And so it begins. I purchased a '70 442 4spd vert back in Dec'12, numbers matching motor and trans. Theres a whole thread on the purchasing stage in the newbie forum. So I received the car from the buyer last month and after looking everything over and some financial planning, I've decided to start the resto now rather than later. The plan is to do what work I can and to farm out the rest. I know how you guys like lots of pics and yes there will be plenty. So here we go!
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A good start. Is this on the way back to your place?

 

Me on the right with the seller, on delivery day
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I've got a lot of pictures to post, I figured I'd start from the beginning

 

her new home for awhile

 

Wow, I would turn those tires around (black walls out) and just drive it, looks great to me!!!

 

OH come on we have already seen all those. We want fresh meat

 

hahaaa!

 

here's the original twilight blue, i cleaned it up
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so the right front fender was welded to front firewall, PITA!

 

some more

 

Are you going to go back to Twilight Blue ? Love that color. Good luck with your ride. Looks like you have a great car to start with.

 

floor looks like I anticipated based on the convertibles reputation. looks like some crap patch work also

 

Looks like a nice purchase and I'm looking forward to watching your progress. As a side comment and if it were me, I would give thought covering up that drainage grate in the floor, even if it's just temporary and until you finish the project. You know you're going to drop something and it will go right into that drain.

Are you going to return it back to the factory blue?

Brian

 

I'll tell you what, after just giving that spot a quick clean it looks like a sweet color. Im planning on doing huntington blue, I dunno though Im back and forth with keeping the color original.

 

lol, Ive dropped a few things in there already! I'm renting the garage and the guy who owns it made the grate removable and theres a fine screen inside as a catch all. Very observant of you Brian

 

I'm using an old phone camera so things will seem brighter than in person

 

its seems that almost everything was originally painted twilight blue. you can even see the old blue convertible top

 

i cleaned up the blue in some areas, 4spd muncie looks legit

 

4 spd vert................love it!!! i am jealous. does not seem that long ago when i started my teardown.i kinda dig that green carpet with the white seats. keep them pics coming, best of luck on your build!
charlie,,,,

 

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getting tight, I need to make some adjustments in the garage

 

with the whole noreaster storm I got set back, but we'll be dugout soon

 

well I guess you are past the point of just flipping the tires

As for the color - I'm biased I like the twilight blue but any blue will work, choose the one you want.

Ingersting to note as you said the camera is brighter but it still looks like some of that blue is brighter than others. Notice how dark the inside of the doors are where it most likely wouldn't have been re-painted. Wonder if it was repainted blue. Especially the top frame. Usually with white or pearl interior the top frame is black. I thought most were black, anyone know for sure?

 

I Don't know for sure but my 71 442 conv. antique jade ext. with green interior has a black conv. top frame which is original.

 

It's one of those "been there, done that" things. When I saw the drain it brought back a bad memory.

The conv top frame assembly is supposed to be semi gloss black. Someone painted this one blue so that shows the car has likely had at least one blue repaint over the years before it was painted green. Or, maybe someone just wanted the top assembly to be blue.

Brian

 

Good luck on the rebuild. Looks like a lot of fun. Keep the pics coming.

 

I'm no expert, but the blue convetible top frame looks original to me. theres no black anywhere. Not to be rude, but how exactly do you know the frame wasn't matched to the blue top?

 

I wanna get it right, that's why I'm asking Brian

 

my convertible top frame is semi glass as Brian stated,my car was code 75 Red from the factory,my neighbor has a 71 SX with Viking blue, semi gloss top frame,
I like the vert.. wish mine was a 3 pedal car

 

All I can say is experience. I've been around these cars for over 40 years and I have never seen a conv top frame in an A Body car that wasn't semi gloss black. I also can't recall seeing any car having a top assembly that was body color although I haven't looked at every car that exists. Do a little detective work and try scraping off the blue in n area and I think you'll find black under it. It could have been stripped and you may not find it and some may say it's the primer GM used but as far as I know it was black. Are the bolts, screws and bushing blue too? If so, that shows it was painted by someone over the years. As far as I know, the conv top assemblies were assembled with the canvas separate from the car and were installed at some point after the car was painted. They just made them all semi gloss black and the only variable was the top color. To factor in a different color for the frame work would have been a lot more variables to deal with.

Brian

 

Once you really start stripping the paint on the car you'll see what the colors originally were. I seriously doubt that they took the exterior of your car or the convertible top frame down to metal when it was painted. If they did they would have painted the cowl and jambs. Every convertible top frame I've seen has been black. They were installed by Fisher and they were all the same in the A-body line; Malibu/Chevelle, Tempest/GTO, or Skylark/GS.

 

Cool guys, learning from the experienced folks here is why I joined!

 

How's the build going? Been following as I'm working on mine also.