My 1967 Belvedere Convertible Plans and Restoration (aka - Mad Scientist Build)

[conv67bdere]

Back to the mini tub on the driver side . . .

Spent some time in the shop tonight working on the mini tub on the driver side - and made a little progress.



Glad to be back on the mini tub and looking forward to getting this done.

In the mean time I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the rear axle and get my shortened axles ordered . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

Got a little more progress on the mini tubs . . . Hoped to get more . . .

Got a little time in the shop today, but due to the rain, and cooler temps, I was hoping to get a whole lot more time out there . . . but had to take care of some of those "life" things that always get in the way . . .

Here's what I managed to get done . . . got the trunk hinge frame re-attached to the wheel well . . . I like the way it turned out !



And a close up of the attachment . . .



Plus a whole lot more welding on the inner fender, and also a bunch of grinding to get things cleaned up a bit and looking better.

- - - Updated - - -

I guess the only question I have, and sorry if it's been asked before, is, do you EVER sleep?

LOL CarnalSupply . . . Why is it that it feel like I'm going in slow motion some times ! ! ! ARGH ! ! !

 

[snakeyes]

well had some time to go thru the last few updates you have posted, you guys are doing a very nice job, this is going to look real good when done keep updating your post ,thumbs up all the way :headbang:

 

[Ron 73]

I can see why you like how it turned out considering how cool and well done it is! I am not one of those great welders and everytime i see your work im more impressed, You sure have come a long way with all your fab and welding work!

 

[conv67bdere]

More mini tub welding, and I had to do a little trunk clean up too . . .

With all the time I've been spending in the trunk of my car lately ( yeah, really ? ) I decided that while I was back there I'd spend a little time digging into the cleanup of the trunk and find out what I've got under the paint and rust . . . surprisingly . . . it's really in pretty good shape . . .



and a view of the other side of the trunk . . .



Got some more things tidied up on the driver side mini tub too - but not too much to warrant another picture . . . but if I can get the rest of the trunk all cleaned out, and down to metal, I might be able to get it shot with epoxy primer . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

Sunday evening session . . . fab work and welding . . .

Got back to the shop tonight to try and get this hole filled in - needed to cut a piece of metal, and get it tacked in place . . .

Got it done - got the pin holed piece that'll be cut out and new metal welded in . . .



This plus a bunch of pin holes welded up, a lot of grinding on some big welds ( not as many as there use to be ) . . . and a bunch of trunk cleaning . . .

Making progress . . . a little at a time . . .

 

[Ron 73]

I think once you finish up here and get all your welds ground down, the epoxy primer you put on will add more inspiration for you, To get one area all done, all in primer makes all the difference, I didn't have to do much with my 73 when i did the trunk area, two patches i think but once i got done and got some color in there, It perked me up with a new out look.. The biggest difference is you've had to change things, weld grind ect and with you i bet it will be even better! Keep on keepin on bud, its looking great for sure!!!

 

[conv67bdere]

Focus . . . or maybe there was a lack there of . . .

Had a difficult time this past weekend on the focus, and had such great aspirations on all the stuff that I was going to get done - but couldn't focus.

Had the focus again tonight, and was able to get this knocked out fairly quickly . . . no more rust holes . . .



After I got that done, I was able to get a couple more pin holes fixed, some welding underneath, and some more paint cleaned out of the trunk area . . .

 

[kb67mopar]

Your kickin a$$ on this thing! The work looks good and isn't it so much fun hanging out in the trunk on a hot evening welding....haha been there before! Like Ron pointed out, once you get some primer in there you will feel like you wrestled a bull by the horns...before long you will be staring at it looking like...eh that wasn't so bad. (its like how women forget child birth!)

Keep up the good fight and kick ol' Iron Oxides arse.

Waiting with baited breath for the start of the quarter work!

 

[usaroadrunner]

holy smokes, its like the wrath of kahn. getting alot done an the patches look good. take a step back an look how much you got done instead of how much there is to be done.

 

[conv67bdere]

What did you do tonight . . .

< vent >

As you know ( if you've been following my thread ) I was working on a Golf Website with my pop before he passed away almost 2 years ago. Our website is hosted on Yahoo Business and up until this year it's been going quite well. We've been having database access errors lately - which I contacted them about investigating.

1 - contact - there is no errors and everything appears to be working fine
2 - contact - noticed your PHP and MySQL were out of data so I've updated both of them

Guess what - the upgrades BLEW my website out of the water and it's currently not working AT ALL. I just spent 1 hour on the phone waiting for a Yahoo rep to talk to me, and then I could not verify the account ( my dad took it over from someone else ) so they "tried" to hang up on me - I got a little IRATE, and told them to put a supervisor on the phone . . . finally got a supervisor . . . and another 30 minutes of please verify your account. When he asked if I could contact the previous owner, I told him that was my pop and that he passed away 1 1/2 years ago, so no, I did not think it would be possible for me to get in touch with him - I FINALLY got his attention !

It's now 9:30, and I just got off the phone ( that's almost 4 hours ), they're UNABLE to fix their mess up and get my website working as of now. They're going to send this off to their escalation team to try and find the cause of the error and get it resolved - and will call me back in 30-45 minutes to give me a status . . .

