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Getting back in the game. 67 Malibu

24K views 94 replies 28 participants last post by  CTblown67 
#1 ·
I don't know what I was thinking when I traded my first Malibu for a fishing boat about about 5 years ago, seemed like a good idea at the time, after all I owned it for almost 20 years, I wouldn't miss it right? Wrong.



It took more than 3 years of searching, eBay, Craigslist, online forums, Bargain news, etc. But I have found the cleanest 67 chevelle shell I have seen in 20 years, 64K miles 6 cylinder car tucked away in a garage from 1983-2013, trunk floor is original, 95% of the floor pans are too, original paint on the hood and drivers door, the rest of the car was sanded and primed where the paint had checked. Dash is mint in a plastic bag in my basement, along with the seats, all glass is mint (minus the windshield obviously) front fenders are 100% original and solid from top to bottom. The front inner fenders (not pictured) are also unmolested and not rusty. The doors have never been removed from the car and close like new, the original rally rims with beauty rings and center caps. Even the protecto plate, and original bill of sale as this is a one owner car. The passenger side quarter was replaced at one time and doesn't look to be very well done so that will need to be addressed, will probably just cut it off and replace. So it begins.....

 
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#3 ·
Well I wanted to get the car threw motor vehicle first before I started to do to much, I didn't want a surprise lien or a problem because it is an out of state vehicle that hasn't been registered in 30 years. I went and got temps for it the other day and then had to bring it to get VIN verification done, with that being done I will get a plate for it Tuesday. So today I started the tear-down. Didn't find any surpises, a few small areas of the floor need to be addressed but other than that, all the body mount mount bolts backed out fine, and only of the body mounts on the frame will need a little love with the welder.








 
#5 ·
I was able to finally get started on the shell today, 4 hours on a creeper with a needle scalier and 4 inch angle grinder with a wire cup wheel. All the old undercoat is gone, 2 spots I'll have to heat and scrape, looks like oil/undercoat mix, found a couple spots that I didn't know about that need to be repaired, the floor pan around the seat brace I new about, the front rocker area I did not. For the most part floor is super solid. Not a huge deal, going to need a couple patch panels for the floor though for the metal work, then I think I'll use the rust converting primer before spraying the underneath with SEM rust shield.




 
#9 ·
Got a chance to spend a couple hours in the garage, got started cutting out the the section of the floor pans someone else had patched, which looked ok from the top but after stripping all the undercoat last weekend I saw how bad they really were. So out came the plasma cutter, grinder and spot weld cutter.

http://youtu.be/AdWXXWXlwa8







The top section of the tunnel is still solid so that will stay, The hardest part was getting to all the spot welds on end where it meets the rocker but I was able to get them all and the rocker is solid and in good shape. I bought new brace and the pans for both sides and will cut out the sections I need and butt weld them in. Someone also replaced the ends on the front floor brace, but not really sure what they did with the body mount, it looks like they put in in upside down on top of the brace? Thats supposed to be a captured nut to accept a body bolt so I will be cutting those off after I finish the area I started tonight.

 
#10 ·
I haven't had to much time to work on it but been pickin away a few hours at night here and there, got the bad sections of the floor and the entire brace out, got one side all welded back in and the other side about half welded before I ran out of wire. Sprayed a coat of self etching primer over the drivers side to help with flash rust because not sure when I am able to get back on it, I hope to finish the other 500 spot welds on the passenger side after work tonight when I get some more wire for the welder. The only problem with workin on the car at midnight is if you run out of something your outta luck till the next day.


 
#13 ·
Getting there little by little, still gotta get back underneath and take a flap wheel and grind all the welds flush, I smoothed them on the inside but didnt go crazy as I am going to dynamat the entire floor. Getting the repop floor brace to line up with the existing seat belt holes was also alot of fun.....


 
#14 ·
Well one thing I have learned is this stuff isnt as easy as it was 20 years ago, So when this popped up on craigslist a few towns over for a few hundred I couldn't pass it up. It was originally built for a 68 Camaro convertible rs/ss matching numbers car (absolutely gorgeous car) so I had to make a few modifications to get it to fit the chevelle, and I also added wheels, the previous owner said he took the wheels off and used them on another project. I had the 6 casters in the garage that were taken off the bottom of new meat coolers be installed at a grocery store my company was working at.





