 | Here is the TA with it's 455HO just freshly removed |
 | The 455HO out and being made ready to go for a rebuild. |
 | Unfortunately, the transmission case was broken when someone installed the motor/trans. The missing piece was attached to the motor leaving very few bolts holding the transmission in. |
 | Stripping of the body begins |
 | Removal of the interior reveals some rusty floors. |
 | Here is a closeup of some of the rust holes in the floors. |
 | Here we strike a deep labrinyth of bondo in the left rear quarter |
 | The front fenders have been removed. |
 | Getting down to the bare metal reveals a lot of prior work.....and problems. |
 | Even the trunk lid has issues |
 | Here is the left door and quarter after the extensive amount of bondo has been removed. This area took quite a hard impact. |
 | Another view of the carnage |
 | The lower rear quarter has rust also |
 | The right rear quarter shows signs of an attempted patch followed by a gallon or so of bondo. Maybe if the price of bondo was raised significantly this would not occur so much. |
 | Minor issues uncovered in the cowl once the windshield was removed. |
 | The rear glass channel and package shelf have some issues also. |
 | Clean up of the right quarter begins. The factory seam to the roof panel is cleaned up and leaded. |
 | The trunk floor starts to get removed. |
 | This is what was hiding under all that bondo. The quarter will get patched but the rusty panel you see here is the trunk extension. It will require replacement. |
 | This is the rear bumper reinforcement and the trunk floor. Won't find any loose change in this trunk! |
 | Right front fender required patching at the lower edge. The metal on the right is the rotted piece removed and the back piece is the new one we made. |
 | Overall view of the fender once all the bondo was removed. |
 | Trunk floor has been removed |
 | We cleaned up the frame rails and primed and painted them while we had the rare opportunity to have them exposed. This will, most likely, prevent them from ever rusting. |
 | After the right fender has been finished in initial body work. |
 | Right rear quarter has been patched and the door has been finished out also. The right side is starting to look very good! |
 | Subframe has been removed, dismantled and stripped. |
 | The mighty 455HO has been rebuilt and painted. |
 | The front view with the subframe removed. |
 | Once the entire interior has been rmeoved, this is what remains |
 | Underside of the floor clean up begins. |
 | The used 74 quarter has arrived. The 74 and 71 quarter panels are the same except where the bumper meets. We do not need to go there. Given the fact that the 70-73 quarters are virtually non existent and, if you can fine one, the pricing is in the thousands. |
 | We have cut off the damaged area which reveals some rust in the wheel house and a panel cut into the inner quarter so the prior "bodyman" could pound out all the damage from the inside. |
 | The replacement panel was bead blasted and primed followed by undercoating to prevent rusting. |
 | After the wheel house and the inner quarter were patched, we primed and undercoated the inside area. |
 | The "new" panel is test fitted after being carefully trimmed to fit exactly. This is like making a jigsaw puzzle piece. |
 | After the dimensions were checked, the outer skin was stripped. |
 | The replacement skin is screwed into place so we can adjust when we put the door skin on and install the door to make sure we get the gaps placed where we need them to be. |
 | The skin is placed under the roof panel as the factory did |
 | The door shell required a fair amount of rehabilitation |
 | The view of the door with the door skin removed. |
 | The door shell has been finished and the skin has been installed. Now we can adjust the door and quarter to fit the proper way. The door can always be moved but not the quarter panel. You only get one chance to get things right. |
 | Tack welding begins. If you lay a continuous bead of weld, it will overheat and warp the metal. Once the tacks are fully welded, the screws will be removed. |
 | Full tack welding to the roof panel has been completed and the screws have been removed. |
 | Tack welding to the lock pillar has also been done. |
 | Grinding of the welds has begun. This will make the splice disappear completely. |
 | Body work has begun to smooth out any minor inconsistencies. |
 | Same thing to the quarter splice. |
 | Now that all the body work has been done, the body has been primed. |
 | Another view |
 | Interior is primed |
 | Front endura bumper is primed |
 | Miscellaneous parts are primed |
 | Edged out in Lucerne Blue? No, we are doing a twist on the color. This is 2008 Corvette Jetstream Blue Pearl Metallic |
 | Underside in Jetstream Blue |
 | Interior is Jetstream Blue |
 | Forward of underside |
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