Fat Chicks n' Mopeds

[fernon]

Another Newbee here with Visions of Grandeur.

Well I went ahead and did it, I finally broke down and bought a Bug, it's been 20 years since I've owned one and I have had a bug up my ass (no pun intended) to get one again ever since I had first seen a Volksrod. The combination of my love of Hot Rods and VW's is hard to resist, and more so the fact that with a Volksrod I can piss of purist in both cultures is an added bonus.

About the bug: this is what she looked like the night I bought her. The bug is a 1972 with early fiberglass fenders and running boards all around, it definitely was an 80's love child, the body has more cancer than John Wayne, Yul Brenner & Steve McQueen at a Marlboro convention, but it does have character. The bug has a 1641 with duel 40mm Kadron carbs so it does have a little power while still being reliable. Other mods are Centerline wheels, fiberglass dash with more gauges than a 747, Scat shifter, Big Wig rear wing and flamed door panels, 2-1/2" droped spindles, front disk brakes, one piece windows and more... Oh, and did I mention the ass end that would make Jlo look like Twiggy and it also sits about 1-1/2" off the ground in the back - speed bumps are fun!!!

My first order of business is to replace the body, I found a 1962 but I am not sure if I can mate it with the 1972 pan (any help would be grateful) if not then I will have to start replacing a lot of body panels and then shave the drip rails off since there is nothing left of them.

She may be ugly but she's mine now...
(Fat Chicks n' Mopeds - Everyone likes to ride them, but no one wants to be seen doing it).
I will keep you informed on my progress and by the way I love the site (been lurking around for a while getting ideas).

[fernon]

New Day - New Body

OK, so I picked up a new body to replace the P.O.S. that is currently residing on the pans, it is a 1962 shell that is in very good shape, never been hit, perfect uncut dash and a smoothed rear deck, one peice windows with extra regulators and glass, a shell that any purist would cream over (I can't wait to cut the bitch up) the only metal that needs to be replaced is a small section of the driver side heater channel, needles to say this is a vast improvement from the current body and I only paid $140 for the shell (The heater channels are going to cost more that the whole body!!!)

Now I have to find a hood and figure out how I want to chop the top I'm kinda diggin that Cappella Chop Top but maybee I'll score another shell so I have more options on which way I want to go with it.

[fernon]

Chop Chop - Fizz Fizz - O' What A Relief Cut It Is.
Sorry, I couldn't resist

So after months of deliberation and the fact that talking about chopping a bug and actually chopping a bug there comes a time to just Cut The Fucker and go from there.

We decided to go with a variation of the Capella Chop and we also decided that it would be a good idea to document what we we are doing since the only reference to doing this kind of chop is a copy of a copy of a chop done in the 70's, needless to say we had a lot of questions and hopefully we came up with some answers which also gave us some more questions.

Enough talk lets see some pictures.
First off here is a comparison of the two bodies, on the left a 1972 Fat Chick, on the right a 1962 future Volksrod... A roling dolly was made to the current ride hight of the Fat Chick so that we had a reference point to compare.



Side View


Rear View


Now you see it now you don't


My son is great for small spaces


My Brother-in-Law - AKA - The Evil Metal Genius
Cutting the fire wall


Here you can see the two blue lines on the back section of the car. The top blue line is where we made the initial cut to the roof and the bottom line is approximately were we wanted the roof to sit when we were done.


Here you can see the cuts to the post


All things in life look better Topless


Relief cuts made to the roof and A pillars to match the pillars to the roof


It's going to be fun trying to fit my Fat Ass in this car.


My brother-in-Law the Master taking some measurements


Fixing the side window


Finished with all the adjustments


Just a thought - Not sure about this yet???


Damn that looks nice...


That's a little windshield


OK here is the little secret that we did not tell everyone when we did the chop, in order for the back end to line up again you need to cut the inner fender well below the fender bolts (see photos - red line indicates where to cut) so that you can draw the rear of the body in so that it lines up with the roof, then just trim off the excess metal from the inner fender well.


