Off to the paint shop

I have decided that my skills as a body repair tech are not what I hoped they would be. So, I decided to bring the car to the professionals, and get the car painted the right way. I found somone in town that is doing it in his shop, and I hope to have it back in two months. I am very excited that I will finally get to drive it, and it will all be one color again!

It will be painted the original silver metallic. I don't want to do anything too extreme, and really want to maintain a sleeper look. When I pull up to the stoplight, nobody will know that there is a fire breathing LT1 smallblock under the hood! Here is a photo from the shop where she is getting sanded down:

I will post more pics as the project progresses!

We are still working on the car, slowly but surely. So far we have sanded and primed the front clip and are working our way back. We also bought some used set of wheels from a 94-96 Impala SS. We have removed the bumpers and trim to get ready for paint.

Tonight we took apart the rear bumper, and bead blasted and POR-15 painted the inside of the bumper and it's parts. We will put it back together and work on the front bumper tomorrow. Here are some pics of the car with the new wheels:

All parts are back on the car!

We have reached a milestone. All of the parts are now on the car! We are both very excited, and are amazed that we were able to achieve so much. Now comes the body work, and panel fitting. I am sure that we will have to remove many of the parts again to get them to fit properly, and free from dents and rust. We will have to take the radiator support down a few notches to get the body panels to fit correctly, and lots more sanding and priming! Here are some pictures of our milestone:

Doors and fenders on!

The interior is almost complete and we have installed the doors and fenders. We will have to do quite a bit of body work on the doors and fenders, so they will be coming off at least once or twice for some sanding and painting. The headlights have been installed and are working. It takes quite a bit of finesse to get these body panels mounted properly! We took a video of the car being started up after installing the doors, enjoy!

All the kings horses and all the kings men...

We have been putting some overtime in lately on the project, and have made quite a bit of progress. The wiring is complete! FINALLY! And the interior has been put back together. Cassie finished with the headliner and side panels, and they have been installed. The trim and front seat has been installed as well. We are finishing up the rear deck panel, and am looking to recover the back seat due to some sun damage. The car is starting to look like a car once again! We have installed a cold air intake on the LT1 due to the stock system not fitting. The Roadmaster had a little more room under the hood than the Impala toward the front. It starts up and sounds great. Here are some more photos of the car:

Back to the project

We have been enjoying the summer, and have decided that it is time to devote some spare time to the project. The body is installed, wiring has been installed, but not complete, and the car does finally run! We have gutted the interior and are installing a new headliner and carpeting. Currently the priority has been installing the radiator support, and getting the front inner fenders mounted. Here are some pictures of our progress:

Updates

During the past couple of weeks we achieved a milestone, we managed to get the body mounted to the chassis. The body mated to the chassis easily, and fortunately no modifications were necessary. We have removed the sagging headliner, and have sent to get new fabric and sun visors recovered. We repaired a rusted out drivers seat floor, by cutting out the old floor from the Buick donor car and welded it in. Also we have begun the arduous task of putting all the electrical components together. The electrical progress is going to be a bit of trial and error, hopefully more trial for our case! Next week we hope to get the gas tank installed, the body securely mounted to the frame, and get the front frame rail/ bumper mount fixed. Then we can start putting the front end back together. We are excited now that the car is starting to look like a car again, and our progress is allowing us to see the light at the end of the tunnel.