The 54 Chevy payback

So the payback for my buddy helping me with the bodywork and shooting the color on my van is this. His late dad owner this 54 Chevy 2 dr and cruised it around town for a few years before it got parked in the backyard. Kyle's dad passed several years ago and he inherited the car. So a few years back he pulled it in the garage and started taking it apart. Our trade was he did the work on my van and I do the metal work on the Chevy for him. It's rough, I'm doing floors, quarters, rockers, and a trunk pan. It's going to have a mild street 454 with a TH400, MII front suspension and a four link out back. so far I've cut all the bad out of the drivers side, built new inner panels, and fitted the new rocker and quarter. It's going to be a cool ride and my wife loves it since it's somebody else's money.

It's always better playing for free!

That is going to be a sweet ride. Look at you go! It's looking real nice! I'm not sure which is worse? Cutting out rust or sanding filler? :LOL:

Sanding is worse for me, I’ll take patching and welding over sanding any day

Cutting rust. There's always more than you thought.

Looking like a good start.

Dang you're amazing. I don't think the dust has even settled from the van and you're jumping on another!

You know it, I'll be watching.

I'll patch in over rust any day compared to grinding down plastic filler.

Looks like a very good start.

Nice trade for you both. Cool car project!

Yeah it’ll be a cool ride. Not sure how often we’ll get to work on it; he manages a local body shop and plays in a band on the weekends. I’ll try and keep him motivated; it needs to be on the road.

Got this side ready to weld up. The other side is not as bad.

This car is begging to be sectioned 6 inches. Leave the top stock height.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...CcMSDZ5ilJoQNM
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Originally Posted by techinspector1

This car is begging to be sectioned 6 inches. Leave the top stock height.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...CcMSDZ5ilJoQNM
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Man, if it was my car I’d consider it. Doing my first section job on someone else’s car? I’d be way too scared of trashing it.

I wish I could get him to stop changing his mind on the drivetrain. First he was going with the stock 6/three speed, then he wanted a late model 4.2 GM straight six/ 5 speed, then a small block/four speed, now it has a fresh 454/turbo 400, and now he's talking about pulling that back out and doing an 5.3LS with the turbo 400. That's five drivetrains before we even got the bodywork going! [S

I like the turbo'd 5.3

Just about done with both quarters and rockers; floor and trunk pan next.

That's looking really nice!

I agree and it seems to be moving right along too.

That's so cool. I really admire good metalwork like that.

Thanks, this is my first try of using panel bonding instead of welding in some spots. Seems to work pretty well and those long seams don't get distorted from the heat.

Help me understand. It appears in early pictures the panels are tack welded on.
In your later pictures, I see rivet heads that do not appear to hold anything.
You speak of panel bonding, is that where you basically glue panels together.
Can you address the photos and explain how they are attached for me?
Thanks, Ray

Yeah we used the panel bond on the long top edge. Those aren’t rivets; they are self tapping screws holding the bonded seam together while it cures. Then you take the screws out.

I haven’t posted on this in a while but we’ve been working on it here and there. Just have the driver side floor board and the trunk pan to finish and it can come off the frame. We put a lot of metal in this thing; if it hadn’t been his dad’s car I think he’d have given up on it.