So there I was, starting the teardown of the 67. A past owner of this car already did a wonderful job hacking the transmission tunnel, cutting a hole in the SS hood so they could mount a 2" fiberglass cowl (with drywall screws). I thought that was it. Well today I was taking off the fenders, bumper, core support, basically everything in front of the firewall. I had all the bolts out of the bumper braces and it still wouldn't come off. A little further investigating found this lovely piece of work. Either they didn't have a long enough bolt or were complete retards. They welded (poorly) one of the bumper braces to the frame. What's wrong with these people???????????????????????????

You'd be surprised what you find when you start taking these things apart!
My center console was attached to a 2 by 4 scabbed to the tunnel hump with drywall screws!

at least he didnt use a '' men at work '' construction sign to fix your fender!!! like the past owner of my 68 did !!! what ever people have lying around seems to be the answer for every ''quick fix "

Sadly, a lot of things can happen in nearly 40 yrs. Just when you think you've seen it all... :(
Just keep telling yourself that it will all be worth it someday.

Someone had used Virginia license plates to repair the floor in a Nova I once had!

It's all part of restoring 40 year old cars. In '67, wages were less than $2.00 an hour. Most young men had children and/or pregnant wives. Trying to buy a house. Trying to keep up with the payments, insurance and normal maintanance. At that time, a car was just a car. Where someone wants to keep a '67 for the rest of their life today, it was an old car when the '68s came out. '62 Impala 409, traded in on '63 Plymouth 426, traded in on '64 Plymouth 426, sold to buy '65 L79 Chevelle, then '66 L79 Nova, then '67 L79 Malibu and same year '67 Z28 Camaro, '68 Hurst Hemi cuda, '69 Swinger 340, '70 L78 Nova. I bought these all new, all raced, all modified, without any thought that someone would care what we did. It's still being done today with engines, trannies, interiors, wheels, cowl hoods everywhere you turn, creating a car that performs, handles, or looks different from original.

Be happy you've got one to work on

I won't be able to get the body off the frame until April when I get back. I just hope there isn't other hidden surprises for me...but I know there will be.

Was at the machine shop.... Someone had put in pistons backwards.... They were all tore up from where the valves kept slapping the piston

you think that's funny, My brother's car's previous owner bridge gapped the quarter panels as an outer wheelhouse with hacksaw blades and then a couple gallons of bondo. 66gto. JN

Wait till you start blasting stuff!

I had holes in the floor braces big enough to stick your fist in from rot that had been scabbed over with tin, pop-riveted and follwed by a couple coats of undercoating or tar to cover it up!! Not just one, either! Did the same thing on the floor pans with even bigger patches!

Of course after 20 years or so, the areas around the patches rotted, too, because moisture got in and was held there to make sure ALL the pans and braces had to be replaced!

Never had a clue it was as bad as it was - until the blasting was finished.

Someone had used Virginia license plates to repair the floor in a Nova I once had!

My brother once owned a 65 SS 396 Impala that had a hole in the floor "repaired" with a rebel flag license plate and screws.

To think, I thought it was the only one. :rolleyes:

Had a '69 Z/28 with a stop sign patch in the floorboards. That thing was a rustbucket!

Let me just say, past owner replaced floor pans. Good deal, no problem, right? Wrong. Pop rivited them in, all right, pretty bad, but at least they were trying, right? Wrong again. Bathroom tub & tile caulk underneath to seal the line where old meets new. I am talking a couple of inches thick. I didn't know if I was working on my 69, or my leaking bathroom shower, sheesh!
Jeff

I didn't have any street signs on my car but I found the right side 1/4 pannel was pop rivited on. It was a half 1/4 pannel, a couple inches above the wheel well. The trans tunnel had sheet metal brazed on. The hammer mechanic did a job on the firewall for header clearance.

I didn't have any street signs on my car but I found the right side 1/4 pannel was pop rivited on.

LOL, my Grandpa did that to his 74 Malibu. :) When he showed me he joked and said if he could do the ones on my 67. :D Then he gave "the old Chevy" away to some drunk that got it impounded.

