76olds im really torn about a color change . It has acquired dings and dents over the years. Im also doing a new deck lid I have had for sometime it needs a little work but much better than what I have. I made the mistake of using filler over brazing rod and 5 years later its popping. I really like the Toyota bronze mica color on the new tundras. Kinda like my current color but a little draker closer to that root beer brown I like but still copperish lol. If I do paint it ., it wont be soon paint aint cheap im looking at almost 1000 in 1 gallon of paint ! late fall at the earliest for paint. I'll be rocking the red oxide primer for sometime.




I did pick up my hood today at the bopc swap meet from member 1001coins he gave a me a very nice hood rust free a few dings and he threw in some hinges . I also bought a front fender moulding for 1 dollar lol . I had enough left over to buy my fiancé lunch which made easier to explain the 100 dollar purchase lol.

 

Ok here is a pic of the color I want to do on my 72 what do you guys think.

 

Ok so today I finally primered the fenders up. Im going to install em Monday. I went with a black primer since satin black is in vogue. I over reduced my last 2 coats to get a nice uniform finish. They will still need work once on the car but for now they are good presentable .











primer is still wet on this pic

 

NFB, as the saying goes.

- Eric

 

NFB ? I don't speak jive eric lol. IM not too in tune with all this hip text style talk.

 

"Not Effing Bad."

 

LOL. Thanks Eric.

 

I think that color will look awesome; I give it a thumbs up...

 

Thanks larry's66 Unfortunantly im a ways away from paint. Going to do some more body work over the summer to the car like the doors and i have a new decklid for it that needs less work that to redo my current one. Going to be rocking the primer for the summer lol.

 

Looks Good.

 

I see where you sprayed primer on the fenders, but in a previous pic, you had sprayed Red Oxide primer. Although I am a newbie on the site, and don't really like to tell people what to do, but I've painted car half of my life. With the new paints, don't use red oxide primer as a primer before paint. A lot of the new paints don't like it like in years past. Just a little friend to friend suggestion.

BTW....the color that you are looking at painting, that you show on the truck......NICE!!!! I like it. And on an Olds, it should really rock!!!!

 

I used the red oxide to get some contrast on my body work. I have used the red oxide drab many times actually with success. I did some rust repair on my pops truck and used the red primer from a rattle can and applied base right over it with no issues. I only use one brand of red oxide can primer and its rustoleum it has worked very well for me and actually has a decent build and hold out. I usually leave my bodywork pretty straight so I don't need a whole lof of primer but old habits die hard. Id rather apply an extra coat and block more than not have enough. Thanks for the heads up but as we all know results always vary . With waterbore I do not use any canned products only with solvent based. I only use solvent at home we spray waterborne at work. Well the painter does I'm strictly a body man in the shop and double up as mechanic.

 

Well my project officially snowballed. I went to install the fenders last night and spent 3 hrs. On the pass side. What I found is what I have been putting off. The body was sitting about 1.5 to 1.75 inches lower due to the front body mount on the body side collapsing. There is 2 reasons it never sffected anything fitting before. The first time around I had the fender on when I did my patch panels so since I replace the whole lower half I made up for it. Then with the fiberglass fenders they flexed and actually fit very nice but now that I have factory fenders essentially the fit is pretty bad. I used an old pinion bearing to shim the body up and I got it pretty close to fitting nice. So I know I need to address this. I have been putting off for wayyyyyy to long . I though about bracing it and using it one last summer but I would just be putting off and something else would come up. I think it's. Finally time to just pull the body off and box and reinforce the frame and the body side mounts and go with aluminum bushing. On the upside my engine trans and rear end have al be done so essentially all I need to do is the frame work and the body work so I'm hanging the keys up for the summer and squaring it all away and painting in the fall if the money for paint is there. I have to do this with a very limited budget . Which with about 100 dollars worth of steel and new bushing I think it won't break the bank but it will take some time. I atleast got to enjoy it for 6 years . I knew I would eventually re do it and I'm kinda loking forward to it. When I fixed it the first time around it reflected my potential and the car looked great I want it to now reflect where I'm atin my career abilities. I guess this is why I don't wanna take the easy way out and I wanna re do it all.

