Refinishing the deck lid - one original piece saved!

Fun week this week; I took the G to the drag strip for the first time, and for me the first time in probably ten years.  I managed to run a respectable 13.98, which counts as thirteens to me.  Pretty typical for a stock G I understand, and probably not bad for 20" rims with tires at stock pressure.  There was one LS2 powered GTO (~2005?) running low twelves.  I couldn't tell if it was stock or not, but that would be great if the Chevelle can run anywhere near twelves. Anyway, on to what most of you are hear to read about.

Everyone asks me if there are any original panels that will be left on the car.  Well, the answer is at least one.  The deck lid I believe to be original to the car, and until now still had factory paint on the underside.  I thought it was in perfect shape, but like everything else on the Chevelle, there are surprises waiting at every turn. From a distance it looks fine, but up close there were still a few pinholes of rust from where moisture gathered.  The first picture gives you an idea of the overall underside.

 Up close, you can see pitting from rust,

 and a few small holes along the bottom seam.

 From the outside, it looks fine, so that is one plus.  There are five different moldings that cover over the back panel.

 The sail panel between the roof and trunk looks to be in good shape.  These often rust out, but look okay.  I think all the moisture settled to low points, because that is where we are finding rust.

 And finally, the last three pictures are the deck lid back in primer sealer.  One original part ready to go back on the car.  I don't think anything else will be this easy.  I can see why people build rat rods.

Oh crap, that's going to hurt the pocketbook

 It's been a long while since I've had an update because the Chevelle is off to the body shop.  Thankfully, Chevelle fans, Jack stopped by tonight with a CD full of pictures.  So many pictures that I think I'll break them into three or four installments to fill the next few weeks.

Just to bring you up to speed, we dropped the body and frame back at the body shop about 4 months ago with the floor "done" and asked them to do the body work on the outside, with the instructions to do what it takes.  With Jack, it pretty much has to be this, since there is the right way, or don't bother asking him to work on your car.  You don't ask Rembrandt to paint impressionistic water lilies...

Mt first reaction was oh crap, this is going to cost a lot of money.  I guess that isn't anything new. It's just amazing to see how much rust is in every little crack and crevice.  I'm really not sure that the Chevelle was worth restoring, but it has great history, family value, is halfway there, and will be a really cool ride.  I'll be able to confidently say with care, it will be around to pass on to the next generation.

I suppose the alternative title for this blog could be beauty is skin deep.  I thought the doors were the one piece that was in perfect shape, just sand down and paint.  They didn't even have door dings.  Looks okay from the outside right?

Well, maybe not so much.  I wasn't expecting the door skins to come off, but it looks like it was a very good thing they did.  There appears to be all kinds of rust at the seams.  I guess this is what you get with a barn find car.  The surface looks good, but moisture must have been trapped in every seam and crevice over the years.  Every seam they open looks bad like you can see on the door inner below.  It makes me wonder how great those barn finds they show on TV really are.  I bet unless they are from somewhere dry, they all look like this. Not good.

Here is a close up of the rust at the seam.  You can't see this from the outside until you take the skin off the door, break it open, and expose the rust.  I had no clue.  It's a very good thing the body shop found this, or I'd be complaining about rust popping through in a couple years.  When I looked in between the skins, I saw all of the non-rusty parts.  Everywhere you see rust was in an area where two metal parts come together that made it not obvious.  Just looking at the inside of the outer door skin, without carefully looking at the edge made me think all was well with the doors.

The great part about metal though is you can repair it!  I pulled a few example pictures of the work done on the inner door skins to repair the damage.  A little cleaning to get rid of the rust, repair to the lower corners, and everything is like new.

Finally, new coating to prevent rust...

Weld the skin to the inner, and you have a brand new door!

 and back on the car! Well, very temporarily back on the car.  There is a lot more work to do on the quarters, firewall, and I'm sure lots of other little bits I don't know about.  At least the new door is 100% rust free and should be good for a very long time.  Keep your eye on that dash, I think it is going to be the only 100% original part left when we are done!  Next week I'll share the quarters, or maybe the roof.  I have a week to decide...

Dash updating

 With the body off to the shop, there's not a lot more to do other than order more parts.  One of the challenges troubling me is how to connect up the new motor to old gauges.  Everything in the original set is manual, whereas the LS motor is all electronic.  I love the original dash look, and don't want to cut it up to put in aftermarket gauge pods.  I found Dakota Digital is now making analog gauges with all of the electronics behind them to hook up modern motors.  This solves that pesky problem of how to convert an electronic speedometer to a non-electronic gauge. There is a solution that runs a little motor behind the dash, but I hear that is noisy, and costs half as much as the whole DD system.

They offer a few different colors and styles, I got mine with the gray face and red backlighting.  I thought the red goes more with the GTO theme, since red is what Pontiac used the last few years.  The new cluster fits perfectly to the original style bezel with just four screws.  If I wanted to be freakishly anal, they send phillips screws instead of 1/4" hex head screws.  Oh well. I left the original in the top picture so you can see the difference in style.  I have to admit I love the styling of the '65 gauges, and am a little disappointed the DD looks so plain beside it.  It would have been just too much trouble to get the originals to work.  Perhaps they are worth something, since I have the more rare SS package with the center tach.  For those taking apart a dash, take a look around for help on how to remove the switches. There is a special tool for all of them; I used a pair of snap ring pliers for the headlight and wiper switches that worked very well.  For the ignition switch, use a small screwdriver, turn the key to accessory, push in the screwdriver in the small hole until it goes in a long way (not just pushing down what feels like a spring) and the lock mechanism pops out.  This is the only way to remove the retainer ring.  They are expensive to replace if you choose, so don't get frustrated like I get and take out the channel locks!

And then there is the electronics to make this all work.  In '65 there were no simple computers - now I have one to run the engine, the two below to run the dash and ignition switch, and there will be a couple more under the seats for the heaters.  More computing power than Apollo, as a friend put it.  I'm more than a little scared about hooking this up, but hopefully one wire at a time and I will get there.  The starter kit is from Advanced Keys, right now I just have the push button.  I still need to get the RFID system added so no one can jump in and start up the car without a key.  Not a big deal, but it is another system to wire in!

The final product is below with everything installed (except the radio).  I used the original switched and am hoping they are all in good working order. You can get replacements for the headlights and lighter, but I couldn't find anything for the wipers.  They all cleaned up very nicely with a little polish and elbow grease.  I still need to either polish the key guard or get a new one.  For the start button, I had to use a rotary tool and grind away almost all of the opening behind the dash (out to ~34mm).  The switch is 40 mm in diameter and barely fits in the opening, if you try this be forwarned you will need to start cutting into the outer bezel ring on the dash just ever so slightly.  I really like how it all turned out.  The push button switch is extra, but I love not having a key for my Infiniti.  I haven't found a radio I like yet, so I'm hoping that in the next year someone comes out with something a little nicer that will fit without cutting.

My biggest challenge, was getting a good bezel.  The first one I ordered from OPGI came with many scratches to the surface.  The packaging was perfect, so it came from the manufacturer that way.  The second also had a few scratches you can see on either edge, but better than the first so I decided to keep it.  The mold lines are not as crisp as the original dash.  If I wasn't dead set on the chrome look, I would paint the original silver and chrome leaf the outer edge.

I'll leave with one last picture we found from 1965. Take a careful look if you miss it - the Chevelle is in this picture!  You can see the motor behind John, and the body with the doors, fenders, hood, and the ROOF missing.  Absolutely incredible to me.  If you count the factory, my restoration will be the third time this car has been built from the ground up with almost all new parts.