Here's the man himself, "Cool" Raul!

June 6 2008, the El Cutlass makes it to Raul's shop. He asked if I wanted to come back in a couple of weeks and give him a hand to remove all the trim and do some prep work. Carlo said he'd help out too so that just might be the plan and the next pictures...
I did end up stripping the trim but of course forgot to bring the camera....

Might as well put up some pix of the goodies I've got for the resto. These are the bedrail moldings, had a hell of a time getting these. (Many thanks to Jim from Cambridge Ontario for this score!) They're used and they've got some dings but better than what I had. Problem was I want to ditch the plastic bedliner, but where it overlaps the bed rails some jackass screwed it right to the moldings. End result is with no bedliner there's about 40 holes in the moldings and it looks like shit. I paid $150 for the two long pieces, the two corners and the bit for the tailgate. Not bad when one wrecking yard in Texas I called wanted $400 for the same parts. Ya, ok.....

On the left are all new seals from Bethel's Goat farm (GTO goat not real goats!) of San Jose California. The guy on the phone was a bit puzzled when I ordered window seals for an El Camino and door seals for a Cutlass, but they got me what I needed.
On the right are a set of rear marker lights from a '69 Cutlass, obtained from Nick Lauffer of St. John Kansas. I had a marker light busted on the driver's side, but instead of tracking down an Elky one I got the idea to use these for a custom finish. It will work out well since the car needs all new metal on the quarter panels, Raul can make these fit. I can't wait to see this done, these lights really shined up well considering they're 39 years old. I've also gone to my local Partsouce store and had them order me a new set of chrome exterior door handels. They're only like 14 bucks each so that's not too bad. The ones on the Cutlass doors have the usual pitting, go figure.
Should have some more pictures next week, going to pass by Raul's to drop this stuff off.

August 1st - Saw Raul, Damn El Camino still isn't even in the shop yet. This is how she's been sitting, patiently waiting her turn.

Here's Calhi posing with the rust. This is all getting cut out, so I poked around with a screwdriver to see just how bad it was. (Bad!) On the right is is the driver's side behind the rear wheel, also getting cut out. The '69 Cutlass lights will replace the likes of these busted ass ones.

Here's what my bedrail trim looks like with the bedliner pulled up. I'd love to meet the guy who did this and slap him in the chops. It's a damn shame. Go figure the piece off the tailgate is almost 100% ding free because it was always covered up, but it's got about 10 holes in it. Pisses me off but I found new ones.                                                                                                                      

Wow, this new format isn't too annoying, is it? Glad I can make things look like crap with ease now.... UPDATE: Aug 22 08 - I paid a surprise visit to Expo 2000 today, and sure enough my car was actually in the shop! You can see Raul and Carlos' pops working away in the one picture. Not much to show yet, it looks like they just brought it in that morning, but it's a start.....

Here's the latest body shop pictures, Sept 12/08. They've done exactly what I wanted, taking the small chunk I cut off the Cutlass and grafting it onto the El Camino so the door shuts flush. I'm told the Cutlass body line will die where it ends there, and the El Camino line from under the 1/4 window will remain the same. It looks awesome so far!

Here's Calhi posing with the car, and a shot of the serious grinding going on behind the rear wheel.

From this angle you can see how the side of the El Camino now bulges out slightly to meet up with the door. I opened and closed it a few times and it's smooth. On the right are the new goodies they ordered and just got in on Sept 11: 2 new rocker panels, and new 1/4's for in front and behind the wheel. Hope this stuff wasn't too exspensive, I forgot to ask....

Upadate : I was at the shop Sept. 26/08, here's the pictures. They've started on the quarter panels. On the right is what he's got done on the inside, you can't buy this so it has to be hand made.

A little bit at a time I guess. Maybe they'll start on the passenger side soon. Wish I had more to show everyone but unfortunatly this is it.....

October 10/08 : Avery and I stopped by the shop today and the work is moving along. All the metal work is done on the driver's side, new rocker in place and all. The door has been prepped for the new inner/outer bottom skins they ordered.

Work has been started on the passenger side, and in the picture on the right you can see the piece he's cut off to replace with the Cutlass piece. I never got to see this stage on the other side, it was already in place when I took those pictures. Raul said his father spent a whole day just fitting the passenger door, he said there was too much pressure on it. These parts were never meant to go together but we're making them! More to come...

