Here's Avery on the left and Calhi on the right, sitting on the seats for the Camino. I've taken them out of the Cutlass and brought them into my basement (How classy!) and completely shampooed them. On the right is a shot of the rear floor area, this weekend's project for Carlo and I.

Once I had the seats out of the Cutlass I pulled the carpet out since I'm using it as well. The floor was pretty rusty in the front but I decided what the heck, I should cut a couple of patches for the rear. It's just like my friend Jason commented when I showed him the patch I cut for the frame. He said it was obvious that I used to work at a scrapyard - I have no respect for this car. To quote a little band called Metallica..."Sad but true!"

Just like the seats, I've broght the carpet into my basement to dry out. First I vacuumed it, then shampooed it, then hauled it over to the coin-op car wash to power wash it. Then I dried it out and shampooed it again. (IT was F'n filthy!) Figured I'd do the seatbelts too. This took a whole weekend. It still has a shit brown stain where your left foot would rest but it does look better than it did. I've gotta give thanks and much love to my wife Heather for putting up with this crap. You're the best! On the right is the scavenged pieces of Cutlass all trimmed and ready to tack into place as soon as my man Carlo comes over. We still have to custom fit a couple of pieces for the pass. side front area. Goddam floor is gonna look like a quilt when we're done! I just don't have the money to put in a complete pan so this will have to do for now. At least it will be solid and all steel when we're done.

Here's a shot of the floor all welded, sealed and undercoated. Many thanks to Carlo Galli for his mad skills with the welder! Just waiting for this to dry out, then I'll be laying down all the wiring and installing the carpet. Left side picture is of the Cutlass windshield installed. Cost me $100 to have it done but worth it. It's actually looking like a real car with the hood on and all the trim back in place around the windshield. All chrome baby, right down to the wiper blades!

Here we have the final indignity towards the Cutlass: slicing out the sides behind the doors for future use by the body shop. I Chopped cars up like this for a living for 7 years and after a 5 month break it sure did feel good to take the old turkey carver to the side of a car!

The cut up parts. I'm thinking the body shop can trim part of these, weld them onto the El Camino and then blend them in with cheese. We'll see. On the right is the definition of a stripped car!

Got the carpet in, what a fight that was! Pretty much fit perfect once it was in, just had to trim the rear edge a little but this ends up under a piece of trim.

Here's the trim parts I had to paint grey to match. The sunvisors are sweet, dual light up vanity mirrors. To anyone with one of these cars interested in an upgrade, these are from a '91 Cutlass Ciera. They mount the exact same and are the same size as the originals. I also use rear view mirrors from Cieras/Centurys when I build cars as they have little map lights built into them.

So here's the interior basically done except for the stereo. Power seat all good to go, I like! Another upgrade: The center armrest is from a '90 LeSabre. It's one of the ones that opens up and has a flip out cupholder. Good for my Tim's eh. Anyways, I totalled it up to be 125 hours of work to get it to this point. Next pictures should be of it out on my driveway and then at the body shop.

One last picture for now. It's Calhi sitting in daddy's car. She actually looked out the back window and asked me if it was a car or a truck! I told her it was both.....


Had to throw in a before picture to go with the after, just to put in perspective how fully and truly I had my way with this car. Don't try this at home folks, I'm a trained per-fesh-un-al!

And this is the end as far as my involvement with the poor old '84 Cutlass. They guy loading it on the trailer wants the 305 out of 'er for his Lincoln derby car. The guy standing on the roof is my buddy Jay. Farewell friend, it's been real...