Danes 66 laurentian

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Discussion here: http://www.oldschool.co.nz/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=33147

Decided I'd try do a proper build thread so I actually have a record of what I've done and maybe I'll bother to take some pics

Also all you guys can tell me what I'm doing wrong etc.

For some background, I've always wanted a 66 ponty so intend to do a nice job of it. However this is not a full resto or anything close... I'm not taking the car off the chassis and I'm not unstitching the rear guards like I should to straighten the skins properly.

This is as I first saw it.

Was told all complete apart from one of the chrome trim arrows on the back guard. Broken windscreen, rough front bumper. Bit of rust under the windscreen but the rest looked good, some patches had been put in the boot and the drivers guard has an ugly bend in it. Came with a shagged powerglide trans and a rebuilt 400 SBC bored .30 to a 406ci, holley 650 etc.

The previous owner had also spent up on rebuilding the front end with new rod ends, bearings, HQ disc brakes and hubs, shocks, springs and nolathanes. I wasnt complaining.

Got it home, started stripping it properly (I hate masking things)

Found a bit of rust behind back window. Stripped all interior, engine bay parts, loom, hoodlining etc and began bare metalling it.

Also bought a plate for it

As you can see beside the HQ its not small. Bout the same width but the guards are massive

Heres a pic of the rear bare metalled and etch primed

Dont have many pics of the work done in the front but I had to cut the dashtop support panel right out and rebuild the top inch of the inner firewall that meets at the seam with the windscreen gutter and the scuttle plenum. Once I'd rebuilt that I made a cardboard pattern of the windscreen gutter channel and made a new one out of new zintex. Also had to weld a couple of patches in the roof. Heres a pic of it finished with the dashtop support panel welded back in

Then I primed up the shell and put it in storage for a month while I painted up an escort.

Got it back out a month or so ago and took it to the sandblasters. Got him to blast the boot and around the back window frame where there was a lot of deep rust. Also got him to blast the jambs of all the doors which is a shitty job to bare metal by hand. When I got it back the boot floor was mint but the window frame was pretty ugly. Only had to weld maybe 4 patches in the insides of the doors before I etched them up and primed them.

Baremetalled the outside of the doors and the inside and outside of the bootlid then etched them too. The doors turned out to be a bit ugly with a bit of bog and some ugly patches by someone previous to me. I got the back ones pretty nice but the front two, especially the drivers door are still a bit ugly. There is a crease in the RR door that leads onto a long crease in the guard. I can probably bump the door out a bit but I cant get access to the guard. I've welded it to a bar and pulled it out a bit but not really enough. Not worth me removing the rear quarter so I'll just bog it.

Welded a few patches in them and I'll POR15 inside the lot of them. If they bubble up in time its not a big job to repaint a door

Welded a new window frame gutter piece in the bottom of the rear window, a couple in the sides and replaced about half of the top frame where it joins the roof.

The boot seal guttering was the next big problem. I replaced part of the front side of it and had to replace some of the panel above it which I managed to warp. If I had the money I would have replaced the whole upper panel with a new repro one but that isn't the case. Will spray POR15 and fishoil inside it. Also replace the LH side of the boot seal guttering. Took quite a while and I had to make up the 90 deg curve at the end. To do this I made a MDF stencil of the curve and constructed it out of 3 strips.

Also had to replace quite a bit of steel in the back panel beneath the tail lights. This wont really get seen as its covered by the bumper. The shape was a curve with a swage at both ends. I found some pipe that was about the right size and bent up the curve then swaged the ends and welded it in. Shape wasnt quite right so I beat it into shape in place. Also replaced the ugly patch work in the boot floor behind these bits.

Heres a pic showing where I've welded new steel

Today I started on the front guards. I could see they were rough so I've been searching all over for new ones with no luck.

Started bare metalling the "Good" guard and found a stupid amount of 3 types of bog and 5 different paint colours...

There should be a law that panelbeaters cant put in more than 1/4" of bog. Then they might actually have to beat panels...

