Finally Doing A Build Thread

[350_85cutty]

I love looking at other members builds and projects, and I like to do alot of the work on my car by myself too, so why not share my progress.

getting ready for the 355 transplant. 3M undercoating on firewall, trans tunnel and a lil under the floorpans, but underneath the car is rust free and factory undercoating still in tact.

<a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/853csb/?action=view&current=frame.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/853csb/frame.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
i also did the frame up front. i wire wheeled it and used lacquer thinner to clean it. firewall i scuffed with 180, and scotchbrite the hard to reach parts, used wax/grease remover then topcoated with 3M undercoat

took the fender off and while i was at it, prepped and painted the inner fender support, yeah i know, it'll never be seen and wasn't in bad shape at all, just freshened it up

wire wheeled and used lacquer thinner to get my hood hinge to bare metal then etch primed and painted it black..

snatched the back window-to-trunk filler panel off my 81 parts cutty since my car is a vinyl top car and I'm not putting the vinyl back on.

the only "rot" on this car other than the bottoms of the doors, is located here and on the other side as well

i'm looking to get rid of the hood scoop, i will not be using it this time around....

pic from 2 years ago, some liked it some hated it, but I thought it was cool an different...lowrider cutty's plague the streets over here so mine stood out

here she is...the exhaust is hanging because it was a cheap setup, glasspacks....and straight pipes...the cheap uni-strap hangers broke. wanna do em 442 style when I get the exhuast re-done

here is the block, it's been assembled since this pic, will post new ones when i get them....

a pic from 2 years ago...we've come along way

2 years ago setup

 

[78mali350]

looks like your making some great progress. I wish i would have had the time to tear mine apart and do some of the things like that

 

[350_85cutty]

yeah my luck, my boss let me bring it up to the shop, store it inside and work on it. have access to alot of tools and a overhead hoist. it's a sign shop so we have lot's of scrap sheet metal, aluminum, plexiglass, lexan, l.e.d.s alot of stuff that comes in handy. I have a key to the shop and alarm codes. I'm single, so no wife or kids to worry bout, alot of free time to go up there on the weekends or stay after work and play

 

[Blake442]

Looking good!

Make sure you grab the 1/4 windows out of your parts car as well for when you're ready to paint it. Vinyl top cars use the vinyl top itself to seal the windows, and regular slick tops use a rubber seal around the window. You'll need them once you pop out your windows to get the rest of the vinyl out from underneath them come painting time.

Make sure to take lots of pictures. That's one regret of mine doing my 442, there's only a handful of pictures of the work in progress. I'm trying to make up for it with the wagon...

 

[shotgun]

Just for grins.

Could you lay your present hood on the car and install the hood scoop backwards, IE rear inlet? Kinda have a Pontiac shaker vibe to it.

Maybe hit it with a light coat of black primer or body color.

Curious how that would look.

 

[350_85cutty]

here's a lil tip.....i did this basic illustration on MS Paint of the black plastic supports that hold the filler panel...i had to source another window-to-trunk filler panel from a non vinyl top car...the 3 plastic supports on mine were splitting where the screws attach it to the car....so thinking in terms of the future i went ahead and made some out of aluminum to replace those worn out ones and it worked great! so all i did was bent up some lil aluminum supports that match the plastic ones

 

[350_85cutty]

should i paint the inside of my headlight bezels black? i'm thinking hard about it....the chrome is in good condition tho

 

[gbodyfever]

keep your good condition chrome bezels and go to the junkers and get some not so great shape ones and paint those black, do the grills while your at it to match, looks cleaner

 

[83cut350chev]

keep your good condition chrome bezels and go to the junkers and get some not so great shape ones and paint those black, do the grills while your at it to match, looks cleaner

agreed.

 

[dudeface]

basically your goin for the salon look.........I got a 1985 salon and the headlight bezels came black, and the grill square recesses were black from factory.

really like the look

peace