Dont Drool!

Purchased this 05 November 2004, 72 El SS 454.

Runs Like A Champ!

Pictures from my first car show. I entered both rides. I took 3rd place in Trucks thru 76 Original.

SAD NEWS, well for me. I rear ended another car! Man, soooo disappointing!! The bumper and grill were toast. Gota shallow dent in the nose of the hood, small paint chip spot. The fender buckled out in the top center of the wheel well. The front end that holds the headlights ( dont know the term ) were chipped up pretty bad too.

Sooo, since I cant afford to take it to the shop to have all body damage repaired and the paint done, I'm going to see what I can do myself. And that is the beauty of these old cars, we can fix them ourselves!!

I used black primer because I thought since the orange is somewhat dark, the black primer would help darken the orange I'm spraying on.

I also cleaned up all the bezels.
As far as the fender, I didn't try to take out the dent, as not to make things worse. I just cleaned out all the rust well and put some paint on the big spot where the paint had chipped up. It came out OK, just the paint is different shade orange. Looks alot better than a great big rust patch. And that was the idea, prevent any rust until I can get the car into the shop and have the work done properly so it looks good.

Shot of the front end all put back together. And the difference in paint color on the fender extension didn't turn out all that bad.

The blue tape on the edge of the hood is where I still have a couple chipped spots that need patching.

I didn't attempt to pound out any of the dents, as not to make things any worse. Some times good intentions can turn wrong really fast, sooo...

The dent here in the top center of the wheel well, I sanded the last coat of paint flush with the body, so the patch is dull. I'm going to buff it and see if it will make it shine up.

The dent at the front left here by the parking light, I didn't sand the last coat of paint to make it flush with the rest of the body. Just to see if one patch would look better over the other.

I tore out the whole rear end suspension. The old bushing were totally shot!! Especially the bushings on the diff. It was sooo bad that any time I let on / off the gas, the rear end would shift side to side.
And you could see why!!

I put in all new poly bushings.
I had the upper and lower rear control arms welded to box them out. I figured since an after market boxed control arm set is like over $500, I'll try boxing them out with a thick guage plate welded over for a small price. We'll see how that goes.

I'll put up some pics of the control arms for anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about or interested.

Leaky heater core. I had to dismantle half the car! Well I pulled the dash all apart to clean and fix some other stuff too. All in all it was a suprisingly easy job, just alot of tear down.

New core put in with the box all sealed up.

We all know how it goes, while ya got it apart, attempt to take care of everything else while yer at it! Sometimes just the curiosity of tearin somethin apart makes me get into everthing else too.
So, i pulled off the the whole AC unit from the engine bay. There was a frikkin bird nest, rat nest, or somethin in the AC box! Must have gotten in from the drain hole. The box was full of leaves, pine needles, twigs, a bunch of lint, with like 2 inches of dirt in bottom!
The houseing had a hole and big crack in it.
New blower motor.

Installed back in.

Had to fix the HI/LOW fan swith.
Ever seen the inside of one?

Dash out. Trying to organize the wiring. All the profesional electricians out there who have just stuffed in extra wiring everywhere, little splice here, little splice there, loose wires, and nothing taped together.

How to get the Head light pull switch out.

Push in the button on the back of the head light switch to get the pull knob out. Once the knob is out, unscrew the retaining nut.

My dash parts all painted up. Waiting for some additional parts to arrive so I can put it all back together.

Got the wiring all cleaned up, the dash, back in, new dash cap on, new seals all around the vent ducting, and now my headlights dont work and the right blinker light on the dash doesnt work. Great!

Will have pics of the finished product up soon!