Chopped - Side View


Chopped - Close-Up Side Window


Chopped - Rear View


Not bad for a weekend job...
4" chop in the front 2-1/2" in the rear - roof moved forward 2" - B-pillar cut and realigned with body - rear inner fenders cut to align with body sides - I wonder if the engine is going to fit...

[fernon]

Shit's a Happenin'

OK, it's been a while since I last posted, actually a month since I last posted, since that time my life has been a whirlwind of excitement, let's see just after my last update I had the flu, the kind that knocks you on your ass, to give you an idea how bad it was I have never taken a sick day off from work in my life and this put me on my ass for three days, then I was called out on an emergency call to fly out to Los Angeles while I was feeling this way, Let me first start off by saying I have always loved it out in California but you guys SUCK!!! I guess there are so many VW's out there that you just don't know how good you have it for parts, every street I turned down had a VW sitting there just waiting to be molested by some metal hack-in, grease slap-pin car junkie like me, but I digress, let's get back on the subject at hand.

When I returned from Los Angeles I couldn't wait to get back to building the volksrod so without further ado lets get the the pictures.

So I finally got a hood for the ride and started to strip it down, the car already looks a thousand times better with the hood.

Then the task of stripping down the Fat Chick, or as it has been kindly referred to lately as The Onion (with every layer that has been taken off this Piece of Shit car it brings a tear to your eye)

The only reason I bought the car to begin with was for the engine, it runs strong and is a great starting point for the volksrod.

Lifting the old body off the frame.

And now the moment we have all been waiting for, the placing of the 1962 chopped body on the 1972 IRS Pan.

The body fits like a glove, no clearance issues with the motor or deck lid like everyone said there would be, the only thing that I am concerned with at this point is lowering the front end, I know that the Tinbeater front end lowers another 2" but I need another 6" and I already have 2-1/2" dropped spindles, We'll figure something out, we always do.

OK, back to work, with the body off we can start to see how bad the pans really are. Fuck It, new pans and heater channels, I'm not going to spend my life chasing rust, new metal is far more cheaper than my time.

Another layer to The Onion, the tunnel is fucking trashed, time to start fabbing a new one.

Now I just need to cut the other side and drop the new pan in and then I can start cutting up more metal on The Onion.

[fernon]

Grind Master Flash

So its the last day of the three day weekend and I have to say my neighbors probably wish I was dead, between the grinding of the metal, drilling out what seemed like a thousand spot welds and the air hammer ripping up the metal to take out the old pans it has been nonstop all weekend long, but we have new metal in the bottom half of the car and what a difference it makes.

Here is some of the fab work that was done to the fucked up tunnel. Better than the original, my brother-in-law can weld like a MOFO but I am a crazy grindin' son-of-a-bitch, after the bodywork you will never be able to tell. (sorry bug guys no JB Weld or Foam Fill in this car).

It was very easy to put the pans in with the heater channels so that you can line everything up, then after they are welded in you unbolt the heater channels and set the body on, then replace the heater channels on the car one side at a time, I will have photos of that for you to see when we start doing that.

Make sure you use the original spine in the back if you can, it is stronger than the aftermarket pans and it helps lining up the pans, just drill out the spot welds and separate the spine.

One side in, now it's time to fix the other.

More fab work to the other side. (The Evil Metal Genius loves it when I photograph him - NOT!!!)

So here is a recap of this weekend, we stripped the Fat Chick, finally took the cancer ridden body off, replaced the floor pans, did some fab work to the tunnel, sat the new body on, stood back for a moment and said OOOOH - AAAAH then lit off some fire works (maybe we got that backwards???), cut the back shock tower mounts (remember this is a 1962 body going on a 1972 IRS pan), did a bunch of cursing and calculations and made a plan for our next long weekend. Not bad for three days!!!

