67tripwr

I have been closely watching this thread. It is gonna be sweet, and that is coming from an x purist!

Please ask this guy in this picture if he was ever in the US Navy? I would swear I know this guy!

gilbybarr

Lot of work here!! Will be interested in seeing the end result.

Corbrastang

Lookin Good! That is going to be a really neat and unique corvette. So, how many total hours will be in the body work when finished?
I dont want to see your bill

Poorhousenext

That's like asking a woman how old she is or how much she weighs...LOL

I don't want to see it or think about either....


Money spent on these cars is what I call STUPID MONEY.

It's STUPID MONEY because if you stop and realize that it's going to cost you a minumn of $5,000.00 dollars a year in income for the rest of your life on Principle money your spending and still do it, it's STUPID.
You don't even want to think about lost if you compounded that 5 large.

Rough estimate shop gave me when I asked that question was most metal Street Rod cars coming out of shop average 550 hrs for body work and paint.

I would like to think I'll make the average, but due to amount of body changes, I'll probably exceed that.

To date what you see in pictures and don't see of in mockups and molds of a couple of different vent styles including one that included a rear brake vent, is 132 Hours.

I'm also glad I live in the South were cost of living is cheaper.

I've got another car in work at another shop that has a cheaper Labor Rate that is a stock body car with only major body change being bonding on a new front end, an I'm going to have more in it's bodywork/paint than this one. Labor rate is just part of it, PRODUCTIVITY is what really counts in trying to figure cost.

Kerrmudgeon

Thanks Jere for the explanation, can see where your coming from, just hope that you don't fullfill you forum handle prophecy.
_________________________________

Poorhousenext

There are two eating away at my bank account and that's why I went with Poor House Next handle.

Fullfillment may just be a few checks away...

As no government bailout funds are being used and since I am not doing any of the work myself, but outsourcing work to local USA shops, I just look at this as my personal stimulus of economy by injecting money directly to people that want to work for it, rather than goverment redistribution of my wealth to those who don't want to have to earn it to get it...

I've been trying to get this one finished for 2 years. It's stock body 66 with LS 7 and a 6L80E 6 speed auto. I quit tracking it's cost 6 months into project...

Beach Dude

I have been keeping up on your coke bottle project, but do you have another thread on your ls7/4l80 project, I have missed it. I am slowly gathering parts for my 64 conversion to start about this time next year but it won't be as stout as yours.

You have 2 great projects.

Little early for Eastern time, at least you know you are not the only one up already.

Poorhousenext

I wasn't up yet. You have to go to bed first to get up, I was still up worrying about the Poor house....

Here is link to thread. You can see only change to it since my last post on it, is they got the carpet in and other day they did bolt on the decklid and straighten up front bumper alignment. It's moving at the pace of a dead snail..

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...peed-auto.html

out2kayak

Wow, Poorhousenext, that red is stunning!

-- Joe

Poorhousenext

Joe,

It's not red. It was suppose to be, but due to painter going against what color primer we agreed on it went Burgundy / Brandywine color.

Florescent lights play tricks with it. I don't post pictures were it looks closer to it's real color. I've never seen the car in sunlight, only a door but it was darker than pictures show.

I call it "Vampire Blood Red" cause you don't want to go out in it until after midnight and you don't want to be caught in it after Sunrise, cause you'll wish you were dead.

It started out as Yamaha motorcycle 134, but due to trying to clone that to a 2 stage paint, it went darker and then even darker with red primer instead of grey.

Here is a picture that is a little closer to it's true color....:o

lucky131969

WOW ......

COPO

Glad to see some work getting done. You have the vert done by knoxville?

Kerrmudgeon

That color reminds me of the old candy apple red, brandywine I've seen is darker that that. Anyway you look at it its a cool color.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Poorhousenext

No, the Vert is being done in N. Georgia, near Calhoun.

Because they only work on it when they want to, I gave up on them and took the Coupe to B-Rod or Custom in Knoxville, TN.

That's were the Scope Creep in project came from. Went from stock body to custom body with a little push from them.... I almost knew what I was getting into before we started.

Project may have one more item of scope creep, but only if I can get what I call the benefit of it. To do it just for the cool look does not interest me without doing the real cool benefit part too.

Poorhousenext

I just hope in sun the color doesn't look like it does when I used a flash.

No flash.



Flash used.



No Flash.



Flash used.



