The Official 1987 Two Door Body Off RE-build Thread!

You're kinda coming off as the man here, doing this major undertaking.

As an old, married guy with kids, no time and no money, I am sort of envious about your ability to do something like this. It's pretty awesome.

Looks real good, glad you went with the white here!

So funny how much of the same stampings are used on that car as mine. I wish I could get to as many spots.

Bull wrote:

You're kinda coming off as the man here, doing this major undertaking.

As an old, married guy with kids, no time and no money, I am sort of envious about your ability to do something like this.  It's pretty awesome.  

Wow, thanks! I didn't expect or try to be called the man but I'll take it!

If I weren't still living at home and working multiple jobs I wouldn't be able to do it. That's just the way it is. If I got in this accident next summer instead I'd be screwed because I wouldn't have any free time like I do after classes, and I would not be able to devote the $ to the project in efforts to save to move out, etc etc.

Matt Trakker wrote:

Looks real good, glad you went with the white here!

So funny how much of the same stampings are used on that car as mine. I wish I could get to as many spots.

Thanks! I'm glad someone appreciates the white! Having everything out of the way makes a difference. I hope I can get it all done before its too cold to paint.

As of the day before the roundup, I had a full first coat on the entire floor pan. Sadly, I haven't had enough time to get the second coat on anything, so I'm still waiting and hoping I have a chance on a warm enough day. I'm hoping for this weekend. Half of the problem is the weather, the other half is just getting down there and having SEM drip all over you...









I really need to get that second coat so I can plan a "mod day" The only mods occurring will be raising the frame to the body though!  Pizza is free to all who help! BYOB I'm not 21.

On another note, I finally brought the frame home. Something I wanted to get done in ya know...APRIL!  Regardless it is home and out of that Shit hole garage that probably infected me with some incurable disease and would have landed me in jail. 50 bucks a month was too good to be true, which is why I tried to NEVER spend time here. It's honestly a relief nothing of mine is still there.


Funny, this thing was carried in last Dec. and ten months later it rolled right out and on to a trailer! Gotta love that!







Oh, and of course I moved it in style  This is where being a good employee pays off I guess. Free use of trucks and trailers!

Great progress. I love what you have done so far. Mark me down for a mod day helper. I like mushrooms. 

In the first pic, you can see the fuel tank strap mounting point. You need to patch that area with fresh metal asap. Remember a full tank will have around 180lbs of fuel in it.

IMPALADAKID wrote:

Great progress. I love what you have done so far. Mark me down for a mod day helper. I like mushrooms. 

In the first pic, you can see the fuel tank strap mounting point. You need to patch that area with fresh metal asap. Remember a full tank will have around 180lbs of fuel in it.

  Hey, they've been like that for THAT long anyway... whats the worst that could happen!?  

I know I have to do something. I may transport the car to school in april seeing as it will be more complete and rolling. Get it on a lift and use a REAL welder not my harbor freight CHITBOX! Complete waste of money on that!

If the welder your talking about is the Chicago electric 90 amp $80 special I will disagree, although it's not a Miller or Lincoln, it will get the job done if you take your time and use it correctly. I welded the c-notches in my c-10 with it and it's supporting a ton of weight, I've even jumped up and down on the thing, still holding up!

If you have access to a better welder then use it! But don't be afraid to weld a small project like strap mount with the 90amp. It's hold up just fine

Ironfistdog wrote:

If the welder your talking about is the Chicago electric 90 amp $80 special I will disagree, although it's not a Miller or Lincoln, it will get the job done if you take your time and use it correctly. I welded the c-notches in my c-10 with it and it's supporting a ton of weight, I've even jumped up and down on the thing, still holding up!

If you have access to a better welder then use it! But don't be afraid to weld a small project like strap mount with the 90amp. It's hold up just fine

This is another case of harbor freight tools and how they have varying reviews. YOUR little 90 amp welder is good I'm sure, but MINE sucks! It never laid down a good bead, and I tried to fine tune it and nothing until ONCE I fixed a crack on a buddys y-pipe on a "hey this might work" basis at 8:30 PM on a Wednesday in November. That was the last time it EVER worked.

