DHARROD; Project Black Diamond Chevelle

[Aschle]

Very good looking project ! I hugely regret selling my 68' Chevelle SS 396...Seeing a nice 68' or 69' always makes it harder on me...

Keep us updated! Like I said, it looks great !

Jason

[V8TV]

Looks great! How bad was the steel under the vinyl top? What did you use to repair it?

[DHARROD]

Originally Posted by V8TV

How bad was the steel under the vinyl top? What did you use to repair it?

KO/V8TV, I think you guys may laugh a little on my approach ... I accidentally deleted a lot of pictures of what I did and what it looked like once I removed paint/bondo. Below is a picture of the initial discovery (that oh-crap how bad moment). Could have been worse as it was a bunch of spot holes (about 1/4 bondo at the corners and 1/8 up the pillars) . They had pop-riveted metal underneath and then bondo’d over the larger holes; this was done on both sides. The worst part was the rounds in the corner were history and everything continued to rust towards the trunk. I removed what I could and used some left over metal from the firewall kit, did some spot welding and to get the rounds I used -industrial saw blades for a reciprocating saw (held it in my hands and bent it to the right curvature – also used them to form the base the window rests in - had to weld them together for the overall window seat). They're actually about the right height and thickness (red-neck way I know .. but its metal; a real shop would have taken the time to have metal bent/shaped so you'd have a natural 'L' that's curved; after I finished someone told me there are kits out there for this very thing). There were also rust spots at the roof seam/window's edge and along the entire pillar. What I did is/ drill/grind every hole then very patiently welded the holes I could.

A special note to any novice (not V8TV) ... On a hard-top the rear panel is a pain because it is convex length-ways and concave across the short distance and if you have very much rust the easiest thing is probably to just replace it as the body work is challenging (I was chicken, but think I'll be OK). I'd wouldn't have had to spend so much time if I had put a vinyl top back on it. A vinyl top can make minor imperfection unnoticeable.

[7TSS]

Wow, great looking project. I'm doing something similar to a '70 Chevelle SS.
Keep on posting pics.

[jy211]

Looking good!

[DHARROD]

Spent Sunday finishing up the firewall area. Black is definately a tough color as it shows any issues you have, but it looks great and is a natural for a Muscle car. All and all the firewall turned out good.

[DHARROD]

[XcYZ]

Looking great!

[DHARROD]

After getting the car back on frame I spent some time on the interior getting some initial wiring done and laying the sound proofing. The shot right below is simple sound proofing that almost everyone is doing. I ran it all the way up the front pannel as I had already removed the factory sound proofing to put in inner brackets for the heating unit and ignition box.
The wiring was a learning experience. Trying to keep wires hidden and removing the old remote sensing/regulator and moving the battery soleniod to the trunk made things fun. Add in the ignition box, electric fan, new headlights, wiper motor and new heating unit I had several electrical gremlins to work out. I was able to get it to fire after a couple of goofy mistakes on my part. You'll see the stainless steel headers turned a golden brown; I plan to remov the headers and have them ceramic coated along with part of the exhaust

Another step prior to the fenders was to get the brake system working. I decided to go with manual brakes to get as clean of an engine bay as I could. My wife and I pumped for ever to bench bleed it and I used all of my husband points as my wife was the pedal pumper overall. As a side note the paint appeared to turn out fine and had a good shine after the first round of buffing (my second paint job overall) .

I then moved the main car two the detached garage to have more of a 'clean' room (I took the wife's bay/spot) after a little begging. This allowed me to get the fenders and doors painted.

[V8TV]

Man, that's a killer looking car. Very nice work! I dig the colors!