62 4 Door Hardtop Impala

[jaymancds]

Gas coverage will yeild much better results .
Failing that a good quality inner sheild wire .

Gas coverage would be ideal for sure. I'm learning all the time with what I need to do to get good results with the setup I have. I know it's not ideal, but it will do the job if I do mine.

 

[jaymancds]

I've been busy on the ol' girl. Last couple weeks I have gone ahead and just torn into the rocker panel on the passenger side. 95% of the inner rocker, and all of the support bracing was completely gone. Once I peeled back the outer rocker, it was clear that I needed to just get after it. I did all of the work to get the inner most rocker panel vertical piece replaced. To do so, I had to cut away everything else from the rocker panel. So far I have only gotten the inner piece put in, I found more problems that I'll detail in the next post!

 

[jaymancds]

Once I got what was left of the rocker cleared out of the way, I found a section of the rear floor was in dire need of attention. Hiding under that piece of floor was a structural support for the rear door latch and quarter panel assembly. This small triangular piece was also in need of replacing terribly. I didn't get a "before" picture, but I did get a "during" and a somewhat "after". I actually had to weld this piece in twice as the first time while trying to get the top formed up, the bottom came free showing absolutely no penetration of the welds. I slowed my feed way down to get it to build more heat, and actually was able to get it to "lay a bead" pretty well, and my welds, while not professional, look significantly better. Anyways, I'll paint this piece in the coming days, and then replace the floor area before continuing with the rocker panel repairs. Just a bite at a time!

 

[jaymancds]

My dad was in town this weekend, so I had a little help to make some good progress! We were able to get to where I only need to do 2 more flat braces before I can close the rocker back up. Before I can do that, I need to do quite a bit of grinding and painting. Hopefully this rocker will be all done in a couple weeks!

We also put tiger hair fiberglass filler over the interior patch pieces to make them look better and to help with strength and appearance. I didn't get a picture of that yet.

 

[jaymancds]

Been doing more welding and painting on the rocker. Only one more brace before I can close it back up. We're in the process of selling our house so now I have to get everything cleaned up and presentable so the work will slow down.

In other news I finished this plastic model that is close to the idea I am going for. I'll build a few more of them to test various colors to see what I like best. If the big car looks this good I'll be happy!