The Snowball Saga - '68 Standard Revitalization Project by Blitz

5 minute(s) of a 403 minute read

Thanks guys!

So, to pick up where I left off, I don't think I ever posted pics of the quarter panel repairs. This was the same day as the last pictures (10/17/11). At this stage, I'm merely an observer, watching the pro body guy do his thing.

DS didn't need much work

PS was another story... here is an inside view after stripping down the outside

Here is an old picture from the WCCC open house last August, not long before I started tearing into the roof. This is just to show what the rusty quarter looked like. You can also see the scraped wheel arch, the rust in the lower door area, the ding on the door, etc.

For some reason I don't have a pic of the completed patch, but we ended up using one of the repro patch panels. He didn't like it, said it too a lot of work to get it to fit properly. From then on, we tried to use good original panels wherever a patch was needed, instead of repro stuff. The end result looks good though, and you'll see it here in a little bit.

After this point, the car was relocated to a different shop off-site. Rainy season was coming, and we didn't have a good covered area for him to work on it. Because of this, I was only able to go look at the car / take pictures on occasional evenings after work.

The next job was to patch the floors. They were mostly good, except for the RH front, and the RH rear wasn't great either. He ended up removing the seat riser, patching in replacement (good original) floor pans and then replacing the seat riser. Sorry these pics are so crappy, taken at night. (11/16/11)

By the next time I went to look, it had transformed into this: (11/23/11)

Products used:

Also, he had begun the process of patching the trunk side panels. Unfortunately, both sides were pretty rusty. RH side cut out:

More to come soon!

12/1/2011

Trunk patch progress! RH side done:

LH side cut out:

Fast forward to 1/12/12 when I got back from vacation.

Both trunk patches finished and coated with the same black undercoating stuff.

LH rear wheelhouse actually needed a little love too.

Here's the RH quarter patch from the inside:

And the lower drop-off area needed help too:

Some work on the fenders:

Front end stripped down:

He's even paying attention to the door jambs, sanding them down and making them smooth.

The car as a whole - you can see the repaired quarter, front and back.

This is how it stayed for a few months. Logistical and monetary issues were getting in the way of progress. But now I'm happy to report that work has started up again all this week and will probably continue through next week as well. My next post should bring this up to date, but I'll keep you in suspense until Monday.