hey guys; i just picked up a 70 malibu convertible and i'm in the process of tearing it down. i found a stereo radio harness under the dash and saw a rear 2 speaker harness going to the trunk area. i wasnt sure you could get rear speakers on converts until i read a post on here recently. i'd like to see how they are set up. does anyone have pictures?

also, can someone tell me how to remove the stainless that goes all the way around the bottom of the rear window and around the front windshield? the pieces are nice and i don't want to kink them up trying to remove them.

i have done 2 hardtops,but convertibles are very new to me. i just want to make sure i do the car right and don't damage anything that can be reused.

thanks, dave

below is a photobucket link to the pics. i got the car off of ebay about a week ago. i would like to connect with some of the convertibles guys on this site to learn more about them before i get very deep into the project.

thanks, dave

http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc256/champagne-gold/1970%20CONVERTIBLE%20PROJECT%20PICS/?start=all

The rear well molding is screwed on to the rear deck support bridge. It will be difficult to access with the top in the way. I think if you put the top down halfway you may be able to get at it.
The front glass reveal moldings come off pretty easy. The top molding is the same as a coupe in that respect, use the trim tool to pop it loose. The A pillar moldings are screwed in place and there is more than likely some strip caulk holding them on also.

I'm thinking the A-pillar trim is even screwed under the weatherstrip channel??? I have a short memory, so I might be wrong.... :D

I think you're right Dave. I'll have to go look at the pieces off my car.

I'm thinking the A-pillar trim is even screwed under the weatherstrip channel??? I have a short memory, so I might be wrong.... :D :yes:

What Dave said and also Tom:yes:

My car had rear speakers pointing into the trunk, mounted onto the rear seat backing metal. I don't know if they are original not, but they sure look old enough to original. :confused:

hi guys; thanks for all the replies. i removed all of the stainless trim this weekend along with the rest of the mouse nests and piss smell. man,those little suckers made nests in almost every nook and cranny of the interior,including the heater box. the car sat in a barn for over 20 years,so you can imagine the smell. for two weeks i couldnt figure out where the last of the odor was coming from even after i removed almost every boltable piece from the car,but there was still a strong odor in the trunk. i finally removed the tail light harness and found more nests in the compartment where that harness travels through. hosed it out a couple of times this weekend and the odor is just about gone.

the car is pretty solid for the most part. cowl,rockers,frame,firewall,trunk gutter are nice, but the seller did not give me a very accurate description in regards to the floor and trunk pans. he just priced it for a quick flip. one of the previous owners glued foam rubber to the floorpans,so you know what happened there over time. :mad:

i found a nice,used convertible windshield top frame at our local jefferson swap meet,but do you guys know if they sell the header panel for the convertible top frame itself? this is the piece that rests on the the top of the windshield frame when the top closes. it is rusted enough that i want to replace it.

thanks, dave

359 on ebay. Parts place has them.

What did you pay for that car? looks pretty clean for a midwestern car.

MICE SUCK!!! Hard to believe such a little rodent can cause so much damage. They are truly are mini monsters! They can get into the tiniest spaces, eat all sorts of things, crap and piss all over, and worst of all do it at night in the dark when you can't see them. Luckly my car has been safe so far. I have had my share of mice in the garage though. Other favorite spots to check, if you didn't check already is the cowl vents behind the kick panels. I found some old remnants of insulation and cracked nuts during my interior change. Seemed OLD, from last owner. Also heard they like the boxed frame rails. Good Luck

i have been watching the values and doing research on 70 convertibles long before i bought this one. i paid $8,000 for it,but after finding the floor pans to be rusted more than the seller described,i think i paid more than i should have. you guys probably have different opinions and i'd like to hear them. before i bought the car, i assumed the quarters and wheelhouses were gone,but when i saw those pans,i felt like i got screwed.

all in all,i guess i'm better off than some of the done cars i saw on ebay in the last couple of months. i could look at pictures of the trunk pans on some of these cars and see large patch areas where the inner wheelhouse meets the trunk pan. i can only imagine what the floors look like and how much they are patched. as i mentioned,the cowl,rockers,frame,trunk gutter,etc... are very solid. i have a lot of work ahead of me,but with full trunk and floor pans,and the newly released convertible wheelhouses,the restoration could be flawless.

i have been through extensive replacement of sheetmetal before,so this is nothing new to me,but i wish i would have found a car like tom rightler did for $500.00. he was in the right place at the right time.

as far as the mice go,there is no place left to find nests.the car is completely stripped down. here's a few current pics.

http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc256/champagne-gold/THE%20TEARDOWN/?start=all

i am still debating whether or not i will restore this one for sure or find something cleaner. if i found another car or someone offered me the magic number for this one,i may let it go and move on.

thanks, dave

I think the guy screwed you too. You can't be too careful when checking out cars before purchase. At least you got a 70 out of it. There are not a lot of nice ones out there any more.

