Denis' Chevy II Bodywork Page
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Denis' Chevy II Bodywork Page |
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The photograph above shows the car as it looked when I purchased in back in 1997.
It was fairly straight, but lacked in shine. The previous body work was starting to show signs of rust. I knew someone
prior to me, had not done the job correctly. I knew the car needed some bodywork.
Below, you will find pictures and descriptions of the bodywork performed to the car.
Please note that my picture taking sucked back then. Some pictures will be hard to make out the details.
I will describe the steps taken to get the car to it's current state. I hope you enjoy the ride.
Questions? Comments? You can email me, just click here
I couldn't take it any more, the snot green paint was killing me!
I needed to satisfy the eye by having the car painted. Like any other restoration project,
you don't just paint the car, because the more you look, the more you find. I had brought
my car down to King Street Auto body in Merrimack, NH to see "John, the body man", as my
wife refers to him. The best part was John was going to let me do the "crap" work, to cut
costs, while he did the detail and finesse work. After the Christmas Holiday week of 1998,
the car rolled into his shop and the work started. I wanted the work done right, so John
suggested we replace the panels that were rusted with new ones. I started to strip
the car of interior and trim parts. As you will see, things got grim really quick.
A picture is worth a thousand words. I had discovered a smudge of roofing tar in the rear
wheel wells from underneath the car. I knew by picking it away and seeing "plastic", that
it wasn't going to be good.
After removing the back seat, I discovered a baseball size piece of bond in each inner
wheel well. I guess the guy kept putting bondo in until it "filled" the holes. It took a
long time to dig it out. At the time there was no reproduction pieces to replace the
rust hole.
Since John had done this quite often, he performed the work like it was not even a challenge.
He had me cut out the rusted areas and make sure there was good metal. Anything that
was left over was cleaned. John had me cut cardboard pieces out and fit them first. He
was teaching me how to do this correctly. I learned a lot, and I was greatful for that.
After checking my cuts and doing some fitting, he tacked in each piece. I knew that
he was making sure that this was going to last. No bondo here, just metal.
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