'67 Chevy II Project

[wiedemab]

[wiedemab]

Putting the seats back in and test fitting the harnesses so that I can locate the anchor points and verify clearance and height for the harness bar.





Harness bar welded in - - -

[wiedemab]

Sold my battery forklift - -the battery was bad and too expensive to replace.....I'll miss the old "Minion" as these little Komatsu lifts were called - -little and weird so the name fits!



Found a good deal on a little Clark propane lift (2,000lb capacity). Brought it home around the holidays (Clark made me think of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation) so - - - -I named this one Griswold!

[wiedemab]

Started working on the core support....the damn things have all sorts of holes etc.... that I have no need for. Not sure I like my beadroll design, but Oh well....



Tigged it in







I have about 4hrs in this one side........... from the time I made the template to metal finishing (I work slow!) Now I have to find some time to do the other side!

[Beechy]

Found a good deal on a little Clark propane lift (2,000lb capacity). Brought it home around the holidays (Clark made me think of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation) so - - - -I named this one Griswold!

Ha!!!!!!..........is that your Granny strapped to the seat back? ?


........ohhhhh its a propane tank......my bad

[Jimbo1367]

When this thread first started I thought, wow that needs ALOT of work,
I never imagined the build was going to progress so quickly and with such a high level of craftsmanship. What is you day job and mechanical back round? This is a bad ass build.

I love the suburban. Glad to hear its getting some love later on too. Keep up the great work !!!

Jim

[wiedemab]

Originally Posted by Jimbo1367

When this thread first started I thought, wow that needs ALOT of work,
I never imagined the build was going to progress so quickly and with such a high level of craftsmanship. What is you day job and mechanical back round? This is a bad ass build.

I love the suburban. Glad to hear its getting some love later on too. Keep up the great work !!!

Jim

Thanks for the kind words. I'm not sure I agree with you on the speed at which the work is getting completed. I started on it over 3 years ago! As far as my day job is concerned - - -nothing even remotely related to this.... I'm the Director of Corporate Strategy for Hillenbrand Inc.. We have a portfolio of companies around the world in various industrial markets as well as Batesville Casket. My background does lend itself a bit to this type of work though. My undergraduate degree is in mechanical engineering (although I was never really a "practicing" engineer). I spent my early career working on improvement projects in a manufacturing environment (Lean/Continuous improvement).....ended up working in Sourcing/Procurement - got to run that for one of our companies for a few years, which was fun (traveled all over the world!). - - -anyway, none of that has to do with cars. The real reason I do any of this is that I picked it up from my Dad. He spent his career running an autobody shop. I remember watching him build cars as a young kid (and fix everyone elses! - he would fix things that should't have been fixed - -I think simple to prove he could fix them........kind of resonates with this project huh!). He still has his '67 Chevy II that he finished when I was 3 years old. I learned how to weld and basic fabrication along with body work from my Dad and over the years, he and I have just tried to continue to learn new skills (buy more tools!) and get a little better with each build. I've also become friends with some very talented and knowledgeable people in the industry over the years that have been gracious enough to put up with me asking them lots of questions. I figured that if I knew what good looked like, I could keep on trying until I got there...I've thrown away a few attempts in the process.

I literally get at most about 8hrs a week (on a rare occasion I'll marathon if the wife and kids are out of town!). It's frustrating at times, but I have to remind myself that it's a hobby and it'll get done when it gets done. Our family has had a lot going on the past several years too, which puts things in perspective.

It's all about having the right tools for the job and plenty of patience (which I lack!)..

[wiedemab]

Finished up the core support





Decided to re-skin the doors. By the time I fixed the small rust issues and fixed some damage to the driver's door I could re-skin them quicker/easier. I'm glad I did. After having the doors dipped would have been impossible to get the door shells primered very well. I used a KBS coating on the insides of the doors - it works really well.

[wiedemab]

First we lightly folded the skin edges over and test fitted it to the car. This allowed up to adjust the skin on the shell. You would be surprised at how they will twist and move around - - if you aren't careful you can make a mess. Once we had it where we wanted it (these Dynacorn skins fit pretty damn well) - I tacked it in a couple of spots, took it back off, hammer and dollied the rest of the skin and welded it on.



I have to say - it's invaluable having the old man around (he's skinned who knows how many doors in his life) - lots of little tricks to be learned. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but there is no substitute for good ole experience! Action photo of Dad!



Door back on and adjusted to the quarter and fender....next is start working the gaps. (I have basically the same pics of the other side, but for conciseness will spare the redundancy)

[wiedemab]

Gap was wide at the top, so I split the quarter and moved it forward a bit.



Quarter stuck out from the door at the top (shape a little off too). The rest of the door to quarter lined up well, so I split the jam and reshaped it.



The top of the quarter ran a little uphill toward the front of the car. I split it and lined it up so that the molding would line up properly without too much adjusting/shimming.





There we go - -much better!