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Restofied - My '66 Coupe Project

Looking good!! Isn't it nice to have that brand new cowl!? :thu I know I had mine in the box for a while and would go look at it every so often and lay it on just to look at it. lol
 
Thanks! You folks are what's truly keeping me motivated! I readily admit the wind got knocked outta my sails over the whole cowl issue. I'm hanging in there though..the finish line is in sight for the metal work.

Kat, you're absolutely right! I LOVE lookin' at new sheetmetal. The day it arrived I HAD to open the box to take it out to admire it! Since I the cowl only several days before I could start working on it again, I left it sitting in the living room behind the couch. It just sat there, teasing me!! LOL

BTW, I've had a new door skin hanging in the garage for about a month now....just in case I needed something to look at for a "new sheetmetal fix"! I just got the rest of the stuff TODAY that I was waiting for in order to install it.
 
That cowl better be in by Tuesday or I am not sending your parts to you :nut
Belay that, you still have my motor mounts and other goodies. Shipping the stuff out ASAP :beer
 
Went at it today, hot and heavy (pun INTENDED!)!! It was another scorcher today, but I started early (9:30 this morning). I got the firewall lip all fitted and welded in, as well as some final patches to the last few areas of the firewall that also needed attention. That took the better part of the morning and until midday. The heat really started to wear on me by then, and welding DID NOT make it any cooler! After that I got the welds all dressed up and primered. I didn't worry too much with getting them smoothed totally out as most are located where they won't be seen. I was also down to my last flap disc!

Here's the finished firewall before fitting the cowl:

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After taking a little break to cool down I did the final fit for the lower cowl. Once happy I lined it up, clamped it down and started welding:

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As I got to the last few welds I noticed I was just about out of gas for the welder...and for me too! I'll have to go get more flap discs, some more roloc discs and another bottle of gas for the welder. I'm also transferring the wiper post openings from the original cowl top into the repop one. The Dynacorn cowls are '65 style for the threaded wiper shafts. They'll work with the flanged style wipers, but the profile on them is different, especially when you see them side by side. That will have to wait until my next days off!
 
Yes Brian, as a matter of fact I DO!! :yah

With all the good juju sent my way (regardless of Midlife claiming to have sent it!), I've now gotten two straight days of beautiful weather and took full advantage of it. Yesterday I got the top of the cowl finally welded back on. While my son graciously helped out dressing all the welds, I worked on some problems in the surrounding area (described below with the appropriate pics). Today I went back to it and finished up all of the work in the windshield opening area and the cowl to fender extension pieces. I have one little area on I found on the left front inner fender to repair, but I'm waiting to do the modifications in that area moving the battery tray over there. Other than that, the front end of the car is completely finished as far as repairs go!
:yah :yah

Here's an over view I shot today at quitting time, that cowl sure looks nicer than the old one!:

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More of what I got finished yesterday. The left upper windshield opening was the worst area and had to be completely rebuilt from scratch. Thanks to GPR's posts of the same type repair of their fastback project it really helped me figure out how to lay out the repair pieces to form the area:

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I also had to patch the lower area, though it wasn't nearly as bad as the top. As a matter of fact, I did it before starting on the top kinda as a warm up:

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Today I got the cowl extension pieces welded in to "officially" finish the cowl replacement. The extensions on both sides where generally in good shape and didn't get messed up coming off the car. The biggest problem was both were pretty rusty where they attached to the lower section of the cowl at the firewall (the "triangle" looking areas of them). I was going to order a new pair, but VCM was out and back ordered and NPD wanted $40 for a pair. I simply made a pattern, cut new sections and butt welded them on. You can't even tell they ever had any problems now...and I saved $40! Here's the right side (I was taking a pic of the left also, but the battery died on the camera!):

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The last thing I got to do today was repair the upper and lower windshield openings on the right side. Neither was anywhere near as bad as the left. With that said, considering this was a vinyl top car, the window openings (front AND rear) and the roof aren't too bad! Here's the upper repair on the right side:

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And the lower area (which wasn't too bad, only a couple of pinholes. The area was pitted pretty good so I just replaced all of it):

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Thanks to everyone that kept my spirits up. I think I've gotten the wind back in my sails again and can't wait until my next days off! I've got the B-pillars to patch and the rear of the right rocker panel. After that all the sheetmetal repairs are DONE! I think I'll get the engine compartment all finished up and in primer before panel fitting and body work. I'm shooting to start that in two weeks. We'll see though! Stay tuned!!!
 
Re: Restofied - My '66 Coupe Project

Looks awesome. Nice work.


Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
 
Even though I didn't get any direct work done to the car, I did spend the day running around getting supplies (so I CAN get work done tomorrow!). The single biggest advance accomplished today towards getting the car finished was also my biggest remaining expense... PAINT!! Yep, I now have the paint for the car!! :yah :yah :yah

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I checked earlier this week on pricing for just the paint (I was at work at the time...hehehe). I went back today to buy everything after a chat with my buddy that's laying down the paint. What's really great was I was unsure of which clearcoat I wanted to use. PPG offers several high quality clears for use over their DBC. I was initially going with Concept 2021, but was curious about the Velocity line. When I asked him about it he had never shot it. Since he's the one shooting it I wanted a top quality clear, but a product he's used to (he's shot PPG for years). He recommended one of the local PPG retailers to ask about it, but it was a different jobber than where I was buying from. When I got to the paint store lo and behold, the PPG rep was there! He's also very familiar with my buddy and the products he's used to. After explaining how I wanted to use the car, the level of quality I wanted (the best I could get WITH great durability!), and something my bud is used to, he recommended the Concept 2002. The best part of the purchase was the jobber helped me out with a discount on EVERYTHING! They told me it's ridiculous how they see so many people spending top dollar on the paint, then turning around and scrimping on cheap clear! Yeah, they made money, but they were happy I was willing to spend a little more for the best paint job I could get. I still have to get the reducer, but we're waiting until the car is ready to shoot. The temps have been so wacky I may need to adjust which reducer. Even with a discount (which was actually more of a discount than they had originally quoted, me!), it certainly wasn't cheap!! :hide Bottom line, buy cheap paint, get a cheap paint job! Just don't expect it to last!!

I'm really hoping to see paint ON the car in the next several weeks. We'll see!! :thu
 
It's been awhile since I got the chance to post any progress. I took the last week off of work and other than a day or two of intermittent rain, the weather cooperated. Part of my time was spent fixing little projects, of which there were a bunch of. This included a small patch to the left rear wheel well, two patches on the lower right rear window opening, a patch the the right side of the rear window opening and rebuilding the the trunk lock area on the rear deck lid. Seems some yahoo decided the best way to open the trunk without the key was wrench the whole cylinder assembly until it opened, but bending and tearing the metal in the process. It was a bear to dolly the area flat because it's so difficult to get to the back side of the metal when working it. A little creative application of various junk laying around was used as spoons and dollies to get in behind it solved the problem. Then I had to weld up the tears.

Here's the finished deck lid:
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The areas circled are where the window opening were patched. Considering this was originally a vinyl top car it was (pleasantly!), surprising there weren't more bad areas!
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The forward area of the wheel well actually required two patches, one over the top of the other. It was just a matter of trimming them out and welding in new metal:
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Then the big fabricating project, which I saved it until last. I got a late start one day so I spent my time doing straight fab work. The rear end of the right rocker panel was gone. Initially it appeared just to be deep pitting. The more I probed, the worse it got. I really didn't want to spend $60 on the outer rocker just for a short section so in typical cheap bastage fashion, I made it! The ironic thing is I knew I had to repair the lower quarter at the seam. Last year I bought the patch panel. After finishing up the fab work on the rocker patch I then matched up the store bought patch to see how the seams would look. It then struck me, why in the WORLD did I buy that patch. :wtf Fabbing it would have been child's play compared to the rocker patch! Oh well!!

Here's the finished patch:
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I don't have a "before" shot of the rocker. I thought I had taken one before cutting it open. Afterwards I discovered I didn't hadn't taken one! Once I got the outer skin off, it got worse! The inner area (which is actually part of the outer wheel well), was also rotted out. I spent all day yesterday rebuilding that entire area. With this being my last day off before going back to work I got the rocker and lower quarter patch finally installed. Here's the finished results:
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I have "new" doors for both sides so fear not about that rotten area in the pics!

While it may not seem like a lot of work for over a week off, I lost a couple of days due to honey do stuff and running around for supplies. I also lost a day and a half to weather. What I didn't shoot pics of yet is what else I was working on. That was fitting the section in the battery tray area for the factory 5.0 air box. Yes, I'm doing it the hard way and using the entire factory air intake system, including the silencer in the fender well (and yes, I know you pick up a few HP without it!). It's almost finished but I consider it a modification as opposed to a repair. I spent almost an entire day on it and it's close to being done. Rain threatened the next day so that's when I switched gears to all the little repair projects. I'm also moving the battery to the driver's side so I'll be modifying that apron too. Other than that, all I have left to repair is the sail panels on the roof. Then all the sheet metal mods AND repairs will be completed. Ooops, forgot I have a driver's door to skin too! Stay tuned!
 
Re: Restofied - My '66 Coupe Project

Looking good.
That's a lot done for one week.

So you are cutting through the aprons to install the silencer in the fenderwell? I thought about doing that too, then I just decided to go with a cold air intake.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
 
Actually the cutting of the apron was more to fit the stock air box (filter housing), then the silencer. I have no issues whatsoever with using a cold air set up. I know it makes things a ton easier and you actually get a little "cheap" HP boost too (heck, I swapped over to one on my F150!). My whole plan was/is the entire swap looks straight off the assembly line. (i.e. classic '66 on the outside, bone stock '92 under the hood). Does it make things more difficult? Absolutely! Am I nuts? Highly likely! LOL It will be different though!! :thu
 
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