[fernon]

Time to Turn Up The Heat-er Channels

So we decided to tackle the heater channels over the three day weekend, thus putting all the structure back into the car so that we can proceed with working on the doors. The first line of business was to remove the old channels, we decided it would be best to bolt what was left of the old channels to the new pans so that everything was lined up and then brace the inner doors so that the body wouldn't tweek when we cut the channels off. Working one side at a time we proceeded to cut the heater channels off.

Since this car is in South Florida and it always feels like the surface of the sun here we decided to cover all the holes in the channels since they look like shit and if you want heat roll down a window.

Now that the DOG DICKS are cut off we can start to fab in the holes.

Yes he does have all of his fingers - he's just shooting a semi-bird.

All tacked in and ready for Grind Master Flash.

A little skim coat and you will never tell it was there.

Now the front is finished up.

All welded up and ready to be put back in the car. There are a shitload of holes and strange angles to be welded on these heater channels.

Cutting the inner fender well to replace more metal.

Nice big hole for ventilation.

Checking the fit. Yes we are going for a Darwin Award setting the front of the body on the bar stool, that's OK the Pepsi can is keeping it from falling.

All tacked in and good as new.

Just need to clean up the welds and it will be all done. Notice no holes.

Next thing to do is cut out the heat tubes and close up that hole.

We also shaved the drip rails around the front of the door. Hmmmm I wonder if that means we are putting suicide doors on???

[fernon]

More of the Same

Back to work on the passengers side heater channel, after replacing the heater channel we decided to replace all of the lower metal on that side as well.

Another nice big hole to fill - the bottom end on this car is being replaced with all new metal- no more rust.

OK - I have to rant a little, it is amazing what we have found on both of these cars since we have been working on making the Volksrod.

We have come to the conclusion that most people are FUCKING RETARDED when it comes to repairing cars, the fundamental fact thatif you are not going to do it right don't do it at all just does not seem to register with most of these people, we have pulled more shit out of these cars and have seen some pretty fucked up ways to make repairs than we thought humanly possible.

Don't get me wrong I think JB Weld and Great Stuff have there place in the world and are great products but you can't build an entire fucking car out of that shit.

Here is an example of what I am talking about, these are the hinges to the doors, notice the nuts JB Welded to the plate (Priceless)...

Sorry... I had to vent. OK back to the build, the back panel has been cut out to be replaced.

This is what was cut out. More rust...

Fabbing up a new piece.

A little welding and good as new.

OK - so I was moving the shop vac around to vacuum up some of the mess that we were making and I noticed it was kind of hard to move around so I decided to open it up and look inside, well there was about 23 lbs of rust and metal that we had been vacuuming up since we started this project.

I thought about putting it in little bottles and selling it to the Samba Douchbags as Original 1962 Patina but I know some purist over there probably would have bought it and I would have to tell them to
"Stop punching me in the dick with their mouth".

[fernon]

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I know it's been a while but I have been a little busy since my last update. Let's see on 08/08/08 I was in the process of taking my family to The Most Happiest Place On Earth - Disney World. We decided to get an early start to the day so that we could avoid all the morning traffic, unfortunately fate had other plans for us, we were less than a mile from the house and everything was going great the wife was happy and my son was excited that we were going to spend a whole week in Orlando, nothing could go wrong or so we thought, but in a blink of an eye everything changed.

I am still not sure what happened me and my wife have gone over it a thousand times and we still are not sure what happened, there wasn’t a car in front of us as far as the eye could see, I turned to look at the truck next to us for a second and the next thing I knew there was a car stopped in front of us, needles to say I didn’t even have time to hit the breaks, I slammed into the back of the car in front of us and that car was then pushed into the car in front of it. When I got out of the car, the car in front of the one I hit had taken off, more than likely they cut off the person in front of us and slammed on the breaks (Haitians do this in South Florida all the time so they can sue you) but when they realized they caused an accident they took off.

