Lol, if only! I got myself into a bit of a bind and it's crunch time. I'm hoping to accomplish more by Monday so I have something to show potential employers...
What did you do to your G-Body today 2024
- Thread starter 64nailhead
- Start date
Got some last minute info on a benefit carshow hosted by our local Truly Nolen to help gather food for people/pets and toys for kids for this holiday season. The wife and I decided was 100% worth coming out!
So we brought the Cutlass out before we start getting the interior torn down.
Then afterwards went to a Cars and Tacos "cruise in" toy drive after. All great things to be a part of and I really enjoy bringing out the lowrider for folks to enjoy. Gotta fight the stigma of "they are all owned by thugs and gang members". Few pics!
This last pic is from the Cars and Tacos cruise in. Beautiful 71° weather. The wife lounging enjoying our delicious Mexican Food.
So we brought the Cutlass out before we start getting the interior torn down.
Then afterwards went to a Cars and Tacos "cruise in" toy drive after. All great things to be a part of and I really enjoy bringing out the lowrider for folks to enjoy. Gotta fight the stigma of "they are all owned by thugs and gang members". Few pics!
This last pic is from the Cars and Tacos cruise in. Beautiful 71° weather. The wife lounging enjoying our delicious Mexican Food.
Went round three with that rear drop panel and managed to drill the plug welds and split away the remaining section of trunk floor. What now remains is the lower chunk of the inner/outer wheel house where it is attached to the trunk floor and the panel. As is typical, the plug welds are obscured so I am back to stripping off the overburden to identify their locations.
I did manage to get to the industrial supply shop and I was able to lay hands on an axe file. While I do have fine tooth machinists files, I believe that the axe file will work better for dressing chisel points and edges. it did a nice job of quickly repointing my centre punch so that I could dimple the plugs. With the dimple in more or less the center of the plug, the drill or floating center pin on the plug weld cutter can better stay of track and not bounce all over the place😉.
After that, I dismounted the top cover from the Monte's console storage bin as the plastic hinge had decided to pass away at some time in the past. I think that OPGI has them but on that score I am still waiting for the noise/insulation panels for my doors; they are still on back order after having been promised as being available back in August. Apparently it's not OPGI's fault as the mfgr/supplier has repeatedly defaulted on the delivery. I don't know if they are the only supplier and are trying to renegotiate the purchase contract or WTF? At this point I am still not really ready to hang them so the wait is not holding up progress per se. It is more in the nature of being an MPITA c/w boils and heat rash😆.
anyway.................................................
Nick
I did manage to get to the industrial supply shop and I was able to lay hands on an axe file. While I do have fine tooth machinists files, I believe that the axe file will work better for dressing chisel points and edges. it did a nice job of quickly repointing my centre punch so that I could dimple the plugs. With the dimple in more or less the center of the plug, the drill or floating center pin on the plug weld cutter can better stay of track and not bounce all over the place😉.
After that, I dismounted the top cover from the Monte's console storage bin as the plastic hinge had decided to pass away at some time in the past. I think that OPGI has them but on that score I am still waiting for the noise/insulation panels for my doors; they are still on back order after having been promised as being available back in August. Apparently it's not OPGI's fault as the mfgr/supplier has repeatedly defaulted on the delivery. I don't know if they are the only supplier and are trying to renegotiate the purchase contract or WTF? At this point I am still not really ready to hang them so the wait is not holding up progress per se. It is more in the nature of being an MPITA c/w boils and heat rash😆.
anyway.................................................
Nick
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Lol that's my neighbor Shane.. as soon as he heard me crank the starter he was over helping
So, just to summarize what it might take just to dissect even a short section of a Monte Carlo panel stack, I submit the following
So this is what I had to cut away to get to what I wanted. I'm not sure what the final count on plug/spot welds was but think it might be north of 3 dozen or so.
