[olblue]

Jensens' will be a "lightweight" once he gets rid of all the rust. The shame of it all is that some of his best sheetmetal is in the roof.

"We don't need no __________ roof!"

[Bryan Jensen]

That may be true, but in the end I'll have a real GTO, and lots of interesting stories to tell.

[Old-Goat]

Update,

After all the posts regarding the legality of swapping the body I have decided to clean up and paint the frame on the new car and put everything I've done so far on it. Since they are both GTO's and both YZ cars I will still have a 67 GTO. I will no longer have a numbers matching car, but it will be correct for the year and type. This opens up many new possibilities in paint, interior color etc, that I did not have open before, and I somehow feel as though a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

I got the car Friday night. I spent Saturday cleaning stuff out of it and stripping it down to just the body. Ive started stripping the paint off the car and low and behold it has metal underneth. At first I was concerned, as the color of the metal was a silvery color unlike the brown metal I saw on my original body but I assumed it was the correct color for unrusted metal. ( a little stripping humor)

I believe I can get away with the following and still fix all the rust I have observed so far.

Drivers floor panel
Under rear seats panels (both)
Tail panel
lower qtr panel on the dr side
Trunk floor to wheelhouse area (does anyone make a repair for that area I thought I had seen one once but cant remember where)

And thats about it except for some metal I will need to cut out of the whinshield chunk of car I bought for the other car.

I've stripped the passenger rear qtr and its in pretty good shape. Overall this car is in MUCH MUCH better shape than the old one. I will post pics as things progress as I now have a digital camera.

[Old-Goat]

The car I ought - You may have seen it on ebay

[Old-Goat]

with the front clip and interior gone

[Old-Goat]

the inside - no holes larger that a pencil diameter

[Old-Goat]

Stripping the qtr - It had been creased once and repaired but the is no rust under the bondo (after working on the other car I didn't know you were allowed to bondo over good metal).

[karl emerick]

gene,
glad you've got yourself something solid to work on. but you're working your arse off trying to find the metal underneath. plus probably eating a lot of chemicals and dust. it's your lungs and checkbook but.... don't you have someone nearby that does plastic media blasting?

[Old-Goat]

Karl,

I'll be honest. It's not a mater of money, and I will avoid work when I can. I am using the stripper on the broad thin areas and I have a sandblaster for the areas which can stand a little more aggressive approach (ie dash, door jambs, firewall, interior pans etc.

It's just that in this area I have yet to find a machine shop, classic muscle car repair shop, sand blaster that know what they are doing. I took my rear to a shop to have it looked at, they found I needed axles nad they replaced the bearings etc. $1,000 dollars and 3 months later I picked it up took it home and after i installed it, found that they had reversed the brake plates. The holes that were supposed to be facing front for the parking brake cables were in fact facing the rear. When I took the engine to a machine shop to have it boiled, bored, new cam installed heads reworked etc, I had asked if they could repair my intake manifold. The hole where the throttle cable bolts down had cracked. We agreed they should drill it deeper and I would use a longer bolt, when I picked it up, they had drilled and threaded it deeper but had cut off the raised portion of the hole (where the bracket for the cable bolts) 1" ! The head bolts were replaced in the wrong positions etc.

I guess what I am saying is I don't want to take any more chances. I don't want to take a chance that the body would come back like a washboard so I am stripping it myself.

[karl emerick]

you're so right on doing things yourself that you don't want to have screwed up. it's why a lot of us get our hands dirty. and if we screw it up... well, it's a learning experience and we do the research and do it again.

but stripping an entire body? it's so much work and there's the welding to unremoved paint, etc with all the fumes. and getting body and paint right unless it's down to bare metal...well...

I guess I'm spoiled. it's detroit and there is a company about 10 miles from me called 'strip it'. they do plastic media blasting of the entire body down to bare metal. the muscle cars are always lined up there (in pieces) about 10 at a time and they never warp even the thinnest sheet metal. I've had 4 cars done there over the years so I have confidence in their work. an entire body costs about $5-700 - inside and out top and bottom. an entire car about $1500. I have a sand blaster and garage blasting cabinet plus a small paint booth for small parts but for the BIG stuff???... nuff said.

