California Roundie Revival - an unusual perspective

[CubbyChowder]

I know for sure the driver side has previously been replaced and the whole front end has been repainted. It definitely seemed like it had been welded together because of the way that it looked after I ground through some filler, but I may be wrong. I did not know that they came this way from the factory. Now that I think about it, the passenger side cut through a lot cleaner than the driver side, leaving me in suspicion of the driver side being welded shut and the other side original from the factory.

[culpy]

I think your rear driver side trailing arm might be a Tii? Looks boxed in.

[Colin]

I know for sure the driver side has previously been replaced and the whole front end has been repainted. It definitely seemed like it had been welded together because of the way that it looked after I ground through some filler, but I may be wrong. I did not know that they came this way from the factory. Now that I think about it, the passenger side cut through a lot cleaner than the driver side, leaving me in suspicion of the driver side being welded shut and the other side original from the factory.

I can see the filler metal on the driver's side in your photos. Looks factory to me.

[CubbyChowder]

I can see the filler metal on the driver's side in your photos. Looks factory to me.

oh ok, too bad I didn't know that earlier, I could've taken the fenders off properly rather than hack them up. Thanks for pointing that out. Honestly, that might happen quite often in this thread as I don't really know too much about these cars yet.

[LS1CMR]

Looking at all your pics the left side of the car was definitely replaced, looks like the inner wheelhouse, quarter, rocker, and a pillar, make sure you really check all these areas for poor welds, such as the tack welds on the a pillar, these are not correct nor are they strong, like a typical plug or spot weld.

[CubbyChowder]

Looking at all your pics the left side of the car was definitely replaced, looks like the inner wheelhouse, quarter, rocker, and a pillar, make sure you really check all these areas for poor welds, such as the tack welds on the a pillar, these are not correct nor are they strong, like a typical plug or spot weld.

yes, pretty much the entire left side of the car was replaced at some point. I've inspected everything and it seems whoever repaired it did a decent job, or at least from my point of view. It's not the prettiest repair job but the welds seem good and everything lines up.

[ibjettin]

I applaud your ambition and love seeing projects like this. I do worry about that left side and would really encourage you too make sure those welds are all good. Might be well worth it to strip down and have a welder/body guy take a closer look at it for you. It may be spot on, and done correctly, but if your rebuilding the car it would be best to error on safety.

Good to see though that this one was once saved and you are saving it even more! Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[CubbyChowder]

I applaud your ambition and love seeing projects like this. I do worry about that left side and would really encourage you too make sure those welds are all good. Might be well worth it to strip down and have a welder/body guy take a closer look at it for you. It may be spot on, and done correctly, but if your rebuilding the car it would be best to error on safety.

Good to see though that this one was once saved and you are saving it even more! Can't wait to see how this turns out.

thank you! I appreciate the comment. I've inspected it pretty heavily and the welds seem to be solid, however, it's not one continuous weld down the whole side. There are thick spot welds every couple inches or so, is that the correct way to do it? Also, I'm not too knowledgeable on welding yet, but the welds are all golden in color, not sure if this means anything.

I'll have a new update later tonight

[CubbyChowder]

Not a very exciting update, but making progress! Got the rear end taken apart and started on some rust removal. Since the rust really isn't that bad at all, I've decided that I'm going to grind away as much as possible, fix the areas that have rotted through, and cover all the previously rusted spots in Rust Bullet and overcoat with Herculiner. I will be doing the wheel wells, floor pans, trunk area and possibly engine bay in Herculiner. I know some will say its unnecessary and overkill, but I want a clean, durable, consistent look throughout the car. Anyways, onto some pictures!

Rear end taken apart:

Post pressure wash:

Started grinding away at the rust throughout the body. Please note that I am not finished in some areas, which is why it may seem that it's a sloppy job. Getting rid of rust is my main priority right now and I want to do it as good as I can:

My only real before and after from today:

Before:

After:

Ordered Rust Bullet today, so it'll be a few days before I can apply it. I still have a lot of random rust spots to take care of in the trunk area, driver's side rear wheel well, floor pans, and other miscellaneous spots throughout the car. Slow progress right now, but I want to make sure rust is taken care of before I start on the fun stuff

More updates soon!

