[Brad_bb]

Is your frame as clean as it looks? I'm used to seeing them with either surface rust(western cars) or pitting rust(midwest cars). You have black paint. Did they paint over the rust or did someone blast and paint it in the past? I'm not sure where you're talking about welding having happened? upper control arms or lower at frame. FYI some of those factory welds weren't the prettiest as they drag their stick across the frame. Is there an original cone style posi in the rear end? What gear ratio do you have? I installed an eaton posi in mine with 3.90's. Hopefully you can still get bushings for the upper control arm in the diff. Back 15 years ago I installed NOS bushings, and the only others available then were urethane and I think you had to reuse your original bushing shells. Don't destroy your upper bushings getting them out. You can make a press out tool with threaded rod and tubing and washers. I made one and it's down in my tool box.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Brad --

Is your frame as clean as it looks? I'm used to seeing them with either surface rust(western cars) or pitting rust(midwest cars). You have black paint. Did they paint over the rust or did someone blast and paint it in the past?

The frame is pretty clean. Honestly - there was almost no rust on this entire car. Just what we found where the fuel tank filler came through, what was in the pinch of the door seams, and a little in the wheel lip (probably because someone had cut the lip to fit bigger rubber).

The frame flange is bent in a couple areas from people jacking up the car. And a couple of pieces of metal have been welded inside the frame channel in those locations. I will need to cut those out and straighten the flange.

The PO told me he had blasted the frame. It was in black when I got it. Really cheap paint so it will get redone.

I'm not sure where you're talking about welding having happened

I don't have a good photo. But the welds are done vertically on the frame cross member right next to the upper control arm attachments. Longer on the left side. If you zoom in on the photo in the last post next to that weird piece of metal you can see the weld.

Is there an original cone style posi in the rear end? What gear ratio do you have?

The car originally had 3.23 gears and based on rotating the wheels and watching the pinion it still does. I haven't had the cover off to see what kind of posi unit is in it - probably still the cone. But it does click and pop when moving the car around.

Thanks for the heads-up on the bushings. I did find the correct size a few years ago - sourced them through Summit. I don't remember the brand. They are in my parts bins somewhere.

Thanks for following along.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everybody -- I hope some of you still have the patience to follow along with this project.

After another long hiatus -- we are back in action. Our last stopping point was with the passenger door - which turned out to be pretty messy and was hiding quite a bit of rust in the area where the door skin pinches to the shell.

There were two distinct areas of impact/damage. One a push in with a linear dent - probably were someone backed into it. And one dent that crossed the body line at the other end of the door.





Also -- The door needed a rust patch on one corner. Two patches were also made for the shell.





I didn't get a final picture - but this door is back in one piece and the work on it is done.

More update below. Thanks for following along.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everybody -- Continuing from the last post (needed room for a couple more pictures).

After the passenger door we moved on to the driver side door. The news here is actually good! This is a very nice door - needing some work but nothing like the other side.

Here it is in bare metal...



These are after coating with Dykem and long boarding...





You can see that there are a few areas that need attention - pretty low underneath the handle area, a bad repair below it, etc.

The best news at this point is we are running out of panels...So far both quarters, the roof, firewall, fenders, trunk pan, rear panel and one door have been repaired.

So I have hope it will be home soon...Thank you everyone who is following along.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everyone -- I hope some folks are still following along patiently with the metal work on this poor goat.

In the end - the passenger door could not be brought up to Cam's standards. He fought the compound damage and the previous attempts at "repair" - but some of it was intractable. So he fabricated a partial door skin for it. Here are some views of this process.









Here is both doors nearly finished. The passenger door still needs hemmed to the structure a bit and the cleaco holes filled/final planish.



Amazing isn't it? Starting with a flat sheet of metal and ending up with most of a door skin. Not to mention the results of welding it in.

The work has moved on to repairing the radiator support. This will allow us to assemble and gap the doors to the car. The edge of the door can then be finished account for the spacing.

