Home E-body Resto mod

[Chryco Psycho]

this is such a can of worms , a car can be completely rebuilt with 99% new metal as long as the cowl & rad wall are not tampered with & can be considered real while a 99% original car with a new rad wall is fake  :clueless:there is such a massive grey area , I guess we should just crush all the car once they have 1/4 rust hole in them 
 Awesome work on the build BTW 

[70chall440]

I believe that a lot of this is affected by state laws, perception and the vehicle along with any/all paperwork. Then of course there are the issues of extremes left and/or right; one the one side you could have a car that was heavily damaged and currently only has a dash VIN (cowl and radiator support replaced). In this case it is going to take a good explanation along with paperwork, pictures, etc. On the other side you have basically an unmolested car that has everything which is generally considered above reproach. The majority of the population falls between these 2 extremes and can lean one way or another. In most cases for our hobby, the majority of cars will have the dash VIN and at least one of the other 2 (cowl and/or radiator support). If you have at least 2 of the three (and they match) I cannot see where you would have an issue.

On that episode of chasing classic cars, I think the cars were older cars and only had 1 set of numbers so there was a question about the validity of the cars.

[YellowThumper]

On any given restoration if the cowl and/or core support are replaced I would keep the piece of numbered portion
 Throw it in the trunk and it becomes jewelry that goes with the car.

[70chall440]

 

On any given restoration if the cowl and/or core support are replaced I would keep the piece of numbered portion
 Throw it in the trunk and it becomes jewelry that goes with the car.

[EbodyMod]

  Well at this point it is too late for mine, but as long as I can register it I will be happy. the dash tag matches the door sticker so I think I am good. granted the cowl is gone but, I am not looking at resale anyway.... Well unless some body has a general lee clone lol !!!! 

[70chall440]

I must have missed it, you are saying that you do not have the cowl numbers? how about the radiator support?

[EbodyMod]

  Yes, I replaced the entire upper cowl. But all the other numbers are there. I didn't have original engine or trans so resto-mod it is.  Awesome and functional for every day use

[70chall440]

you are good then.

[anlauto]

On a resto-mod type car, I don't think that the body stamped numbers really matter at all.
However in the future, I think anybody replacing an upper cowl should take the time to properly weld the factory numbers back into the reproduction cowl especially if it's a "stock restoration"

[EbodyMod]

  After a few weeks of waiting the Parts Fairy showed up again. I love that guy.  brought me my new rear suspension from RMS.  Spent Friday night and most of yesterday putting it in but it is sweet.  only bad thing is I have to blow it apart again to powder coat the rear end and paint the underside of the car. 

[EbodyMod]

   BTW I know shouldn't need it but should I keep the pinion snubber? I am thinking it may be a good thing in case of a catastrophic failure of my welds.   

[70chall440]

if when you cycle the suspension, the snubber doesn't hit anything then it shouldn't matter, however if you have a catastrophic failure of the welds, I don't think the snubber will do much, you would be better off running a safety loop if you are worried about it. Hopefully you got good penetration on your welds.

[cordodge]

It looks like you used a mig machine, they are awesome, but I use either TIG or Stick for those kind of welds. sometimes the mig welds look great but may not have great penetration as 70chall440 stated. myself at the stage your at I would have then done correctly as it would cause some serious damage if they should fail, and also let you sleep better at night 

Also It wouldn't hurt to box the brackets in a little on the back just for some extra support.

bruce

[70chall440]

I tend to agree on all those points, however it depends on your MIG; my Miller 220 gets awesome penetration on something like that. You can do it with a 110 but you really need multiple passes, go slow and check to ensure both sides of the weld are glowing red (signifying penetration to a degree). Completely agree on boxing the brackets in, helps to spread the load and increase more surface contact area.

[EbodyMod]

  Thanks, I agree on the boxing them in, I thing I am going to do front and back.  I did three passes on each side and made sure I burned in to bases on both sides good on each pass, so they should be fine. the driver side looks kinda ugly though. LOL