shame. Was and still. do love the concept of this build. Maybe there has been a heap done and we just do not know it yet.
The gestation time on Chewie's build is 10 years so far, Expect this to be finished in 2025................ and visits to this site about every 2 years.......
About time I visited the forums then hey Money has been tight and trying to start my own business has been hell for the last 3 years so not much work has been done to the old girl. But still working on the last bits of bodywork such as: * smoothing out rocker panels and removing folded up seam at bottom. Also removing that embossed metal bit that used to have a black sticker stripe in it that runs down the lower half of the side of the car. * Changing the front crossmember mounting to be bolted from underneath with long nuts welded into bottom of chassis rails. Original bolts were visible on the top of the chassis rails which I didn't want. * Rear tail light panel to be made out of metal and welded in. * firewall was made almost flat except section above gearbox, but decided to make it entirely flat now. With the extra engine bay room I'd like to fit in the mercruiser 1350 but at about $100K for the engine I may have to wait to win lotto. I'll post pictures of the completed body work before xmas 2015
hollow or solid space between that and the original section? if solid, what would the weight be? mercruiser 1350 can you imagine? holy chassis twisting torque load batman!
I hate plastic on cars so removing all that plastic crap at the rear and just having some recessed holes to house some led tail lights.
Got rid of the swage lines and rocker seam Still got the doors and front fender to remove teh swage lines but I think this looks more modern now. Also got rid of that crap seam that runs under the rocker panels. It always gets beaten up of speed humps anyway.
Excellent work man. I have read that a chisel is the way to go removing that stuff but a wire wheel sounds like a much better idea to me. Pulling some dents just in front of the rear arch there? Are you seam welding the chassis? I should have just stuck my car on a rotisserie to begin with...
photos of before the rocker panel work>>> My rocker panels were completely screwed up from the previous owner and also the one time I slid into a gutter being stupid. Mig welded some pull wires onto the dents and then pulled them out. The swage lines were removed by welding in some skins over them (see 2nd last picture). The seam at the bottom of the rocker was done by cutting out little lengths of the seam, welded ,then cut more out of the seams, then weld those etc (see last picture).
Removed the chassis rails and replaced with lengths of RHS. The chassis rails from the rear bumper to the firewall were all cut out and welded in 75x50 RHS. The rails from the firewall to the front bumper have been double skinned to make it stronger. The radiator support bar was cut out and some RHS welded across that too. I've spent 10 years so far on the body work but it is getting close to finished. Just need to weld up the swages on the doors plus the door handle holes (using a remote popper). Weld up a bit of skin metal over the rear of the hatch to remove that plastic rear bit on it. Undecided what I'm doing on the front. I'd like a one piece front bumper and fenders or maybe even a one piece bumper/fenders/bonnet (like the corvettes had). The rotisserie took 12 months to build (because I'm slow and over engineered it - I used trailer hubs for the rotating part and used 3mm to 6mm thick steel) but it has been worth its weight in gold.
Few more update photos. Hope to have the body work done this year and then over xmas do the dry fit of all the parts before stripping it down again for paint.
