My 1967 Belvedere Convertible Plans and Restoration (aka - Mad Scientist Build)

[tallhair]

It's working Khan !

Really nice work there brother

 

[conv67bdere]

Los of things going on with the Belvedere as I continue to make progress on the build . . . and this was one of the things that really bugged me - the drain trough around the convertible top has two pieces of metal that would be prone to rust . . . so I went around the entire thing and welded the two pieced together . . . this should help ( with epoxy primer too . . . )

Next . . . my neighbor has a rotisserie, so I'm borrowing it for a short time to allow me to work on the bottom of the var and not have all that stuff falling in my face . . . here I towed it over to my house and I'm just getting started attaching it . . .

The process of attaching it - front attached - rear still to be done . . .

Whooohooo . . . got it on the rotisserie and ready to get some work done . . .

Wow . . . look at those tubs for my wheels ! ! ! I like ! ! !

This is kinda like a birds-eye-view of the Belvedere . . .

My hope ( my plan ) is to get a bunch of welding, and grinding done on the bottom of the car so that I can get the epoxy primer on the bottom of the car while it's easier to work on . . . boy is this nice ( wish I had one of these and that it fit in my shop too )

 

[HYRDGOON]

Those wheel tubs are awesome! Going to have to stick some big meats up in there for sure! Good luck today hope you get it sorted and into primer!

 

[usaroadrunner]

those wheel tubs are UGE, so big the h fell off. lmao. that is gonna look badass with those tires stuffed in there, just killer.

 

[747mopar]

Your going to love that rottiserie, almost like cheating haha. I'm envious of those tubs but I won't be envious of the tire $$$$$

 

[kb67mopar]

Your going to love that rottiserie, almost like cheating haha. I'm envious of those tubs but I won't be envious of the tire $$$$$

I think that IS cheating....totally would have done more work on the undercarriage if I had one of those!

I like what I see though man, its looking awesome

 

[Glenwood]

Your going to love that rottiserie, almost like cheating haha. I'm envious of those tubs but I won't be envious of the tire $$$$$

damn, now I want a rotisserie!

 

[HYRDGOON]

All this talk of Rotisserie now I want some chicken!!

 

[Glenwood]

All this talk of Rotisserie now I want some chicken!!

LOL

 

[conv67bdere]

More progress . . .

So my "weekend" job to get the bottom of the car in primer turned into more than a weekend job . . . played hooky form work today to finish up the project . . .

Here's what I've got now . . .

Now the good . . . the bad . . . and the ugly . . .

The Good - WOW, this thing is the BOMB, and does it make your work easy ! ! ! Yes, it would be on my list to get one of these to help with the body work . . . boy is it nice ! !

The Bad . . . having the car up on end like this, in the great daylight, sure does point out all
the flaws that I've got in my car . . . No, I'm not going to point them out, but there are a LOT of them.

Seeing all of the flaws on the bottom of my car caused me to chase some of them and try to improve them ( some of them would have been a long time to repair ) so, that's the reason that my weekend expanded into the weekend plus Monday . . .

The Ugly . . . Now I know about all of these "bad things" under my car that I really would like to fix, and know that if I had the car on the rotisserie for longer, that I could have got them done ( but it doesn't fit in my shop - and how many days can I go leaving it outside and not see rain ? ? )

ARGH . . . double edged sword, I'd like to fix more things, but I just ran out of time . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

All this talk of Rotisserie now I want some chicken!!

Now that's funny Goon ! ! ! And since I worked right through lunch, I'm starving ! ! !

 

[conv67bdere]

Well . . . life kinda got in the way again, and I had some things that needed to get attended to - thus the lack of posting on my build . . . had little things going on, but not enough to post . . .

Had a neighbor lady that had a mower that wouldn't work - been cutting her grass - finally grabbed the mower - my next door neighbor assisted with the electrical debugging, and once we got that done, and added some gas, the mower fired right up . . . step one completed.

Now that I know the mower will run, time to dig into the mechanical . . . it's a 40" Murray riding mower, and one of the spindles was seized up, and the other spun - but on inspection, there was no bearing on the bottom of the shaft . . . deck was in good shape other than that. 3 flat tires that were dry rotted . . . Got 4 new tires, new battery, and found this deck on CraigsList for $25 . . . SCORE . . .

This turned out to be a 53" deck, and with a little bit of coercing . . . her mower has been upgraded to a 42" deck . . . and it seems to be working great. That got delivered this week.

Now onto the Belvedere - had a little piece of the Tunnel Hump that was "missing" - so I finally got the rest of it fabricated and welded in place - so that it looks more like factory all the way to the rear seat . . . here's the results . . .

The weather for this weekend is rain - so hopefully, I'll be getting some bodywork done on the Belvedere . . . and after seeing 666 get his rear quarter work done and get it into primer ( and it looks great ) I'm fired up to start making some progress ! ! !

 

[conv67bdere]

The rain has held off for most of the day . . . so I dragged my Driver front quarter panel outside, along with me welder, angle grinder, DA sander . . . and dug into the panel. Welding up the molding holes and inspecting the quarter . . . it's in really good shape . . .

Got a support on the inside that will need some work - it's pretty rusted - but this panel has been welded and is almost ready for primer . . . you can see some body filler at the top left of the panel . . . but now, all the holes are welded and ground flush . . .

Next - fix the rust support inside this panel and then onto the passenger side . . .

 

[kiwigtx]

Some nice work there Dr Overkill. And what a great score to be able to borrow that rotisserie. I can tell you from experience, that they make a world of difference, and you'll appreciate not having to lie under the car to do the underbelly.
Looking great....keep it up, and you'll soon be a roller.

 

[conv67bdere]

Been a very productive weekend . . . and I'm really happy with the progress . . .

First - here's that brace that I was wondering about . . . and it doesn't look good at all . . .

Ugh . . . I can see daylight through most of it . . . not good at all . . .

On my passenger side quarter, this is what it "should" look like . . . Hummm . . .

Bend some metal, mark off the bad area, cut it out . . .

New metal sitting in place where it needs to go . . .

Start tacking the good metal in place . . .

The new frame looks so much better than it did before - it needed to be fixed . . .

While I was in there, I was welding up some of the original metal that only had spot-welds . . .

My rear braces on my two fenders - now look a little more alike . . . YAY ! ! !

And the driver Quarter is done - all the holes welded up and ground down - except that I don't know what to do with the antenna . . . yet . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

And . . .I got this cabinet done, all the hardware is in place, the doors have been aligned, and it turned out pretty nice . . . Mark that one off the list . . .

 

[kb67mopar]

All looks great. Fyi for an antenna I zip tied a marine antenna in under the dash. Works great and no holes...cost me $15

 

[HYRDGOON]

Nice work all around buddy. Great job stitching up the original spot welds to add a little extra reinforcement where possible. Cabinet looks awesome too!

 

[BigBlock61]

Looks real good there Khan Keep it up.

 

[Satans Fury]

Hey Larry,

Great catching up with you today.

So what's the outcome with the TIG, and what did it cost?

 

[747mopar]

Nice work Kahn, nice to knock out those little things to get the motivation going again. Cabinets turned out great too along with your patch work.