[Bryan Jensen]

Gene, good job, but even though you've already gone with another shell, I still wouldn't give up on your old body. My 67 GTO is 10 times worse than what you started out with, and I still plan on saving mine. But my car has more personal value than a price tag on it.

If anything, save that body for another project.

P.S. Is that red painted frame the way it came out of the factory?? I've never seen one like that. Thought they were all black.

[Old-Goat]

A few more pictures. I'm about halfway done with the paint stripping. Then the heavy artillery comes out (sandblaster).

[Old-Goat]

pic 1

[Old-Goat]

pic 2 Found 3 surprises on this side Bondo over a crease over the wheel well, bondo over the door on the roof and on the door where it meets the fender. None are deep and none seem to have rust underneth the repairs.

[karl emerick]

very nice looking, clean body from the visible info. much easier to work with this chunk of metal than the original body.

the crease in the right quarter makes me somewhat apprehensive.....
to repair it properly you need to 'pull it' somewhat with a spotweld puller. getting it 'out' with the right arc is critical ...


"it is easier to learn from others mistakes...
life is too short to make them all yourself"

[Old-Goat]

Karl,

The crease had been repaired at one time. I'm guessing it was before spotweld pullers. There is a series of holes where a body hammer had been used to pull the crease out. The amount of bondo over the area was minimal.

So far, after looking the car over from stem to stern, I've decided the following needs to be done:
(providing I don't find any surprises)

Both lower qtrs need to be replaced (1 is bad one is iffy)

Both front floor pans need new metal (small repairs) Ill get two pans and cut the part out that I need from each

The driver's side inner wheel well needs the bottom third of it replaced and a small part of the trunk pan that meets it for about 3 " around the well otherwise the trunk is solid

Both under rear seat pans need about half of the pan replaced.

The rear panel needs to be replaced

Some of the metal on the dash (includeing a new front windshield channel) needs to be replaced and the upper L channel. I have an entire front section from and arizona car i bought to repair the other cars damage I can use for all that as it is solid.

So all in all I figure its gonna save me at least a year in time, many many dollars, many many hours, and I know it will be right when it's done.

[Old-Goat]

OK, time for an update. After much sweat I finally got a coat of primer on the outside of the new body. I learned a lot from the experience of stripping a car down to metal. After awhile I got a system down. It took 3 passes with stripper to get the paint off. Onr the first the top layer came off, the second took off the second coat, and the third took off the primer and left the original coating (not quite paint but not bare metal either). I found out that a razor blade scraper works best and you can get it really clean without too much pressure (i didn't want to warp anything). The biggest lesson I learned is to spend the $1500 - $2000 and let them dunk it (grin). I used the sandblaster on the firewall and it worked great but if i never have to pick sand out of my ears again I will be happy (got in them even under the hood).

I took the trunk lid, inner front fender wells, fenders, hood, hood hinges, and a few misc parts to a stripper I found somewhat close by (1 1/2 hour drive). They dunk them and they are suposed to come back rust free. I got the metal parts (rear panel, both lower rear qtrs, front floor pans, rear under back seat floor pans and inner driver side wheel well) and start welding class this Wed evening. I probably will not weld the outside parts but I think the inside stuff that will be under carpet or heavy paint are fair game. I made arrangements to have a fellow do the body work and paint that is a retired body and paint guy that does restorations and has some beautiful show cars. He has a paint booth and two shops on his property and I saw some of his work. He is GOOD. Don't know what it will cost yet but I'm not there yet either.

Ok enough jabber, time for pics.

[Old-Goat]

more pics

[Old-Goat]

the white stuff is not snow. I'm in FL it's sand (actually what didn't wind up in my hair or ears). The grey is ppg DP50lf the black is DP90lf.

[karl emerick]

gene,
glad you're not suffering from 'inertia'. your project is going quite well. unlike so many others that just sit. and sit.....
and you're learning important lessons. like what you can do and what it's best to pay others to do to keep the ball rolling. those small green pieces of paper are invaluable at times for specialty work.

btw- anything you have dip-stripped.... make sure you really soak it down inside and out with a good primer/sealer and then paint it. the stripper leaves nothing but bare metal and you're ahead of the game if you saturate hidden areas and let it DRIP ON THE GROUND before removing the excess.

sand, snow?!? what is this white stuff......