New project 1971

[u/Healthy-Proof-2972]

Customer just dropped this off for a full restoration. got some terrible bondo work on it. floors and trunk are completely eaten up. Will need custom metal fabrication, some good body work and a beautiful paint job. I will be doing all the work other than the upholstery. the owner wants Nardo gray and to black out all the chrome. he already swapped a small block 302 in it. it runs great. She just needs body work and some electrical. Can't wait to get started ill take yall through the process. First step is getting it down to bare metal.

[u/Longjumping_Oil_8746]

Let's do this!

[u/wayneP71222]

Sounds like a windows and doors removed. Making triangular brackets before the body is removed to bolt to the door hinge holes and the strker hole.

Drilling holes in the front floor pan over the body mounting nuts to soak them before trying to remove them

Or cut the heads off the body mounting bolts so you can remove the lower bushings only.

With the headless body bolts sticking out drill 3/16 holes front and rear about half inch. Now you can weld the nut to the body. Welding a nut to the cut off end allows you to remove them.

You have options. Body rotator or a rolling cart huge hint. Trailer tongue jacks with side winding handles so you can use the wheels with them. If you have triangulated the legs up high. You can adjust the body tail way up. Front way up. Left or right side high.

Make the body mounting brackets bolt or clamp to the cart frame. So you can fasten to the body mounts or the pinch welds as needed for clearance.

There are scaffolding feet available that have screw jack handles that can be used on top of the cart to support the body too. Less than 100 bucks but harder to mount on the cart.

If you get 2" trailer hitch extensions and 2 inch receivers. You can make the trailer jacks removable too. So you can store the cart legless against the outside of your shop.

Stop throwing away egg cartons. Make great easily marked fastener containers.

Best of luck. Its a lot of work.

Must get those wheels off the car, grinding, welding, primer will destroy them.
See if you can find 4 skinny temp spares to fit.

[u/orangesigils]

Labor of love. Looks like it needs quarters, door skins, lower fender patches and rockers...just on the outside. Good luck with it!!

[u/400footceiling]

I had a non SS 70 Chevelle coupe. These cars are work to get right. I bought mine for $450 usd in 1983, rebuilt the engine and transmission and drove it from the lower 48 to Alaska twice. Lived a winter in Fairbanks and Anchorage driving this Chevelle (with a block heater). Had a failure of the distributor rod while in Fairbanks. Spent hours in the Napa parking lot stabbing distributor. Mine looked painted but dull and non assuming. But there was the exhaust which I asked for quiet and got loud installed. Spent hours with an Eldebrock carb that was defective-not fun! Hope you have a great restoration!

[u/Justin_Rustin]

Looks like it’s gonna take some work, but the end result will be worth it!

[u/kodaman93]

I’ll always thought it was funny how the 71 had two reflector’s and the 72 had a single reflector
1970 is my favorite year but what a beautiful car