Now that I have most of the welding done (I still need to tackle the rear window), I started to mock-up the body panels and all the large pieces. I needed to make some room in the shed anyway. The new hood has taken me a bit of time to get aligned,as well as the fenders. You figure this 45 year old Chevy has been off its frame and apart for nearly 16 years, and I know it had it's share of fender benders. Surprisingly, the most difficult thing about putting the bumpers on was trying to find some 7/16" bolts and nuts. Other than that, the bumpers fit to the frame without much of an issue. The front bumper has a bend or two, but they are both going to be replaced anyway. I even took the fuel sending unit out of the tank, and installed the gas tank. I'll replace that now, because I know it isn't going to work if I don't. Finally, I removed the rear 1/4 window on the left side, which will need to be cleaned up and installed later.
Wow, there was a lot of work to do on the left fender! I started this morning by continuing on the same fender I started on Thursday, by repairing a few small patch pieces before I got to the lower fender patch. I welded on a new nut for the missing front core support, and then cut out all the rust and inner brace work that was rotten. The photo shows just the rough fender welds on the patch panel, I later ground them smooth and started to work on fabricating the inner brace work. I also had to tap a few screw holes on the body that the fenders mount to. That fender has been on and off probably 10 times today! I still need to weld up the brace and trim it up a bit so that it fit perfectly...hopefully tomorrow.
I've been making progress on the 66 Chevelle over the past week or two, but I haven't taken many photos. I got the left quarter panel on, the drivers door fixed and have moved on to the left fender. I swapped one of the 71 Chevelle's 18" Coys on to see how they would look....not too bad. The backspacing is good, although the rear sits a bit high due to the extra lift from the anti hop bars on the top trailing arms. I might have to shorten the springs or remove the Lakewood pieces altogether. I also cut the left quarter to match the wheel moldings so it would look nice.
I pulled the driver's side window out so that I could weld up the holes in the door, but left the passenger's side glass in for now. I also noticed that the fender emblem holes were not the same, obviously someone swapped in a fender from another car, but Zach helped me weld up the old holes and carefully measure and drill out new holes. When I finish this last fender, I'll finish drilling out the screw holes for the wheel moldings (only did the left rear so far) and then on to the last weld....the rear window.
