Has anyone here did a restoration for their car themselves? I was wondering what are the procedures needed, frame off, strip paint, gut the interior, sandblast car. How far did you go and what did you do? And did you have any pictures?
I'm in the process of doing my 64, body off, sandblasted frame, repainted frame, did some floor work. No rotisery. Still needs the paint work done but I will farm that out. Did the complete drive train. Interior was in good shape so left that alone.
Bought a small sanblasting cabinet, which came in very handy. Had bumper redone. Is now back together and is a driver but still require paint as previuosly mentioned.
Yup I did the sandblasting myself, It was quite a mess and the wife was yelling at me cuz she had clothes on the clothes line drying, LOL. There was a cloud of sandblasting dust. Would consider sublet to powder coater next time, they said 600 bucks to blast and powdercoat. Floor work was done in the trunk, while body was off, I'm a rookie welder so no outside body panels for me, LOL.
i did my own 'frame on' resto, stripped the body by hand using chemical stripper and elbow grease! dont blast any panels!! luckily i had no rust on the floors/rockers etc to deal with. i've heard the price some powder coaters are charging for frames (like lemans64 said) are way too reasonable to make sense to do it yourself...
level of what you get into, depends on what you are starting with and how far you want to go in terms of finish quality...
I would have liked to take my part of and strip the paint and rust off myself, like with paint stripper or sanding, etc. But I dont have the space, and I have never welded before or did panel beating or custom metal sheetwork
I used POR 15 to paint the frame, brushed on, cuz if u spray u have to use a good respirator and oxygen. U have to top coat it if is going to see any sunlight or it goes flat. I would of Powdercoated the frame except I did not have any way off getting frame to powdercoater without using tow truck or renting trailer. Next time I will spend the xtra on the tow. U need at least 2 bays if ya gonna pull the body.
I'm in the middle of a frame off on my 69' Parisienne rag. The frame had some "issues". Repaired all the soft spots, then had it sent out for sandblasting and epoxy priming ($400). Came back looking nice, although the blasting had revealed a few more soft spots. Repaired those, scuffed then re-primed with DuPont Nason in grey. Then shot a topcoat of black Nason Ful-poxy with a flattening agent added. Still came out too glossy, but didn't want to recoat again. Should note that all my frame work after welding was done on a home made frame flipper. Made it very easy to work on and assemble all the components on the frame, it's a must imop. Added 4 wheel discs, braided lines, disc/disc combination valve, all poly bushings and a big front and rear bar, 12:1 ratio steering box. Rebuilt 12 bolt w/3.73's. Moved the trans crossmember mounts back to eventually accomodate a 700R4. I'm happy with the result so far. I take a peek at the chassis whenever I become discouraged with the body. It inspires me that I could accomplish that. All in all, it's been a labour of love. A huge amount of work, and the body has become a full time job lately (no time to chat). Only my vision of a sweet, strong running ragtop keeps me going. Check out my Flickr picture site, tons of pictures.
Cheers, Mark.
-- Edited by cdnpont at 14:46, 2008-09-21
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
cdnpont I am just looking though the flickr pictures, you have quite a bit. It also seems you started off with quite a solid car(body). Im still continuing to look through them Good luck with the rest of your project.
Besides taking alot of pictures. Make sure to bag and mark everything. Divide bins into int, motor, body, etc. I've got an Eastwood tumbler for small parts and nuts, bolts and screws. It doesn't harm threads and way better than rubbing your fingers off on the bench grinder with the wire wheel. Just plug it in and leave it.
The car looked solid Mike, but had many hidden issues. Not a complete basket case though. Just within what I should be able to do on my own. Buy the most solid restoration candidate you can find. If I only knew then what I know now! I was blinded then. Pick a car that you can get reproduction parts for. The Parisienne's B Body Chev chassis is a great choice, the body is less so. I was able to pick up a low mile parts car that has helped me out big time.
Yea, what 455 said,
Bag and identify all the fasteners. Even if it seems like overkill, identify everything. Otherwise you'll be left with a pile of confusion. You can't take too many pictures either. Burn them to disc.