The guard was quite out of shape at the front end and down the flat part on the side. Couldn't get into the nose with the headlight mounting panel there so 8 spotwelds later out that came giving me access to dolly the guard skin properly Gave it a quick sand on the inside to find the highs/lows and started dollying.

I noticed the guard skin was bent in where it was joined to the support that bolts to the inner guard. Due to the shape I couldnt beat it out as it was so a million spot welds later I've removed that too. Now I should be able to get it hammered out nicely. Thats all for tonight

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Lame update but hadn't touched it in a week till tonight.

Did patch in bottom of the guard tonight. Had to do the brace behind it as was rotten out. Was kinda hard to gauge the shape when it was so flimsy with rust but it lines up good on the body so I'm happy.

Just got to do a little patch at the edge above my new patch then a little bit more time dollying the top of the guard then prime it up.

Any time I spend dollying it now is less time I gotta spend bogging/sanding it anyway.

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Little bit more of an update.

Guard was a bit thin where its stitched to the inner guard support so made a patch for that. Will weld support back in first. Welded up holes from drilling spot welds and POR15'd it and the inside of the guard. Not sure how well the paint will take to the smoothish metal so its a bit of an experiment. Only really needed the por15 in the very top lip and at the back of the guard between the skins anyway. Also patched a hole at the top back.

Will sand the paint later and make sure its bitten in properly

Spent a bit more time dollying it too, now its in reasonable shape and wont need much filler.

While paint was drying I started stripping the LH guard. most of it has a skim layer of newtech and a thick layer of pink bog over that.

I'm a bit worried about it as the skin on the side is very, very rippled and bent. It also kinks out at the last 3rd of the wheel arch and will need shrinking. A patch similar to the one I did on the RH fender has been done but is over the top of the original rusted steel. I'll cut this out when I get more metal.

The top front is kinked to the side. This will dolly out once I've cut out the headlight bucket.

The whole length of the bonnet shut appears to be rusted out and bogged too...

Really wish I'd been able to find better guards. Scared to think what the bonnets going to be like.

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Can never have too many clamps (I need more vicegrips)

Happy with RH guard. Its not lined up properly yet but wanted to know shape was right.

Just gotta weld in the patch I bent up yesterday, the other parts I've unstitched and then etch it

Updating probably way too much but I'm on holiday at the moment and these guards are the biggest challenge so far.

Edit: updated 3pm

Patch plug and butt welded in. Pulled the top of the guard down a little low, its squared it off a bit so I'll need to bog the curve. Only a tiny bit though. Headlight bucket is getting sandblasted next week so I'll just etch this up and leave it while I start unstitching the LH guard

Edit: 4.45pm

Etched, time for a bourbon. Also put a sweet dent in it at the rear below the curve of the top when it fell off sawhorse. Knocked it out with a mallet but it'll need filed. One side done!

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Started back into LH fender after weekend off.

Had 50 spotwelds holding the inner guard support on as opposed to the 25 in the RH... Plus a patch welded.

Its a mess.

Someone send andyling a link so he knows what rust is

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Bit of a nasty suprise today. Was stripping the diecast alloy rear fender extensions, grill bar and headlight surround-surrounds.

This is what I found in the grill bar

Someone had tried to weld it from behind. Welding this stuff is near impossible. I ground back the welds and roughened up the surface with the diegrinder.

I hate using newtech like any other bog. Its no substitute for welding in new steel. Here it is my only option. Hopefully its strong enough to hold it together. If I'm lucky enough to find any parts for this car I'll replace it.

First coat (more to come)

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Radiator support and inner guards back from the blasters. Etched them up and trial fitted some bits

Little bit more of the big GM puzzle coming together

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Couple more pics for the road. I go back to class Monday so it can sit aside like this till I've saved a little more money.

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So yeah got this for parts. Has a much better front bumper, better LH fender, LH fender surround and some other bits I needed. Plus a spare 12bolt diff etc etc etc.

 

Was a drama to get it and the good bonnet got shagged in the process but its here now.

 

 

Who's coming round for soup?

 

15x7 rostyles were a huge bonus