I gotta say these portable band saws are awesome, made quick work of the 3/16 wall 2 1/2 inch square tube and 3/8 plate.





Man was it nice to weld something besides sheet metal for a change, threw some .030 wire in the welder cranked it up.





Now with the rotisserie originally designed for a convertible, the center of gravity is not the same as my hard top, even though I can rotate the car by myself, it wants to keep spinning over and end up upside down. So I added a stop on the bottom with some 3/8 plate, it will let the car rotate in either direction to the point that is sitting in the pictures.




Im not sure if I will keep the rotisserie when I finish the car, so I didn't want to cut the mounts off that match up to a camaro body, someone will just have to cut off the pieces I welded to them.


 
#18 ·
Instead of Dynamat look at Lizard Skin. It's a little pricey at $180 for two gallon bucket, but it really works well!! I have a '65 with a blown big block in it, and as blowers do, it runs very hot. A rod & custom guy told me about Skin with the ceramic in it. I listened to him and it dropped the sound, AND the temperature inside the car by at least 15 degrees! I applied two coats on the inside firewall and floor all the way to the back wheel tubs. It drys flat black and fairly smooth just using a 3" paint brush. No need to buy their spray gun, in fact I think you would have to thin out the Skin just to spray it? It also cleans up with water. I highly endorse it and I don't even work for them. Good luck on your project, and make sure you get out to a cruise once in a while, just to remind you what you are shooting for.
 
#21 ·
fly442 sorry to hear about your son, hopefully keeping the car in the family will help to keep the good memories with you.

I am planning on using the fatmat stuff sold on eBay (after I priced Dynamat)
its 150 for 100 square feet. But will look into the lizard skin, I have been in cars with dynamat installed but have no experience with the lizard skin.
 
#23 ·
Not much of an update, this repair took me way longer than I thought it would, the extent of the rust in the front of the rocker was more than I thought. The floor pan wasn't that bad, but was easier to work on with it out of the way, plus the one thing I have learned with the new pans is that it seems to be impossible to get all the stamped patterns to line up, so I just cut around them to where only flat metal is. You can see in the first pick the pitted metal where there was a leak and water ran down the inside behind the kick panel rotting the floor and inner rocker out, the outer rocker is basically perfect. I put a piece of 18 gauge in to replace the inner piece that ties in above the floor pan and then a piece of 20 gauge to fix the rocker. The gold paint is the weld threw primer, better be gold 27 bucks for a spray can...... I did the usual with the floor pan, plasma cut it about an inch bigger than the needed piece, then screwed in it place and cut threw both the new pan and the old with a body saw to get a 1/16 gap all the way around to butt weld. Not sure if I'll get out weld it all up this weekend ended up getting a piece of metal drilled out of my eye today, and the funny part is all the welding, hammering, grinding and everything else I do in the garage, I ended up getting the metal in my eye at my the office i work in......




 
#24 ·
I finished 99% of the floor work this past week, finish welding in the drivers floor pan, fixed the small area of rust in the front passenger pan, and both front inside rockers are rebuilt and ground all the welds smooth top and bottom. Also cut out both ends of the front floor brace where the body mounts sit, someone else attempted this repair in the past and for some reason put a body bushing between the brace and floor pan... And had to cut out about 4 inches of the inner rocker on both sides where the brazed in repair rotted right threw.







Also cut the floor and welded in the new 4-speed hump, and made a made a quick video of that: 4-Speed Video







Time to take the wire wheel to the underside to get rid of the rest of the surface rust, bits of undercoat and whatever other 45 year old crap is on there and put seam sealer on the 4-speed hump, then I have to make a decision weather to spray the bottom with bed-liner or if I am going to use SEM Rust Shield.
 
#26 ·
Underside is in primer, I think I am going to shoot Raptor bed liner on it. Or I may shoot it with SEM Rust Shield semi gloss, I still haven't made up my mind. The one thing I forgot about is the bucket seat brackets that need to be welded to the floor, not a big deal, there are a few spots I still want to touch up anyways that were revealed after I shot the primer. I don't have the buckets yet but have a friend that just pulled a 67ss with 65,000 miles on it out of a garage that was it was put in over 30 years ago that I am going to get the measurements from.
 
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