After returning from a recent business trip I took a few days vacation and with a long weekend was able to complete the remaining work to finish the frame welding and the body as well! I ended up having to make two recess areas in the body to accomodate the added tube on the frame but I think overall everything turned out quite well.
Here's are a few pictures body shell of the car everything that is primered with the black paint is new. So as you can tell the only thing that's left of the original car is the inner structure, about 1/2 of the firewall and the roof. Otherwise everything else has been replaced over the course of the last 4 years! I really didn't understand, in retrospect, the amount of time and steel that would be replaced when I started by "fixing the floor" of the car. What I initially thought would be a project that would maybe take 1-2 years has really unfolded into an entire reconstruction of the car. In hindsite it would have been better to start with a $2-3K car instead of the one I purchased.
However, once it's done I'm sure it will be something I can enjoy for years to come and will be able to say I rebuilt it from the ground up. But there's at least another 12-18 months before I will get there.
Here's a picture from the bottom showing the finished welding. The rottisserie was the best investment and I had no problems rotating the car and it spent a while at the 45 degree angle so I could work on the wheel wells which was a perfect height.
Here you can see the areas where I had to recess the floor to allow enough room for the tube to pass without touching. This has added about 3/4" of gap which should be plenty of room.
Here's a shot from the inside of the car and you can see the recess/bump in the floor pan. Once I put the sound deadener on the floor and the carpet it won't be that noticeable. I really don't think there will be anyone in the back seat anyway unless it's a younger kid given the placement of the roll bar.
This is the area of the frame where I had to do the most work due to the previous wrek the car was in. I first had to shorten the frame from the Oldsmobile to the Chevrolet length then fix the height since it was off about 1" (lower) than the drivers side.
To transport the frame I used the engine hoist which works out quite nice especially given the weight of the frame now. I would guess it's probably 400-450 lbs now with the additional tube and structure. But it's absolutely worth it, just need more power to move the weight! You can stand on any of the 4 corners and the entire front/rear of the frame comes up. With the addition of the roll bar that should enable the entire front of the car to launch at the same time.
Up next is to....
- Get the frame sandblasted and painted
- Get the rearend rebuilt
- Assemble the frame and suspension
- Rebuild the engine
- Order the Muncie 4-speed and bell housing
- Order the new driveshaft
- Add the headers and exhaust
The goal this summer is to have a complete rolling chassis and fire the engine
