Auto Restoration 101

This picture is the parking lot of Southside Plaza in Richmond, VA. Taken on March 6, 1958

It’s been a while since the last post on the ‘65 Buick Wildcat. The chassis is now ready for disassembly. Before we started taking it apart, we took a lot of pictures to help with the assembly later on. The chassis will be taken clear down to a bare frame. The suspension will be rebuilt, the frame will get painted, new brakes, etc.

The rolling chassis just after it was rolled out from the body.

The frame was sandblasted to remove all of the rust scale.

The rear axle was also sandblasted. It will be cleaned, a new differential gasket will be installed. It will also get a new set of brake shoes.

The work continues on the Chevelle. I’m not a big fan of sandblasting exterior panels so we continued sanding the old paint off with the National Detroit 8″ sander. We also started the repairs to the trunk floor.

The left quarter panel with the paint removed.

The roof was also sanded. Note the lead in the sail panel.

A replacement trunk floor was purchased to replace the rusted floor. The braces behind the wheel houses were also rusted out.

The old floor was cut out. We left the original fuel tank braces attached at the rear of the car so that we could re-use them.

The rear wheel houses were in good shape except where they were attached to the trunk floor. We’re going to have to do a little work in this area.

The right side rear wheelhouse was in about as good as shape as the left.