NixVegaGT

[NixVegaGT]

My name is Nic. This is a record of my project. Thanks to all who make this site possible. This forum is a great way to record my progress for when I get discouraged and need to remind myself that I've actually gotten something done. Much of this is taken from my CarDomain site so sorry in advance for being repetitive:

OK so I got my dream car mildly abused in 1996. I was a poor art student at the time and used it as a primary vehicle. Two MN winters and then two more years drivin only in the summer. Then it went up on blocks after the waterpump went bad. There it sat for four years while I was working on another project... No, it was five years... WOW.

So here's how it started in 2005:



Here's what it looks like now:



Here's a couple pix of what the two MN winters cost me. Three spots of rust. All underneath except for a hole in the right fender I've got to fix. I've already fixed the left trailing arm mount when I welded in the frame rails:


So last weekend I got under the car and did some undercoating removal. I've got a really useful pneumatic scraper.

I'm using a product called "UnderGone". It works really well. I wasn't sure it was going to work but it rocked! (I'm listening to Chris Cornell right now, hence "rocked"). I've got a nice pile of undercoating coming off now. I might reduce weight by about 6-8 pounds. SWEET.

[NixVegaGT]

Today I started removing the sound deadening material inside the car. It is really thick in some places. I'll have pix tomorrow. I'm about halfway through removing the undercoating and sound stuff. I weighed the stuff I scrapped off and in added up to 10 LBS!!! WOW! I've probably got another 5-7 pounds of the stuff to go! I'm really surprised how much there was... Pix tomorrow.

[NixVegaGT]

Here's the pix I promised:




This is 10 lbs. of undercoating and sound diffuser.


I also removed the heater core and found where it was leaking. Right through the lower tube where it anchors to the tank.

[NixVegaGT]

Ok so I'm done removing sound diffuser and undercoating. The grand total of weight saved: 17 lbs. ! Wow that's a big difference.

[NixVegaGT]

Started sandblasting. I'm hoping to have it done tomorrow afternoon. Pix to follow.

[peterpan]

make sure you clean up the sand real good before you paint

i spent abou 3 hours with a air blower and a shop vac on my car then when i was painting it the paint gun found more sand

sounds like i am just ahead of you i just painted mine a couple days ago if you need any help i would be glad to share my experiances or how i done mine

[NixVegaGT]

Thanks for the advice, Ray. It took a long time! Here's a couple pix:




I figure I've got about 3 hrs. left. The sand is EVERYWHERE! It's not perfect but I'm pretty happy with it. Blasting underneath was actually easier than the engine compartment. Here's what I looked like after a few hours:



I look like a stormtrooper or something. LOL.

[NixVegaGT]

I started stitching up the front unibody panels tonight. I spent about 3.5 hours after work on it. I think I've got the whole front end sewed up now. I'm moving on to patching the spots of structural rust.

I'll post pix in a day or so.

[NixVegaGT]

I forgot to take pix of the welding. I do have pix if the start to the metal sealing:





I'm just brushing on the first coat to the underside and in the wheel wells because it doesn't have to look awesome and it saves paint... I will have to focus on the seems of parts to be sure it covers everything.

[NixVegaGT]

Here's an updated shot of the underChassis:



You can see the rear footwells are still untouched. We later cut them out. Here's a pic of Cat cutting the floor out:




I was able to clean out the sand from the cracks in the unibody. Enough to paint the engine bay. It turned out really nice. I'm busy cutting the rest of the little rust problems. Among them was a mouse nest in the frame rail:

[NixVegaGT]

I've started filling in the marker light holes to make a foundation for the Mopar marker lights. Here's my first hole fill. Then it's on to the taillights... SWEET!



After primer:

[spyder_xlch]

Nice pic of Cat, lol. But seriously, nice work so far.

[NixVegaGT]

Here's how the raising of the rear floor footwells went! I'm really happy with how they turned out:




Now there is plenty of room for the mufflers and I'll have plenty of ground clearance. The X-pipe will go right at that lowest part of the floor now, right where the seat rails mount.

[Vega75randy]

Nick:
Any designs for making floor pieces for other H-Body members?
I'll take a set for my 75.

[NixVegaGT]

I could make some pieces... The hard part is the two floors were pretty different. I had to do a bunch of welding to make them fit. The other trouble I ran into is when I put the beads into the floor it warped the panels a LOT! So I had to weld them down progressively straightening the panels. It was kinda a bitch.

I'm in the process of building a tubing bender. I'll make you a roll bar instead! What do you think? Well I should get my bender built first before I start making promises. LOL! Thanks for the interest, Randy.