 

Ok here are some pics of the body mounts and you can kinda make out where I stuffed a pinion bearing to raise the body. I put the fender on there with out the bottom bolts where the body should be and it fits pretty good . I also picked up new body mounts from the parts place. Im trading some work for work and im going to have my frame welded by a friends brother who is also a friend of mine and he works for a chassis shop here I think High Speed Welding . Now my dilemma is the set back I have to wait some time due to a few things that have come up so at the earliest i'll be back at it late april if everything works out. I will be welding the body mount on the firewall my self I just want the frame work done by someone who welds day in and out.

 

Ok so its been one month since I did anything. I plan to pick up the pace here pretty soon. Today I got out to the garage and took the whole front apart., setting my self up to pull the engine and trans out and pull fuel lines and all that fun stuff. My game plans have changed. My goal is to atleast have my frame squared away and mounts this summer. I plan to drywall my garage and add some base board heaters so that I can actually work in there in the winter and keep heat in. Between helping member 67cutlassfreak with his 67 cutlass and my neighbors 59 f100 Im going to be pretty busy. Im also going to be re doing a few other things like wiring, some firewall work . Stuff I really want to do specially if im taking it off the frame. Progress is slow as hell but for once im not rushing my self which is a sign of good things.

 

It's a sign of old age.

- Eric

 

Eric. Most people would say that but I find myself doing my best work when I work on my own schedule which is that of a potheads minus the whole smoking pot lol. Seriously when I fixed my car the first time around It took me under 2 years but I pretty much worked on it just Saturdays. Eversince I got it done I gave my self deadlines to keep it on the road and it kind of became work. I have actually been working around my house a lot which had been nice. I like cutting wood and doing all that stuff aswell. The last project is restoring the plaster walls in the downstairs bedroom along with the 115 year old wood trim. Been working on it as a please but results are looking awesome. But yes Eric procrastination runs on my dads side of the family lol.

 

If procrastination wasn't one of my main daily activities, none of you would have ever known my name.

- Eric

 

I hear ya about the engine vs the body side of things. I'm a bit off my game when it comes to body stuff but I'll dig in and try anything.
I do like that color you decided on.
Looking good keep posting.

 

Take a look at Prowler Orange. Personally I think it looks better than GM's color. I painted my truck with Prowler Orange maybe 7 years ago. It really pops in the sunlight as it has a lot of pearl in it. And at the time, it was around $1100/gal.

 

that's a really nice color. My reason for the browner shade of the copper hue is ., I have always had this dream paint scheme with a brownish color and cream white stripes . Naming it the root beer float lol . I want to do the stripes on the hood but im doing some paneling inside of them , then im doing the stripe from the fender into the door which im going to do in a fish scale style. Just a nod to the custom style paint of what was popular back in the day. I don't want to over do it just a little subtle touch . Im a long ways from paint though. I think next week im going to do the hood which has 2 dents . I still need to block my doors down ad re do them and fix all the dings and dents it got. Whats going to hold me back on that for some time will be paint. Its so damn expensive now. The gallon of my paint which I bought in ppg drr was 400 back in 2008 I think between the k36 primer and clear and all the material I spent maybe 1500 1700 tops .

 

Paint is outrageous. I'd hate to see what it is right now. I have an .02 Dodge Ram in red that needs a repaint, and it used to be that red was the highest costing paint. O know that when I painted the truck, it was a complete color change. It used to be Teal and Silver. So I had to change it all. Plus I painted the underneath of the hood, inner fenders, and completely gutted the interior and sprayed far enough in that there would be no chance of seeing a color change anywhere. All in all I had 2 1/2 gallons of paint to buy. One might not think so, but a truck takes a hell of a lot of paint. Luckily insurance covered most of the cost of the materials because I just got the truck back on the road and just got it running a couple of days before. I pulled the V6 out and rebuilt and dropped in a .060 over 350, plus rebuilt the trans. I wasn't going to drive it that morning, but decided to anyways. I pulled up to a 4 way stop, stopped, and there was another truck coming. The girl started to slow down, so I started to turn and she drove right through the stop sign. SHe was gabbing on the cell phone and never saw me. I had $3500 damage in just the fender, inner fender, a little bit of the door, bumper , grille, and turn signal light on front. Luckily I could do all the work myself in repairing it.

 

Alright. So I kicked some serious *** over the last few days. Everything is pretty much out all that needs to be done is remove the fuel cell , fuel lines and bust the body bolts loose and we have lift off lol. The more I get into the project the more im really excited to go in make re pairs and re do some stuff. Its all minor low buck little details which will keep me busy and motivated as the project rolls on. I plan on doing some fire wall detailing , re doing some wiring , finish up my rear fire wall and re coating the front stub of the frame. Overall I think in the time frame I gave my self it will get done lol.