If you decide to complete the project, what direction are you going in? Original or Resto-Mod. When I was looking for a my Chevelle I was not necessarily in the market for a convertible. I looked for a long time on Ebay before I found this car and the price was fair. It just happened to be a convertible. I had my concerns about owning a convertible. Now that I have had it a few years I am VERY happy that I didn't second guess and pass on it. I hope to see the restoration story in the future! I truly am envious of someone who can take a car down to bare bones and rebuild every inch of a car. It took me Months and Months just to strip my entire interior out then and completely redo everthing (prep, paint, and/or replace the reinstall). TIME, then then struggle of ambition past certain hurdles bogged me down a little. I think you will have one hell of a car when done. GOOD LUCK!

hi kevin; i'll probably go with the stock appearing ss clone look and i'm thinking 496 stroker for the motor. i already have the LS-6 intake,so maybe a LS-6 clone with 600 HP and an M-22.

the car is originally shadow grey with ivory interior and black top. i appreciate the less seen colors. i had a 70 champagne gold ss hardtop for 7 years. it was quite an attention getter,but i think i will choose a different color scheme. there are lots of red 70 hardtop cars around here locally,but no convertibles. i'm thinking i may do it like this car below. i think cranberry red is an awesome combo with the black top and interior.

http://www.cars-on-line.com/51694.html

based on all of the work i have been doing,i guess i have made up my mind to just restore the car. here's a good one for you...yesterday i spun 7 out of 8 cage nuts for the body bushings,along with 1 out of the 2 for the rear bumper. i'm going to do floors anyway,so i wasnt very upset about this,but it just enforces my attitude toward midwestern cars. if i ever do another car,it will not be from around here unless it is a high dollar one,like an LS-6. i am done with the rustbelt cars.

here's the silver lining in all of this. i did get a number of parts with the car including,bucket seats,console,ss hood, a heavy duty 4 core radiator support,ss bumper,etc...the support is up for sale in the classifieds right now. i think the previous owner got his hands on parts from an ss and was going to clone the convertible. i don't need most of these parts,as i have collected most of what i need prior to getting this car. i figured the value on all the parts will be in the neighborhood of at least $3,000. subtract that from my $8,000 investment,and i think i will have a reasonably priced project for $5,000.

the best news is that the car will only go up in value with every upgrade i do,so if i have to bail on it in the future,i'll recoupe my investment and then some.

thanks, dave

Car in the picture does not look bad for the price. To bad its sold, or there may have been another in the area.

hi dan; yeah, the red convertible on cars online seems like a screaming deal at $20k. i remember seeing that car on this site in the featured ads sometime back. if i had seen it before it sold,i might have grabbed it up. who knows what the story is with that car. sounds too good to be true for 20k,but who knows what lurking underneath that nice red paint job. i would have loved to have had a crack at it anyway and checked it out before it was sold. i bet it didnt last longer than a week at that price.

thanks, dave

Hi Dave. Not a bad price at all. Even if it were not perfect and you did not like it, you could have got your money back in a heartbeat. The 70 verts are hard to find. I could have bought 2 verts in about 1995 for 2500.00 plus a barn full of parts. One was a 70, the other a 71. Why I did not follow up on it? Four years later ran into the guy and he said he was glad I did not follow up, because he sold the 70 alone for 4000.00. I just was not so crazy about the verts then. Now I would love one.

well guys; after a bit more thought and teardown of the vert,i decided i'm going to keep it and do the resto. i checked ebay's completed auction prices and condition of project cars that were of similar caliber to mine,and i realized i actually have a pretty damn solid car compared to what i have seen for sale. as i mentioned,after the sale of various parts that came with the car,i should be sitting at somewhere around $5,000 invested in the car before i start replacing sheetmetal. that i can live with. i'll keep everyone in the loop as i restore the car. i'm excited about restoring my first convertible.

regards, dave

Great News! You can do it. Check out Toms latest post. It'll got get you fired up.

Great News! You can do it. Check out Toms latest post. It'll got get you fired up.

tom's post was a good inspiration,boy he really had a challenge there. again,i have to give him kudos. luckily,i won't have to do the cowl and rockers. my car will be a dream compared to what tom had to start off with. although i think if i were offered a 70 convertible for $500.00,even in that condition,i would have jumped all over it too. it's worth the extra headaches at that price. that's the deal of the year or of the decade.

hey guys; i made some progress on the 70 convertible that i picked up a few months ago and thought i'd like to share some pics. i got the floorpans cut out and installed a very nice,rust free, original floorpan from a 1970 cutlass. it goes from the toe kick to where the back seat ends. picked it up off of craigslist for $200.00,so that justified the extra labor of drilling out spot welds rather than spending $800 on a new one,plus $120 for toe kicks. i used the pans,braces and inner rockers. the outers on the convert were nice,so i kept them in place. it turned out very well and everything fit good. i guess that's to be expected from original gm sheetmetal.

next,the car will go on the rotisserie and taken to be sandblasted. after that,i will do new trunk pans,wheelhouses,quarters and drop offs.

http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc256/champagne-gold/convertible%20floor%20pans/?start=all

thanks, dave

Lookin good!!!