Our airbags went off and the car filled with smoke from the propellant, my son was hysterical not from the accident but from the thought that he was not going to Disney World, fortunately he was fine not a scratch on him, my wife on the other hand was not as lucky it seems that she took the brunt of the crash fortunately she only suffered from a sprained ankle and a couple of bruises from the seat belts, as for me I was more concerned with there well being to even worry if there was anything wrong with me, I was just banged up a little, no more that I usually am. I was just grateful no one was seriously hurt

After calming our son down and reassuring him that we were still going to go on vacation we took care of everything we had to with the car since the Insurance Company totaled it there on the spot we went back to the house and got in the truck and proceeded to go to Orlando thinking that our troubles were behind us we finally got up there, then on the third day we were there my truck starts acting strange, it starts sputtering and backfiring, it seems that the coils went bad and was making the truck misfire so I had to get that fixed.

Needles to say this vacation cost me a small fortune between totaling a brand new car, having to replace most of the ignition system in my truck and the fact that gas was at its highest cost ever, then having to go out and purchase a new car. I really haven’t been in the mood to do anything with the Volksrod or anything else for that matter.

Here are some photos of the car.
The scary part is we were just going less that 30 mph.

[fernon]

What would you do with an extra 10-1/2" Inches?

Yes kids that's right not 8", not 10" but a whopping 10-1/2" inches.
Just so that we can say I bet you never seen one of these this big before…

OK, like I said, the Evil Metal Genius really outdid himself this time, he went ahead and fabricated a 10-1/2” beam extender for the bug.

As usual, we pulled the beam off the car to find more rust and more holes to fix.

The Evil Metal Genius making some final adjustments to the beam. Notice the OSHA squint.

Doing some test fitting before its all welded up.

[fernon]

Let's see you make it fit Smart-Ass

So now that we have the beam extender we have to see if it all fits under the hood

A little cut here, a little cut there and what do you know...

That steering box is going to have to go.
Looks like we're going to put a rack and pinion set-up in here so we don't have to cut the hood!!!

Yes, we do have top and bottom plates for it, we are just test fitting before we weld it all up.

Damn That's Sexy, Now we just need to weld it all up.

[fernon]

That's Too Fuckin High

OK, so the beam extender dropped the front end down another 2" but the car still looks like a Gasser, so once again the Evil Metal Genius does a Cut and Turn and now it has the right stance.

Before the Cut and Turn.

After the Cut and Turn. What a difference that made.

Before the Cut and Turn.

After the Cut and Turn.

It's starting to all come together now...

[fernon]

Hey Babe Nice Rack!!!

Well we finally got the rack and pinion set-up tacked in and it looks and works great.
It is a Wright Rack and Pinion, it is super simple and very strong, but very hardcore, probably overkill for our purpose, but what the hell everything else we do is overkill.

Again everything tucks up under the hood nice and neatly.

[fernon]

A Dashing Idea

So after getting the front end set-up we wanted to get the steering in so that we could start working on the dash, as usual we couldn't just use a stock steering shaft that would be too easy, so we decided to custom fabricate our own since we are going to do something very cool to it later on.

I was able to score a 1959 Bus dash pod and perfectly working clear needle speedo so as usual, we decided to start cutting it up to fit our needs.

Building up the sides of the pod.

Removing the bottom brace.

Welding in a new plate to cover the bottom.

Filling in all the holes in the dash.

Cutting out an opening in the dash.
(I love sparks)

Nice big opening to work with.

Tacking the pod in place.

The dash all cut out.

Filling in the panels of the dash.

The pod is offset away from the dash quite a bit because again we are going to do something different than just setting a bus pod in a dash, but you will have to wait and see.

All tacked in, now we have to start working our magic with the dash.

[fernon]

Starting to take Shape

It's back to work on the dash, since we can't just stick a bus pod in the center of the dash we decided to actually make it look like it was suppose to be there by using the body lines and curves of the original dash. That being said we had to make a jig to shape the metal for the dash. We started by heating and bending a steel rod to the radius that we wanted.