 

Nice work on the fenders. I'm going to miss seeing another Saddle Bronze Metallic when you change paint. There aren't many around.

 

It's still in the air. I'm really indecisive and can't make up my mind until I do it. Before I painted it the current color I must have said I wanted lik 7 diffrent colors lol. I do like the original color .

 

Ok I just ordered my bushings which I went with the polyurethane ones. I also ordered some new .5 aluminum fuel line ., im planning on redoing that as well. I also ordered misc. paints. I used asphalt undercoating which has held up great but I cant touch it up with anything else other wise it will lift the paint. im going to start to do some of the firewall work I want to do along with cleaning up the front half of the frame rails. I pulled my head out of my @$$ and came to my senses. Im not boxing the frame im just fixing what I need to do and doing a little extra. The game plan is to take care of the frame and mounts over memorial day weekend at my dads work since I can used the forklifts or cranes to lift it off it will be somewhat quick. I want to get this thing to the track at least this season. I think as long as I get the grunt work done memorial day weekend. I'll be alright. Im also swapping from a th400 to th350 to free up hp to make up for the weight I added and I have to send out my radiator to be sealed up it leaks and I also fried a starter over the winter.

 

Ok so I almost scraped the whole project. It seems every wall I can hit I HIT ! My buddy talked me out of it he sold me the car showed me the ropes of the trade and he reminded me down the road it will be well worth it. Well crunch time is on. Next weekend will be an all weekend mad thrash session. I have a good friend helping me weld up the frame and im doing the body side welding. We have 3 days to knock it out . Im doing all the pre prep work like busting all the body bolts off . I had to cut my roll bars out to access the rear cage nuts. Here are a few pics of my progress.

 

Alright well I snuck out the garage tonight for a bit. I cut out the plates that the roll bars where welded to. Talk about a pain in the rectum . Im going to have to reinforce the rear floor braces since I kind cut through them a bit but that's no biggie. Im gearing up for next weekend and pretty excited. Im going to go to a few fab shops near my work to try to buy some scrap steel that will work for me. Gotta squeeze every penny lol.

 

Well we made some big progress today. We had lift off on the body. My dad , brother, and one of my best friends came by to help me lift it off and my friend was going to help me with the welding work. we will have to brace the rear braces , the areas where the bushings sit on the frame and if course im replacing the front bushing mounts. I got say io got some great friends. member 67cutlassfreak let me borrow his welder so me and my friend can split up the welding and fab work. My friend is doing the chassis work im doing the body side work.















Well guys there you have it that's pretty much what we got done today tomorrow the sparks will really start flying . Hopefully Monday afternoon we will be lowering the body back on.

 

Wow. Nice work, Copper.

Looks like you're trying to move so fast that the MAWs can't catch up with you!

- Eric

 

Thanks Eric no maws here. Everything is assesed and executed with a plan of attack in mind. That's the up shot to working in a shop. I approach all my work as if I was a shop.

 

Hey tough guy, let's see some photos... PRONTO!

 

Give me a few lol

 

OK liver lips .... we'll wait patiently for you to drink a few beers.

 

Alright so today we got cookin in the garage. My friend welded the patches in and I cut them out . I only welded in the front torque boxes on the firewall. My friend is pretty handy with a welder and I have known him since the 2nd grade . He also happens to be one of 2 other people who have ever worked on my car. All I have left to do is brace up the rear trunk braces and then do a little patch work on the inside of the rocker panel. AND ! the body comes back down tomorrow night.

 

Its DONE !!!!!!!!!!! I got it back on the frame today . Now time for some much needed rest.

 

Great! Amazing what you can do with the right friend or two.

- Eric

 

Thanks eric. Yeah it sucked it was hot my garage has no air flow even with the doors and windows open. But it was well worth it.

 

Nice work. I'll bet those front finders might actually fit now. You must be pumped up to get it going down the road again. Norwalk is right around the corner.

 

Norwalk will not happen. But I am shooting for the Byron bop race in sept. I got a few things I want to fix up like the trunk I had to hack up to get to the body bolts. I also want to clean up the front frame rails and fire wall . Just little things like that.