, but its faint.

Hope this helps. I sent you a private e-mail with the details of the Denver Bumper Works and their website (http://www.denverbumper.com ).

Give me a shout if you have any other questions and yeah, get your GP Convertible looking its best!

[koertd]

Well, the big day arrived today and I picked up the finished car. It looks absolutely great. There are a few minor things left, but the big part is done and its worth the time and money for sure.

The only bad bit was that it started to rain as I pulled out of the body shop and - much worse - the city of Fort Collins decided this was a perfect day to chip and seal the highway in front of the body shop! And yes, I drove slower than a 100 year old lady in Florida - and the hell with anyone behind me!

Since its raining even more this afternoon - and we had a sudden hailstorm with hail the size of your thumb yesterday - I probably won't have as much of a chance to cruise around this weekend. But it will get sunny - it always does in Colorado.

The pathetic thing is that the car wasn't in the garage more than a few minutes before I got the new cardboard liners for the trunk and started working on that. It never really ends with these old cars, does it?

[koertd]

Shiny hood.

[koertd]

Cornering lights.

[koertd]

Tail light and bumper

[koertd]

View from the hood

[koertd]

Shiny door jamb!

[koertd]

Passenger side view

[koertd]

Shiny trunk. Its so shiny you can see yourself!

[koertd]

OK - I've saved the worst for last. The bill. We started off with an estimate of around $4,500. That was before the digging started and all the horrors of the past that the car had suffered came to light.

The bottom line; $11,138. Its an awful lot of money and that doesn't include the cost of parts that I picked up; maybe another $1,000. The &%$# bumoper strip was the most expensive at $385 from Folsom's in Glide, Oregon.

Below is the total bill broken out by what was done to the car. Labor was the most expensive, followed by paint supplies and prep work. Labor was roughly $50 an hour.

Was it worth the money - to me, yes. Not that it didn't take my breath away when I first saw the bottom line! But I plan on keeping the car for at least 10 years, so it will even out. And I do believe this car will become more valuable as time passes - not in the GTO category maybe, but it will appreciate. And I love driving this car. The French have a saying; when its love, who counts the cost? Besides, its done and over now and it looks fantastic. I'm happy with the result.

[Stuart]

Boy, it came out great! That is one smooth paint job. Considering all the work you had done, that bill isn't that out of line. Sure, it's a lot of money, but you wouldn't get results like that at Maaco.

[koertd]

Thanks much Stuart. I appreciate the confirmation that the price tag wasn't too far out of the ballpark. The guys at the body shop were very good about keeping me updated on where we were with total costs, so it wasn't a surprise. Still, I have to admit that my eyes were watering a bit as I was writing out the check!

I just came back from a nice night drive around the Fort Collins reservoir with the top down. Not a warm night, but good enough to drive with the top down and the heater turned up halfway. What a great ride this car is! And why did American car companies give up the idea of the floor mounted dimmer switch? Its a great idea to have it on the floor - your fingers never leave the steering wheel and its totally convenient to use. Ah well.

Later,
Koert

[koertd]

Bright and sunny this morning, so I took the car back up to the Horsetooth reservoir for a little photo shoot. The air was vintage Colorado; crisp, cool and clear - perfect for top down driving.

Here are some more pics.

Today is the Northern Colorado GTO owner's car show in City Park, which should be good fun.

Gotta go - its sunny and I want to go cruisin'.

[Coach]

That is sure a whole lot of Rosie there! I love the lower left picture, the GV just goes on forever. Glad to see another darksider on the road again.