70's Era 'Bird Resto...... (!!FINISHED!!)

[mikepmcs]

First of all, in reply to your first post, I would never make fun of a guy with the name Corn Dog!  Second, seems like you really know what you are doing so great work thus far and thanks for the pictures, keep em coming.(that would scare the hell out of me all at once like that)
thirdly(is that a word)
I would never make fun of a guy with the name Corn Dog! 

v/r
Mike

[moparstuart]

wow you are quick 

[CornDogsCharger]

Hey Guys.  Thanks for the comments.  I haven't worked on the 'Bird much at all this week.  I have been working on it a couple nights a week after work.  At first we planned on having the body blasted, but now the owner thinks he would rather have it dipped.  A couple weeks ago we sent off the doors, fenders, hood, deck lid, and lower fender extensions to be dipped.  Well, Friday during lunch we picked up the parts.  Most of the parts looked pretty good.  I will do any rust repair that is needed and then we will send them back for e-coating.  I guess you could say the hood had the most rust of all parts.  The acutal hood looks to be good... the extension has most all of the rust. 

My question is.... I noticed that Janik reproduces the hood extension panel.  Does anyone know if it is steel or fiberglass?  If it is steel, how well do they fit?  If it is fiberglass, I'll have to pass on it.  The hood extesion will definately need A LOT of attention.  But it can be repaired.  Tell me what you think.

Justin
"CornDog"

[Aero426]

Jack McGaughey in Georgia is the man to see for a steel hood extension.

www.wingcarfab.com

[CornDogsCharger]

Wow! He has some great stuff!  Thanks for the link Doug.  I emailed him with a couple questions about the extension.... we'll see how it goes

Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Well, time for an update.  First off, we ordered a hood extension from Jack McGaughey.  He said it usually takes 2 weeks to get the piece.  I'm anxious to see it!  The owner is going back and forth with trying to decide between have the body dipped and e-coated or getting it soda blasted.  Each day is a different decision.  So in the meantime I got started replacing rusty metal.  First I removed the old tail light pant, then came the trunk floor.  There were no suprises.  Everything looked to be in good shape.  Afterwards the rear window plug was removed.  It had a little rust on the inside lower portion of it, but nothing too tragic.   The section where the quarter panel meets up with the dutchman panel (right and left) will need to be patched.  Enjoy the pictures!

Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

more pictures

[BigBlockSam]

wow!, that car sure needed a lot of nelp. looks like your doing a great job. 

[hemi68charger]

wow!, that car sure needed a lot of nelp. looks like your doing a great job. 

No kidding... It's amazing what can be hiding under paint..........

Troy

[RAC95054]

Even for the "bargain" price paid for this Bird, it has much more cancer than I would have guessed.    But it looks like it's coming along nicely, and you're doing great work.  Keep the pics coming!   

[billssuperbird]

keep up the good work.

[CornDogsCharger]

Thanks guys.  I worked on it again last night.  I cleaned up and the tops of the frame rails and cleaned up the edges of where the trunk floor mounts.  I also removed the trunk floor extensions and the rusted portion of the lower quarters.  I stripped the pasenger quarter panel and MAN! there was som bondo in it!!  Apparently at one time the passenger quarter got into something that put a few creases from front to back.  Even the little "scoop" was smashed in.  I started the task of hammer and dollying it back out.  We'll be able to save it with only replacing the lower portion.  The owner has officially decided to have the body blasted and not dipped.  He did more research on the pros and cons and came to his decision.  He found that when dipped, sometimes you can not "wash" all of the acid from inside the frame rails.... which would eat the metal over time.  So anyways.... I'll keep everyone updated.

Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Sorry, but I forgot to add pictures.  Here you can see the rust that was in the lower questers.  The passenger side was worse than the driver side. 











With the lower quarters and trunk extensions removed you can see the condition of the wheel houses.  The driver side looks good with no rust but the passenger side has a rust hole about the size of a half dollar.  I will cut this portion out and patch it. 





Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Here ar a few pictures from last night.  I cleaned up the rest of the frame rails, finished cutting off the rest of the trunk floor, cleaned up the wheel wells.... and cleaned up the the metal around the dutchman panel.  I am waiting for the right trunk gutter to come in from AMD.  Should be here any time.  Once the trunk gutter gets here then I can finish up the rear window/dutchman panel area.  I will have to fabricate the the panels just to the right and left of the dutchman panel.  The only way you can get those is to buy a complete quarter panel... which will not be available until August.... and plus, the car does not need full quarters.