Thanks everyone for checking out the work. I hope folks are enjoying the process.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everyone -- Moving onward to the work on the core support. Here is a look at it in the before state...Not the best pictures - but you can see the damage from the hit to the drivers front.






It is a big piece of metal - so it was broken down into pieces to allow straightening. Areas needing fixed were the driver headlight section, a portion of the upright beside the radiator and two holes cut by a PO for aftermarket A/C.



The headlight area was rough...Here is a shot early in the straightening process and one later in the process (although not complete).





More in the following post...

[1_Wild_Cat]

Still on the core support - moving on to repairing the upright area. Beginning with the piece missing from the upright beside the radiator.



Patch fabricated.



And welded in.

[1_Wild_Cat]

And finally on the core support we need to repair two holes cut by someone for the installation of an aftermarket A/C unit. Here is that process...







Cam certainly put a lot of work into making this unseen part of the car straight and right. We definitely needed to get the core support right in order to get the fit of all the parts that attached to it and near it to look great.

A final shot -- all the core support parts in SPI epoxy primer.



I hope that everyone is still following along. For me it is very exciting to be making progress. The light at the end of the tunnel might be daylight instead of a fast-moving train.

Thanks for taking the time to watch my project.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hello everyone -- Thanks to those of you still following along with this saga - I appreciate everybody who is rooting this project along. Things are starting to come together.

We return to Cam's work on the doors. Replacing the lower portion of the door skin on the passenger side provided an opportunity to establish good, even gaps around the door.

First the door structure was shot with SPI epoxy to provide corrosion resistance and inside of the door skin was also epoxied.



The skin was then fitted to the door structure on the car and the outside of the skin edge marked to reflect a 3/16" gap at the point where the skin wraps around the door structure.





The skin was then trimmed, the edge is upset with a tipping tool. Following this the skin is hemmed to the structure with hammer and dolly (guided by experience and a deft hand).

The result is a door with an excellent gap all the way around.



The other side looks great too...



Thanks again to those following along. I will be making more updates in the next few days.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...As progress on my project is threatening to snowball - here is another quick post to keep you all abreast (a Thanksgiving pun intended) of the situation.

With the doors (more-or-less) handled at this point - we return to the work getting the core support repairs completed.

Following shooting all the core support pieces with SPI epoxy, the pieces were refitted and held in place with clecos.



The support was then welded back together in the areas where it had been joined at the factory.



Back on the car is looks a lot better than it did - providing a great foundation for the front end fit of the car.



Finally -- A tantalizing look with the front fenders and hood on (finger tight bolts). She is finally looking Bad like Jesse James...



More to come. Thanks everyone for following along - your participation in this thread really helps me keep looking forward to the finish.

[tempest1964]

Looking really good!! Hood and fenders roughed in on core really lets you know you’re making progress!

[1_Wild_Cat]

Looking really good!!

Thanks Tempest! It is great to see it looking so together. This is the best condition this car has been in since 1987...

We still have some work to do with the fenders before they can really be fit and adjusted. Both fenders have some collision/repair damage...





Here is a better look at the damaged portions.





Cam has already moved into fixing these areas and I should have another update soon.

Thanks everyone for following along.

[tempest1964]

This is almost like a Graveyard Carz story, only it’s a cool Pontiac and there’s no drama!

[1_Wild_Cat]

This is almost like a Graveyard Carz story, only it’s a cool Pontiac and there’s no drama!

Haha...I think I would have to up my delivery of factoids as well. I'm glad you are enjoying the thread.

I know that we have been slogging through several pages of metal work at this point and I have been getting concerned that people are starting to get bored.

However -- I think we have a little more body repair and metal finishing yet to got. Cam has put his skills to fixing the driver's fender.

This fender was on the car when I got it but was clearly a replacement from a Lemans. I always assumed it was a replacement sourced for the front end hit evidenced by the core support. So either they sourced a damaged fender - or we are looking at multiple front end hits.

With Dykem on the panel - boarding the area shows the highs and lows needing repair.



Working with hammer, slapper and dolly the damage was brought into rough shape.