Then we proceeded to form the metal to the shape that we wanted.

After we got the look that we wanted we had to start building up the sides.

Checking for fit.

Then it was time to strip down the dash and start to make everything fit.

With both sides tacked in it was time to work on the top

Now this is what it looks like all welded in and ground down, after we finish welding up the dash and adding a skim coat it will look factory (or what the factory should have done). Notice how the top of the dash flows into the pod and all of the radiuses match up (OOOOOOOOOOH Detail)

[fernon]

Column Drop

We started working on mounting the column and then thought it would look better if it had a column drop, so as usual it's back to fabbing a custom piece for what we want.

Test fitting the column drop.

Once we set the steering height that we want we will start to work on the column (we have something a little special we are going to do to this), again you have to wait and see.

Also finished welding all the panels in the dash, now I just need to grind the shit out of all the welds.

[fernon]

Suicidal Tendencies

Time to do a little work to the doors, and as always time to replace a shitload of metal. We started by replacing the entire bottom of the doors since most of the metal was gone we had to replace the front and backs at the same time.

As you can see the back half of these doors are shot.
(Like the pissing on purists logo - never mind)

OK, back to work welding up the back of the door.

With the back welded in we can cut the bottom of the door off so we can replace the metal.

Now we just Cleco the panels together and start welding the door skin on.

Time for a test fit.

My son is a little excited about getting the car done.

OK, so we got our hinge kit in and let me tell you this kit is nice, it is a Williams Hidden Hinge / Suicide Kit and they did a nice job making this kit.

The kit also came with Bear Claw latches and the latch install kit.

Starting to cut into the body for the hinges

The Evil Metal Genius in action.

Checking the fit on the inside

Welding the hinges into the body.

Setting the hinges up.

Hinges installed on the body, now we just have to make the doors fit.

Cutting the doors for the hinges.

Pocket holes cut into the door.

One side done. - That's it for today...

[fernon]

Holy Shite

Another wait and see is being revealed, it's funny we have spent so much time getting rid of all the holes in this car and now we are putting holes back in the car on purpose. We wanted to address the issue of the lower rocker panel or lack there of since the car has no fenders or running boards the bottom looks unfinished so we decided that it would look better with a rocker panel rolled in the bottom and then drill lightening holes in it for that nostalgia look. This is just our test piece, the finished piece will have the holes dimpled and the spacing will change a little. It does add to the stance of the car though.

Back to work on the door. We wanted to get the door latch in and working, first we had to figure out where we wanted the latching mechanism so it wouldn't interfere with anything.

Once we figured out the location it was time to cut the opening in the door

Latch tacked in.

We also wanted to start filling in all the holes around the hinge openings.

Welding in the brackets and grinding them down so that they are flush with the door.

Door back on the car for test fit.

Now it's time to install the latch pin, this is where you really have to measure.

Our test template for the latch pin assembly.

Cutting through the first of several layers.

The first layer cut away.

After cutting all the inner layers away the pin is tacked in place.

After cutting up the original door mechanism and re-welding it to the size that we wanted it doesn't look to bad, considering we are using a window crank to open it.

Now it's on to the top of the door, first we had to cut the insides so that we could lean them in.

Then tack on the back.

Then it was on to the front.

Making the missing section in the middle

Tack it all into place.

One door actually has a top on now and it opens, not bad for a Sunday afternoon.

Also my steering wheel finally came in, it's a custom billet banjo wheel with a half wrap leather grip.

And I also was able to pick up a W-Lid at the Daytona Show, after sand blasting the rust in the bad areas the lid is in pretty good shape, a little work and it will look good as new.

[fernon]

Scored Some Parts for the V-Rod

This was a non-build week since we were at the Super Chevy Show all weekend - the good news is we were able to score some more parts for the v-rod.