[LS1CMR]

if they are golden in color then the whole left side of the car was brased not welded, good enough for back in the day but now shunned upon for repairing structural parts such as the a pillar and wheelhouse area, will it be ok, well yes if its been ok all this time then its still good, but look over the seams carefully to inspect for cracks from stress and re-repair those areas so you know its good.

[CubbyChowder]

if they are golden in color then the whole left side of the car was brased not welded, good enough for back in the day but now shunned upon for repairing structural parts such as the a pillar and wheelhouse area, will it be ok, well yes if its been ok all this time then its still good, but look over the seams carefully to inspect for cracks from stress and re-repair those areas so you know its good.

will do, thank you for the input

[ziff73]

Very cool build! Different than my goals, but very cool.

If you don't want those hubcaps, I'll buy them off you...not sure what they're worth, though. I have a 69' 1600 I'm restoring right now...aiming for a fairly original look that would benefit from those caps. Shoot me an email if you want. Thanks!

Stephen

[CubbyChowder]

Although updates have been pretty slow, I've been working on the car a bunch. I'm just mainly doing rust repair right now which isn't super picture/update worthy after every time I work on the car. So I'm just going to pile a bunch of pics I've taken over the past couple of days.

Before I post some pictures, I need to say that I realize this isn't the absolute ideal way to deal with rust, however I'm doing the best that I can. I'm learning everything as I go, and I don't feel comfortable cutting out and rewelding in certain spots (such as the rear windshield area).

I started off with grinding away as much surface rust as possible, and I almost got everything back to bare metal. I did repair a few spots in the floorpans, but for the most part everything was solid. You will notice in the pictures there are a few tiny rust spots here and there, but the rust bullet paint should take care of that.

This is my welder, it's a Lincoln 180HD which I got for a super good price brand new off craigslist, and I just got a 141 cu.ft. Argon/co2 shielding gas setup for it so I can get at the really thin metal.

This is the section of the driver's side floorpan that I cut out:

Replacement metal, cut from an old Chrysler Sebring in my dad's backyard :rofl

Welded up, please bare with me, it was my first time welding thin metal:

Passenger's side floor pan. Only had to replace a small area, getting it ready for Rust Bullet:

This is where the new quarter panel was welded in. Everything was a little rusty all around the seams but I got it all back to bare metal and ready for rust bullet:

This is where the rear windshield sits. It's all dented up with bondo everywhere. Took it down to bare metal as good as I could. Ready for rust bullet

Top of the windshield area, all of the rust ground down, ready for rust bullet.

Rust Bullet applied:

I know in some of the post Rust Bullet pictures, it looks like there is still rust all around it. That's mainly a mixture of dirt and the "Colorado" orange color which is the color of the quarter panel that was welded in. There is no more visible rust anywhere on the floorpan (except for the pedal box area, which I will be taking care of when I remove the box). Happy with my progress so far. Like I said, I know it would be ideal to replace every bit of rust with new metal, but I feel like I'd drive myself crazy doing that. I've read good stuff about Rust Bullet so I'm sure it'll hold up. Thanks for viewing!

[CubbyChowder]

Update time.

Making more progress, got a bunch of pictures for you guys.

Started getting at the trunk area for rust repair and general clean up:

Got the gas tank out:

Worst rust spot in the trunk:

Didn't get very far with the trunk as my dad had time to help me pull the engine, so we started on that. Driveshaft out:

Shifter assembly out:

Tranny out (yuck):

Engine is ready to come out:

Engine out. My dad sold his engine hoist and mount a few months back so we had to improvise a bit haha:

This is the only progress I made on the trunk area so far:

My awesome dad:

My parts room is starting to fill up!

After a thorough pressure wash. Still need to get at some places:

Going back for more tomorrow! Enjoy dudes.

[Deutschman]

Oh here you are!