. At that time, a car was just a car. '62 Impala 409, traded in on '63 Plymouth 426, traded in on '64 Plymouth 426, sold to buy '65 L79 Chevelle, then '66 L79 Nova, then '67 L79 Malibu and same year '67 Z28 Camaro, '68 Hurst Hemi cuda, '69 Swinger 340, '70 L78 Nova. I bought these all new, all raced, all modified, without any thought that someone would care what we did.
Be happy you've got one to work on
GB,that is an impressive resume,you must have had a blast owning them.

John,

I was blessed to have become a man in the days of fast cars, rock and roll, free love, and cheap drugs. I seriously enjoyed the first three, but my idea of an "attitude adjustment" was "full opposite lock".

With the cars we are restoring, I'm sure this thread could go on for pages and pages. Each post more amazing than the last but Greybeard is right. Before these cars became collectors, there was a period in the 70's when they were a dime a dozen and you couldn't afford to put a lot of money into fixing them "the right way" It was just a matter of keeping them on the road.
I've owned my 69 L78 since 75. I had it repainted in 78 because the rear quarters around the wheels were rusting out "gotta love living in the rust belt" I could have sprung for new full quarters (GM still had plenty in stock) but it wasn't even an option I considered. I could barely afford the $350 paint job, so my body guy did a fantastic job cutting out the rust and constructing new fiberglass wheel opennings and it looked like factory, looked fantastic for about 5 years. I was happy as a clam. I must say to my body mans credit, He also patched the doglegs in the fenders. When I took them off in 92 for a frame off restore, they looked perfect. After getting them off I found that he had done an excellent job welding in small patches were they were rusted. To this day those fenders have no more rust in that area. Needless to say the rear quarters got NOS GM rear quarter replacements in 92.
In my other 69, that I purchased in 03, the trunk looked great in the dim light the night I picked it up and towed it home. Upon further inspection, some guy had "fixed" the rust by simply laying down some strips of fiberglass to cover the holes, then pouring about a gallon of resin into the trunk. No rust removal, no paint removal, not even any dirt removal. Just huge blobs of resin on the gas tank :)

I love this hobby,
Trooper

Roofing tar floor repairs,stop sign 1/4 panel patches..oh yeah.
As everyone has said,alot can happen in 40 years

Every other time I work on my car I find something new. The 'rebuilt' motor lost an oil pump after 5000 miles. My bet is that he reused the old one. I found the main feed to the horn relay spliceed by twisting the two ends together and wrapping it in tape. My brake lines look like they were bent in a vise..... I can go on and on. But it will get better - and that's or jobs!

Yeah, I know to expect this. Hell, my last chevelle, a 67 SS396 convertible that I am a fool for selling, was given to me by my dad. You talk about a past owner screwing somethingup. the under dash wiring harness looked like a birds nest, hacked trans tunnel, street sign floor, holes screwed into the dash for hanging various items. That was a mess. Knowing now where, how and what kinds of people he was around then I can see how it happened. At least I know better. I still REALLY miss that car :-(

Being from Calif I've just got to ask .... WHO teaches the road sign & Roofing Tar repair ... ;) Henny's roofing & Autobody ???

This thread reminds me of my -63 Nova. Among a lot of other peculiar installations, it had the fuel pump wired with a hot wire all the way from the fuse block back to the pump, through several rough, home-drilled holes without grommets. Then there was a ground wire running all the way back to a switch on the dash, but running a different way through some more holes. For some reason, it also had a in-line fuse on the ground wire between the switch and the firewall. This was just one of the reasons why I tore the whole harness out of the car and replaced it.

I feel the pain. The last owner of my Chevelle wanted to make a race car out of it. It had a home made 6-point roll cage welded in. The first four points were welded to these giant plates of metal that was welded to the floor. The rear two points is where it gets interresting. Instead of going through the speaker holes or something, they cut out the mettal webbing behind where the rear seat used to be. Then, they cut two square holes about the size of shoe boxes in the floor of the rust-free trunk. These two bars were welded to another bar that was welded from frame rail to frame rail, where the gas tank used to be.

