G-body 25.3 SFI rebuild
- Thread starter 10secBu
- Start date
Well, sitting here relaxing with my first Sunday off from working on the car since Nov 1st, 2010.
Anyway, I was looking through the pics on my computer and these two kinda spoke to me in a way. These show where the Malibu started it's new life when I rebuilt it the first time back starting in 1993. A friend of mine runs a junk yard and he was saving this for himself, but never got started and I purchased it from him.
Anyway, I was looking through the pics on my computer and these two kinda spoke to me in a way. These show where the Malibu started it's new life when I rebuilt it the first time back starting in 1993. A friend of mine runs a junk yard and he was saving this for himself, but never got started and I purchased it from him.
This afternoon I added two weigh bar tabs to the passenger side counter-X bar as well as welding on the chassis tag.
My boss (Henry) called the media blasters to see about scheduling the car for blasting. They have three cars ahead of mine, so currently unsure if the car will get in yet this week, or if it'll have to wait till the beginning of next week. We will call the end of this week to check on the time frame.
My boss (Henry) called the media blasters to see about scheduling the car for blasting. They have three cars ahead of mine, so currently unsure if the car will get in yet this week, or if it'll have to wait till the beginning of next week. We will call the end of this week to check on the time frame.
It's in the upper right hand corner of each of our posts. I'm in Maryland.
Even though I thought the fabrication was done, I did find a couple small things to do so this morning I worked a couple hours to do some finer detailing. The rear wheel well openings had the top edge cut out to clear the tires from years past. Before the wheel well trim covered this, but to give more room for the 315 D/R I had to take out more of the lip so the trim would have to go. The lip looked very uneven and unfinished. I decided to take it almost completely out except for approx 1/8". I then used some 1/4" bar stock and bent it to shape and welded inside the quarter panel lip opening. This gives a finished edge as well as a smooth surface if the tire would ever happen to rub.
The bay I work in has been kinda messy, so with a nice sunny day I rolled the car outside to clean the shop up.
Looks like the blaster won't be able to take the car till later next week, if that. Grrr.
Anyway, here how it looks sitting in the sun waiting for it's turn at the basters.
I may take a load of parts to the chromers either Monday or Tuesday.
The bay I work in has been kinda messy, so with a nice sunny day I rolled the car outside to clean the shop up.
Looks like the blaster won't be able to take the car till later next week, if that. Grrr.
Anyway, here how it looks sitting in the sun waiting for it's turn at the basters.
I may take a load of parts to the chromers either Monday or Tuesday.
The good news for today is my boss called me (off to keep the kids today) and he said the blasters called to say he could take the car sometime after lunch.
Wound up dropping the car off this afternoon and he plans to be done in just a couple days. Would be real nice to be able to pick up by Friday so I could do some cleanup over the weekend and try to get a date for deliver for powder coating next week.
Wound up dropping the car off this afternoon and he plans to be done in just a couple days. Would be real nice to be able to pick up by Friday so I could do some cleanup over the weekend and try to get a date for deliver for powder coating next week.
Well, I was able to pick the car up from the media blasters Friday and got a not so nice surprise. The roof got warped. 
He stopped as soon as he saw the metal move, but by then it was too late.
My body man looked at it and did a little work today, but needs to come back tomorrow to try and shrink the bad areas. If this doesn't work, we may be forced to try and source a donor car to swap the roof.
I then had to finish stripping the rest of the roof with chemical stripper this afternoon. I also started to clean out some of the seam sealer and blow out some of the remaining media beads. I then rolled underneath to blow out the frame rails only to find the blaster neglected to remove the paint from the underside of the floor pans. Grrr...
Now I gotta take time off work to take the car back to get him to finish the floors before it can go to powder coating.
Ugh...
BTW, I found some body filler in the roof telling me there was some issues with the roof skin from when it was painted many years ago. I guess I can't really blame the blaster as the roof likely just did it's thing as soon as he hit it. Just something I didn't feel like dealing with right now, slowing progress down.
He stopped as soon as he saw the metal move, but by then it was too late.My body man looked at it and did a little work today, but needs to come back tomorrow to try and shrink the bad areas. If this doesn't work, we may be forced to try and source a donor car to swap the roof.
I then had to finish stripping the rest of the roof with chemical stripper this afternoon. I also started to clean out some of the seam sealer and blow out some of the remaining media beads. I then rolled underneath to blow out the frame rails only to find the blaster neglected to remove the paint from the underside of the floor pans. Grrr...
Now I gotta take time off work to take the car back to get him to finish the floors before it can go to powder coating.
Ugh...
BTW, I found some body filler in the roof telling me there was some issues with the roof skin from when it was painted many years ago. I guess I can't really blame the blaster as the roof likely just did it's thing as soon as he hit it. Just something I didn't feel like dealing with right now, slowing progress down.
Well, my body man came this morning to work on the roof while I prepped some other stuff. He was able to fix part of the roof in the back, but the center is still a little soft. I worked all morning cleaning up little areas of the car as well as acid washing the aluminum panels. With all that done I loaded up and took the car to the powder coater after lunch. I should have the car back tomorrow afternoon.
The cage/chassis/floors, etc will be charcoal metallic and the rear housing, weight bars, seat mounts and shifter mount will be low gloss black.
Once back home I'll work on making some strips to weld to the roof bows to give the center of the roof some more support. The car will then go to the body shop in the next couple weeks.
The cage/chassis/floors, etc will be charcoal metallic and the rear housing, weight bars, seat mounts and shifter mount will be low gloss black.
Once back home I'll work on making some strips to weld to the roof bows to give the center of the roof some more support. The car will then go to the body shop in the next couple weeks.
Squid4life
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2004
Man, it all looks beautiful! Very nice choice in colors, I love this car! If I ever win Powerball I am calling you about building a car! Nice work brother!
The media blaster charged $900 which is also what the powder coater charged.
No issue with warping from the powder coating although the media blaster warped the roof some. I think it had a prior issue that only showed it'self when he went to strip the roof. It's pretty much repaired now although I'm gonna add a refinforcing strip to support the very middle section which is still kinda springy.
This weekend I worked on gathering the stuff the body shop will need. I did a quick mockup of the doors & front end so it's less to haul when delivering the car. Pretty much ready to go.
Today I drove around to a couple new car dealers looking at paint colors. I am pretty much set on metallic silver, but wanted to see if there's anything else worth considering. I wound up finding two light blue metallics I likes, so we will probably do a couple quick spray-out cards to help narrow the decision.
Today I drove around to a couple new car dealers looking at paint colors. I am pretty much set on metallic silver, but wanted to see if there's anything else worth considering. I wound up finding two light blue metallics I likes, so we will probably do a couple quick spray-out cards to help narrow the decision.
While I'm posting, here's the two new colors I found today.
This first one is a 2011 Ford Escape and the color is called Steel Blue Metallic. This one has a real nice metallic in it compared to the second one I'll post.
This second color is on a 2011 Chevy Silverado truck and the color is called Blue Granite Metallic. I have noticed this one for a while as a neighbor has a truck this color.
This first one is a 2011 Ford Escape and the color is called Steel Blue Metallic. This one has a real nice metallic in it compared to the second one I'll post.
This second color is on a 2011 Chevy Silverado truck and the color is called Blue Granite Metallic. I have noticed this one for a while as a neighbor has a truck this color.
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