70 w-30

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum and am looking for information and help on restoring my 1970 442 w-30. It was the first car I bought in 1976 (bought it from the original owner who bought it when he got back from Nam in 1970)when I was in high school. It has spent the last 27 years under a tarp in the backyard of my parents house. It is in need of major restoration. It suffered an engine fire from a ruptured fuel line and the insurance company wanted to pay it off, but I took less money and kept the car. The hood was stolen in the 80s when a friends brother was supposed to be restoring it. I brought it home again and it was always a project I was going to get to. Now is the time! I can handle most of the mechanical and electrical. I just bought a 70 442 off of E bay for a donor car if I need it.

But I need advice for a body shop that could repair the sheet metal. It has bad rust out on the cowl, windshield, and rear window (hopefully without using the donor car, I'd like to restore it too). It had the vinyl top option which was removed by the shop during the aborted restoration. I live outside of Cleveland OH now and don't know if there are shops nearby I can trust. I'd like the body to be blasted, fixed and painted, new top and I can install wiring etc. I have the restoration guides and manuals. And at one time I had the build sheet, found it under the back seat. I hope I didn't loose it.

I think I was able to post a picture from long long ago in a galaxy far away. That skinny kid is the proud owner and yours truly from days gone by.

I've read a lot of your posts and you seem to be a very knowledgeable group.

Thanks,

Ben DuBois

CQR

Good story. Welcome.

1969w3155

Pretty cool, welcome.

Oldsguy

Welcome to CO. I hope you can get the car restored with our help.

501Paratrooper

Nice car and welcome to CO.
I had a First Sergeant in the Army that used to talk about the 442 he bought when he got back from Vietnam, he said he used to take it on a runway at some post in NJ and haul ***.

joe_padavano

Welcome. The pinchweld rust around the front and back windows is unfortunately common. There is finally a repro panel available for the base of the windshield, but the rest will need to be hand-formed. Build sheets from Lansing-built cars are rare, so let's hope you can find it again. Note that if it's a 3x5-is cardboard card, it's really the Fisher Body broadcast card, though it will still say "W-30" on it, so that's a good thing.

Jamesbo

Welcome aboard

Cool car and cool story

spf1410

Welcome! My W-30 is my "First Car" too (purchased July 1975).

Good thing we held on to 'em...

70 w-30

Joe, who is making the panel for the base of the window? I expected to have to pay dearly for metal work to the body. I'm doing this restoration the right way, but I hope the smart way. The sheet I remember was under the back seat and was in color. I put it with a bunch of stuff from the car after the fire. I have to look, my ex might have thrown it out on purpose during my divorce. I only kept the car because her lawyer couldn't go after it since I owned it prior to being married and I never restored it during the marriage.

spf1410, I just wish we had known how valuable they were, I sold a 71 w-30 for $1000.00 in the late 80s. And I had the opportunity 6 months after buying the 442 to pick up a Superbird and a 55 chevy for $900.00. I couldn't convince my father to loan me the money. Oh well.

Thanks to the rest of ya'll for your warm welcome. I'm open for recommendations of a good body shop. I live in Cleveland OH, but the car is in Charleston SC. So I have to move it anyway. I might rent a truck and trailer. Strip the car out for the shop, drop the frame and body off and haul the parts home.

Ben

joe_padavano

I saw it at Spring Carlisle. Since it's the same on Chevelles and GTOs, all the sheet metal vendors have it by now. OPGI shows the entire cowl:



All the Chevelle vendors sell this lower windshield channel repair piece, but it fits all 68-72 A-body cars:

70 w-30

Joe,

Thanks a lot! I remember years ago when I thought about starting the restoration, I got a bunch of catalogs from all the current (at the time) parts providers. This is an eye opener. I feel like I'm drinking from a fire hose.

I bought a complete but well worn 70 442 for donor parts. It's in rough shape but the cowl and windshield area was good. My wife is gonna kill me because I now have 2 cars that can be restored! Yikes! I'll find a picture of the former donor car and post it.

Ben

70 w-30

Finally have time to send an update on the project. I have a garage and a possible donor Cutlass (it's the red one in back in the picture of the 3 cars). The blue car to the left is a numbers matching drum brakes with a hurst shifter. As you can see from the pictures there is a lot of sheet metal to replace. I'm finding the sail panels (between the roof and rear quarters), front door pillars, rear shelf and trunk rear and surround are not readily available. Also the right trunk hinge is gone. Anyone have a good source? I've looked at some Chevelle parts but don't know for sure what will work. Looking for advice from you who have been down this path.

I know it might be easier and cheaper to find another body shell but I'd like to keep as much original to the car as I can.

Thanks Ben