The wire feed stopped working while I was trying to weld a nut to a part to get the bolt out of it and when I opened it up the tension wheel broke as soon as I touched it. Obviously HF knows that their products typically suck so they offer no warranty and it is too late to return it not to mention I no longer have the packaging or receipt. I was pissed.

Could it be a good welder for the job, based off of my one solid repair, yes. Based off of anything else I've tried...HELL NO!

Like you said, I have access so I'll use a better machine. Someday I'll even buy a better one, but I'm done with HF welders even if the next one in the pile is one of the good ones like yours apparently is.

Continuing to impress, Matt! Nice!

1984twodoor wrote:

The wire feed stopped working . . . . and when I opened it up the tension wheel broke as soon as I touched it. Obviously HF knows that their products typically suck so they offer no warranty  

I see that GMAW, wirefeed or Metal Inert Gas (mig) welders are broadly liked.

But I'd recommend a small SMAW or Sheilded Metal Arc Weld (stick) machine as a more predictable performer at a lower cost for home projects.

Better penetration, better weld appearance, less finicky with no feed-wheel rates, no gas tank re-filling, no expensive or frustratingly tangled/kinked/contaminated spools of wire.

A decent quality mig-rig, well cared for, properly adjusted and correctly utilized is a very good choice under the right conditions.  -  And , , , no flux/slag to chip off!

Stick welders can allow you to operate at great distances from the machine, and they are much better out doors, where breezes or cold air would degrade wire feed methods.

My favorite method is GTAW (tig) or Tungsten Inert Gas, but that is large Ducats for a respectable dedicated Miller, Lincoln or Hobart machine.

Ive looked at the HF wirefeed machines too, but never got even a vaguely warm & fuzzy thing happening toward them, at least not enough to coin up for one.

Glad that someone has had a good result.

HF is a great short term bargain as long as you are willing to test-use their product within their 90 day return limits.

...
the "authority" just recently sent me for another full week of welding training to improve my safety awareness, gas cutting/welding, and stick welding skills with advanced practice time.

Anyone who believes in being knowledgable about welding safety as well as gaining helpful techniques and increased understanding of the process technologies should check out this excellent book:

How To Weld by Todd Bridigum from MOTORBOOKS WORKSHOP #264

Thanks for the book reference! I'm 100% serious about getting a good budget welder and learning to do it right and safe.

Now that I "own" a house with an adequate and upgraded breaker box, I'm going to be looking into a, user and budget friendly, modest welder for my automotive use.

Well, I wish that all of you could see my face and arms... They're covered in the sticky goodness.....

Get your minds out of the guttah! I'm talking about SEM rust shield  

My entire floor is now painted with two full thick coats of it, and I'm closer to being ready to get the body and frame all hitched together!

Have a few more loose ends to tie up like sort out the body mounts and hardware and get them ready for the big day and take some of the fluid film that comes in a paint can and brush it into the areas that I'll never see again. But, within the next few weeks I seriously want to see some body on frame action!

Time is running out so I'm thinking about the 17th of Nov. with a back-up date of the 24th and an if-all-else-fails-but-better-not-count-on-it-day on the 1st! PLEASE don't make me keep the frame tarped up all winter! I'll need some serious help! Once I get some approval on the dates from the boss (my mom, who owns the property and already puts up with enough from me!) I'll set up an alternate thread in the events section and hopefully I can round up some members! Only stipulation is that you have to help and not just point out how I should have done this differently or that differently or painted that another color or built a 94-96 frame and an LT1 and blah blah blah. $hits gotta get done!  

Though, once the body is on the frame feel free to just hang and shoot the chit.  Who knows we could even get an engine in that day! LOL

Anyway, enough rambling. I just wanted to share that as an update without any pics and a heads up that I'll be recruiting.

