Here is vid/pic updates on the Redbird. As stated before, brought it home April 27. Drove it out of the garage last weekend. Told my buddy I would have it running in 3 months, would have made that deadline had I not had my bosses truck taking up shop space for a couple weeks. Have a few little things to do, also exhaust & paint, which I will attempt, but overall, very pleased to be able to cruise around the neighborhood in it.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/10956...=CI7-0MOz0NiCCg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWWjMicJ-Mc&feature=share&list=UU3oTwJFIAiGIxTXnjOnjd3g

Nice work!
Cal

Updated album. Here are a couple shots from it. Took the plunge bought budget plasma cutter to do 1/4 panels...wish I had done this way back when...





Short video of plasma cutting...

Plasma cutting

How do you get a good fit down by the rocker panel? Did you leave enough meat to just weld to the factory metal? How did it turn out?

Have not started on that yet. Panels just arrived the other day, went outta town, had to order outer wheel wells, woke up sick today...life just got in my way, will post updates as they happen.

After fighting flu and work, found time to get back to it this evening. Cut out the rusted part of outer wheelhouse, replacement cut out and almost fitted. Have the skin generally cut out, need to order the trunk extensions now, they were just too rusted to try to fix...hurry up and wait...

what did you use for the rear window? to repair all the holes?

Really nice work, thanks for sharing

Nice work. Very time consuming. Definitely have to have patience.

After cleaning all the loose stuff, treated inside and outside with Gem Rust killer. I then sprayed an epoxy rubber coating on both sides. I then sprayed some Great Stuff from underside to "fill" in the holes, trimmed it off and then fiber glassed the area. Another couple coats of epoxy rubber, pics are on the Restoration Progress link.

Restoration Progress

Got a little more work done last few days. Might get RT side skin on today.







On a side note, I turned an old AV cart into my "new" welding cart...

Looks like fun Kel!

It started out as fun Danny....just flat out work now...learning on the fly, made a few mistakes that had to be fixed, but getting a better handle on it as I go. Some progress this evening.

Nice progress Blackbird!

Thanx....Left side skin attached today.

Restoration Progress

Panels, wheel houses, trunk extensions welded in, filler applied, 1st coat primer on. Started getting car ready for rest of body work, scraped most paint off before hitting it with DA.

Looks like fun (not). It's gonna look good though. Keep it up.

Hey Kel, will it be re painted when we come visit in May? looks like it may be ready by then...keep it up buddy!

Thanx Bjorn...I hope to have it painted and ready to roll for CC Cruise in May.....I know Theresa will be ready for it ;-)

The weather as cooperated today, back at it. After scraping a couple layers off with razor, hit it with DA. Some more sanding today, maybe a coat of primer later today?

Restoration Progress

very soon you will have those 'his and hers' cars ready, of course one is , for the most part , at times...lol...and , black and red...good colors . ...(like my 69 was...also my new Alfa is also red and black! lol...)

His and HERS..your right, that is why I put her to work ;-)..actually she has been out her for a lot of the process...think I'll keep her around.

little more progress, another unforeseen issue. While sanding found a hole in RT rocker panel. TIP for you guys who like me just dive into a project like this with no experience - keep your old sheet metal around for awhile. I used part of the old 1/4 panel to patch the rocker.

Restoration Progress








Another small tip but may be helpful, if your tackling a job like this where you will doing a lot of sanding/grinding, crap everywhere(at least I did)..you might want to put a couple old towels or such inside the out edges of the trunk to keep tools, sandpaper dust ect from going down inside the rear 1/4.



One more thing, keep an eye out for lost treasures...when I cut out the rocker, I pulled a bunch of leaves, dirt crap out and found this bracelet...wonder who Monique is?

I don't know how the heck I missed this...but after patching the rocker panel, this hole just above it "just appeared".. ;-( , dig out the old sheet metal...again, cut the rust out and a piece to patch with. Have it ready to weld in, going outta town for a couple days, back at soon...

Restoration Progress

Wow nice job 68, She's coming along

great work so far! Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Back from the trip from hell, so a little work on the car. Little welding/grinding...a good way for me to unwind for awhile.


Restoration Progress

Finally getting some "color"....;-)

Restoration Progress

keep up the good work!

Well, just as I thought I was cruisin right along, another cancer appeared....back to cutting/grinding/welding.

Restoration Progress

Man, you're really putting in some hours on the sheet metal/welding work. Been watching your posts, looks good.

Thanx...you know, last week I was out working on the car, I thought to myself I wish I had kept track of the hours I put in 1st, putting the car together when we got it, and then the hours I spent taking it back apart and doing the body work...I couldn't even give a ballpark figure, be interesting to know though....Kel

Impressive work. I was looking at your google page. What did you paint the inside floor board with?

Kyle

Good 'ol Rustoleum...used it on underside of my Blackbird about 10 years ago, holds up great IMHO..

Interesting.. Well if you get bored in warm Texas, come on up to snowy, miserable Ohio and finish my 67!! But all joking aside, nice work and thanks for taking the time to take and post pics.

Good luck with the rest

Kyle

Thanx for the kudos..and no thanx for coming your way...I moved from Troy about 30+ years to South Texas...never really looked back. ;-)

The weather has been crappy here for days.....like most everywhere else, ended up buying a heater for the shop, got tired of not being able to work because of the cold, quite sure dropping $300 on a heater will make the weather get back to what we call normal around here....kinda like washing the car and it rains.....



I didn't plan on taking the doors off, but since I had to remove RT door to address the door opening rust, I took the other door off too. Trying to hand sand the door hinge areas to prep for primer/paint, kinda a pain, just scuffing enough to make primer adhere should be good enough right? Open for suggestions here...

Pic of door repair...

Can you aim that heater our direction?

Restoration Progress

weather is cooperating today, trying to get more sanding done to get some primer on. TIP - I bought this Rockwell SonicCrafter when we remodeled the spare room for cutting trim/sheet rock, works like a charm. I almost forgot I had it, pulled it out to do some corner sanding. I was hand sanding the 1/4 round area on wheel wells, didn't like that, seems that that area really had a build up of paint. Pulled the Rockwell out, made real quick work of it. If you don't already have one of these or similar, I highly suggest you add it to your toolbox...I'm find more places for it everyday on the car it seems. Besides, one can't have too many tools, right? I know HF has one for about $30, probably worth that much if you were doing a job like this and it crapped out on you in the end. Back to it...