I finally got something partially done on my car and decided to post it and see what you all have to say about it. I had a 70 that was rusted out and i liked it. On my search for another body, all i could find that was rust free was an 82. I'm doing what I can to make this body look early with a few of my own touches.

In this pic, i relocated the trunk lock, filled in the upper bumper shock half circle, cut that lip off and filled it that's behind the bumper, changed it to use early tail lights, welded the early lower rear quarters extensions on, and instead of having the license plate floating around on a bracket, i installed a license plate box roughly in the same place as it was on the 70.

i still have a lot of blocking to do on the rear. it has been a challenge for me to get the filler on smooth. i used three colors of filler so it got hard to look at so i put a coat of primer on. so far, so good.. let me know what you think. don't tear me up too bad, this is the first time i have ever done anything like this.

Looking good. Nice effort.

I really like the effort to make changes that are relatively subtle. Looking forward to seeing the rest!

I like it .... have been thinking that when it comes time for body work and paint of removing that lip also... wondering if removing the lip would make the metal soft or wavy as it seems to be somewhat "structural" for lack of a better term ... was the different color fillers to see high and low spots??

burgandy81 wrote:Looking good. Nice effort.

I really like the effort to make changes that are relatively subtle. Looking forward to seeing the rest!

thank you.

Wow, nice job, seems like a lot to convert it over

81SPIDERMATT wrote:I like it .... have been thinking that when it comes time for body work and paint of removing that lip also... wondering if removing the lip would make the metal soft or wavy as it seems to be somewhat "structural" for lack of a better term ... was the different color fillers to see high and low spots??

just a warning.. cutting the lip off leave a gap that just a little too big to weld shut. i cut a one inch strip of sheet metal, lined it up to the top, drew my line and cut the gap to be one inch and butt welded the strip in. i'm sure there are other ways to handle it, and probably easier ways, but i don't really know much about welding, i learned from a kevin tetz dvd and youtube.

fiat218 wrote:Wow, nice job, seems like a lot to convert it over

it has been very frustrating, but Alan (SoFloFiat) has been an excellent coach/advisor. if it wasn't for him, i would have given up a long time ago...

nice work so far, just a question though. Are you going to fix the trunk gap so it's uniform across the back?

So Cal Mark wrote:nice work so far, just a question though. Are you going to fix the trunk gap so it's uniform across the back?

yes.. i will.. it's actually sitting crooked on there.. i just sat the trunk up there and hit it with primer to complete the look. i'm hoping it lines up better once it's actually on the hinges and sitting right...

juvius wrote:

fiat218 wrote:Wow, nice job, seems like a lot to convert it over

it has been very frustrating, but Alan (SoFloFiat) has been an excellent coach/advisor. if it wasn't for him, i would have given up a long time ago...

Damn Alan will get u in trouble lol

81SPIDERMATT wrote:I like it .... have been thinking that when it comes time for body work and paint of removing that lip also... wondering if removing the lip would make the metal soft or wavy as it seems to be somewhat "structural" for lack of a better term ... was the different color fillers to see high and low spots??

no.. i used metal-2-metal over the welds because it's supposed to be waterproof and stronger than regular filler. it's silver. then i used regular body filler. it's reddish brown and the puddy was bluish green. so that and not really having a good eye for body work developed yet, i couldn't see what was going on until i put that coat of primer on. it revealed a lot of deep scratch i missed...

looks like i need a trunk lid. i went out to check it out and it is bowed all the way back. it doesn't sit flush in the middle of the back either. the underside structure of the trunk lid is all banged up. i can't believe i didn't notice that before... crap...

now I see the front edge is low also. Better to find out now than after it's painted

thanks for pointing that out mark... i didn't put any thought into it, i just thought i was sitting crooked...

i'd use some come-alongs and bend that sucker into shape. 99% of the trunk lid is there, fix it. you have the skill.