I've had just a "peachy - keen" evening chatting with the Yahoo's at Yahoo that BLEW up my website ! ! ! ARRRRRRRRRRGH ! ! !

In the meantime I've got almost all 400+ members sending me an E-mail the website isn't working, and we have an outing tomorrow that needs the website working to be able to run the scores and winners of the outing ! ! !

Can you say "frustrated" ? ? ? ? ? ?

< / end venting >

 

[747mopar]

Sorry to hear of all the headaches but at least you can be proud of some more nice looking work on the 67 (looks great). Don't be to hard on yourself for lack of focus because I'm probably just as bad. I'll be knee deep into something and while looking for a wrench or part I'll come across something else that needs done and off I go right into something totally different leaving what I started half done (and I wonder why I can't find things).

 

[Propwash]

Sorry to hear it as well. Just plain crappy! Hope it's squared away.

 

[conv67bdere]

What a week . . . and not able to touch the car . . . ARGH !

Well, the Yahoos at Yahoo obviously don't have a clue about software support - but I've been able to get everything they broke fixed.

With all the trouble I that I've had this week, I've not been able to touch the Belvedere . . . that's not good !

I was able to pick up these parts from Hotchkis . . . wait until you see the plans I have for these . . .



Hope it turns out as good as I plan . . . we'll see . . .

 

[747mopar]

Well, the Yahoos at Yahoo obviously don't have a clue about software support - but I've been able to get everything they broke fixed.

With all the trouble I that I've had this week, I've not been able to touch the Belvedere . . . that's not good !

I was able to pick up these parts from Hotchkis . . . wait until you see the plans I have for these . . .

View attachment 201347

Hope it turns out as good as I plan . . . we'll see . . .

Hmmmmmmmmmmm........Smiley faces? Are you putting indoor plumbing in for those long hauls or maybe some neck restraints?

 

[conv67bdere]

While working on the driver side mini tub, look what I found . . .

While I was getting ready to put the new metal in the driver side to remove the hump, I noticed that the body panel had some dents, and the "mud" on the fender was some pretty thick stuff . . . here's what I found



That picture doesn't really show the thickness of the plastic very well, nor the location, so I tried another shot . . .



That still does not show the thickness very well . . . so how about some of the chunks that I removed from the car . . .



Also found where they had spread "mud" over existing holes in the fender flares, and simply left all the rust ( and the hole ) - this was pretty obviously a "quick" hide the bad stuff, and try and make it look good so we can sell it job

( Or I call it putting lipstick on a pig ) . . . I despise people that stoop to those kind of tactics

Oh well . . . I'll be cleaning it all up and getting it fixed the right way now that I've found the "bad" . . . might also explain the bent driver axle too ? ? ?

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry to hear it as well. Just plain crappy! Hope it's squared away.

Hey Prop . . . thanks for the support, unfortunately, they still have some things botched up in the system and they're not being very quick about helping get it corrected.

(Sunday) Asked them to check the MySQL that was having connection errors - they go upgrade PHP and MySQL - trash my website.
For 3 days I ask them to revert the PHP - they have every excuse in the book that they can't do it.
Take a day off work Thursday and get most of the website errors corrected and get my members back online -
( Thursday night ) the members go and enter a weeks worth a data into the MySQL database.
Get up Friday morning, and the SAME GUY writes me that he's reverted both PHP and MySQL . . . ( thought it was not possible )
and it wiped out all the data from the night before that the members entered ! !

Still got some wrong behavior going on with the MySQL database and I'm still trying to get them to help get it resolved - although I scared they're going to mess more up too ! !

 

[kb67mopar]

Time for a new website host!

Looks like one hell of a pile of bondo! Good thing your getting good with that welder. Anybody got a donor quarter panel for him?

 

[conv67bdere]

One little side note here . . .

One year ago today, 7/28/2013 I ordered a load of parts from American Powertrain including a White Lightning shifter . . . as of today, one year later, I have not gotten the shifter delivered to me yet. I continue to work with my salesman to get the item shipped . . . hopefully one day it'll arrive. It's not holding me up yet, as I have not yet started putting the car back together yet . . . hopefully I get it before I need it ! ! !

One can hope . . .

Time for a new website host!

3 hours on the phone with Yahoo . . . and the last of the errors that I've been experiencing appears to have been resolved. Fingers crossed ! Thanks Michael ! ! !

Now it's time to get back to work on the '67 !

 

[conv67bdere]

My week from hell is behind me . . . now I'm back on the '67 . . .

Last week was one of those weeks that help you to appreciate how nice it is to not have all kinds of drama going on in your life . . . and on top of all that, I was not even able to stick my head in the shop let alone get a chance to work on my car . . . THAT makes it a bad week !

Back in the shop working on the mini tubs - and I messed up by welding the inner fender back in before getting the outer hump part fixed . . . it give me a whole lot less room to get that welding helmet up in there and get the job done.

Here's what I've got going on now . . .



working my way around the semi-circle . . . looks like I'm just about half way done with this now . . .



One this is done I'll get the rest of the 3" strips welded in . . . and we'll be mini-tubbed ! ! !

 

[747mopar]

Rubba Tub Tub.............Looking good Kahn.