Extreme budget GN build thread

[3-5.0]

I gotta say I like the looks of the Convo's too.

 

[BuickMike]

I believe that the B Body arms are made by UB Machine. They should will work fine with the G Body / S10 tall upper ball joints.

 

[BuickMike]

I gotta say I like the looks of the Convo's too.

I'm going to keep them around so I can switch back and forth.

 

[LIVE4RDO]

Nice

 

[SMV6LOL]

Damn too bad we cant view the pictures anymore

 

[Blazer406]

Damn too bad we cant view the pictures anymore

+1

was bummed when I started reading the thread a min ago...... what happened to the pics?

 

[BuickMike]

Sorry guys. The hosting service I was using for the pics went away. I saved them all though. I just need to get them back up and re-link everything. I didn't think there was any interest in this thread anymore, so I have not bothered yet. Give me some time and I'll get the pics back up.

 

[Pronto]

I would appreciate seeing the pictures again. I have often used them for reference.

 

[charlief1]

You can load them to this site Mike, then they're here as long as this site exists.

 

[Blazer406]

You can load them to this site Mike, then they're here as long as this site exists.

I hope that is for a very long time!

 

[BuickMike]

I already had them hosted for sharing in general, so it was easier to post the URLs at the time. I was using my crappy MobileMe account to share them, and they dropped that service. I used their tool to back up all my albums. It zipped them up and I saved them all locally. When I went to open the zip files last night, I found out that the GN build album zip file was corrupt. To make things worse, it appears that I accidentally deleted the directory containing the pics where I painted the frame and underside of the car. I believe I have most of everything else from where I put the body back on the frame. I will make a point to put back what I have last week.

 

[BuickMike]

BTW, the car is back apart. I took everything off the body to get it ready for paint, got the t top rot fixed, and now it is at Heath Elmer's shop to get repainted. So much for my extreme budget lol.

 

[BuickMike]

Alright. I got a good portion of the pics up. I will try to find the rest if I can, but no promises.

 

[BuickMike]

Update:

I spent the spring taking the car apart in preperation for paint and body work. I had some rot in the T Top areas. I had the same guy who filled my fender fix all that and shave my bumpers. I don't have any pics of the work. I totally forgot to take any. I finally got it to Heath Elmer's shop to do all the stuff that is over my head. Once the car is painted, I will reassemble everything.

Here is the car stripped down:

Here is the car in primer:

 

[BuickMike]

Alright. I've been plugging away at reassembling the car sl0wly over the last couple months. The paint is absolutely beautiful!!! If you want a car painted black, then Heath Elmer Restorations is the place. They used PPG Jet Black and clear. 3 coats base, 4 coats clear. I went to a few big car shows recently and only found one other black car that had paint as nice as mine, and other on-lookers were just blown away by it. I can't wait to get mine out to car shows and see the reaction. So obviously I've blown the whole "budget" theme, but I saved enough money with the rest of the car that I could afford to splurge a little.

I've been working on assembling the exterior and painting / installing trim. Right now I'm working on getting the front windows and weatherstripping. I have the GBodyparts weatherstripping. So far everything fits perfect except the t top piece that seals the door windows. It is cut at a 45 degree angle and it does not match up with the pillar pieces, so there is a gap. The plan is to stretch it out enough so it smooshes and seals.

I've been to lazy to take pics, but I will try to get some together this week before I completely assemble things.

Here are some teasers of the car from a couple weeks ago:

Check out the Toyo Proxes Drag Radials. They are the 275/45/16's. The back GTA rims are widened to 8.5", so fit is awesome. Also, check out the shaved rear bumper.

Shaved front bumper.

 

[SuperSix]

Kickass. I plan on shaving/smoothing the bumpers on my GN.

 

[SMV6LOL]

mmmm down right sexy, im loving the shaved bumpers. How much did the paint job set you back?

 

[trailinjake]

x2 on the show quality paint cost!!! Looks amazing and great thread!!! Well done...

 

[BuickMike]

Well, I did some trading of computer work and got a deal on labor. I also disassembled and reassembled the car myself including removing / installing all the glass and repainting all the trim. I had my friend shave my bumpers and repair the rot in the t top area. Even with all I did, they still spent 241 hours to strip, repair the rot in my doors, remove the 150+ small dents, prime, paint, wet sand, etc. Lets just sat that if I was a customer off the street and handed the car over to have them do it all I would have been about $18-20k poorer. Keep in mind that my car had a bunch of surprises. A straight car with no rust would have been much less.

 

[Blazer406]

I'm blown away!

That is so cool.

Congrats on your new show car.