Chris got a car

[Rebirth0]

Finally got myself a car... again. My dad had given me his old 1977 Monte Carlo that was sitting in the garage about a year ago but it wouldv'e needed too much work done to it and too much stuff replaced to make it drivable, so I said fuck it.

Back in early May I bought a 1975 Chevrolet Chevelle from my neighbor. For a few years, I've been wanting an old car to have and drive around. Simply because I love old cars. I'd choose to go to a classic car show over a modern super/sports car show any day.

The car had been in my neighbor's family since it was new, 32 years ago. It had about 118,000 miles on it when I bought it, so it wasn't driven a whole lot. (Seeing as how my dad's 1995 Thunderbird has almost 140,000 miles and the Chevelle is almost three times older). He was wanting to sell it for $2,500 - 3,000 but he sold it to me for $1,300. I got extremely lucky because he got lucky. He bought a 1969 El Camino for $4,000 and the car was worth $10,000 easily, so he felt generous I guess.

A nice driving car for $1,300 is pretty damn nice. I could have driven it as it was but I wanted do a little restoration on it to make it look even cooler.

The whole car was some maroon or dark red color. Interior and exterior. The exterior has one rust spot near the door on the passenger side, and a few dents on the quarter panels, but other than that, the exterior looked pretty good. Except that it needed a new paint job. The interior was pretty much gone. Torn up bench seats in the front and back, cracked dashboard, no carpeting on the floor at all. It needed a whole new interior

So I start my restoration, here are some pictures of the car on May 15:







What I wanted to get done in this restoration:

All new interior, colored black
Carpet
Bucket Seats
Back bench seat
Dash
Steering Wheel (because the old one was rotting and getting sticky and stuff)
Door Panels
Headliner

New Paint Job
New Wheels
Shocks
Cowl Induction Hood (because they're cool)
Headers
Carburetor
Maybe some more engine work
CD Player + Sound System

I have ALL of the interior done except for the headliner, which I'm going to by sometime soon.



After the interior I wanted to start getting the cowl induction hood piece attached and everything. That requires gluing, fiberglass filling/work, body putty work. A VERY ANNOYING JOB. Sanding the body putty down takes forever to make it look and feel smooth and everything, and if it's not a perfect job it will really show up once the car is painted.

I've got one layer of body putty sanded and now it's ready for a second (maybe the last) coat. Then it will be another few hours of sanding by hand!!!




I had to buy the fiberglass cowl piece because buying a whole cowl induction hood would cost around $400 and I don't have that. Instead I buy that piece. 2.5 inch cowl. I really wanted a 1 inch one but they didn't sell those. Only 2.5 inch and 4 inch.

I'll be posting pictures in this thread as I progress. I can't wait until it's done. I refuse to drive it until then. I'll post the prices of everything sometime later