Have a good one, and GO PATS even though I'm not a big fan nor am I watching the game  

1984twodoor wrote:

...... Only stipulation is that
you have to help and not just point out how
I should have done this differently or that differently
or painted that another color
or built a 94-96 frame and an LT1
and blah blah blah.............. 

^^^^ Big loophole ^^^^

sdstick wrote:

1984twodoor wrote:

...... Only stipulation is that
you have to help and not just point out how
I should have done this differently or that differently
or painted that another color
or built a 94-96 frame and an LT1
and blah blah blah.............. 

^^^^ Big loophole ^^^^

 

There will be pizza

Well I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to but I got a few, and so did Justin. But this post is a major MAJOR turning point. I got the body ON THE FRAME!

Now, I can't say I. There is no I in team...or Badass   Justin was the first one to show up today and he was a huge help, but same as taking the body off, Stickney was the driving force behind getting it done. Maybe he does that just to shut us up when we make the old jokes  

From now on hopefully all you will see from this thread is consistent forward progress. I'll try to get the body properly aligned onto the mounts and get all of the bolts in to make it one unit. From that point on its all just basic assembly and cleaning all of the mess I've made of the thing during the process. Especially that damn black beauty that I never cleaned and wished I had once we tried to get the body and frame together.   

Anyway, now that I am thoroughly exhausted for the day I'll post some pics and leave it at that!

how it started after we moved the tent back and pulled the rear springs out.



Got the frame under with the help of Doug and Jay (Thanks guys!)-Justin's pic



After some careful and tedious jacking and repositioning we eased the body on down to the frame and had it resting just a CH away from the perfect alignment, which with the help on a time frame was perfect for me! I can align it during the week and zip in some proper stainless hardware and all that. But...LOOK ITS ON THE FRAME!!!!!!1!!!!!-Justin's pic



I've been waiting for this picture for two years, I am so god damn ecstatic about this! I'm so close I can taste it!



Crovo even tagged my graffiti Caprice  



As good as this is...we aint out of the woods yet! Now I can confidently say, if all goes well getting the thing on the road AFA legal bs goes, this Caprice will be at the 2014 Fall Round Up!

It's getting there! Awesome progress!

Keep it going Matt.

Well done,. good to see guys in a club coming together to get serious stuff done,.
very cool,..

I don't know if i believe "driving force" but "force not to drive at that age" would be better.  

Looks great, glad its resting in place. Good job gentlemen.

Great job guys, it's looking like a car!  

WOOT!!!!

MASShole9C1 wrote:

It's getting there! Awesome progress!

Keep it going Matt.

Oh that's the plan!

phantom 309 wrote:

Well done,. good to see guys in a club coming together to get serious stuff done,.
very cool,..

Yes it is, especially with our lazy ass club  And now that I have some weight, once the body is fully bolted I need to get some chain and use your method to align the springs in the pockets properly. I didn't forget the advice, just slow to react.

No Moa wrote:

I don't know if i believe "driving force" but "force not to drive at that age" would be better.  

Looks great, glad its resting in place. Good job gentlemen.

I lol'd! But C'mon just because you've never seen him help doesn't mean he doesn't help! He really comes through when ya need him! Think of all those times he got lost and made it to Maine to clean out your sheds!  

95brmw wrote:

Great job guys, it's looking like a car!  

A very dirty, dirty half car...

toomanytoyz wrote:

WOOT!!!!

No I won't lower it! Yeeeeeesh  

Well nothing good to update but I figured I'd just stab something in here to show what's been going on.

With the snow comes me not having anytime to do anything because its cold and impossible to do much work in the tent, just really waiting for spring to have a chance to get things together more then the tent is done.

Speaking of the tent....

I hate this thing. I should have either upgraded earlier or replaced it this year. The thing was the nuts the first two years, last year it couldn't hold up to me not being around to clear the snow off of it due to being at work before and after the storms. And well, this year with all of the sun damage and being an old cheap cart tent...it failed.