PS: Beach Dude: I'm not up early, I couldn't sleep cause today is another Pay The Piper day...LOL

Poorhousenext

He told me he was never in the Navy are any other branch of Service.

He may be like a friend of mine who on trip to Europe this year met an Australian couple, that did a double take when they saw him walking on board ship. They thought a man husband worked with was on same holiday trip as them.

Seems he looked and walked just like the man husband worked with, down to long hair in ponytail and pot gut.

When they got home, they send him a picture and video of man. Damn if they did not look and walk alike. Seem we all may have a double somewhere.

Poorhousenext

Well I made it to pay the Piper today. Would normally gone up on Thursday, but Shop has gone back to 5 8 Hr days instead of 4 10s. Also lost 16 hours of work due to Allstate being out sick. Worked out on as got some pictures I would not have gotten had he made a full week.

Left side of car was dissembled when I got there, and shortly after arriving they removed the front end so changes for lower right fender vent area could be started on Monday.

The Left hand door has been glassed back up inside and out and ready for finish work.
Inside of door.



Rear view of door. You may be able to see how much lower portion of door skin was moved outward.



Lower view of door.



Door lock pillar/sill has been glassed back in and ready to be finished.



View of door lock pillar looking forward.



This picture of stretched rear 1/4 panel bonding panel may give you an idea of how much the back of the rear 1/4 panel was stretched outward.



While I was there, Allstate (nickname) made cuts on right had door to stretch it. Not pretty looking.



Picture looking down into inside of door after cutting to give you and idea how far out door skin is being moved.



Cuts filled in so door skin can be glassed over, and just after I paid the Piper Allstate was grinding filler down in preparation for glassing outer skin.





Had them do one last test clearance test of wheel and tire to make sure it would not hit under full compression. As you can see from pictures, no worries there as coil over has been removed to get and idea of max possible wheel travel and we still have 1.5" of clearance between tire and Frame/Body and 1/2" between 1/4 panel. No problem going to 11.0" rims and 315 tire...LOL

Max Down travel.



Max up outside.



Max up inside. You can see control arm is hitting sway-bar.



By the way, if you go back and look at my prior post showing stretching rear 1/4, you will see the body line is flat between front and rear of wheel well opening. Rendering shows this area to have same curvature as front fender in this area. Allstate didn't let me down.

The front and rear have same contour now achieving the Coke bottle look, or as cars designer says, Sophia Loren look. Being a real Southern Redneck, I told him it was Dolly Parton look as Dolly had here bust enlarged like car's fenders, while Sophia's was aw natural.



By the way, I'm surprised no one as jumped me about all the sheet metal screws holding everything in place, like some of the post on threads where pictures have been posted of people doing this to hold parts instead of clamping. Course there is still the use of those handy wooden paint stirrers.

In case anyone is questioning their use, everything has to be held tightly in place, like front end so they stay in place as they are being modified and will fit back in place when they are finished and ready to be bonded on. You cannot just clamp them in place as if you were bonding new stock parts on. When stretching things, clamps would just slip off unless You had one about every 2.0" and then you couldn't work around them.

Vette Daddy

If the screw hole is beveled out before filling, it will never show anyway. I used to do it that way every time. Not so much anymore though.

You gotta go with what works

Poorhousenext

Last 2 weeks have been a slow go.

Between shop trying to get another customer's car delivered, another one painted and short work week, there's been limited time for my car.

They did get left rear qtr panel bonded on, right door completed, right qtr panel stretched and ready to bond on, rear tail light panel modified for adding third taillight to each side, and right front fender's vent duct made, front fender stretched and cut out to install it.







Verified Body line on left & right side with laser level. First time with frame leveled wheels off the ground and below shot with car back on wheels and level a Bubble off like car's owner....because he forgot to have lights turned off when car was on jack stands....



Misc shots of work.









How to handle Rocker Molding was decided Thursday. We will try and make it look like the rocker panel in Rendering. Making the Rocker Panel is a not a big deal, but we will have to modify the bottom of Rear Qtrs, Doors and Front Fender to smooth the transition between them and Rocker Panels. It's a Restomod so might as well update that area to look more modern. Makes it easy to cover with Clearstatic too.

toddalin

These look very similar to the Mercedes SL-series cowl-vent spears. Rather than fabricate new one-off spears (one-off = $$$), I would obtain the spears through Mercedes then mod the body-work from the design, as necessary, to work with those.