Picked up a nice quality set of door handles for the inside just have to give them the brushed look and they are good to go.

Then I was able to trade my drive-in speakers for this nice set of B-L-C headlight buckets with the bulbs. I have been looking for a while for these since they have a deeper bucket to give it a beefier look to the front.

Did a mock-up to see what they are going to look like on the V-Rod, now we have to fab some ultra-cool brackets to mount them.

[fernon]

How Bugs Are Made

So we wanted to finish putting the structure back into the one side of the car so that we could finish mounting the door. As I approached the car I noticed a black dot on the roof, I slowly moved in a little closer and then I realized the v-rod had been compromised, yes boys and girls this is how bugs are made.

OK, so back to finishing up the door jam, welding in all the pockets around the hinge kit.

All tacked in and ready to be ground down.

Adding a support beam to the inside of the car to reinforce the hinge kit.

With the angle iron welded in place the hinge area has all the structure put back into it so the door and the body will not flex when you open it.

Added a piece to tie in the body to the heater channel.

Then it was on to the door, again we just couldn't have suicide doors we had to radius the top corner of the door as well.

After cutting the top of the door off. Now we have a nice big hole to fill.

Making a filler piece.

Welded up and ground down.

Top of the door done, now we have to make the filler plate for the body. We also welded in all the original door handle openings.

Beat it to fit. Paint it to match, a little fine tuning.

This is another one of those things that you won't notice the first time you see it. Subtle little details is what this build is all about.

[fernon]

Suicide Kings

We finished welding up the top of the door and set the gap all around the door so that it looks right, filled in all the remaining holes from the original front hinges and shaved the drip rails from the front of the door, it really cleans the lines up on the car.

After that we decided that it was time to start working on the drivers side door.

Checking the hinges for placement

Marking out the area that is going to be cut out. Since we are going to make our own solid rear panels instead of using stock rear panels, we decided that we could cut more metal out of the car the make installation easier.

Cutting out the inner frame to install the hinge kit.

Removing the section that is not needed.

You can see the section that was taken out so that the hinge can be inserted.

Cutting the lower pocket for the hinge.

The lower pocket is an open cut into the body.

The top opening is a little harder to do since there is four (4) layers of metal to cut through.

Checking to make sure the holes are in the right place and the hinges are level.

Opening the holes up a little so that we have more adjustment in the hinges.

OK, This next part you may want to take small children by the hand and run, this is not for the weak hearted.

The driver's door never fit the opening right from the beginning and since we are anal as all hell about gaps and tolerances we decided to make the door fit the opening, in order to do that we needed to take a 1/4" of an inch off the front of the door so that the gap would be even all around. With that being said it was time to cut the front of the door off.

After cutting the front of the door off we ran a strap across it so that we could hold the door to weld it back together, a lot of work for a 1/4" of an inch.

Measuring the door for the placement of the inner brackets for the hinge kit.

Cutting the openings for the brackets.

Brackets tacked in place.

Making the adjustment to lean the front post in.

Front post cut off so that it can be leaned in.

Brackets all welded in so that we can mount the door.

Door opens and closes, now we have to install the latches and work on the tops and fill in all the holes and, and, and...

[fernon]

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Program

It's been a while since we worked on the Volksrod, we have been working on the Evil Metal Genius's 1969 SS Camaro for the past couple of months and it's almost done.

After working on a real car for a while we decided to take a break and play with the Volksrod again. I was able to pick up a Shrinker/Stretcher so that we could start working on the front panels for the car.

This is what the front end looks like after you add a beam extender, the front end looks unfinished so we decided to form our own panels to fill the void.

Marked out an area to cut away.

Placed a cardboard mock-up to see what it will look like.

A little primer to see it better. We will start working on the front end after we finish the driver side door.

We started to work on putting together the drivers side door, I think the heat is starting to get to us, we are now taking orders from this guy.

Marked the area that needs to be cut out, there are two layers of metal here.

Cutting the first layer.

