Ok so I've been meaning to start a thread for a while but its always slipped my mind, but better late than never! So I bought a 1971 Cutlass S in the fall of 2011. I was looking for something I could drive a bit and then put a nice paint job on and fix up. It was a decently solid car, paint was not the greatest, interior was good and it ran just fine so I drove it that fall and all of last summer. And of September of 2012 I started the tear down. I took all the chrome and what not off and completely sanded the car down and stripped the interior. The more I took off the more I said well I might as well take that off too. Well now I got it almost completely torn down and have decided I might as well do a frame off on it. Funny how plans change haha. So right now I'm just about getting ready to pull the body off and get that sent to my paint and body guy. Heres a couple of pics before I started tearing it down.

 

Some pics from last spring. There was quite a few layers of paint, that took a while to sand down, let me tell you!

 

Looks like your off to a good start!

 

Looks like the body is in good shape.

 

And here is a picture of where Im at currently

 

Had this on paint but had no replays so I figured I'd ask here. Ok so I'm at the point where I'm getting ready to paint my frame. So I was planning on sandblasting it, priming, and then painting it. But I recently came across some products like Eastwood rust encapsulator or rust bullet. If I did Eastwood would I still need to sandblast and how we'll would it hold up and the same for rust bullet. Or is there a better primer and like an epoxy paint that would work better. Thanks

 

Nice project, and nice car. As far as the frame I'm gonna epoxy prime it and then use Single stage paint on it (acrylic enamel) Or (Concept PPG)
Also depends what finish you want, dull will be harder to clean, and gloss will be easy to clean

 

Yah I was think of using the epoxy primer and the ppg but I just want to see how the spray cans would work on some of the smaller parts I can do myself

 

You can get the epoxy primer in a spray can also

 

The body looks pretty good! I'm in the middle of a frame-off resto myself; as for the frame, I'm thinking of having mine hot-dipped galvanized. This will kill all the rust - even inside the hard to reach boxed sections of the frame. Probably top-coat with an epoxy primer and finish coat. Most galvanizers charge by the ton, so I was surprised to find out that galvanizing my frame would only cost about $250. With primer and paint it's less than blasting and powder coating and the inside of the frame rails will be galvanized to protect from future rust.

 

Yah that sounds like it would work pretty slick! Just don't know where the hell I'd find one by me

 

Ok I have made a little progress over the past year. I have decided to go ahead and just do a frame off resto on it. It was a case of a lot of might as wells haha. I took it to the body shop and got the new quarters, floor pan, outer wheel houses and trunk filler panels all welded in. Now I got the car back at my place to work on removing the roof skin and removing the rear package tray with the rear window channel because it was all rusted. Hopefully I'll be able to get it back to the body guy so he can do the roof, package tray and start body work. Can't wait to see some more progress being made!

 

Here are some pictures of the progress

 

I truly know how the maws happen, the metalwork looks great

 

Looks good. That however looks a lot like a body on restoration, not body off. Do you still have plans to separate the frame from the body and got the extra distance with it?

I'm guessing you or a PO replaced the drivers door, because the interior color of its framing is yellow, and there wasn't any yellow in the 71 color palette for A body Olds.

 

It's still on the frame right now but everything is disconnected and ready to be separated. When I take it to the body shop we'll separate it there and I'll take the frame back to pull the engine and tranny and get that ready to be painted. As for the door I pulled it off my parts car and decided to use it because it was cleaner. There's not to much original metal left on the car so I'm not worried about that haha

 

Well I remember to update this every once and a while lol, Ill try to stay on top of it better. So since the last update I've got quite a bit done. The body was taken off the frame at the body shop so he could start working on replacing the roof skin and start sandblasting everything fill in any holes. He patched everything he could then used spray bedliner to coat the under body and he will be painting the floor pans and trunk soon. I took the frame and had it completely disassembled, sandblasted, re painted chassis black, and reassembled using all new suspension parts. I also had my original 10 bolt upgraded with 3.42 and a posi. The transmission was also rebuilt and painted. This past month i put the body pack on the frame and mounted with new rubber body bushings. Now that the body is back the body guy plans on starting the primer soon, then it will be back to me to hang the front clip, doors, trunk, and other odd pieces back on.

 

Looks like it's coming along nicely. Does someone make a roof skin? Or fish out find a good use one ?

 

Yes, the roof skins are reproduced. https://www.opgi.com/cutlass/CH27798/
http://www.autometaldirect.com/--p-1017.html

They may be stamped and provided by the same supplier?

 

I had bought a 71 tub a while back which has worked great for me because I've used the roof, package shelf, a door, and a few other little patches. Definitely got my moneys worth out of it!