From there it was onto the achilles heel of this car - the left rear quarter.

Just to remind you, an Audi Fox ran a red light and smacked it pretty hard, taking out some of the rear door and the rear dog leg in the process.

After this the car was parked, put up for sale and bought by me for $900 back in 1990. Unfortunately with no donor cars nor repro panels back then (or now) it was a case of working with what was there.

Our first go at it back then involved drilling it off, roughing it out, slicing down the trim lines and applying literally hundreds of heatshrinks with an oxy. At all times the car was driven daily so the panel was attached with screws and removed once a week over a 6 month period while attending night time "Basic Vehicle Restoration" - a hobby type course run by the local trade college. While it was off we also oxyed in some rust patch panels around the petrol filler and behind the wheel arch.

Here's where we got it to back in 1991:

Although it looked "close" the downside of doing such massive repairs with the panel off the car was that the nice straight lines and uniform profile when it sat on the bench, turned into waves and bows when the panel went back on. This was made even worse by the fact that there is no way to get in behind the panel when it's on the car. Eventually my patience ran out so it got a coat of primer, some dodgy gold paint and it remained screwed on for 15 years looking bloody awful.  As much as I love this wagon there was always that embarrassment to the point of always strategically parking it so the good side was on show.

...so after 23 years it was time to finish it properly.

First job was to get the quarter sitting straight and attached properly.  When I stitched it back on in 2007, I completely ignored the door line and got it all wrong around the wheel arch and dogleg - so started by putting the nice straight rear door on for reference and unpicked and then re-stitched the quarter properly with the door line.

Next was the top trim line which still had too much metal in it so had a noticeable bow outwards. I considered the shrinking disk but there was just too much there. So some tape lines and a thin cutting blade and it was opened up....again... before being stitched flush.

Next was the bottom trim line. While it was relatively flush with the doors, the tape line confirmed it had an upwards arc in it (note the metal above the tape line in the photo below). Because these trim lines run the full length of the car there is no room for error - the lines are either straight and parallel or they are wrong and stand out. So yes.....another slice job, along the tape line.

In this instance I didn't want to lose any metal so a tidy up with the hammer and dolly and stitched carefully across a small gap - straight this time!

I like to check my welds for pinholes using light in behind them. It was a bit of a challenge on the quarter as I cant get in behind it so a $3 led keyring poked through the trim holes worked a treat.

Next job was where the quarter meets the rear pillar - it was hastily butchered by us in order to get the panel off all those years ago, leaving a gaping hole.

So an odd little patch carefully migged in to replace the missing metal

Next was the dogleg - it was pushed in a couple of cm from the accident so the original dogleg on the quarter was toast so I trimmed it back and made and patched in a new piece.

Next was the door gap at the rear quarter. Not surprisingly with all smashing, bashing, slicing and shrinking over the years it left a 6mm door gap... so I reduced this by 3mm with a length of wire carefully migged in at the edge.

And finally, it was also no surprise that the original trim holes were all over the place. More tape, more migging, a rat tail file and lots of trial fitting of the repro moldings until everything was nice and straight.

Tailgate tomorrow

Greaser - many thanks for the link.  35mm is 1-3/8 so a difficult size.  If you can find them in that size let me know.

On to the tailgate. I mentioned earlier in the failed restoration of 2007 that I painted the insides in the ""almost right" gold base and clear. Although it was in perfect condition the colour difference to the factory colour was too great....so off it came with paint stripper and wire brush

I also mentioned that the bottom third of the tailgate was remade and patched in 23 years ago and is still perfectly clean and rust free so gave it a shine up, some deox and the whole thing got some black etch.

After the etch I skimmed the tailgate with filler - aside from the full width patch there were a few ripples in the top that i just couldn't get to.

I needed to work a peak back into the bottom of the tailgate so I worked to a tape line with the big blocks and used the teardrop block for the rolled sections.

This has since been re-etched.

The top of the bonnet is nice and straight so a light block of the etch with 320 on the 700mm board just to show the highs and lows.

A tip for young players is to support the bonnet on the edges when blocking otherwise you get false highs from the bonnet frame being pushed up from underneath (in other words, not like it is supported in the picture!). I worked this out after my "highs" began to develop a strange symmetrical pattern!

On to the right rear quarter tomorrow

67Poncho - Very kind of you.  To be honest, I am just drawing on my limited skills from 20 years ago, and supplementing them with what I have learnt from endless online research about paint and panel (I can recommend autobody101.com)  Throw in a willingness to "have-a-go", and the patience that comes with being a bit older and the results have surprised even me.

The photographer is in fact a camera on a tripod in HD Video mode - the photos are screen grabs from those videos.  I'll be doing a short video on the full resto for the benefit of my "non-car" friends who have no idea why I'm spending so much time in the garage. Sorry I can't help with your wagons as I'm starting work on my other Oshawa Impala (4 door sport sedan) as soon as this one is done.

Oh....here's me as a musician.  No video but I'm singing and on lead guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9yn_5B2yQY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxRV2qCUe74

Okay, enough of that and onto the car...

After the left rear quarter, the right was childs play.

First up was a small rust repair around the taillight. I actually just bondo-ed over this back in 2007 so it was on borrowed time. Dug out the bog, chopped out the rust, a little bit of POR15 in behind it and a simple patch.

Before:

During:

After:

There was also a small hole in the lower part of the quarter - another very easy patch.