Here you can see the second layer.

Have to break out the Sawzall to get to this one.

Now we have an opening for the pin assembly.

Pin assembly put in place.

Next it's on to the latch system in the door.

Areas marked to be trimmed.

Cutting the pocket in the door.

Opening for the latch plate.

Latch plate set in place.

Cut out the track area for the latch bar.

Latch and plate in place.

Welding in the plate.

Door mechanism set in place, we will need to be trim the bar to fit.

Bar cut down to size and welded together.

Filling the holes in the door.

Now it's on to the top of the door.

This is how much the top was chopped.

Cutting the rear post to lean in.

Tacked in and ready for the top.

Top tacked together and center piece made to join both halves.

A little more work on the center piece.

All tacked together.

You can see how the front does not even come close to lining up.

Not a problem just cut everything apart and make it line up.

Now we just need to fill in the gaps and then radius the rear of the door, then replace the bottom panel of the door and then and then and then...

[fernon]

Nothing too Exciting...

Back to working on the drivers side door we started to fill in all the gaps and make everything look nice again on the door.

With the new Shrinker / Stretcher we are now able to make the compound curves in the filler pieces that we need for the door.

After trimming the filler piece it now fits in place like it was suppose to be there.

Then we started to fill in all the door handle openings.

Finish welding in all the plates we made.

Then it was on to filling in the front hinge area of the door jam.

Making sure it fits in place.

Cutting out the existing metal.

Nice clean hole to work with were the hinge once was.

Welding in the new piece that we made.

The hinge area is now all filled in, looks 100 times better.

Next we are going to finish putting in the radius on the drivers side door top and then replace the bottom of the door.

[fernon]

Let's Get Tanked

Well my gas tank has finally come in and of course they didn't make it to the specs that I gave them so we are going to have to modify it but until then we decided to make some modifications to the brackets for the tank.

Here you can see the stock bracket on the right and the modified bracket on the left.

We decided to put 1/2" holes 1-1/2" apart from each other to give the brackets a nicer look.

It makes the tank look a hell of a lot better.

Now for a test fit under the hood.

It gives the tank a finished look now instead of an afterthought and I love the old sight gauge on it.

On to working on the drivers side door.

[fernon]

Second Verse Same as the First

It's time to make the radius top to the driver's side door now and it's been so long since we did the passenger's side we had a hard time remembering what was done, have no fear, we can figure this out real quick.

First thing was to cut the outer skin of the door away.

Now we can see the inner frame to make the second cut.

The inner frame is cut at a different radius since it has the inner channel for the door gasket.

With everything cut away it's time to start fabricating a new top.

We begin with making the inner door channel.

With the Shrinker / Stretcher fabricating new pieces is no longer a major task.

Trimmed down now we just need to finish the outer skin.

With everything in place it's time to trim away the excess material.

Welding everything together.

The top of the door is now finished and ready to be bolted back on to the car.

With the inner channel in place the door looks factory.

With the door back on the car we can now start to fabricate the body filler panel.

All tacked in.

We have been recycling a lot of metal from the 72 body for patch panels, I think this shot says it best.

One of the areas we filled was the rear window section that was shot.

After it was marked out we cut the bad section away.

Now it's good as new.

Next it's on to the bottom of the door...

[fernon]

Roll It Out And Have A Look

Not a lot has been done on it over the summer (too fucking hot down here) but I have been working on it a little here and there, I decided to roll it out and take some shots so that I can see what it looks like before I start tearing into it again. Sometimes you loose perspective on what you are doing when you are building in your garage, it's nice to see what you have been welding on and grinding all the time.

Still need to finish off the bottom of the doors and then it's on to the seats (this is actually what has been holding this project up more than anything, I just can't seem to make a decision on what I want to do for seats...), all I know is that after rolling this thing out of the garage (I want to drive the living shit out of it). But there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

Hopefully I will have some time to get some more work done on it over Labor Day Weekend.