"Dont worry Honey -I'm just going to buy it, detail out a little, and use as a driver."

She called me a liar, but if it's what I really wanted to do then "just go ahead" she said. We've been married for 25 years, and I've never just bought a Cutlass/442 and just detailed it. But I really thought this time it would be different "I'm old, I'm tired of working on cars, blah, blah blah."

Of course she was right.

Originally it was a 72 Flame Orange H code bench seat car, but through the years it had acquired a 70 455, 78 Chev TH400, bucket seats (bolted directly to the floor - not on the mounts) and a console literally taped to the carpeting. An el strippo no options very tired car, but still a convertible. I was just going to detail out the engine compartment, and fix the obvious wrongs like the A/C alternator placement on a non air car (pulley Heaven!!) and change out the water pump etc.

That was March 1st this year. Since then, I decided to add a W-25 hood and air cleaner set up, & convert over to a four speed - and do a frame off. I've been keeping a log of how many hours, work performed and total parts cost. Now I know why most people cant make money restoring cars - very few people can afford to pay someone else what it costs to do the job right. So far, I have sourced/bought 238 different items needed to be replaced, and there's more to go.

Have the car over at the painter's place here's a few pics of his work so far

 

More various pics over at Frank Waggoner's place in McKinney, Texas and a couple of the engine back at home on a stand. I had finished it when I decided to paint the car - meant pulling it back out again!

More to come soon

 

Some more engine pics on the stand - I've since bought that alternator fan & pulley kit with the gold anodizing - makes a huge difference. Also, a couple of pics of the engine in the compartment after I had finished detailing the firewall/front end, but before I decided to paint the car.

 

Been there done that, and got T shirts to prove it!!!

OOh does this bring back all my conversations with my wife of 31 years. When I really want to do a car, I lay out my budget plan, and she immediately takes what I tell her and multiplies it by 2. My track record has not been basically like yours, one thing leads to many others!!! My current project is the same!!

 

Body came off the frame today - in the second pic, you can see the Fiber Concepts hood in the background awaiting its' turn at Frank's hands

 

Nice work.

 

Just got in the latest round of goodies from Fusick - I bought a new item I had not seen listed before - the repo pinchweld molding for convertible. Anyone thinking about it - go ahead and get it - it is an absolutely gorgeous, accurate reproduction.

 

Before and after pic of black wells in process - just a good cleaning with simple green, B-12 for the paint overspray, scotch briting, then OO and finally OOOO steel wool

 

That turned out very well!

 

Wow - this all looks familiar! Well, except for the body and motor pulling part...
A frame off is THE way to restore a car. I wish I could have but then i would not want to drive it.
Looking very good. I was amazed at how oven cleaner transformed my fenderwells back to factory new condition (sans scratches).

 

Frame is done - now the real fun begins...

 

Joe, Looks awesome, is that painted or powder coated?

 

holly cow those look incredible, wonder if that will work on the red ones I have to try

 

Thanks Tony - those grilles just keep looking better and better. Watch out, you might develop a side business fixing broken plastic components.

It's painted in some kind of black epoxy paint that Frank uses. It is unbelievably hard - he bead blasted a few parts for me and painted a couple by mistake (reverse back drive linkage) that I had to remove the paint from. It took me half an hour on the wire wheel to remove that stuff from those few pieces!!

 

Nice work. When I start a project my wife just rolls her eyes, she knows I am just using the WAG method to project my costs. Never have hit a budget yet always making slight adjustments to the scope. I should have worked for the government estimating the costs of building bridges

 

Here's a few pics of some various completed pieces awaiting the return of the body/frame from the painter - just as much to keep me motivated on finishing this up as anything else

 

This is a sweet build, It looks some what familiar. LOL

 

I would like to get my front fender wells to look like that. I have herd of simple green, but what is b-12? So the only stuff you used on them was simple green, B-12, scotch bright, and steel woo, they did clean up very nicely.

 

Terrific! I am envious!

 

B-12 is Berryman's B-12 Carb Cleaner - I used it sparingly on the overspray. Here's a pic of both finished with the flaps installed.

So far on this car this task has taken me the most time to complete vs. what I would have expected.

 

Deja Vu all over again....

 

Everything is looking real nice. And projected 'completion' time?

When I estimate, I hit the window EVERY time!


Like a bird...

 

Rob - I should be getting it back from the painter's in the next 2-3 weeks. Am expecting 45-60 days to assemble it and get the new top and exhaust installed. It's kind of hilarious - I'll be really close to the date I originally wanted to have it ready for - June 6, but the wrong year!!