Yesterday after an awful day at work with too many waiters and a nightmare of a tire job that had me on the machine for hours and only able to seat two of four tires on their respective wheels (including the ring of fire) I left work late pissed off and sore. Then, from down the street I see my tent with a slash running the entire length of the roof. Now my day just sucked....

So today I had to fix it, and my mom said throwing a tarp over it wouldn't be something she wanted, I found some plastic corrugated panels that were a close match to the color of the tent and blasted them on with some strapping.     

I hate car tents. I advise anyone (Steve tell Matt this one) to never get one. Temporarily it was awesome, did a lot of work in it, but I'm done. Next year I'll pay an overpriced storage fee if I have to, but not another tent. So there is my update, nothing done to the car and probably wont be until at least April.

That sucks dude, at least you got some time out of it...

Renting a garage for me would be at least 1200 a year easy...my tent was 299 shipped to my house...so if I get a couple years out of it without it actually falling on my car and damaging it, I'll be satisfied with the thing. I have mine lag bolted down to PT 2x8s, and the car's wheelbase sits on the planks exactly to keep it all planted down. I also put boulders on the planks (they extend 1 foot out past the perimeter all the way around). Then I laid a tarp down for a floor.

I was told one trick is that you need the tarp section of the garage as taut as you can get it once you have it all together. You need to use an impact (I have one now, lol) and loosen bolts, step on the bars that run along the bottom where the tarp sleeves are, and then retighten them...

Some others told me about spraying Pam on the roof, cheap sunblock, etc. But I feel like that would just make it attract more dirt...
I'm just glad I can get the snow off in a timely manner now. My old one held up alright for three or four years, and it was four years old when I got it (gray Shelterlogic) but it was showing a lot of age, the blizzard killed it, and I had no way to know or get down there when it happened. I was lucky the car wasn't damaged.

I have the rounded roof tent and the snow just slides off it. But it's starting to fall apart too, and I've had it for 2 years.

Yeah, if I got another one it'd be the round roof, but honestly I'm tired of these damn things. I don't want to deal with it. I'll be asking around to find a rental next year.

I can't tighten my tarp because of so many of the poles being broken and the tarp ready to shred. Whatever, I just try not to think about it.

The car need to be painted anyway right? lol

But where are all the meeces gonna live?

sdstick wrote:

But where are all the meeces gonna live?

There are no mice in my tent or car. There is nothing in the car for them to eat and live in and it hasn't been warm like an everyday driver for YEARS! No attraction for them.


And there is a ton of moth balls, dryer sheets, and a t shirt with cat fur all over it.   

What have we got for progress, Matt? What's the latest update on the 2 door?

Reading through your thread here (again), I noticed a TON of pictures missing? That's a bummer :/

Still nothing? Snow is starting to melt. We better see this B at the fall roundup

I don't even think he has it anymore....we need a current pic.

cloud 9 wrote:

I don't even think he has it anymore....we need a current pic.

Yes, with today's newspaper and 2 forms of ID to verify it's real.

I'm sure he just doesn't have much time with everything he's got going on. Which, is understandable. Something like this might not exactly be on a front burner right now.

Between work and all this damn snow I haven't had a chance to do anything but move it to storage. If you want to see a picture you'll have to wait until Jack gets back so I can get into the storage building.

I'll have some progress in May, I hope

Looking forward to it. I too hope that I can have something started by May on the '88 I have. Still waiting on paperwork.

Well this is bullshit now ALL of my pictures are gone? what the fuck as if I don't have enough stress and bullshit now my "fun" project thread is basically useless with random spaces and the only pictures are memes? Why.... ugh fucking stupid

Well, if I get injured on the job and have a few fucking weeks off I guess I'll throw all the 11 pages of pictures back in order...not. Why. This past year has sucked ass in terms of cars. I was hoping 2015 started better but who the hell knows. This is not what I wanted to see. Awesome.

/rant

Yea, pretty strange about the pics.

Things'll look up tho.

I thought you had deleted them from your host. Check asd see if you still have pictures up on your host server.

IMPALADAKID wrote:

I thought you had deleted them from your host. Check asd see if you still have pictures up on your host server.

