Project - Ashes to ...?

[groovyjay]

Originally Posted by Rick D

You are a brave man to take on redoing that!! So how long ago did the fire happen?

It happened 10 years ago... This has been a real struggle to get done. I've done few other cars during this time. I've lost motivation more times that I could count. But like I said in the first post, I'm finally getting there, spirit is high again.

[groovyjay]

So, after I got the car back in the shop I had to remove the body, or what was left of it, off the frame so I could start the rebuild.



Since there was not much to lift of the frame, I used my engine picker to remove the bbq'd body.



Just looking back, I can't believe what a mess my shop was back then...

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by waynieZ

That brakes my heart!

Yeah my heart almost STOPPED too!


LOL

[Code510]

Kudos to you for restoring it back. I wouldn't have done that! Looks like way too much work.

[groovyjay]

Back in 04 I was lucky to have two of my good friends with Mid Year Vettes doing frame offs on their cars at the same time as I was so we teamed up and did a lot of work together. Everything seemed to go smooth and fast back then... Boy was I wrong.



That's my frame under the pile and that's my birdcage on top.

[groovyjay]

After getting the frame and birdcage checked for trueness I had them blasted so I could start working on them.



The birdcage and frame turned out to be 100% rust free, so pretty good starting point.

Just welding the birdcage properly made it a lot more rigid than stock, but I want to get rid of that flimsy z-cross bar. Here's how I fabricated a new one.











Pedal mount.



Welded in place. Nice thing about this project is I finally got to learn to weld, I'm still learning, so forgive me the beads.



Cross bar done.



Another first for me was the use of paint gun, here's my birdcage painted with epoxy.

[groovyjay]

After getting the birdcage done it was time to tackle the frame. All the stock spot welds were taken down and new welds went on all around. Tons of gussets were added to the critical places such as A-arm and engine mounts, crossbar, frame rails etc. Should be a lot more rigid now.





One real modification I did was the Guldstrand 5-link rear suspension. This required the trailing arm pockets to be widened to accept the upper trailing arms.



Stock trailing arm pocket looked like this. You can also see that the shock mounts will be relocated to inboard to get the clearance for coil overs.



First test fitting to see how much room the Guldstand set up would require.



The lower trailing arms needed new mounting tabs, so I decided to make a new backing plate for the mounts.



Tabs spot welded in.



Here you can see the lines showing how much I needed to cut out...





No turning back now.



Patching up that nasty hole. Here you can see how much wider the trailing arm pockets need to be.







And finally all smoothed out. Now there's enough room for suspension travel.

Thanks for looking.

[groovyjay]

So the Guldstrand 5-link was now fitted and seemed to work. This should really help to correct the original GM design flaws. With the coil overs it will be very adjustable.



So it was time to start working on badly burned body. Only thing worth saving was the tail section, but I wasn't going for the NCRS standards so I decided to take it off and turn it into something more comfortable.











Anybody want to guess what's it going to be?



Installed original bumpers and tail lights.



Made a frame for it, had to convert it to a solid axle. Well you got to give up some performance for the looks...





Getting the leather upholstery ready.



Bodywork.





Test fitting everything before paint.



Now it sits in my garage, it's nice unit to sit on and houses 2 6-packs under the seat and has cup holders...

[U-turn]

That's sweet!

[69x22]

Man talk about bringing back the dead. I'm anxious to see more updates.