[Thumpin455_GTO]

The original color is Montero Red, and it has been painted at least twice with collision damage both times, so they could have shot the inside at some point too.

Had to patch the door jamb, there were pinholes there.



Started on the trunk seal lip, just have to do the curve now.

[dld]

man there is red right on that metal ...all over that thing. LOL ...don't see no gray any were

[Thumpin455_GTO]

The trunk floor was gray spatter paint, everything else still has some dust on it from sanding the red paint off. Almost all of it has been sand blasted or at least roughed up when I did it. Whoever painted it last time didnt do a very good job of it. I really have no idea what it would have actually been like when it was new, it was too far gone when I started.

[Thumpin455_GTO]

Finished the trunk lip seal area, kinda bumpy but I can make it work. Still need to do the filler panel to quarter right behind the C pillar, then this quarter is complete. The reason I havent done that spot is I need to rework under the filler so it sits lower, and I am procrastinating on it.




The quarter from the Tempest had some rust at the front edge of the wheel well, so I patched that with a piece from the front fender patches I didnt use.



The door lined up easy with the quarter, the gap is a bit wide, but I can live with it.

[Thumpin455_GTO]

Todays work, finished the quarter panel, havent finished the grinding but the gaps are ok.





Got started on the drivers side fender too. There is an inner brace that was horribly bent and rusted on the replacement from the donor Tempest, so I needed to replace it.



Here is the brace, not welded in yet since I want to POR it first.

[RA1John]

CONGRATS!
Bringing a marriage back to life is MUCH harder than restoring a tired, rusted GTO.
Nothing good worth having comes easy; marriage included. Required lots of maintenance, patience, perseverance, forgiveness and most of all, putting self 2nd.

Originally Posted by Thumpin455_GTO

Oh and I almost forgot. She isnt my ex now, we figured things out and actually got married back in March. Its a long story, but with a happy (so far) ending. So now Dave is my legal father in law, and I am a year late getting him his car, since he just turned 66 last month.

[Old Blue 66]

The trunk turned out great. Your a master with metal!

[Thumpin455_GTO]

I dont know about being a master, maybe just passable, not near master. I need to go downstate and take some metal working classes.

Today was lots of fun. Cleaned out the interior since I had used it to store trim and parts over the winter, then put the steering column and brake pedal in, and set the gauge pack in the dash just for looks and sorta safe keeping. after that it went up on jackstands and the body bolts went in since the body had been just resting on the frame until now. Since the front fenders need aligned and gapped, the body needed to be bolted down at this point. Right before I took the pics and called it quits for the evening, some POR got slapped on rust spots including the one inside the fender where the brace goes.

The passenger side needs the lower bolt removed from the cowl so the fender can be bolted up, the caged nut is spinning in there so its time to get creative. After that is fixed then the fender can be finished and aligned with the door and cowl pieces. What fun it is to rework every single piece on the car.


It needs a swiffer inside, but under the car is spotless...



You can see the fender protruding near the bottom, stupid bolt is in the way.



The top lines up pretty good. Need more shims for the shop, cant find them and I used to have hundreds.

[Thumpin455_GTO]

The fender was pretty messed up and had an uneven gap to the door, in addition to being a HUGE gap. So a bit of welding along the edge, followed with grinding and fitting made it much better. It will still take a bit of filler and some more bumping, but its a better fit now.

Before


After.


To make sure everything is in a good spot before I start doing filler and getting it all level, the hood had to go on so I could gap that as well. It turned out to fit quite nice, just need some hinges for it.

[Andre]

I'll donate a clean set of hinges to the cause. Just PM me your address.

[Thumpin455_GTO]

Thanks PM sent.

[Thumpin455_GTO]

The patch on the pass side quarter is done and ground down, then it got POR as well. Maybe I should just shoot the entire car with the stuff...





Finished the trunk floor seam, and found some rust from when I did the welding last year. So it got a liberal layer of POR. Also did inside the quarter, along the wheel well seam and right ahead of the wheel. Hopefully it wont rust there again.



Filled the trim holes in the Tempest fenders, it seems both of them were Tempest in origin. This side came out nice and smooth, the other side got a bump or two from the heat.

[Thumpin455_GTO]

Been working on welding and bumping metal the last few days. Today I got out the filler and started in on that chore. Only a couple spots left to weld and I want to get all the low stuff done before I take it off the jackstands. Its pretty much where I want it to be before primer, so if I can finish the welding tomorrow afternoon, then it can get primer before I come in for the night.

Drivers side door needed a bunch of work, its almost 1/8" thick in some places, more than I like but better than it was by about an inch. It looks like a lot of filler in these pics, but really it is just a wide area so I can get it all flat and level, not much of this car was before.





Passenger side quarter was completely covered in filler (1/4-1/2" thick) when I got the car, going to have a lot less on it this time.




The roof came out nice, but its hard to see in this pic.

[Andre]

Hood hinges ship today

[Thumpin455_GTO]

Thanks again Andre! PY has some great people.

Well it isnt in bare steel anymore. I kept finding small pitted rust areas that might come back with just primer over them, and some flash rust that didnt want to come off with the DA, so rather than shoot it with epoxy this time, it got Eastwoods rust encapsulator. Usually RE reacts poorly with POR15 so I didnt cover all those areas, just a few. It seems to lift where there wasnt any rust, just bare metal, and that is fine with me. As long as it gets the rust taken care of I am happy with it. Tomorrow I will go over the whole car and see if there are any spots that need sanded down more. After that is taken care of it will get two thick coats of epoxy, then I dont have to worry so much about it flash rusting and I can tackle another project for a bit.

The last shot of it before it gets covered up.



This can of RE is red, so I will know if I have sanded through the primer while I am blocking this thing.

[Old Blue 66]

Covered up? This one being put to the side?

[Hooter]

I'm buying you a case of beer when I meet you for bringing this ol car back to life. Unbelievable where it's at now from where it started. My hat's off to ya.

[Thumpin455_GTO]

No its still the prime project, not going to the side until its running. I do want to get the other GTO its new 455 though.

Thanks for getting it up here to me Hooter, with out you and your friend I would still be trying to figure out how to get it here since my truck has been dead since 05. Next time you come to the UP stop in.

[442dude]

Ive never heard of anyone using rust encapsilator or POR 15 on a car body and planning to paint over it.

[Andre]

Post a list here of some of the other parts you might need, and I'll see what I got. I am more than happy to contribute some more to the cause. Its a better one than most any other that I know of.