tomsteve
Member
well, not me! im not in my right mind. anyways, cant believe I took this one on, but it has been quite a journey and learned a lot on metal forming. I had a pretty good collection of pics of this one, but my computer crashed a while ago and I lost the (re)build pictures.
this here car belongs to a really awesome old hippie lady. believe it or not, it is in excellent mechanical condition. the body.....not so excellent. except for the front fenders, its new sheetmetal from the bodyline down all the way around. it was undercoated quite some time ago. the undercoat was so thick it didn't creep down into the nooks and crannies where the rust formed and took off from there.behind the rear tires on the QP's there really wasn't anything but undercoating in the form of QP's.
there is absolutely no aftermarket body panels( imagine that!!) for pacers, so i had to do quite a bit of metal shaping. the only metal forming tools i owned when i started are hammers and dollies. i had a friend make me up a beater bag, which worked excellent( at least i think it did. a professional metal shaper would prolly say otherwise). i also happened across a 1/2" thick chunk of steel that i bolted onto a bench for beating on, used wood blocks i shaped with different curvatures, even the floor in the shop occasionally. oh....plus a crapload of patience! inner and outer rockers and floorboards are fresh,too. cant believe the subframe is in pretty good shape,too.
i gotta say, after doin the rear corners i may have an idea of what its like to bang out a motorcycle gas tank( or a fish bowl!)! nope, the metalwork wasn't all perfect- NOTHING close to what i see on here happening down in Fla at gillis performance( LOVE that work and would love to come work there,even if its just sweepin the floors!!). but it worked!! there actually isn't that much body filler on "pearl the pacer" in my opinion. im not the greatest at applyin it(yet) so a lot ended up being sanded off.
this is after epoxy primer, 2 coats of featherfill, and almost done blocking and now breaktime! hopin some 2k primer tonight, sand tomorrow, and paint Saturday. colors gonna be the same as the rims topped with universal clear.
- - - Updated - - -
ok, for some reason i cant upload the other pics, but ill get more
this here car belongs to a really awesome old hippie lady. believe it or not, it is in excellent mechanical condition. the body.....not so excellent. except for the front fenders, its new sheetmetal from the bodyline down all the way around. it was undercoated quite some time ago. the undercoat was so thick it didn't creep down into the nooks and crannies where the rust formed and took off from there.behind the rear tires on the QP's there really wasn't anything but undercoating in the form of QP's.
there is absolutely no aftermarket body panels( imagine that!!) for pacers, so i had to do quite a bit of metal shaping. the only metal forming tools i owned when i started are hammers and dollies. i had a friend make me up a beater bag, which worked excellent( at least i think it did. a professional metal shaper would prolly say otherwise). i also happened across a 1/2" thick chunk of steel that i bolted onto a bench for beating on, used wood blocks i shaped with different curvatures, even the floor in the shop occasionally. oh....plus a crapload of patience! inner and outer rockers and floorboards are fresh,too. cant believe the subframe is in pretty good shape,too.
i gotta say, after doin the rear corners i may have an idea of what its like to bang out a motorcycle gas tank( or a fish bowl!)! nope, the metalwork wasn't all perfect- NOTHING close to what i see on here happening down in Fla at gillis performance( LOVE that work and would love to come work there,even if its just sweepin the floors!!). but it worked!! there actually isn't that much body filler on "pearl the pacer" in my opinion. im not the greatest at applyin it(yet) so a lot ended up being sanded off.
this is after epoxy primer, 2 coats of featherfill, and almost done blocking and now breaktime! hopin some 2k primer tonight, sand tomorrow, and paint Saturday. colors gonna be the same as the rims topped with universal clear.
- - - Updated - - -
ok, for some reason i cant upload the other pics, but ill get more
