Sandblasting the Frame - Day One

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 4 hours and 300 pounds of sand completed 1/3 of the frame. A good 30 minutes and 50 lbs. of sand was used trying to find the proper air volume and sand flow.

The base metal and welds look real good. These 2 holes will be repaired soon.

This A frame cleaned up nicely. All suspension components will be removed then detailed inside the sandblasting box.

Rolling Chassis Restoration

This is a video, be sure to push the triangle to play.

A Pillar Repair - Passenger Side

This corner of the windshield is the passenger (right side) A pillar, better known as Ty's Corner. Access to this pillar could only be made by cutting a panel out of the right front fender as shown. The windshield support structure was gone.

You could literally put your fist in the area where the structure should have been.

Ty cut out all the rusted areas and started welding in new steel.

The flat base plate shown is 16 gauge steel. All welds were ground smooth.

The back side of the A pillar was as bad as the front. Ty removed all the rusted areas then welded in 18 gauge sheet metal.

After all the welding was complete Ty applied generous amounts of JB Weld to fill in the nooks and crannies. This is done to prevent accumulation of moisture.

The JB Weld was sanded smooth and all areas were cleaned in preparation for primer.

A premium grade House of Kolor 2 part epoxy was applied.

Bonding strips were installed...

then the fender panel was clamped into place.

Ty's Corner only needs a little paint then we can consider this pillar done.

Super Bowl Sunday

We had 35 friends over for Super Bowl Sunday. For the most part the women stayed in the kitchen and the men spent their time in... The MAN CAVE. Cold beer, flat screen TV, the Nomad, the Harley and...

The Corvette. It was a great party and it was a great game.

Restoring the A Pillar Fiberglass

Now that the left front A pillar is fully repaired it's time to restore the fiberglass. In 1963 Chevrolet engineers were not willing to bond the fiberglass body directly to the metal birdcage. Their solution was to rivet fiberglass bonding strips to the birdcage then bond the fiberglass body to these fiberglass bonding strips. In this picture I have riveted two original bonding strips onto the birdcage and added one home made strip, the black one, using bonding agent. These strips create a bed for the body panel. In this side view the two pieces of fiberglass you see were originally one piece. These will be repaired with fiberglass.

Bonding agent is black in color and has a toothpaste consistency. It was applied to the top of the bonding strips then the body panel was placed on top of the bonding agent, aligned, tabbed (using rivets), clamped, and allowed to cure over night.

The next day the clamps were removed and rivets were drilled out.

The side panel requires a fiberglass repair. Ideally, fiberglass repairs are performed from both sides, however, there isn't access to the back side of this repair. A backing strip will be required to hold the fiberglass in place.

Bondo was applied on the upper body panel to fill in surface irregularities and to temporarily fill the holes. Because I prefer repairing holes with fiberglass I drilled out most of the Bondo creating a pocket.

Cut up pieces of fiberglass were mixed with resin then used to fill in the holes.

Excess material was removed making a very strong fiberglass repair.

On the side panel I folded over a length of duct tape so there was no sticky side. Using needle nose pliers I pulled the duct tape behind the fiberglass creating a backing strip. The duct tape can be easily removed later because fiberglass doesn't stick to duct tape.

Multiple layers of fiberglass matt were used in this repair. If you look close you can see the duct tape on the backside.

The duct tape was removed and the fiberglass was sanded smooth. The bonding agent, Bondo and fiberglass resin received a final sanding then the area was masked off for paint.

Remember, the green primer only indicates the fiberglass work is complete. These areas will receive additional attention when it's time to color paint the vehicle.

The left front A pillar repair is now complete.

Birdcage Repairs

This picture of the inside of the drivers side A pillar was taken just after the dash was removed. As you can see the rust is not centralized to just the top of the A pillar but it also extends up the windshield post. All of this rust was removed in total. New sheet metal was cut, bent, hammered, and welded into place. We decided to replace large sections instead of numerous small repairs.

Here I am holding one of the rusted sections next to it's corresponding repaired area. After many evenings the inside of the left front pillar was complete. This is a very solid repair and will last many years.

Ty has been working on the passenger side A pillar. In this picture Ty has already removed the rusted sections and is now welding into place new sheet metal. Work on this pillar is still in process.

And finally I thought I'd include a picture of some newly acquired bling for our 63 Corvette. These Fuel Injection emblems were the only way you could tell from the outside that the car was fuel injected. Imagine how that guy felt when he pulled his hot rod alongside a Corvette only to see the Fuel Injected emblem. How sweet is that!

C2 Corvette Left A Pillar Repair

Just below this circled area is the Left A Pillar. Once the dash was removed we knew this area would require attention. We just didn't know how much. In order to gain access we removed a section of the fiberglass. Initial assessment was that the area wasn't too bad but it was obvious that the windshield support had deteriorated and would require repair.

A burr grinder was used on all areas that had rusted through. Once the burr grinder is inserted into the rusted area it is gently pushed in all directions to expose thinning sheet metal. As you can see the damage to the windshield support was substantially worse than originally thought.

I decided to remove the entire support. Once that was done I found the top of the A pillar had also rusted.

All rusted areas were removed then I prepared the A pillar for a new cap.

16 gauge sheet metal was cut to match the good metal on top of the A pillar. Holes were drilled for plug welds.

All the holes were plug welded and all the joints were butt welded. The top of the A pillar was then ground flush.

Photo paper was used to make a template of the windshield support.

The template was then transferred to sheet metal.

Rough forming was then performed. This is also 16 gauge steel.

Here is the old support, the paper template and the new support.

Butt welds were used where I fastened to the windshield frame. Plug welds and fillet welds were used where I welded to the top of the A pillar.

JB Weld was then applied to fill in the irregularities which eliminates any areas that could collect moisture. All this repair needs now is a little paint and then I'll be able to repair the fiberglass. That will happen once the weather warms up a little.

One more pillar to go then the birdcage will be fully repaired. Thanks for watching.