When I got my 69 Nova, the previous owner had a front wheel cylinder go bad. Instead of replacing or repairing it, they removed the line from the master cylinder, installed a plug and drained that reservoir. Wonder if that had anything to do with the fact it was lightly wrecked in the front?

I'm the dude, I've used these things for repairs.

On my wifes '96 Z28, the fuel pump (in tank) crapped out. The manual says you first must drop the exhaust and the rearend to get the tank out.

I opened the hatch, pulled up the carpeting and cut about a 1 foot square out of the floor, directly above the sender/pick up module. I cut it with a speedy cut (angle grinder), in a way that I thought that the panel could be used to close it up afterwards. Didn't work, Soooo, after a midnight stroll through my "salvage sanctuary" (backyard), I cam up with the Realty sign that was in the front yard when we bought the house. A little seam sealer and a few rivets, good to go.

I was reunited with a similar repair just yesterday. Greg (GSOUPME) came by so we could go explore my neighbors "residential wrecking yard". Greg was looking for a late '66 front lower control arm (his '66 has one early and one late). I had sold '66 ressurection #2 to the neighbor (wrecked 2002), as well as, given the complete control arm/spindle assy's from '66 #1 (rearended 1990). In addition, he had purchased a donor '66. Seemed like a good as place as any to search, No luck, all were early, including those on the carcass of '66 #3 (stolen/butchered 2005), sitting in my back yard.

Greg got to see some a vintage past repair of mine. Cookie sheet/cake pan floor repair after a 11 mph tossed driveline.

I'd totally forgot about that one

I've got similar repairs in the Charger. Quarters layed over top each other, 2 inch thick bondo, you name it, it's on this car, well was I should say. I tore it apart, had it blasted, and even after that I found more suprises. I think I got them all now though.

Hmm, I feel your pain man...my P.O. WELDED the left fender to the body.
Apparently he had some rust problems there and was alittle loose, so why not weld it? Made for a very interesting removal process. Oh Yeah, and to fix the Flinstone size holes in the floor? Stove pipe and caulk! *sigh* There should be a law on who can own a chevelle sometimes! lol

As long as we seem to be talking about "substandard" repair, I'll contribute one. A good friend of mine was determined to buy a '54 Merc Skyliner/Sunliner, whatever, the glass roof one. He went to the Silver Cloud auction and brought one home. When he brought it over to show it off, he opened the trunk and I saw something 'funny' and dropped down and felt the back of the rear quarter. It was filled with CHICKEN WIRE AND CONCRETE! They used it to to create something the bondo could stick to, the fender was that far gone. Walking around the outside, it looked perfect.

One of the bolts holding my motor stands to the frame was too long and not threaded it's full length, so the guy used the end of an 8" length of chain as a spacer so he could get the nut fully tightened. It didn't work and the nut was just sitting in there loose with a length of chain dangling off it. The throttle cable was just sitting on the end of the stud at the carb, no clip holding it on. Apparently the previous owner also didn't realize the roof had rust holes in it and was leaking in water, and thought it was coming from the back window so the whole back window frame was slathered in silicone fish tank sealer, directly over the stainless trim. I just thank god it was never "hot rodded", i can't imagine what shape it would be in now.

A friend of mine bought a 84 Chevy truck and found a few interesting things while doing repairs. The spring eye bushings were made out of bicycle grip and garden hose! The exhaust was well pipe!

The exhaust was well pipe!
Wow, that stirred up a memory I had forgotten about... In the early 90's, I had purchased a 302 powered Maverick with dual exhaust. When I went to remove the exhaust to install headers and a new exhaust, I was shocked to see what the old exhaust was made from- 1 1/2 copper pipe, complete with fittings, all the way out the back, and yes, the joints were soldered! You could tell it hadn't been on the car long, but I did consider leaving it for a while just to see how long the copper and solder would hold up... but the anticipation of headers outweighed the morbid curiosity.