I figured now was a good time to start a thread on my disaster. My car is a 70 cutlass convertible that came from my uncle. After many years of sitting in his garage he decided he didn't want to work on it any more so it became my project. The motor was pulled in the eighties and rebuilt and never put back in so the car just sat covered. Fast forward 30 years I finally had the time to start working on it. I started cleaning it out and removing all the mouse nests to see what I had to work with. The trunk floor was rotted in the corners by the inner wheel houses and the floor pan had two small holes under the front seats. I ended up replacing the entire trunk floor, both body braces and gas tank supports and the rear body mount. I then started to pick at the floor thinking I could just patch the holes and repaint it so it looked nice. Boy was I wrong. As I picked at the floor it became apparent that a patch job wasn't going to cut it. I decided to buy a one piece floor pan with the braces attached and do a little patch work on the toe boards so everything would be solid. Wrong again. After cutting the floor out and getting a good look at everything I ordered new toe boards and started to work on replacing them. After digging in farther I have now removed the cowl sides and the cowl to rocker support. I have finally reached the point where I can start fitting all the new panels and start welding once I buy a spot welder. I thought this was going to be a fairly easy project so I could have a nice driver for the summer but it has turned into a body off restoration. It will be worth it in the end just from the satisfaction knowing I fixed it right.


Shaun

 

 

Good luck with the new project! Patience will be your friend but look at all that space you have to work on it! She'll be your labor of love and be great once cruising again.

 

It is looking good! A 70 Cutlass convertible is worth the time and effort.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I came pretty close to throwing in the towel on this thing but I think I've turned the corner on finding anymore rotten surprises.

 

Crossways triangular member above the rear axle.

Bear in mind, though, it is really a FINITE number of pieces. You just need to persevere ONE more step than there are pieces to replace.

 

Are you referring to the trunk brace above the axle between the inner wheelhouses? It was the one brace that survived the rust demon. It still has some funky green paint on it from when it was assembled.

 

its a big project, but looks like you have it well in hand! keep up the good work!

 

sounds right
I recall it was basically a triangle shape that went L to R across the car above the rear axle. After we thought we were done and had the new floor all in place...dammmmit, more rot. Had to cut out the rear seat x-brace to gain access for proper metal fab and install. Then re-do the seat brace.

A true Looks Good At First Glance car
"Solid Frame" said the ad

We had to redo everything except the '74 455, starting with the rotted frame and floor pan held in only by rust.

Rubber fuel line pinched between body and frame, made a hole in the line, sucked air, would not run. 100 bad things found in the initial inspection.

 

Made a little progress tonight. Got to try out my new spot welder from harbor freight. I'm amazed it worked as well as it did after disassembling it to clean all the contact surfaces and bending the upper tong so the tips lined up correctly.

 

Which spot welder did you get?

 

It's a 240 volt portable spot welder made by Chicago electric. It claims to be able to weld up to 3/16 thick. Harbor freight sells is for 190 bucks.

 

Made some more progress tonight between side jobs. I got the body mount fitted and welded to the new toe board and started fitting the toe board to the firewall. Slowly forging ahead....

 

Got my floor set into place for fitting. I'm very impressed how well it fits in place without having to adjust it. Now comes my next problem. I bought toe board patches and new body mounts for the firewall. After welding the mounts to the toe board I tried to fit the right side up to the firewall and new floor pan and it's not even close. I'm at a loss for how to fix the problem so I've been thinking about ordering a new firewall and replacing the whole thing. My question is has anyone on here bought an aftermarket firewall and who made it and how well did it fit? The patches I bought were from goodmark and I think they are just bent wrong at the point where the floor turns up to meet the firewall. I don't want to keep buying parts and end up having fitment problems that I can't solve. Any help will be appreciated so I can get the body back on the frame so I can tackle the quarters next.

Thanks Shaun

 

I haven't replaced a firewall, I have replaced some floor pans and patch panels. I just used an AMD driver front floor patch and I am very happy with the crispness of the lines and the material thickness from AMD. I used a different company's toe kick for my passenger side and it was a lot of work to make it fit. Tamaraz's sells an AMD firewall I believe. I have been very happy with them and the prices are very competitive.they also run sales . I just bought a front bumper from them and I used a 10% of coupon. I saved $30 on the bumper and shipping is almost always free.

 

Purdy

 

That's what I was thinking. I bought the floor pan from tamraz and it is an amd. Besides the cowl to rocker supports that are made by dynacorn the floor is the only other part that actually fit out of the box. The part that pisses me off about tamraz is everything I bought from them they always say how many they have in stock and it ends up shipped from the supplier.