Update : October 24/08. Stopped by for the usual visit and things are looking good. Nice to see my car without a huge hole in it! Looks like just about all the metal work is done. I'm able to count 8 areas where new metal has been put, 16 pieces all together! Just like when I did the floor it's like a quilt, but all solid.

Here you can see both my doors have been done, inner and outer. When this is all done it should last me a lifetime not being driven in the winter. I'll have more pictures in another 2 weeks, maybe by then Raul will be pulling the two dents out of the roof or smoothing things out. It's obvious I won't be driving it this year, hopefully I'll have it by Christmas. If so it will be exactly 1 year start to finish.

Update : November 7/08. I was at the shop for the usual visit today and things are looking great! My car is off the scissor lift, always a good sign. They've put fiberglass over to of the patches and they've started to smooth it out and it's actually starting to look like one vehicle. Awesome! I think the only rust spot left to deal with is around the driver's side mirror there.

It's kind of tight to take pictures where the car is sitting now, but check out the last two. See how they've taken the body line on the door and continued it on the 1/4 panels? This is exactly what I wanted, for it to have the Cutlass lines front to back and not just be an El Camino with a Cutty front clip thrown on. Remember, there was at least a one inch difference between the two lines before. Tight skills at work here!

Update : November 21/08. At Expo 2000 today, now my car is sitting on the "New" hoist at the front of the shop. This is a good sign, she's now within 25 feet of the spray booth! In the right picture you can see Raul's handywork with the dents I had on the roof.

The bedliner is out, never again to go back in except to drive it home because Ray would like it for his new El Camino. The actual bed of the truck is in pretty good shape, Raul sandblasted where it need it in a few spots but it has no holes! (Ray had oiled it) Shitty part is, once it was out and the trim was off there's more rust around the rear window. Raul gave me the option of half-assing it and fixing it with the glass in. I said screw it, pay your windshield guy to come and pull it out. He ageed as we've gone to so much trouble already.

Still not much room to take good pictures, the shop is very tight.

I wanted to try to get a good picture of this. Check out Raul's job on blending the lines from the door to the El Camino body preserving the Cutlass look. I'm impressed! More in 2 weeks! 

Update : December 5/08. I walked in the door this afternoon and there was Raul busy sanding the crap out of my car. He had a guy pull out the rear glass (In one piece thank god!) and he patched up the holes. He's got the tailgate all smoothed out too. It had a nice dent to the left of the licence plate, some local hoodlum gave it a kick when Ray still owned it.

Pretty cool, the car is super smooth now. Raul says next it will be all in primer and then he'll sand it again. These guys don't mess around!

I hate to see my car all in pieces after I spent so long putting it together, but I know it has to be this way. Raul says I should've brought it to him with no interior at all. In hindsight this would probably have made things easier. On the right is an action shot of cool Raul! Look at him, sanding away so furiously his hand is a blur! Looking good boss!

With all the sanding that's been going on, I thought I'd show these two pics. Both the El Camino and Cutlass have each been repainted once, and here you can sort of see each one's original colour. The El Camino was an even darker crappy beige colour. The Cutlass was an equally putrid sage green. Don't much care for either of these as you can tell! More in two weeks or so, might be in primer then.

Update : January 17/09 - I was at the shop today giving Raul a hand.I took a few pictures to E-mail to friends, but I'm not going to post them here, I'll probably wait and make a new page for it in the Spring after it's all back together and shined up. Thanks for your patience!

Update : January 11/09 - OK my wife convinced me everyone's been patient enough already so here's a sneak peek.

'69 Camaro Z-28 Hugger Orange as promised.

Update : February 1/09 - The car is now all finished and in my garage! The name has been chosen as you can see. It was #2 on my poll behind "El Supremo" and it's what I'm going with beacause I was able to spell it on the 1/4 panel by cutting the two emblems in half. Sorry this is all I'm going to show of it now, I'm going to make a new page for it when the nice weather comes and I start driving it. I can tell you this much - This car looks F*cking amazing and I got quite a few looks on the way home, starting with the dude at the gas station when I filled it up before hitting the highway. I can't wait to show all of you the finished product, please be patient for a couple of more months!!