Before:

During:

After:

Then it was onto the dents:

Fortunately I could get in behind the first one so dolly, slapper, body file, shrink disc. Was left with a few slight ripples which will get skimmed.

The other dent I couldn't get to so pulled it out with the slide hammer and some tabs.

To celebrate Fathers Day and the fact that all the metal work is done, I bought myself some presents!

Bring on the shine!

Then it was out into the sunshine to reverse it into the climate controlled cross flow solar spray booth!

3 hours worth of de-oxing with steel wool, wet rags, dry rags etc, etc. (I forgot how big these roofs are!)

........and then it was black! Bit of a milestone seeing it all sealed up again after being naked for 7 years.

Next up, some filler.

On to the dashboard - a very enjoyable month blowing some paint around and actually finishing a few things.

First up the wheel came off - I don't have a steering wheel puller so made one out of some old rusty flat bar.

Pulled the dash insert out

....and then set about filling all of the holes that shouldn't be there.  I can only take responsibility for two of them from when I fitted a temp gauge many years ago. There were about 10 holes in all.

There was one biggie underneath the ignition switch that needed a round patch so migged one in and skimmed it with filler.  Cleaned the rest of the dash with steel wool and thinners and primed it, along with the speaker vent, the glovebox lid and the ashtray.

Guide coat, and a wet sand with 600...

And then painted it with the correct factory fawn finish in satin metallic.  I used PPG cobra base coat and "kicked it" with 10 per cent hardener for extra durability.

Then it was onto the chrome dash insert and gauges.  Some thinners and steel wool on the chrome and it shined up like a new one

I blew the dust out of the gauges and polished up the lenses with some toothpaste until crystal clear (and minty fresh!)

...and the numbers on the odometer were crooked.....so I straightened them up..!

Put the dash insert back in...

...and polished up the knobs and bezels back to new with a drill mounted buffing wheel

Then it was onto the steering wheel.  As you can see it has the common "old-car problem" of cracks and gaps as a result of the plastic shrinking on the frame

So I channelled out the cracks with a dremel engraving bit and drilled some holes to allow the epoxy putty to key into it.

The epoxy putty is from KBS - mix part A and B together in equal amounts and press hard into the gaps.  Sets like a rock overnight.

From there, I used a round and a flat file and some 80 grit to smooth it out...

...then some 320 grit, some plastic adhesion promoter, some 2k primer and then repainted it in 2k in the factory 2-tone colours. (Ivory and Fawn).

Squeezed the chrome rings back onto it and polished up the horn ring

...aaand it's finished.

Wheel back on and dash finished.

Next up is some colour on the rear floorpan and some base and clear on the insides of the doors, the tailgate and all the jambs.

Absolutey amazing to see... And, the music was good too!!! Heard that toothpaste will clean the lenses and will now have to try!

It is strange that they did that since the 64 impala dash was available in right hand drive.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNZsvi5MeOo

Many thanks guys.

Yes, it's a 1961 Pontiac dash so clock, radio and speedo spares are poncho....however, here's a mystery:

While cleaning everything, I attempted to restore the ignition indicator bezel but sadly it just fell apart in my hands.  I was hoping that it's a standard 1961 ponti part but I'm not so sure - all photos I have seen of 61 pontiacs have no bezel and there is nothing in the Chevrolet catalogues.

Can anyone help or is this one of those super rare, Australian only, RHD parts...? (note that the circle in the middle has a flat profile at the bottom, and it was originally black with white writing)

A well deserved drive! You are certainly giving 'er!

After the excitement of getting the car back together and to the block sanding stage, I unfortunately took a few very big steps backwards which has cost me a month.

If I wasn't such a perfectionist, I would probably be showing you pics of it being wheeled into the paint booth....but unfortunately it's been another 100 hours of grinding, welding, filling, sanding and re-priming.

Essentially I wasn't happy with the doors.  Despite staring at them for the whole year and fixing the ballooning at the bottom of each of them, I just plain forgot to run a straight edge over the top trim line.  It became very obvious when I started blocking the guide coat that all was not well as you can see below:

A quick check with the straight edge and the centre of the door swelled outwards by 3/4 of an inch.  My heart sank as I realised how much work was still in front of me.  As a last ditch effort I taped the upper mouldings on to see if this would somehow be a miracle cure but alas no - it made it worse.

I posted on the Chevytalk forum in the US to see if anyone else had the same issue with their doors and most reported that they did.  One suggested that there wasn't alot of precision back in the day with the die stamping and pressing the door skins onto the frames and that they were most likely too big for the frames.  The consensus was to just leave them as no-one would really notice it.

Well I noticed it and just couldn't live with it.... so I rolled up the sleeves.

The bulge was too big to shrink using the shrinking disk and not big enough to cut - so I decided to shrink them with the mig. I removed the paint along the trim line and another strip a few inches higher.  I then put the mig on the lowest setting with lots of wire speed and laid a line of weld, quenching every 3 inches and using the hammer and dolly to control the waves. I left it slightly high and then ground off the weld, quenching again with a wet rag which pulled it in flush.

From there it was a case of re-etching, laying down some tape lines and skimming it with filler.

After about 60 hours I was well and truly over it...

But the trusty Dura blocks are fool proof when it comes to long straight panels:

Another re-etch...

...and a reprime with the Hi Build Primer:

...and back to where I was a month ago (but straighter!)

I spoke with the painter 2 days ago and we are good to go in about 2-3 weeks so on track for a Xmas completion.

I was wondering where you got to Simon! Great work! Now go get 'er painted!

Simply Beautiful!