just wondering how far some of you guys have gone.....

got most of my body "apart" to see where i stand as far as sheetmetal replacement. so far it looks like front left and right floorpans/braces. the rear seat pans look good. left and right sides of the truck pan, right 1/4 panel (mostly due to a f-ed up bondo job from the previous guy) lower edges of the inner rear fenderwells, bottoms of the fenders, a lil rocker panel stuff....thats about it so far. possibly the rear deck panel beneath the rear window. :eek:

the car is originally a 6cyl car but i have some documentation on it and its complete so it looks like itll be worth fixing in the long run rathe than trying to find another body.

The most sheetmetal I had to replace on a restoration of a 68 camaro for a customer is as follows.Rear tail panel,trunk floor and dropoffs,inner and outer wheel house panels,quarter panels,door skins,rockers,fenders,and header panel,driver side floor pan.This car had severe rust and it was a pile of work,for the amount of money he paid for the parts and labor he could have bought a finished car.That is something you might want to check into,just a thought graemlins/clonk.gif

On my 70, both front fenders, hood, both doors, trunk lid, both 1/4 panels, both outer wheelhouses, trunk floor, 1/4 to trunk floor extensions, rear floor pan, rear valence, front bumper filler, front fender extensions.
Ron

at least labor is all free for me....just the cost of new sheetmetal.

If you think about it is your labor really free?Your time has to be worth something,this will come into it if you ever decide to sell.Think about the electricity you will use for the lights in your shop,to run your mig etc.When I do a vehicle for myself whether it is a rebuilder(write off) or whatever I try to figure out if I will get paid for my time in the end.If I don't it isn't worth doing.I'm not saying your car is not worth it but if you spend a years worth of time and $2000 in parts and $1500 in materials you might be better off finding a better body.Just my 2cents smile.gif

Jon, depends on how rare the car is, what's your motivation for restoring it, and whether or not your willing to spend the money and frustration of restoring a basket case. Remember, the deeper you go, the deeper you get. I'm restoring a 1 of 2500, 73 454 SS. A lot of people think I'm nuts, but what the hell, it's mine and I want it. My first car was a 73 and this one is more rare than most SS cars out there.
I am having to replace, at the minimum, both fenders, the core support, the pass side door, both quarters and outer wheel houses, patch the trunk and drivers side fwd floor, the inner fender l/h side and throw a few pounds of bondo on whats left. The roof is toast and I will have to cover it with a vinyl or replace it also. And this I know without even starting to cut it up. The dash is trash, the seats are trash and half the wiring is either cut and spliced, shorted out or missing.
On the lighter side, its a numbers matching 454 SS, the engine/tranny and rear are strong. This weekend I finished up my 70 SS and in about 2 months I will hopefully have enough used sheet metal to start the 73.
As far as my labor being free, hey, its free to me. My wife knows where I'm at, I limit my garage time to 2 hrs a night, and my daughter is into Chevelles now. So go as far as you want bro, if you get in over your head, know when to call it quits. Have a written plan and know your up front costs and throw in at least $1000 for extras. Don't buy anything spur of the moment, and use the internet to find EVERTHING!
Good luck, Jim.

On the 69 Chevelle convertible I am restoring the sheetmetal list includes both front fenders, door skins, rear 1/4's, complete floor with all braces, and complete trunk with braces, trunk to 1/4 filler panels, rear outer wheelhouses, core support and front inner fenders. The big mistake is to not replace everthing that needs it, because sooner or later it will be done. If you are doing it to make money just quit now, but if you are like most of us then there is real enjoyment in completing an extremely long, drawn out job like this. Plan on it taking longer than you expect. I was almost done and then decided to add the disk brakes and rebuild the entire front supspension before painting.

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I specifically looked for one that didn't have such a pristine body.

To me, a large portion of this hobby is the enjoyment one gets from doing the work... and the past 15 months of making something rusty into something clean has been great (although I am looking forward to finishing the sheetmetal replacement portion of the project).

I replaced both floorpans, the floorpan braces, the rear seat pans (replaced one, patched the other), one side of the trunk, both quarters, both kickpanels, portions of the windshield channel, patched the forward portion of the trunk right behind the back seat and the pass side rocker, as well as small spots on both doors. I also had to reconstruct the bottom portion of the tail panel, since it's not reproduced yet, and create my own trunk dropoff on the pass side. All I have left to do is patch the outer wheelwells and replace the other side of the trunk.

My time is, to me, free, since otherwise I'd be spending cash on a new computer game or watching TV or something less productive - my employer won't let me work overtime since they don't want to pay overtime rates. The materials for a lot of this work were also free, since I re-used the non-rusty portion of the old quarters to make a lot of the patches.

