The Bluesmobile

[monaco75]

Finished putting her all back together today. The new "$hit box dodge" paint job. She looks wierd without the lettering! My fender needs to get here, so I can dive into the front end! I'm hoping to have it back together, and maybe make the turkey rod run. Maybe I can meet up with stan, and the other member? If they don't mind being seen with a blumo owner? haha

If the fender does not show up, might just have to do what I can with the front end thats on it.. Hopefully it will show up soon!

(please don't mind the overspray here and there. Still have some cleaning up to do. Especially my windshield. I ruined my mopar performace sticker. lol)

The glossy black definetly shows the dents more here and there. This mark has been on her since I've owned her, but it helps play the part.

 

[monaco75]

Nice! Looking good! Let's see some close up pictures.

Thanks! Yea I finally pulled the camera out today. Was using my phone camera through out the build. Just alot easier to grab, and load pics onto the computer with. But does not take as good a quality of picture.

 

[monaco75]

A few more..

 

[monaco75]

Started messing with the driver side fender last week, only to find out it is way to gone to do anything with. I still have not got my passenger side fender yet. Talked to the guy sunday, supposedly he was mailing it out yesterday. Just hope he didn't take my money$$ and run...

Anywhase, It was finally time to do some serious rust repairs. Now I'm no body guy. When I first did up the car years ago, it did get some bondo at the time (yea I know... :eusa_wall. However there was still actually some metal there then.. Jesus what a change! lol

Took it over to a friends, and started disassembly. Thank you good old MI salty winters!

Ofcoarse found this hiding behind the fender.

Spent the next day patching the firewall cancer. Its a very crude patch... However it is strong as hell, and should not rust anymore!

 

[polara71]

I dont think I could weld if my life depended on it

 

[monaco75]

I dont think I could weld if my life depended on it

I hear ya! I'm hoping I can learn a thing or two from this.. The guy helping me out is pretty cool. He is an older gentleman that is willing to help me, and teach me a bit. Hope I can soak something up from him!

 

[monaco75]

Here is where it is going to get tricky. This is the replacement fender. Its a '76 royal monaco fender (mentioned earlier in thread). We need to cut the front corner off of my original base fender, and graph it onto the royal fender to make it a base fender. After that need to drill/cut holes for the side marker light.

After checking out the fender, started back with the radiator core support. This thing was worse then the fender! After unbolting the front bolts of the fender, I could lift the whole corner of the car up off the frame! The lower section of the support rotted completely away.

I would have been toast If I had gotten in a head on collision lol. Luckily, and thank god though, the frame is still nice and solid. Had a few flakes to it, but still strong. I ended up wire brushing the frame, and throwng some paint on. Not a real pretty job, but enough to hopefully keep the rust at bay.

 

[monaco75]

One good thing though... I've had all the parts lying around ready to go on the car when the time came, so the next day on went the new core support.

Had to make a new square washer for the top passnger side rubber mount of the support, as it had rotted away. Also put in a new o-ring in the a/c condensor.. Hopefully I can charge it up, and it will hold a charge now. Got it all buttoned up yesterday. threw the old fender back on to align everything back up.

Once all together, you could really see a difference! After 38 years of rusting, and sagging, the front fenders are a lot higher then when we started! Back to where they should be.

Everything is gonna have to be gone through, and re-aligned.. Hopefully can start back on her this next weekend!

 

[1978 NYB]

Good progress! I'm glad you caught that rust and got her fixed.

I downloaded Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000 movies, I'll try to watch them this week.

 

[monaco75]

Hell yea 1978 NYB! Great movie lol. Im not gonna lie though it does get a little long. Not gonna lie, usually after the first hour or so, i start fastforwarding to all the parts with the car. Haha. However ive seen it so many damn times for the car.

I was not impressed with BB 2000. It starts out good, but gets kinda corny.

 

[commando1]

I dont think I could weld if my life depended on it

Anybody can do it

 

[1978 NYB]

JB weld has worked great for me from time to time.

 

[commando1]

Good for a pinhole in a gas tank to get another couple of years (maybe) out of it but that's about it as far as I'm concerned.

 

[cm23uoc]

I hear ya! I'm hoping I can learn a thing or two from this.. The guy helping me out is pretty cool. He is an older gentleman that is willing to help me, and teach me a bit. Hope I can soak something up from him!

The gent seems to be a real "old school" guy with his torch welding. If you're planning on doing quite a bit more bodywork on your own think about a MIG/MAG welder, it's a lot easier and not so tricky with warpage as well. Good usable ones are not too expensive but that depends on how much more you'd like to do in the future.

Recently did some bodywork at our Volvo for tech inspection with such a welder in the rear frame rail area.

 

[monaco75]

Good for a pinhole in a gas tank to get another couple of years (maybe) out of it but that's about it as far as I'm concerned.

doesn't seem to work good on the fuel lines though.. Or it may have been operator error :icon_rolleyes:..

 

[monaco75]

The gent seems to be a real "old school" guy with his torch welding. If you're planning on doing quite a bit more bodywork on your own think about a MIG/MAG welder, it's a lot easier and not so tricky with warpage as well. Good usable ones are not too expensive but that depends on how much more you'd like to do in the future.
.

Yea he is an old school guy for sure. We did do that patch with the torch, however I'm gonna rent a MIG from a buddy of his to use for the fender. Hopefully I can get a good MIG myself sometime soon. Just a cheap one to learn/practice with.

That patch on the volvo looks great!

 

[commando1]

Just a cheap one to learn/practice with

BIG mistake in my opinion. I'm not saying to go buy a zillion dollar Miller but a cheap Harbor Freight MIG is money down the toilet because it will never work properly and you'll never learn the proper techniques with a welder that sputters, farts, and jams.
I think $500 is the least you should spend on a Lincoln or Hobart MIG which I realize seems like a big chunk for something to learn on but the cheapo ones will frustrate the hell out of you and you'll end up spending the 5 hundred bucks anyway.
My 2 cents...
Can you weld with a cheap welder? YES! If you are experienced and learned on a good welder.

 

[polara71]

Anybody can do it

I did do it for two days at a truss plant I worked at, fifteen years ago. I wish the guys had more time to show me things. They had serious welding equipment and I didnt understand any of it

 

[1978 NYB]

Spend the money on a good Lincoln welder........trust me, you're young.... you will definitely get your money's worth out of it in the future. The "old guy" will get you trained up properly. And the Lincoln will make you some money on side jobs when you become proficient and end up paying for itself and more.

 

[commando1]

And the Lincoln will make you some money on side jobs..

Hmmphhh...
All I get is a "Thanks, I appreciate it" when neighbors bring over their broken stuff.
I'm going to cash in all those chips someday that I've been collecting. We'll see how much they REALLY appreciated that bracket I made for them.