While that price is over what I think you should have paid I still think you have a pretty decent project. The money's gone so forgetaboutit. Lesson learned. Those floors and trunk are nothing to what I have to start with on my 69 vert that I got for 1500.00. I took up the carpet and most of the floor came up with it. Your toe kicks look good and i don't see too much light. If it's fairly solid consider small patches and seal it. Seriously how did you keep your driveway so clean??????

sorry I didn't see your last post. Glad you kept it. You lucked out on the floor.

Please, please, PLEASE tell me you hung the doors on there while you were doing this and BEFORE you welded anything. If you didn't, I strongly suggest you do it now before proceeding any further.

While that price is over what I think you should have paid I still think you have a pretty decent project. The money's gone so forgetaboutit. Lesson learned. Those floors and trunk are nothing to what I have to start with on my 69 vert that I got for 1500.00. I took up the carpet and most of the floor came up with it. Your toe kicks look good and i don't see too much light. If it's fairly solid consider small patches and seal it. Seriously how did you keep your driveway so clean??????

actually i got a bunch of parts with the car that i wasnt going to use. i made back a little under $3,000 so far. i feel much better having 5 grand invested rather than 8.

Please, please, PLEASE tell me you hung the doors on there while you were doing this and BEFORE you welded anything. If you didn't, I strongly suggest you do it now before proceeding any further.

hi tom; i am fairly confident nothing shifted because the outer rockers were not removed and i watched that the body bushing holes in the cowl and trunk did not shift after i cut out the floors and before i started welding. i don't think i lost my points of reference and i did use new body bushings. i will hang the doors just to be sure before i proceed with the trunk pans and quarters.

thanks, dave

I thought that too when I did mine. Even with it as braced as it was, it moved several times and significantly at that. You would be surprised how much it will sag even though it doesn't look like it will.
Also might I suggest that you do all the panel replacement before putting the body on a rotisserie. The metal work really should be done with the car resting on the frame.
I'm sure you've looked at the thread I have on mine in the Restoration Forum, but if you want a much more in depth thread of what I've done so far, I have a more extensive thread on it here:

http://chevellestuff.com/forums/showthread.php?949-70-Convertible-Resto

I thought that too when I did mine. Even with it as braced as it was, it moved several times and significantly at that. You would be surprised how much it will sag even though it doesn't look like it will.
Also might I suggest that you do all the panel replacement before putting the body on a rotisserie. The metal work really should be done with the car resting on the frame.
I'm sure you've looked at the thread I have on mine in the Restoration Forum, but if you want a much more in depth thread of what I've done so far, I have a more extensive thread on it here:

http://chevellestuff.com/forums/showthread.php?949-70-Convertible-Resto

hi tom; let's hope that the cowl didnt sag on me. the rockers and structure looked pretty solid as a took things apart and i didnt touch the outer rockers.

i will be crossbracing the car before it goes on the rotisserie. it will go to the blasters,then i will prime everything, and then it will be put back on the frame before the back half is done. i paid a lot of attention to what you guys said 7 years ago about not doing bodywork off of the frame and i am being especially wary with a convertible.

thanks, dave

thanks, dave

hey guys; well,good news after all!!! i rebuilt my door hinges with brass bushings and re-installed the doors yesterday. i have a nice even 3/16" gap all around the rocker and door/quarter perimeter. all of the slop seemed to be in the door hinge bushings and not from a cowl sag as was feared. i dodged a bullet there. now back to welding again. this is the part i enjoy.... putting everything back together.

thanks, dave

i was going to finish welding the floor pans in and then put the car on the rotisserie,but i examined the back half of the car thoroughly and decided it was too questionable. i will do all of the sheetmetal work first just to be safe. i did the trunk pan this week. next the wheelhouses go and then the quarters and trunk drops. the tail lamp panel is junk as well. that will go too. the rear seat divider was in great shape. that was blasted and primed.

i made sure to use new body bushings,as i did with the floor pan and ran bolts into the cage nuts and secured them to assure proper alignment.

there's another pic of a little compartment where the trunk pans meet the back seat. my lovely little rodent friends had nests in there too. and here i thought i had found all of their hiding places.

thanks, dave

here's some pics ofthe trunk pan install.

http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc256/champagne-gold/convertible%20trunk%20pan/?start=all

back with an update. got the wheelhouses,trunk drops and quarters removed and installed new wheelhouses and drops. installed the trunk lid for alignment of the quarters and will update on that when i get them fitted. lots and lots of spotwelds to drill. check out the pics.

http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc256/champagne-gold/wheelhouses%20and%20quarters/?start=all