rb25

As i always liked the 61 for its gorgeous rear and side design, i couldnt resist as i saw one being offered in sweden. white convertible, blue interior, plain jane.

price was ridiculously cheap, transport to germany was no problem, car was sold as solid but with gearbox issues. slimjim, what should i say...

thats what it looked like, when i got it:



the slimjim was just empty, so i fixed that and drove the car for the rest of the year. i was planning on doing a frame of resto plus some mods on the car.


but the car was shot. the frame and body were rusted through, although the car looked quite good at first. i bought another 61 and used its perfect frame and body for the useable convertible parts.






then the modifications... dash being replaced by a 59 dash


then the 59 dash was again modified for a 64 Mercury dash insert


major bodywork done, the metal parts were taken from the convertible. next step was converting the frontend to the 64 Polara grille...


then the 63 Riviera interior. i frenched the console inside the dash, to give it a tuneled look.



disassembled again. more bodywork, like frenching the rear bumper, modifying the lower rear end section, straightening the body with lead...

rb25

then finally, the car got painted. deep red candy on a silver basecoat.


dash being padded vith vinyl


frame and suspension was being sandblasted, plated and painted silver metal flake. fully rebuilt with airride and disc brakes in front.




and reassembly begins...





then i did the interior.



i converted the windows to power, rebuilt the electrical system, included the airride and fuel injection system, overhauled the convertible top, polished the stainless and aluminium parts, and so on...
there were of course some major technical issues that had to be worked out, one of them was having to use a narrower 63 buick rear axle for added wheel clearance. lots of bracket work.


and thats how the car looks like now. its not really finished, theres a lot of detailling left. but it already served as my holiday car, i drove it back to the country i bought it from. visited the big power meet in sweden, had lots of fun. 4000 miles all in all, no problems yet.

copper128

Holy hell, that's a lotta slicing & dicing

You have mad skills to put that all together. The custom mods aren't really my cup 'o tea, but a beautiful job, just the same.

I'm sure you know restored '61 drop-tops bring big $, too. I guess that makes it all the more ballsy to go full custom

D. Yaros

Wow, what a lot of work! The results are stunning!

Charlie Jones

Fantastic job! Hardly anyone uses lead anymore. It was once the ONLY autobody filler. Working with it is a lost art.

gearheads78

Very cool. I love most of the lines of the 61 but hate the factory grill. You corrected it with a nice looking alternative.

car_designer

Amazing work. The car looks great.

copper128

I was thinking a '62 Merc grille might have looked nice, too.

815Cutlass1972

That's a nice looking ride!

rb25

@copper128:
yes, the merc grille came up, too. but it i have seen it on several customs already, and i always loved the 64 polara grille. and i think mopar had some great looking designs as well, even if they are sometimes weird as hell...

gearheads78

Started sweeping the floor and cleaning up the yard of a high end restoration shop in the early 90's in my teens. I would sit for hours off the clock watching the owner do lead work.

rb25

Winter. I hate it. Had to store away the car, no more driving for the next 4 months... Damn. Need another project...

70vista

Stunning Restoration!! Love the color combo and like the car style also. Now enjoy it.