Finally, the fender was finished out after welding up the holes for the Lemans engine call-outs. The small but nasty dent on the top of the fender was also repaired.



Thanks again everyone for following along. I hope people are enjoying seeing all the work and hope some folks are drawing inspiration for their own seemingly endless project.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everyone -- Progress continues...and you know you are getting down to it when you start worrying about fender fit and door gaps. This post is about aligning and gaping the driver door.

Previously - the door on this side had been set-up to be in the right place without the front fender on the car. So - the bottom of the door was set to parallel the rocker and the rear edge of the door was gapped to the quarter panel. The bodylines were aligned.

The front edge where the fender sat looked OK but had no frame of reference. Once the core support and the fender had been repaired - the front edge of the door didn't look so good. The gap, in/out alignment and bodyline alignment all had issues.





To make things more interesting the area is pretty complicated. There is the seam between the A-pillar cover and the fender, the fender and the cowl piece, the door and the A-pillar cover, etc. When the seams/joints are not properly parallel or perpendicular it looks really bad.

In/out alignment and body line alignment were fixed first. The photo below is an oblique view across the door facing the front.



Then the door edge could be re-established - this door took a combination of grinding and welding to arrive at an excellent result.





Thanks everyone for following along. More to come.

[Cardo]

The body fits on this car will be better than anything the factory ever turned out even on its best day!!! Looks great!!! Paint in '26!!!!!!!

[1_Wild_Cat]

Looks great!!! Paint in '26!!!!!!!

Hi Cardo -- Thanks for checking in. I sure hope we can get everything in color by the end of '26. Cam has said that I need to get my shop cleaned up and ready...So I am hoping we can get it back in my hands sometime in Jan/Feb. No heat in my shop (yet), so body work tasks will have to wait for consistent warmer temps. But lots I could do in support of getting this thing done and driving.

Thanks Cardo and everyone for following along. I sincerely appreciate it.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everyone -- Kind of a little mini update. I was thinking back and realized I had never mentioned the hood. When I bought the car it didn't have a hood (and the price reflected that). I knew finding one would take some time but that for the right price they could be had.

Before I made it my mission to find an original - the new steel reproductions were introduced and I was able get a look at one. So that was the route I took. The packaging was marked Goodmark and when I set it up on the car without adjustment it looked pretty good. Also - it seemed to be the right weight, not thin/cheap.

Here is a look at it fitted up on the car with things (mostly) adjusted. The driver side is a little forward in the picture. The fit to the cowl is a little (1/32-ish) wider than the sides.





The little bumps on both corners were that way when I got it, presumably some rough handling in the factory or shipping.

The e-coat will get stripped, the bumped corners fixed and the nose drilled for the emblem. Overall, I am pretty happy with it.

Thanks for following along. Should have another big update fairly soon.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everyone -- Just a quick update for those following along. The metal work continues but this poor goat is finally nearing the primer stage.

Work to the nasty dent on the passenger side fender has been completed. Here is a look at that process.

A before picture...



After some straightening and in Dykem to highlight the highs/lows.



More straightening - the body line starting to get straight and brought to the right shape and height.



Close to done - slide-hammer screw holes welded shut and everything in pretty good shape.



Cam and I were talking about this localized damage near the area where the firewall had been smashed down from above - we wonder if an engine got dropped on it and the hoist ended up smacking into the fender?

Probably never know. I should have another update soon. Thanks to everyone for your engagement and for following along on this prjoect.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everyone -- Updates are coming fast and furious these days!

After a bunch of work on the driver's side where the a-pillar cover, fender and cowl vent piece come together we still were not happy with the fit. Cam's solution was to make a new piece for the end of the cowl vent piece.

Here was the original fit...



The patch welded in but not finished/planished...



The new fit...





A little finishing and this process will be complete.

With some trepidation the primer was stripped from the rockers...But finally some good news - the rockers are solid and undamaged.



The other side looks the same (just ran out of room for photos). We are now down to the final check-list before sealing the metal work in epoxy.

Thank you everyone for following along and keeping me inspired to make progress and post about the process. I sincerely appreciate it.