This page is about the work done at the bodyshop in Union New Jersey. Above you can see a faint picture of the overall car in the painting room. In this picture the new passenger side quarter panel is installed and the door jambs have been painted. Next to that picture are two pictures I took of the doors and trunk lid. They have just had their last coat of clear coat appied to the jambs and are drying. These three pictures mark the begining of my visits to the bodyshop. From there on out I tried to visit every chance i got after school (keep in mind I was still in high school at the time).
My trunk lid had some minor surface rust on the outer skin which Bill took care of. Apparently just about all of the car had minor rust on the sheet metal which only took some sanding down to get rid of it. Inside the trunk lid had some minor rust around the edges too. The trunk jamb in the car had major metal pitting along where the bumper meets the car. Those pitts were cleaned, prepped and filled in. The doors had just your minor dents in them from the shopping mall parking lots. The doors were then smoothed out and primed with a special primer which inhibits rust.
Below are some pictures of the driver side of the car after the minor dents were filled in. The picture on the far left shows the door itself. Notice the yellowish primer on the fender. That is the primer used throughout the whole car. The picture in the middle shows the door, my inspection sticker (which is now gone forever), and the space where a quarter panel should go. At this present time the quarter panel was not yet installed. Some custom work needed to be done to the bottom of the opening behind the rear tire. The rust ate away more than the quarter panel and Bill had to custom fabricate panels to fit in underneath the quarter panel.
On the far right above is a picture taken of the new passenger side door (insides) before the car went to the bodyshop. Notice that my new door is of course, BLUE. This was a coincidence even though I bought the car with a blue passenger side door. There is a history about the Blue door that I will write in the History page. I found the new Blue door at the Englishtown Swap Meet complete with glass. The door came off of a 1970 Chevelle convertable. The only thing it needed was minor repair to the outside and two pinholes ontop filled in (from the mirror which my car does not have).
Below are three pictures I took of the driver side quarter panel opening before the install of the new skin. The far left picture shows the front of the quarter panel opening. Here you can see where the rear quarter window rolls down to. In the middle you can see the rear tire along with the wheelhouse and part of my trunk. One of the fasicnating things about my car was that the trunk floor was not rusted in any way. Take a look at a '70 to '72 Chevelle coupe's trunk panel and notice that it will be fully rusted through, or almost there. I think mine never rusted through is partly because of the convertable top. Underneath where the convertable top attaches to the body there is a rain gutter inside the car. When it rained the rain went underneath the body and into this raingutter. Then the water was directed out of the car through the wheelhouses. On the far right you can see that my new quarter panels are full skins running from the front doors all the way back to the bumper and from top to rocker panel. You can also see the two Vise-Grips holding on the custom patch fabricated by Bill himself.
more to come on the work done at the bodyshop......
Last updated on March 12, 1999 (12:11 AM)