Home E-body Resto mod

[EbodyMod]

   I have been working for about a month so far. floors are in progress.  Full QA1 suspension in front and willwood brakes completed!! New cowl and repaired firewall. Sandblasted every thing with my tiny 33gal craftsman.  Who needs expensive tools! Trying to post pictures but not sure how to make them smaller.....Any one?

[moparman82]

There are a lot of ways with image hosting sites and stuff, I just email them to myself from my iPhone, it gives me the option to resize attachments before they are sent

[soundcontrol]

I tried a forum app called Tapatalk for my iPhone, seems cool, you can read the forum, write in it and upload pictures you take direct, got a nice interface also. Some pictures of your resto would be great!

[EbodyMod]

  got it YAY!

[daaboots]

Looking good so far. Keep going!

[EbodyMod]

  Just finished todays project. Just gotta do a little grind and prime!!

[cwestra]

Nice job.  What do you do about the cowl VIN stamp though, since it looks like you replaced that panel?

[EbodyMod]

 :wavingflag:The vin Placard is part of the dash frame, unless I ,missed one. or are you asking about the inner fener.  That one I have blasted and will reinstall on the new inner fender. Todays project is done. Floor pans ground and primed and brand new US Cartool subframe connectors welded in.  Bit of advice if your welder is not of the greatest quality buy a new one before attempting this job.  I ended up with three passes of bubble gum to ensure they stay put. my 90 dollar flux core welder was horribly outmatched by the task, but it turned out okay and will be under seam sealant soon

[EbodyMod]

  Wellntodays project completed. Driver Quarte removed and SUPRISE more nasty metal. no biggies in the rocker but not sure what to do about the roof line.  The roof support pilliar has a massive amount of rust under the roof skin...which is in perfect shape.  Is there a good fix without pulling the whole roof skin off?  Any suggestions would be helpful.

[EbodyMod]

  well fixed the bottom lip of the tail panel and started repiring the outer wheel house. the curve was a pain to match.  If you can afford it buy new ones avoid patching! 

[ec_co]

Nice job.  What do you do about the cowl VIN stamp though, since it looks like you replaced that panel?

EBodymod - cwestra is referring to the matching VIN stamp on the cowl panel. right next to the drivers side vent there is a stamp with the last several VIN digits. if you are doing a #s matching resto, you will probably want to cut/weld that piece back in. same thing for the radiator support, there is a spot for the partial VIN stamp (mine is missing, so no pic)

[EbodyMod]

  Wow thanks. I did not even know that was there. I think it was lost to rust but will check my scrap metal pile.   Thanks

[ec_co]

even if the old piece 'looks' rusty/crusty, I would still cut the small section out and either use electronic rust removal or cider vinegar to remove all the rust before deciding it's a 'dead' piece. it's amazing what a decent de-rusting can show underneath and you might just be able to save it

[soundcontrol]

Is it really that important for OE restorers to have the original stamps? What is the difference welding in an old piece with a number in a new part or just stamp the correct number again? Is that considered cheating?

[burdar]

or just stamp the correct number again?

That would be illegal.  Even cutting the VIN off the old piece and welding it in the new piece is illegal is some areas.  It's considered VIN tampering.  Restamping the numbers wouldn't work anyway...you would be able to tell they weren't original.  The font and spacing would need to be exactly like what the factory used.  The factory used a tool that stamped all the numbers at the same time.