Hey guys, newbie here. Wanted to share the full build of my buddy's Cutlass since I helped him on it.....and he helped me with my truck build. He purchased the car about 25 or 26 years ago from the original owner. Around 23 years ago he decided to rebuild it completely. Over the years it was moved from Houston to S. Carolina and back, then stored for several years untouched. Finally after pulling it out of a garage the car was showing it's years........so, time for another rebuild! Here is the first couple of pics I took for him....otherwise, there would be no history of this build!!!!
Ronnie decided to do it better than last time so he started by scraping the whole car down to metal......with a razor blade!
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He was very meticulous about the teardown, everthing was bagged and tagged. It was slow going.......a beer per bolt process.

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We pulled the front clip and motor and unbolted the body from the frame. The motor went to the machine shop and the frame started getting cleaned up and sand blasted to remove the old paint and debris. The car looked pretty cool all naked.
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Very nice and clean car! Looks to be rust free....should be a fun build!

 

Thanks ent! The project is almost complete now, but I wanted to do a build thread on it. It was almost rust free, there was a little around the passenger back wheel well and that was taken care of.

 

Alot of time went into getting all of the surfaces paint-free.
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Here is one that I didn't post before the body was removed. It may help someone with their build!
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This is the original hood not a repop. Countless hours were spent sanding by hand to remove layer after layer of paint, epoxy, and primer so the surface would not be uneven.
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We painted the frame with Eastwood's Chassis Black Paint. It really came out nice! The old attack cat "Tiger" watched over the project.
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Since David is nice enough to help me with this build and build thread I have to give his project some credit too. I gave him an old 67 chevy truck and he worked on it while I worked on my Cutlass. So here's a before and after pic of his project.

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Back to the Cutlass! I powdercoated alot of the chassis parts and repainted some too. Got the frame put together and waited for the motor.....and waited....and waited. Then the Muncie 4speed....waiting....waiting.
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Awesome c10...gotta love the old p/u's....like the fact that you guys did a long bed! Most want to do the shorties... By the way, I don't think the hood is original to the car, although it might be an original, highly desirable w-25! I am looking for that exact hood for my '72! If you know of one, let me know! Keep up the fine work....I'm getting ready to do the firewall on the Vista I'm doing, so I will be feeling your pain!

 

Yep. Had to keep the truck original....well kinda. The car was ordered from the dealer with all of the 442 package but not the motor (go figure) by the original owner so that is how the car has this hood. It has not been changed since the original purchase. I have no idea why he did that but there must have been a reason.....maybe the oil crunch??! All of the undercarriage is 442 also, front and rear sway bars etc.

 

Does it have the air cleaner?

 

Yep. Installed it just a few hours ago. All the vacuum hoses work. Flaps open with the throttle. It was the icing on the cake. I'll get some more pics up tomorrow!

 

After the paint the complete frame was rebuilt with all of the original parts refurbished. If I couldn't refurbish them then new parts were used.
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I wanted a quiet ride so we layed soundproofing down from front to back.
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I used a wire wheel to get the trunk completely clean then used a DA sander to smooth it out.
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The floor was POR15'd from firewall to trunk and the complete bottom of the car was given the same treatment.
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While doing this I had the bodyman taking care of the rust on the wheel well opening. Then on to primer epoxy and sanding.
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Finally got the engine back from the machine shop. It still has the original bore on the cylinders and they were in perfect shape. I went with a larger cam to get the sound were I wanted it. This is about 13 months into the project.
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The Muncie 4 speed was rebuilt as well.
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All of the work on my Cutlass and David's truck is done at my shop or "mancave" as it has been called by some passer-bys. If ya look closely the firewall of the Cutlass is visible in the middle bay.
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After a little research we discovered the Cutlass "S" headers did work on the car.
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After everything was primered we did the epoxy primer again and a final sanding.
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Just playing with the 22s.
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Finally got some color on it. Went back with the original color of the car.
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I had David come up with an idea for the hood and he laid the tape for the new hood stripes.
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That is looking awesome!

 

Thanks Barry! Feels good to hear that after all the work!

 

Rolled the chassis under the body and started the tedious task of lowering the body down.
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Installed all of the A/C and heater items, then on to the fenders and core support.
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