The reproduction metal hood extension should be in late this week or early next week.  After all of the trunk floor was cut out... and the welded spots were clean, I placed the AMD trunk floor in place..... BOY DOES THIS THING FIT GREAT!!!!  Better than any other reproduction parts I have ever worked with.  I marked the floor for where the rails go... next step will be welding in the floor.  Will keep you updated...

Justin
"CornDog"

[MoParMetal]

wow dude

awesome work

[BigBlockSam]

 

[PocketThunder]

wow dude

awesome work

No kidding!   

[The70RT]

Nice work.    Looks like mine did a while back.

[CornDogsCharger]

I guess it's time for an update. The car as salled out for a little while as we were waiting fr the sda blaster to strip the rear trunk area along with the rear frame rails.  In the meantime I got started repairing the driver side door.  It had rust along the buttom edge.  Here are a few pictures showing the steps of repair.  The lower shell was rusted out in the rear lower corner where the rubber bumper mounts.

DAMAGE:


REMOVED DAMAGE:


FINISHED


There was also a rusted out portion in the center section of the door at the lower edge.  The rust actully ate away more than just the skin, it rusted out the shell too.  I had to remove a section of the shell and repace it.  Below are pictures of the repair. 

DAMAGE:






REMOVED DAMAGE:






REPAIR


SHELL REPAIRED


FINISHED


I still need to go back and make a few more spot welds to fill in the seams.  But this will give you a pretty good idea of the repair made. 

Justin
"CornDog"

[talkiemopar]

Hey it reminds me of the meet in California back in 79?  Great paint jobs.  Creative - sorry but it's nice to see something 'different' now and then.  My vote - (not that it counts)  leave it aloneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.  Talkiemopars better half!!

[tan top]

nice work ............ ............

[CornDogsCharger]

WOW!!!! Has it really been two months since I have updated this post.  I guess so.  After I repaired the door, things slowed down a bit.  We were expecting AMD to come out with their quarter panels in August... but now they are saying late Oct early Nov at the earliest.  So I had to move on with it.  A lot has happened since my last post.  I'm sorry for not keeping it updated. 

Let's see... looks like the last thing I commented on was when I repaied the rust in the lower portion of the driver door.  I did the same exact repair to the lower edge of the decklid. 




We had the rear frame rails and trunk area soda blasted in preperation to install the new trunk floor from AMD. 




After finishing the rust damage on the drivers door and the decklid, I also got the fedners ready for e-coat.  The driver side fender suffered some damage years ago and was filled with Bondo.  When the parts were dipped it revealed all of the damage.  I hammer and dollied about 90% of the damage out.  Lead was also removed from the front upper edge of both fenders. 





More to come.
Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

While the fenders, doors, decklid, and the lower fender extensions were off getting e-coated I installed the trunk floor.  If anyone is considering the trunk floor from AMD, I would like to say, it fits PERFECT!!  It is an exact duplicate of the original.  I still need to install the front gas tank hanger brackets.





At one time, the car had an aftermarket A/C system.  There were three holes in the firewall/floor.  There is also a hole in the radiator support that I still need to weld up.  Here are pictures from the patched firewall.



The parts came back from being e-coated.  This is some awesome stuff.  They look like brand new parts.  The only bad thing is, between dipping and e-coating, the crew will sometimes beat and bang up your parts.  I hate that!  There were a few dents on each of the parts that I found during inspection.  It wasn't anything toooooo bad, but I still hate it. 




Since the quarters will not be here for some time, we decided to go ahead and have the rest of the body soda blasted (besides the quarters).  All of the seam sealer and undercoating was removed during this process.  I like soda blasting because it cleans the metal so nice.  It will not warp, pit or distort the metal... but..... it also will not remove rust like sand would.  Rust isn't that big of an issue for the car thought.  A little grinding here and there and you're good to go. 






Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Here are a few more pictures after soda blasting. 





Justin
"CornDog"

[Hemi_tyme]

Lead was also removed from the front upper edge of both fenders.

Why? You know you just screwed up by removing the factory lead don't ya.I also see you dolled out the factory" rolled in" area of the pinch weld of the fenders also. NOT GOOD the nose will never fit correct without both being reduplicated.Sorry not picking on you ..........just trying to save you some trouble down the line.

Ken