For anyone interested, here's a little progress report,
Firewall is pretty much good to go, the common rusty seam was a challenge, spent a good bit of time prepping and painting the inside and up under the upper dash area. All that sprayed on red glue was tough to remove. A entire day was spent prepping just the rear seat inside panels, they were thick with glue, and super dirty. I'll seam seal next year, then topcoat everything. The factory spent very little effort painting all these unseen areas, so they reallylooked like crap and were covered in light surface rust. I removed it with Phosphoric acid and Scotch Brite. A little more cleanup on the floor pans underneath, and I'll give them a spray before it gets too cold. I replaced the drivers pan, 1/2 the left passenger pan, fabbed some patches at the toeboard. A little more work is needed on the pans, left and right at the front seat mount areas and the passenger toeboard. This will be it for me pretty much for this year, more or less done from the firewall to the trunk divider. Nice to have it coated in a good epoxy though, even if there's more work to come. Help keep the corrosion at bay. Little by little she's coming along. I'm pleased! To get to this point took at least 60 hours.
If only I had a shop.
Cheers, Mark.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
As far as the pans go Todd, it's been learn as you go. Cut out the bad section and lay it on the good, cut the good bigger than the bad then trim and fit, repeat as required. Tack in place, go round and round till it's filled in. Use .023 wire. Don't worry about perfection...at least from the inside of the car. It'll be covered up anyway, the underside you can work the welds untill it looks pretty invisible if you'd like. I think you'd have to be on the frame if you took out any bigger pieces than I did though. Little at a time shouldn't cause much distortion...we'll see! Having a good pan from the parts car hasn't hurt any though. It's neat to pretend to be a welder, I even bought my first Praxair welders beanie, lol!
69Laurentian wrote:
Looks fantastic Mark! How did it go putting the floors in? Any issues? You must be pretty darn proud of your results! Todd
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
Here's a shot of how filthy it was below the top cylinders. The crud was about 1" thick. Notice the "red glue" that looks like rust. How could it get so dirty there?
-- Edited by cdnpont at 23:08, 2008-10-09
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
I love playing with my welder. I'm no pro but it's fun learning. I've got some pretty good burns too. It's so much easier since they invented those auto-darkening shades!
I'm stupid Todd. I love to work on my car in shorts and old deck shoes. The little fireballs raining down while welding always roll down the leg, bouncing of the hairs like a pinball, then head strait for the shoes and in for 1000 points. I have a real good burn on my foot that's in such a spot that it's taking forever to heal! I think I'll park the loafers. I have a great auto darkening helmet as well, but I really need a magnifying lense for it...I cant see the bead clearly. I'm becoming blind in my old age.
Cheers!
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
What you need is one of those portable halogen floodlights. Position it close to where you are welding and you'll have a 100 percent better view. They go on sale at CT quite a bit for something like 12 bucks. I'm due for a new one as the lens on mine is pretty good. Also works to position it behind your work. The light will easily show thru area's with pinholes.
I can appreciate all the work and I must say I am surprised when you say it only took 60 hours. I must work slow. Your work looks great and like Carl said; keep us posted as you progress.
Thanks for all the compliments guys. They mean a lot.
Actually...60 hours is probably a "little" on the lite side.
Well...today in preparation for winter hibernation, I put the body back on the frame and rolled it out into the sun. And just yesterday I shot 2 coats of epoxy on the bottom of the floors and trunk pan extentions after a whole day of prep. Dusted the trunk pan itself as it still needs much work. What a difference!
Even as rough as it sits, I can now see my vision poking through! Having a peek underneath, it now looks awsome mating the two. A nice 2.5" Stainless system would really look nice against the black. I remember how rough it actually looked in the beginning. I've come a long way.
-- Edited by cdnpont at 20:43, 2008-10-14
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
Mark, Your car is shaping up very nicely. Just wondering, are you planning to put the red interior back in it? I haven't seen many FS Pontiacs with red interior, though my 65 Parisienne was white on red (another reason why I should have kept it). What color are you going with outside?
Yes, I'm absolutely planning on putting the red interior back in. New front and back seat covers on rebuilt seats. Re-dye all the door, quarter and kick panels, dash and pillar trim. New red carpet.
I've contemplated black or silver, but I always seem to come back to red for the body. I never really thought I liked the red on these cars, but it has grown on me. I've seen a deep non metalic red that I like, it's on the 07'-08' Volkswagon Beetle, it's called Salsa red. Nice and straight with all the stainless trim polished, it would look sharp.
Black, white or red top, which would you choose? It came with white, but a white top turns black pretty fast down in the GTA.
Mark.
-- Edited by cdnpont at 07:52, 2008-10-15
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
No, the body comes back off and onto the rotis again next spring to finish the floors. I just combined the two just to take up a little less space through the winter. I can have it off in about a hour.
I saw this dark red topped Chevelle on line, and it sort of caught my fancy. Something a little different, with a more refined look.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
Looks Excellent, You've done some Great work there. I'd vote for the Red Top, because it would look Classier, I think, and be different than anyone elses.
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1960 Pontiac Strato Chief Safari 1960 Laurentian Safari 1960 Laurentian 4door(scrapped) 2001 Grand Am Traded on a '96 Suburban 2WD 2002 Hyundai Accent(SOLD) 1968 Grand Parisienne Scrapped and SOLD
