OLDFLM's (Ty) 71 Firebird comes to Fletcher's Customs!! Giving back for my Freedom!! - Page 33 - Lateral-g Forums

OLDFLM · #**321** 08-26-2009, 08:40 PM

Chad and Fletcher's Customs continue to blow me away!!!

He's definately gotten in a LOT deeper than he agreed to when he took the car in for a basic scuff-n-shoot refresh of my old muscle car! Then my budget was quickly eaten up ten-fold with each new part added to the build consuming even more man-hours!!

He's never once complained and now he's come out of pocket for parts and materials to ensure the car will be done in time for SEMA... have you ever heard of a more dedicated, generous and giving person or builder???

My hopes and prayers are that this car and the story behind his personal involvement in making my dream come true will serve as a calling card for Chad and Fletcher's Customs and that he is repaid for his generosity and friendship a thousand times over!!!

awr68 · #**322** 08-26-2009, 10:33 PM

That is just awesome! You are a great person, Chad!!

We can't wait to see the car at SEMA!!

Lenie · #**323** 08-26-2009, 10:56 PM

Chad, see you and your nice ride at SEMA.

Good luck

fletcherscustoms · #**324** 08-31-2009, 09:14 AM

What a long weekend!! But we crossed a very huge hurdle this weekend, the UNDERSIDE is done!! I did 23 hours alone on the car since Saturday morning!! After blasting the underside last weekend we found a ton of issues. Undercoating covered a lot!! Both side of the trunk floor had to be cut out, new panels formed and bead rolled to look stock, countless floor patches and welding up over 50 numerous drilled holes from years of stuff being attached under it. Also spent a good 8 hours hand forming new trunk drop down/closeout panels. Back in 1990 when Ty had partial quarters put on the car the guy cut the drop downs out and just welded some crappy sheetmetal in from the floor to the lower edge of the quarter. They came out and I formed a solid piece that acts as a support and closes out the inside of rear quarter section. More flashy than function but looks nice in my opinion. Rear frame rails are fully plated front to back, DSE subframe connectors are in, front floor pans are done, and going in primer and bedliner tonight. All major fabwork is complete, minus welding in a new rear lower tail panel, which I am cutting off a donor 72 bird. All rust repair is done and welded up, as well as metal straightening.

We will be putting the car on the ground this week! Suspension, wheels, brakes etc.

Then starting body work!! (again)

The hardest parts are done!!!!

I'll get a ton of pics tonight, but for now here are a few cell phone pics to hold you over!!

Underside all done, waiting for primer

Cleaning up the welds (Josh)

Crappy pic of trunk drop down closeouts in the initial construction

**syborg tt** · #**325** 08-31-2009, 10:24 AM

Wow - Just incredible work.

fletcherscustoms · #**326** 08-31-2009, 10:52 AM

my shop is destroyed after the thrash this weekend!!! Tools everywhere, nasty rusty sheetmetal scraps all over the floor, etc, etc!!I need a full time guy to clean up after me!! lol

Its was great weekend!! lots of updates coming this week. By Friday she'll be on the ground!!!

awr68 · #**327** 08-31-2009, 04:59 PM

Yeah!! GO GO GO!!

fletcherscustoms · #**328** 08-31-2009, 07:36 PM

Another good day today!! Had three of us on the car for 5 hours each! Got the remaining bodywork, grinding, and a little bit of welding we found on the under side of the car done. Then seam sealed the DSE subframe connectors, the new floor pan seams just to be safe even though there welded solid, and then Josh grabbed the paint gun and went to town! Two nice coats of Epoxy primer, and then dumped 2 gallons of U-pol sprayable bedliner on the underside. I'm ecstatic on how the underside came out! Tomorrow off the the rotisserie and back on the lift.
Then BMR suspension mock up and subframe back under the car... getting close to being on the ground.

Pics coming in the morning when I get back to the office. Right now I'm posting this from my old laptop at home that my kids have somehow managed to make the screen turn 90 degrees, so the top of the page your viewing is now at the left side. And I can't figure out how to fix it. Being a Mac guy for 5 years has made me PC dumb!!

fletcherscustoms · #**329** 09-01-2009, 06:42 AM

Progress pics

awr68 · #**330** 09-01-2009, 07:15 AM

VERY NICE!!