well,if you've actually built cars for a while,you know that even the most cherry cars have SECRETS hiding when you start tearing them part,, ..im not saying this 48 was no sunday driver,,but it had been kept dormant for the prior 20 years...problem is..20 years ago was 1984(or is it 85) and the car had been on the road for 26-27 years prior to that,,,after i tore it down and stripped it to bare metal i found a few places that at first made me mad,,but i do give major credit to the proior body man,,he did a hellauvajob hiding grandmas damage from the parking lot mishaps...nothing major,,but it was interesting,,and suprising at the same time... anyways...i guess 42-48 chevys are common on the rear fender area rusting out,,i spent all of today refabing both rear quarters ,,i was put off at first,but im pretty happy with the results..i still need to gring down the welds on the other side,, ,,,anyways,,,any HORROR stories of "CHERRY" cars gone wrong????
well,the picture doesnt look that great, but anyways it is super solid now...i DIDNT even mention the random spots of surface rust i found UNDER the paint...how does that happen,,its not major,but weird that its UNDER the otherwise 'nice' paint..
This is a early shot of what I found under the old repaint,, I knew the floors were gone,,,but didn't expect this,,
Yea, I have a tail of good car gone bad. I had a friend buy a "restored" 56 customline ford hardtop on PEEBAY out of Washington state. Fresh paint, the works. When it got here to Texas, it was a shiny POS. The quarters were made of bondo and the floorboards were old road signs. I ended up replacing both quarters from mid body down. And scratch building the rear tail panel. I also put all the floorboards in it along with part of the trunk floor. It had a big dent in the right quarter that they could have hammered out from inside the trunk but just piled bondo 1" thick on it instead. Also the bottoms of the front fenders I replaced. We also pulled it off the frame to fix most of the body supports. So he payed for a restored car and THEN restored it. He has WAY too much money in it, but he drove one in high school. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it. Keith
HRP .. i was at your site yesterday looking at those pics. very informative, great angles and could see the construction process.
[ QUOTE ] Yea, I have a tail of good car gone bad. I had a friend buy a "restored" 56 customline ford hardtop on PEEBAY out of Washington state. Fresh paint, the works. When it got here to Texas, it was a shiny POS. The quarters were made of bondo and the floorboards were old road signs. [/ QUOTE ] Why use road signs I use dryer tops easier to come by legally.
Damn. I found some road signs under the carpet of a car I took apart last summer. I felt so violated.
[ QUOTE ] Yea, I have a tail of good car gone bad. I had a friend buy a "restored" 56 customline ford hardtop on PEEBAY out of Washington state. Fresh paint, the works. When it got here to Texas, it was a shiny POS. The quarters were made of bondo and the floorboards were old road signs. I ended up replacing both quarters from mid body down. And scratch building the rear tail panel. I also put all the floorboards in it along with part of the trunk floor. It had a big dent in the right quarter that they could have hammered out from inside the trunk but just piled bondo 1" thick on it instead. Also the bottoms of the front fenders I replaced. We also pulled it off the frame to fix most of the body supports. So he payed for a restored car and THEN restored it. He has WAY too much money in it, but he drove one in high school. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it. Keith [/ QUOTE ] Old saying, shiney paint hides shit. Give me a faded out original anyday.
I bought a 62 Gran Prix from a original lady with 46,000 miles. Super clean and solid car for the east coast. The problem is that both side were run up and down the garage by g-mom. They all have work that needs to be done. It is irritating sometiomes, but definitely beat any other hobby. Larry
The Jalopy Journal