And this is the first panel that I wanted to harvest. What you see here is the drop panel that attaches the floor of the trunk to the lower edge of the quarter panel abaft of the wheel house. The upper flange, the one clamped to the edge of the drill deck, is where the actual seam is. That is the section of panel to which the lower flange of the quarter panel is attached and all those scars are location points for where a plug or rose weld was set by the factory. The lower flange in the picture is the edge that attaches to the floor; fewer spot welds but harder to get to.
And this is the second piece for which I found that I had some use. It is just a short section of the bottom lower rear quarter panel. In its original location the flange would have been attached to that drop panel along the seam that I mentioned as being clamped to the drill deck. The reason it is located where it is, is that I plan to visit that whole length and repair some of the nastier cuts that had to be done. The repairs will give me a better starting surface for when/if I need this piece during the ongoing saga of panel rehab.
After all that work, this is what I ended up with. For the quizzical minded, who might be thinking why all the sturm und drang for this skinny piece of material, well the original donor chunk came from an 83 Monte Carlo that I was able to source and harvest parts from, oh, as much as at least two decades ago now. That hulk lives on in the form of my passenger's inner door skin, which now currently hangs from the passenger's door hinges and awaits its new outer skin, a spare trunk lid, and a lot of misc sheet metal like that trunk floor from which this little section came. True, a lot of the shell of that car was gone; succumbed to cancer and old age, but a lot of it still endures. This little piece is just the right length and width that I can use it to repair a section of the lower quarter panel on my own Monte where it bends back and in to meet that drop panel shown above, only the panel in question this time is the one that is presently on my own car. It saves me the need to have to source an entire lower section to match the one that I had to acquire to repair the damage ahead of the wheel house but below and behind the B pillar on the same side. There are pictures of that posted elsewhere around here.
So I'm a miser. Waste not, want not and, since It's Christmas, as my favorite curmudgeon would say, albeit misquoted for this thread, "Bah!!!" "Humbug."
CopperNick
So this is what I had to cut away to get to what I wanted. I'm not sure what the final count on plug/spot welds was but think it might be north of 3 dozen or so.
And this is the first panel that I wanted to harvest. What you see here is the drop panel that attaches the floor of the trunk to the lower edge of the quarter panel abaft of the wheel house. The upper flange, the one clamped to the edge of the drill deck, is where the actual seam is. That is the section of panel to which the lower flange of the quarter panel is attached and all those scars are location points for where a plug or rose weld was set by the factory. The lower flange in the picture is the edge that attaches to the floor; fewer spot welds but harder to get to.
And this is the second piece for which I found that I had some use. It is just a short section of the bottom lower rear quarter panel. In its original location the flange would have been attached to that drop panel along the seam that I mentioned as being clamped to the drill deck. The reason it is located where it is, is that I plan to visit that whole length and repair some of the nastier cuts that had to be done. The repairs will give me a better starting surface for when/if I need this piece during the ongoing saga of panel rehab.
After all that work, this is what I ended up with. For the quizzical minded, who might be thinking why all the sturm und drang for this skinny piece of material, well the original donor chunk came from an 83 Monte Carlo that I was able to source and harvest parts from, oh, as much as at least two decades ago now. That hulk lives on in the form of my passenger's inner door skin, which now currently hangs from the passenger's door hinges and awaits its new outer skin, a spare trunk lid, and a lot of misc sheet metal like that trunk floor from which this little section came. True, a lot of the shell of that car was gone; succumbed to cancer and old age, but a lot of it still endures. This little piece is just the right length and width that I can use it to repair a section of the lower quarter panel on my own Monte where it bends back and in to meet that drop panel shown above, only the panel in question this time is the one that is presently on my own car. It saves me the need to have to source an entire lower section to match the one that I had to acquire to repair the damage ahead of the wheel house but below and behind the B pillar on the same side. There are pictures of that posted elsewhere around here.
So I'm a miser. Waste not, want not and, since It's Christmas, as my favorite curmudgeon would say, albeit misquoted for this thread, "Bah!!!" "Humbug."
CopperNick
Wish the clip were longer but think tha the brevity might be because you are running without coolant. STill it is a nice song in sound surround.
Nick
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