1967 Firebird Convertible - Project "LEGACY"

[Firebird-Geek]

Look inside... Looks like a full trunk pan was a wise choice.


Had to get a little crazy with the plasma cutter to get in here...

[geberhard]

You are a BRAVE MAN!!!

[Firebird-Geek]

As you can see the trunk floor was in need of replacement anyway. Original plan was to just to a partial trunk floor, but after all the rot uncovered under the seat brace... it was decided to do a FULL trunk pan.


And a few minutes with the plasma... look at all my trunk room now!

[Firebird-Geek]

Next was the Tail panel... after finding these beautiful repairs under the bumper... I knew a new tail panel would be easier than to undo all the wonderful bodywork.



Off it comes... I must say, knowing I wasn't going to use any of the metal under the tail panel made it WAY easier to remove than if I had to hunt down all the spot welds and surgically remove it. It was a bunch of air-hammer time!

[Firebird-Geek]

Moving on to the quarter panels... This car is one of those examples of what you can hide with paint and bondo. I started by sanding down the paint in a few test areas to see what I was dealing with.... looks like a classic quick fix.



So I started to sand down to the metal, so the plasma cutter could ground enough to cut... DAMN this guy must have used a gallon of bondo per quarter.



This is a 67 Firebird... but someone sure wanted to make it a 68... look at the beautiful job they did making the Pontiac emblem cutouts in the quarters.


Finally got them ready for the Plasma... I will be removing the entire quarter, but just started with the center first.

[Firebird-Geek]

Look at the hidden treasures I found under the quarter panels,in the wheelhouse area. Looks like "more is better" was the approach to the bondo situation.



Looks like on the passenger side he couldn't get the bondo to even build up enough... had to use some mesh in there to hold it together!

[Amatouring]

It is great to see you bringing the car back to life the right way. It looks like the previous body guy was a bit of a sculptor.

[Firebird-Geek]

After some real "quality time" with the air hammer... the rest of the trunk is out... down to the frame rails. Good news is the frame rails look really good... not even any rust pitting (just some surface rust). There seemed to be enough "gunk" on them from undercoating the car at some point in its life.





I left the front part of the door jam, and upper part in place (temporarily) to... 1: give the car some strength in the rear due to how much structure I removed.
2: give a reference for hanging the doors... should still be able to line the doors up with whats left of the door jam.





I also left the outer wheel housing in place for structural reasons and to be able to help locate the inner wheel housing. (With this much metal removed... need SOME reference points) After the trunk, main floor and inner wheel housings are in, I will then cut these out and replace them.

[geberhard]

all that custom bondo work for nothing Major progress keep her coming just got my 68 vert back from paint, feel like a little kid

Gui

[Firebird-Geek]

I must say... i HATE sandblasting. After about 2 days, and about 1,000lbs of sand... I finally have a clean slate to start with. That stuff gets EVERYWHERE... took over 2 hours to blow the sand out of all the nooks and crannies.











The outer wheel housings, inner valance panel and main floor are still rusty, because they are only there to hold things together a bit longer. Once more more structure is added... OFF they come!