Cost update!

I figured I'd ponder for a minute on the cost factor so far in Betty.

When we last left you, the car, cost of the Ohio body panels, body filler, sheet metals, and basic shop supplies was at about 3,600.00.

Purchasing the 1975 Riviera was 1500.00. I look to recoup some of that cost, as I'll sell anything off of the body of the car (doors, front fenders, hood, rear quarters, glass) that I can, and scrap the rest of the body. I would think I could recoup at a minimum 400.00 from this, maybe more. At any rate, that puts the total project at 4,900.00.

I don't see any major costs coming up until the 455 motor gets worked over. Well, let's hope!

Gimme Shelter!

So after a few days of filling and sanding in the garage, I realized that I was getting a lot done. The backside of the car was sanded smooth with 220 and ready for primer. The drivers side rear fender was getting close...awful close. I tried not to get that "screw it, it'll do" attitude, so I kept going over and over, looking and feeling for any discrepancies, spraying a thin guide-coat of dark grey primer and checking. So far, so good. Then, I realized after just 2 days that I was making a complete dusty mess in the garage.

Now, I'm not like some crazy garage clean freak, but when my tools, shelves, quads, and camping gear get covered with a layer of filler dust in 2 days, I knew I had to do something to contain most of the dust. Enter....the shelter.

I decided to take a regular camping shelter, 4 rolls of 2mm plastic drop cloths (it's about the thickness of Visqueen...maybe a little thinner) and ran the plastic all the way around the shelter. In the front, I draped the plastic around the hood, and for the most part, the entire area was sealed up, other than the underside of the car. With the torpedo heater right inside the shelter, the area (and the car) heats up in a serious hurry, and stays warm. It also helped contain the dust.



For the most part, I've spent the last few days (about 4 hours) finishing up the driver's side rear fender. It's just about done. Today I worked my way over to the passenger side, which is going much quicker and easier than the driver's side. The passenger side welds and metal were much easier, and I had got the hang of welding the channel much better on that side. My guess is that I'll probably be done with the back of the car soon, and be able to get some primer on it. I've made more progress on the car in the last week than I made in 4 months. This is good. The front half of the car has probably 1/4 of the body work needing to be done, so things are moving along well. I've sourced out some primer, and decided to go with a urethane multi-use primer that can be put over bare metal, rather than doing the etch, then a build primer. Once again, it's not going to be a concours car. I think I've opted to go with a basecoat / clear, and use flattening agent in the clear to get that suede look I'm after. I've heard too many horror stories about using Hot Rod Flatz metallic paints and trying to get them to lay right. So...that's up in the future, until now, I'll be chilling in the shelter, which is more like a suana when that heater runs for awhile!


Oh, and the Riviera sellers called back - the new motor and tranny are in, and the car is supposedly going to be delievered tomorrow. Gulp.




Here, the driver's channel is on it's last little spot coats...

Sanding is a 7-letter word.

Yep...I'm back on the body work again after a long long time delay. In fact, I don't think I've even laid a piece of sandpaper on this car since August.

I got back on sanding the drivers rear fender and worked over to the passenger side, while putting the final touches on the rear. I also needed to take my abrasive sponge wheel and take off all the surface rust that had formed on the backside of the car. This had happened from when the garage door was open and it was snowing. Just a little dusting of snow on the bare metal and surface rust had started. I now have a cover for the car.

Here's the drivers side...getting closer to being done.



I'm hoping to have primer on at least the back half of the car by February (I've heard that before).

At it again update....

So the sellers of the big green Riviera called me (see, Ooops, we're at it again to find out why the hell we bought a 1975 Riviera) to tell me more bad news. One, the tranny was definately bad, but what's worse, there was coolant in the antifreeze, which indicated either a cracked block or head, or in a very rare case, a headgasket leaking coolant into the oil. I had sensed that something was up when I noticed a new radiator, water pump, and thermostat, all changed by the sellers within a few weeks. It seemed to me like they were chasing a problem - that problem more than likely was a cracked block or head, and coolant getting lost in the oil. What's worse, is this explains the oil light coming on while I was driving home. The coolant was slowly galling the bearings until there was no oil pressure left. They simply hadn't driven it far enough, and at the massive-transmission-slipping RPM's that I had on the way home, it sealed the deal. I was blowing up the motor and didn't even know it. Fun.

So the sellers were at a complete loss on what to do. Honestly, I consider myself very lucky. I could have had some sellers that just told me to get screwed, and then I was stuck with a car frame missing the two most important parts of the swap - the motor and tranny. What's even odder is that they told me they were going to try to find a motor and tranny for the car, and put it in... I told them I didn't see how this was possible as the cost involved in this would probably be over what the vehicle was worth. I felt really bad for these people. They had the worst string of luck and felt obligated to do something about it. At this point they were stuck fixing a car that utimately would cost them more money to sell than it was worth. We agreed for them to return my money to me and I would call this a dead issue - a major bullet dodged for me.

But then...they called me back on Friday to tell me they had just got back from Iowa, where they found another 455/400 from a 1976 Electra, and were in the process of having a garage install the motor and tranny! They even pulled the trans apart to change the front pump seal and the rear main seal of the motor. They told me they wanted everything perfect. I asked for picture documentation of what they were doing and they agreed to take as many as they could.

You can't buy this kind of dedication for 1,500.00.

Stay tuned.