Rough assembly

[monkeystash]

In an effort to motivate myself, I decided to do a rough assembly of my '65 fastback. As you can see, there is plenty of repro sheetmetal on the car, and with a few exceptions, it all lines up pretty nice. I still need to finish some grinding on the quarters, address where the entire dash was cut out, and finish fixing the lumpy roof skin...plus a million other little things. I've been slowly working on this now for 5.5 years and I'm to the point of considering hiring someone to finish the body. I have a couple guys coming over next week to take a look.

 

[66gt350]

Looking good. Just slap some wheels on, cut a couple holes in the floor board and you'll be ready drive the car Fred Flintstone style!! :craz

 

[Jonk67]

I'm with you monkeyboy, I can take stuff apart and reassemble but don't have the patience or skills to do bodywork/ paint so I'll be haulin' it as fast as I can to get finished once I get it running again. Looks like you have a good clean start though, wish I could have gone down to a bare shell.
Jon

 

[AtlantaSteve]

Wow, man, I'm actually starting to believe that thing is actually a car!!!!

Hurry up and get to a point where you can call me over to help install some parts!!!

 

[janschutz]

Looks like a Mustang now. I see lots of great work.

Sometimes I need to put stuff on just to motivate me. Keep it up.

 

[RyanG85]

Looks good. Lines down the side seem pretty close. Couldn't agree more with subbing the bodywork out. I like to think I'm capable of doing anything but between time and not wanting to use my baby as a practice for body work, I've subbed mine out. Owning a repair facility, I've hired a bodyman to work in house. Watching him work made me realize I would've been in over my head.

 

[tarafied1]

looks real good but I know what you mean about repop stuff. My buddies 65 looks alot like yours, it's almost all repop except the roof.

 

[garner67]

I say go ahead and use a couple of guys to help with the body work. Then, when you have color on it, you'll get really motivated to get it on the road!

 

[blue65coupe]

Very cool. I expect to see it at MBB III

 

[sigtauenus]

Ryan, I too subbed out the work. If you look through my build thread I stripped the car myself, did the welding, primer and paint on the underside and engine compartment, and took the car to the body shop with drivetrain and suspension installed. Body shop did the welding on the rear quarters/trunk/rear frame rails, etc, plus paint and assembly of painted parts. He told me I saved a good 30 hours of his labor by stripping the car myself before he got it. By the time I got my car back I had over 300 hours of labor that I paid for. Obviously the more you can do the less you will pay when it is subbed out, but I personally reached the point that I did not have time or skill to complete the rest of the body work. If I knew what I was doing I would have liked to have tried, but if it takes a pro 2 hours to cut and weld in a panel, it takes me 10 hours to do the same job and I may end up doing it twice before I get it right.

 

[daveSanborn]

With young children and your work schedule I don't see YOU getting the body work done in the next couple of years. For us novice's, bodywork is just too labor intensive. I also had side by side matching "butt" dents on my roof. The roof alone took me 3-4 full weekends to get respectable enough to prime/paint. The rest of the car's bodywork took 3-4 months of weekends and evenings/long nights..... and you've seen my car.... it's nowhere near perfect, but it's "good enough" for me.

IMO, either farm out the bodywork/paint or wait until your life slows down freeing up some of your time.