Project Crossroads (Sheetmetal Hell)
 

So here I am at a crossroads so to speak. I bought a project car a few years back, bought a LS and suspension goodies brakes etc, etc. Blasted the car and it revealed that not only the quarters/tail panel were bad. But the cowl, toe panels need replacement and there is some rework on doors, fenders etc?
I was going to do as much as I could myself, but I have looked into what I have to replace and add into the budget for paint and interior and now I am thinking why am I not buying a car that was redone a few years ago and install all my drive train and suspension goodies?

I may be further ahead at the end of the day and on the road a lot quicker. The down side is I don’t get to do some of the custom stuff I was thinking of doing.

For those of you who have gone down this road my hat off to you but do you think I am crazy for thinking this way?

Absolutely not.

My Dad has been looking into buying a '55 Bel Air. I keep telling him to just save up more money, and buy one that's done. Then there's no headaches or sweat restoring one, plus you let somebody else take the hit on the price of restoring the car.

But...it all depends on you. Do you like building the cars and seeing the transformation? How much does it mean to you to have those custom touches you mentioned?

With the current work/life balance there is not enough time to dig deep into my original plan especially now that the body is a lot worse than expected. I will be looking for a clean driver to do my LS swap and suspension swap, there might the odd customized thing that I add along the way and I am ok with it. The goal is to get on the road and enjoy it.

The trick will be to find that clean car. The adventure continues!

Are you looking for a 2nd gen Camaro? I will have a nice painted roller with Speedtech suspension here very soon.

Partial to 67-68 birds. I already have a full speedtech track time package (for a first gen) sitting in my garage,with wilwood brakes and a ls2/4l70e, rad, gas tank etc ready to go.

For me it was hard to find a clean roller for a decent price so I went the opposite and found the most raw car I could find without suspension so I knew what I was getting myself into before starting. Good luck on your search!


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Hi.
 

Hi. Just my thoughts. I understand what you're saying about work/life balance, and I have no idea what metal working skills you have or how much of that sort of thing you were planning on doing yourself. Would you be able to do the toeboards and some of the other work and either farm out or obtain help with panel replacement or whatever you don't feel confident tackling alone? At the end of the day you'll know exactly what you have, if you buy a complete or painted car it's hard to know exactly what you've got. Cheers and Good Luck.

I agree with you all that at least you know what you started with. My skills are ok and I would repair/replace most of the panels myself. Others I would get professional help with. The painting would be left to the pros. My problem is time. We have all had or seen projects that have stalled out, and I fear that I am falling into this rut lol. I had a chance to go look at a few local cars that were "clean" and they were in about the same shape as mine. I have two more to look at this coming weekend.

Good luck on your search. But seeing that your in Canada which has a full winter season finding a car without rot after 50 years (I feel) will be hard.

Take your time.. it's supposed to be fun ;)

It's all about balance. For some moronic reason I had to buy a car strip it to bare metal and then build it. Pretty sure I am making a lot of expensive mistakes, but it's something I was hell bent on doing. The next one will have "Good Bones" and allow me to add to it. Not sure if that means good paint or what, but I won't go to the extreme I did ever again.