I've bought;
A sandblast cabinet from Princess, actually that place is perfect for a hobbiest restoring a car. Cheap hand and air tools, good enough for one go round. A decent 60 gallon compressor. Dessicant air drier. Black piping, traps, filters, regualtors, hoses. 2 HVLP spray guns, one cheap Husky, one nice DeVilleBis. A Millermatic 175 welder. (getting good at using it now). A good mask. 3 Good hand grinders. Small to large. Tons of good zip wheels, roloc discs, scotchbrite pads,etc. A DA sander. Big vise.
I've made;
A small steel welding bench. A body rotissiere. A frame flipper. Big tall jack stands.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
Yes, I did make them myself Mike. I was lucky, had access to a pile of different sizes and thicknesses of square tubing, cost me nothing. Even the wheels were free! Both were my own design, garnered from what I'd seen to date on the internet.
Once you have the body at the correct CG, it flips over with one hand. Can't imagine doing what I'm doing right now without one.
I'll offer them for sale eventually. I'd like to keep the frame flipper and convert one end to be able to take a fender or door when I start working on them. I've seen it done, it seems a great way to work on body parts.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
All the inner rockers are done, drivers pan is in. Just a little more patching on the pans. Metalwork wise, it'll be done at least back to the trunk divider. It gets tricky to spray epoxy at less than 70F let alone 50. I'd have liked to get started on the trunk pan and wheeltubs, but it looks like that will have to wait until spring. I'll place it on the frame for winter storage.
When you take on all this seemingly never ending metalwork, you really have to take a "get'er done" attitude. Perfection isn't realistic here (at least on the underbody). Your time estimate on a job always seems to come in double or more. But little by little, progress happens. I'm satisfied so far. Hell, I'm further than I was in July when I was scraping undercoat. Can anyone imagine having to pay someone else to do all this?
I've been so wrapped up in it as of late, that I have had very little time for anything else recently. The Family threatened to mutiny today if I didn't spend some quality time with them. Sometimes you just have to step away from the vehicle, and get a life!
My weather window is closing, with only about a month or so left till I pack it in till next year. I'll see how far I can get till' then.
Cheers, Mark
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
Has anyone here did a restoration for their car themselves? I was wondering what are the procedures needed, frame off, strip paint, gut the interior, sandblast car. How far did you go and what did you do? And did you have any pictures?
Mike
If this is your first restoration, I would suggest that you don't try to do a complete body off frame type restoration. It seems to me you are young and although you may be very talented and very determined, many would agree with me that very few people relatively new to restoring cars have ever undertaken a complete resto and finished it. Most have gotten discouraged, given up and either sold the project or let it rot away. I have seen it so many times.
With that said, you could be the one who could change that if you are talented, determined, rich and maybe a bit crazy!
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I would have to agree with Carl, U have to have large wallet to tackle this, Mine was all done by myself with bare minimum sent out, IE cyl head job and most other expenses are for parts and supplys and cost are over the 20g mark, car still needs to be painted yet, I know where it all went as I have a running total, it's scary, and to know I'm not finished yet.
So I will just wait then, until I get more space and more money.
Well said:
To get get your feet wet, find a parts car and take it apart. Label all the parts and start restoring the nuts,bolts and clips. You always have bolts or parts that you can't use. Good to have some on hand when you do the resto.
So I will just wait then, until I get more space and more money.
I hope I have not discouraged you. That is certainly not my intent. I wanted to make sure you realize what you are up against and have you well prepared for it.
I did my first strip-it-down job when I was about 23, on a Nova. No seperate frame to remove the body from. It took forever to re-assemble it, and I was a single guy, tons of money to play with and all the time in the world and a place to do it. BIG project!!!
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
No, you didn't discourage me, I guess when we are younger we have a lot of dreams. But I do realize it will cost quite a bit of money, even if you send a couple of parts out.
I will do a restoration a little later, when I am older and have more money though.
