Okay, time again to document some of the progress.
The seats are finished and looking great. I ended up scrapping the idea of finding a decent looking silver in a rattle can because I couldn't find anything durable enough, so I went ahead and had the frames powdercoated, along with all the other little interior bits that are usually painted pewter. The seats look great and currently reside in my living room to serve as a reminder to get off my duff and keep working.
Use your imagination.
Here's a shot of some of the other "pewter" bits, along with the passenger grab bar I fabricated. It clears the glove box door perfectly, but I don't have an upper dash pad to test to see if it even fits, but I think it will. That's one of the few parts I know I'm missing at this point. I'm sure that when I put it all back together and try to get it running (and turning, shifting, stopping etc.) I'm sure I'll find a lot more.
This is pretty much what the cruiser looks like currently. I finally finished scraping off the yellow paint (what a horrible decision) and have the majority of the body work done. The cruiser was pretty straight overall, but seemed to have a little something about every 5 inches that needed attention. I did as much as I could with a hammer and dolly to straighten out the major dings (both rear corners, front edge of the hood, bezel, both doors, lip running underneath around the tub, area between drivers door and fender, and front bib). Even though rust on this cruiser was minimal, I did find a lot of little cracks starting to open up that needed welding. I filled the holes in both doors from where the previous owner mounted some presumably Chevy truck mirrors, which caused a bit or warpage and some oilcanning of the door skins that needed attention.
The philosophy for the bodywork is to fix the major stuff on the exterior so that it looks like it would have when it left the factory, meaning I wanted to maintain the look of the spot welds along the sides of the hard top and such, but fix any waviness or dents (within reason). This is my first bodywork project so it took me a lot longer than it probably should have. I made a few changes along the way, like filling in the split in the hood, but nothing major. I'm sure as I continue to prime the pieces I'll find places where I need to go back and fix my work, but it looks pretty good now. I don't think I have more than about an eigth of an inch of filler on the deepest spots, and most are just barely skimmed, so I'm happy.
I had to fill about 40 little holes along the lip of the tub where a previous owner had evidently installed a soft top.
Rather than just get another hood from a later year I chose to fill in the split in the one I have. I hope it turns out to be durable and not chip out as the hood flexes and vibrates. The majority of the filler is an epoxy adhesive similar to JB Weld so I think I'll be okay. If you look closely the earlier hoods taper off sharper at the front corners and have a slightly more aggressive look to them. This way I won't have the hood bulge either. I think it will look pretty slick.
I've been going at it part by part trying to get everything in primer so I can see all the places that need bodywork touch up. I'm paying a lot more attention to the stuff that will be seen from the outside and I'll leave a little rust pitting and dents in the floor on the inside. This is far from a restoration and I plan to drive the heck out of it when I'm done, mostly daily driving, but I'll take it on a lot of 2-3 night treks with some light to medium wheeling to see the surrounding areas. It's not going to be a serious crawler (as is evident by the mild lift and only 33's) but it should be about perfect for what I want to use it for, especially with seating for 7.
Attacking it piece by piece.
I've got a lot of prep and priming still to do. I've been saving the biggest pieces until last. As soon as I'm done I'm going to clean my garage because I'm sick of everything being coated in dust. Plus, I'll be painting it in the garage and I want to keep dust in the paint to a minimum. With any luck I'll have another big update in a month or so and I can show off some pics of it painted and beginning to go back together. At this point having a sweet set of seats sitting in the living room isn't providing quite enough motivation so any help would be appreciated.