Nope never did that, all the pictures are still there. The site must have moved them.

Edit one of your posts, find the image tag, cut and paste the http link into your URL box.


Example:

Code:

[img]http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/simgad/2875208532893067595[/img]

In the line above cut

Code:

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/simgad/2875208532893067595

into the URL box (ignore the word Code).

I see what you did. You used facebook to host the photos, and from time to time they will change the url string to discourage this practice. Get all your photos on photobucket, they are pretty good for this type of thing and the url's never change. Sucks now that you have to re-do the thread.

MalibuSSwagon wrote:

I see what you did. You used facebook to host the photos, and from time to time they will change the url string to discourage this practice. Get all your photos on photobucket, they are pretty good for this type of thing and the url's never change. Sucks now that you have to re-do the thread.

Yup. It was easier to post them there than on photobucket. Make an album on facebook show everyone, go into detail and post the pictures here to show the people who would care enough to read about it. Sucks. Eff you Mark Z

Same thing happened to me a few times. Sucks!

Matt's been too busy applying a dark blue tailgate on his white truck.

Matt Trakker wrote:

Same thing happened to me a few times. Sucks!

Matt's been too busy applying a dark blue tailgate on his white truck.

It still needs the brake line mod

Well, now that ALL of my pics moved due to using facebook as a host site failed me. I'll have to just toss in some new ones hosted on photobucket.

The car...has...BRAKES!

This was a major update for me seeing as the last time I moved the car to work on it...the winch cable on my trailer SNAPPED and sent the car flying off the ramps into a wall. Luckily, the only damage was a cracked tail light. I have so many of those around I didn't even care! I was just happy the car was safe.



Rotors I cut years ago finally installed (sans parking brake shoes and hardware...meh its an auto right?) with some good pads


And up front I have rusty stock rotors on 91-96 knuckles with brandy new calipers and, ahem, the cheapest valucraft pads available. I cant afford to grab the nice 1LE upgrade "big" brakes yet so this stops the car right now. Which is what I need, I don't know what I'll get done next on the thing but hopefully I'll get the motor in at some point before winter and get it to move. That would be really nice to me.

Anyway, here's the few pics I have to share. I'll try and get injured or something so I have enough time to post all of the old pics in here permanently. Sorry guys!

Ouch! Glad that wasn't the super cool export tail light lenses.

I'm glad to see the resurrection continuing.

You should try Comcast for your personal web hosting, it's rated one of the best.

It's been so long since we saw any new photos I forgot what color the car is.

MASShole9C1 wrote:

Ouch! Glad that wasn't the super cool export tail light lenses.

I'm glad to see the resurrection continuing.

I know, I would have flipped my shit if that was the case. I don't think I'll run those other than for shows...

boojum wrote:

You should try Comcast for your personal web hosting, it's rated one of the best.

It's been so long since we saw any new photos I forgot what color the car is.

Yeah ah...

" Please Note:
Effective October 8, 2015, the Personal Web Page service (feature of XFINITY Internet) will no longer be available. Please retrieve all content currently saved on your site before October 8, 2015 to avoid permanently losing your files and information.

Customers who have activated this feature, please check your email for a special offer. "

I'll stick with photobucket lol. The car will be what some may call "two tone" when its first back up and running.

just an update. i still have the car. the project is not dead, just completely stalled at the moment.

ive gotten a quote for the body work and kow who will be doing it. but the cost is holding me back from pulling the trigger. i wont do it until i have double what it will cost in savings just in case.

just figured I could post in something pretty much everyone used to have notifications set up for and maybe get some action on this old forum!

1984twodoor wrote:

just an update. i still have the car. the project is not dead, just completely stalled at the moment.

ive gotten a quote for the body work and kow who will be doing it. but the cost is holding me back from pulling the trigger. i wont do it until i have double what it will cost in savings just in case.

just figured I could post in something pretty much everyone used to have notifications set up for and maybe get some action on this old forum!

Can't wait to get some pics and updates on this one