It's been a blast. My welding and metalworking skills have increased a lot over these months.. I don't think I'd want to replace sheetmetal for a living, but it doesn't scare me like it used to. I'm glad I've done it on this one.

Yeah, my shop lights and the welding supplies and the cutoff wheels and all that cost some money.. but I imagine I'm still ahead of where I would have been if I'd bought a better body in the first place, plus I learned quite a bit and had a lot of fun in the process.

Of course, this is only my (long-winded) opinion.

It's not exactly sheetmetal, but I replaced an entire front clip on a 74 Corvette a few years ago.

Give me time. I'm sure I will have more to tell as the restoration of my 71 unfolds.

im definately not looking to make money on the car..i just love driving old school sheetmetal. good to here im not the only one who needs a decent amount of sheetmetal resto...look at it this way..i only paid 1200 for the complete car intact. graemlins/beers.gif

Originally posted by derekf:

To me, a large portion of this hobby is the enjoyment one gets from doing the work...

My time is, to me, free, since otherwise I'd be spending cash on a new computer game or watching TV or something less productive - my employer won't let me work overtime since they don't want to pay overtime rates

It's been a blast. My welding and metalworking skills have increased a lot over these months.. I don't think I'd want to replace sheetmetal for a living, but it doesn't scare me like it used to. I'm glad I've done it on this one.

Yeah, my shop lights and the welding supplies and the cutoff wheels and all that cost some money.. but I imagine I'm still ahead of where I would have been if I'd bought a better body in the first place, plus I learned quite a bit and had a lot of fun in the process.

Of course, this is only my (long-winded) opinion. My sentiments exactly.

I'm not doing it for the $. I'm doing it for the LOVE of the car. A CHEVELLE SS Convert,as in many of my other post I have owned alot of neat cars and had fun building them,but this by far is the largest undertaking of a restoration I have done on my own stuff.GM fenders,1/4s and every other dam* thing under the sun.It really wasnt in bad shape,I just didnt want to cheat it-AT ALL

The owner of the company I work for asked me today on the progress of my car,and after I told him he said "You aint got nothin" I was :mad: to say the least,and he said it 3 times to me. (daddys money bought him a 70 Judge GTO,which he trashed,a 76 T/A 455 which he trashed,a 69 428 Shelby Cobra Mustang,a ZR1 Corvette,67 427 Vette.He asked me why I was wasting my time building this car and my reply was"When I go to a car show I can proudly say that "I" built this car,from scratch,with my labor and sweat" no one gave it to me and Daddys money didnt buy it so I could go around braggin about it.

I guess its a jealousy thing of the "haves and have nots" by folks that have money. Also the 70 GTX that my buddy and I went to Texas to get also gets a bashing on a regular basis by him,quote "That car will never see the light of day" "That car is junk" Little does he know,thats my next resto project and my buddy already has accumulated about $10,000 in parts for the resto.Thats gonna be one bad ride also.This has been a rivalry thing between us since high school.

Entire car minus the roof :D Someone should have stopped me :(

Originally posted by sevt_chevelle:
Entire car minus the roof :D Someone should have stopped me :( Sounds like my '55. Entire car minus the roof. And, someone should definitely stop me.

Hello Everyone,
I just joined the forum and hope to obtain a lot of "on-line" assistance here. I have a 1964 Malibu SS I've owned for about 20 years and am undertaking an off-frame restoration. Exterior is white with black interior, with a 283 2-barrel carb and the powerglide automatic.

As far as sheet metal goes, looks like I need both quarter panels, front left & right floor pans, and trunk floor replaced. Any advice here? Can complete quarter panels be had? Can these items be replaced and the work undetectable? What is an approximate labor cost here? Can anyone recommend a shop in the Kansas City area?

Bill I havent really looked for quarters that old but I'm sure there out there.Put an ad in the parts wanted section and see what happens.The floor pans are most likely gonna be aftermarket as are the out wheelhouses.

Now for the cost.... If your not doing the work,the quarters will be anywhere from 10-15 labor hours apiece,at anywhere from 50 to 70 $ a labor hour,not including paintwork.Floor pans will run about the same.The more work (taking out interior and windows and tracks)you do the less they have to do-hence less dough.You really need to find a buddy in the buisness to help keep your cost down.

As far as not being able to detect the work-who cares,car is almost 40.As long as it was done correctly and this is not a NCRS show car after 1000 points.Someone will always be able to tell it was done and people WILL look,it car guys nature. Unless you have all N.O.S. pieces and you pay a fortune to have it done.Then you have to ask yourself....Is this for me to ride and drive or to sell