 

Some new pictures - looks like it's getting close to coming home for reassembly. I'm now thankful it has taken this long because it's given me the time to find everything I've needed, and the ability to go through and recondition and refinish EVERY piece of the car in an unhurried manner.

 

Some more completed items - pedal assy and spare tire. Except for a couple of items I'm still looking for, now I'm officially out of things to do until I get the car back from the painter.

 

Very nice work!

 

Looks great
I wish I had the i) TIME ii) PATIENCE iii) FUNDING iv) SKILL v) SPACE

 

thats gonna be sweet Congratulations

 

That's easy to fix. Get another project car and start over! See if you can't find a nice VC that you can fix and sell to Rob

 

I also have plenty of parts that need an overhaul :P

I started looking at creating a gantt chart for my cutlass, it's already extended into the 22nd century..

 

Hahahahaha! Feels that way sometimes, doesn't it? Does help keep the process better organized though. I used Gantt charts lots when I was working. It was a must have element of planning and meeting deadlines. Only thing that was a drawback was getting everyone else to meet those deadlines. There were always excuses....know what I mean?

Biggest oxymoron I can think of for projects: We're doing a MEETING to plan this out.

 

Haha! So true! My 9-5 is booked, with meetings to try to converge on when to have meetings...

That being said, Joe, the offer still stands! I've got buckets of parts that need re-finishing

 

Tony thanks for the offer, (I think, lol...) but I'll be taking a LONG break after this one.

Like I said in another thread, now I see there really isnt any money to be made in car restoration (unless you find something uber rare and it needs next to nothing) if you want to do it right. I had been kicking around the idea of retiring a little early and doing it part time for a side business, but there is just no way it makes financial sense for an immediate win/win outcome for the restorer and client. There's just too many hours involved - aside from the actual physical resto work, there's at least double that time involved in hunting down the proper parts at a decent price. I'll bet I have at least 650 hours in it myself so far (not counting the items subbed out like paint/chrome/engine machine work) and I havent even begun the reassembly process - let alone the 33K spent so far on parts and services. I believe I have another 200 hours to go, plus another 5K to finish it for exhaust/new top/final paint payment, so at my fantasy 40.00 shop rate and including the car purchase price, I'll have 80k invested in a car that might be worth 45k when completed. It will be exactly what I want, but again, no one who's looking for it to be a soild investment would want to do this - at least that's what I think......

 

My car was going to be a strip and repaint. I started in Dec 2011. I had $7k saved and all thats gone! My car is not near done and I have way to much stuff to buy for it...

 

Started following your project and thanks for your service to our country - you have the only legitimate excuse not to be wrenchin' on a Cutlass!!

 

Pics of some finished parts of the manual transmission conversion and the engine on the stand which is groaning under the weight. I seriously now have nothing to do until the car comes back except take pics of what I've already completed.

 

Joe, i definitely hear were you're coming from. I recently bought the book "ultimate garages 3" and i think there is definitely something to take home from the foreword.

"Alot of guys don't understand why we spend so much time in our garages, some of us are really fascinated by the way things work, and classic machinery is the best example of that"

I could not begin to estimate the amount of time i've spent on my car; 3 years, probably around 20 hours a week average, which is well over 3000 hours...

(and of course, that's not including the bucket loads of hours i spend on rock auto searching for parts..)

 

Finally, I will be getting my car back from the paint shop after 15 months. Here's a pic of the hood before final wet sanding and polishing (it's a Fiberglass Concepts hood that has had a lot of work done to it - especially on the underneath - to give it a more OEM appearance)

 

I had to laugh at the multiply by 2.My car was supposed to be a simple repaint,ha,Change color.That means tear the car apart so I can do the jams,inside of trunk lid and hood etc.My wife knows better, multiply times 10 ......maybe.I did every bit of work myself,nothing farmed out at all,body,suspension,engine,electrical,interior and paint.I'll bet I spent an additional $20,000 easy.I told my wife last year that I was going to spend maybe $2,000.She just rolled her eyes,she knows me all too well.

 

Oh no, no no no! They botched that royally!! It was supposed to be silver with black stripes and sent to me when it was done. Didn't you write that down for them?

Seriously - it looks very nice. What mods did they do? Cut out your metal frame and bond it underneath? I know you might want to hit me for saying this, and although I'm a fan of the fibreconcept hood, if you spent a lot of time and money to make it look OEM, you might have been further ahead to just buy a factory correct Thornton one. Ducking for cover now....