73 coupe budget build

[mach71351c]

Score!!! Congrats.

 

[CZ-75]

Very nice!

 

[matrixx]

Ok guys, so today I tried what I wanted to do. I am still doing bodywork to the car. So i have seen a few members with fully blacked out tail light panels on thier cars and I digg the look. So I wanted to try it. Here is how it came out, also I masked off and painted my grille and front valance and bumper.

Enjoy and as always, let me know what you think.







I have to adjust the back of the hood to get it to alight just right so there is a little gap but I am going to fix it.

 

[Chris' 71 vert]

I like it. Just a thought, what if you painted the square headlight trim black?

 

[imusa76]

Looks really Good.

 

[Don65Stang]

Are you sure you put pics up of the same car? Looks great!

 

[matrixx]

Are you sure you put pics up of the same car? Looks great!

Thanks Don! Compared to the pics in the first page of this thread i think she has come a long way.

Yesterday I stretched her legs and took her on the highway for the first time, drove really good and straight too! I am so glad to be able to just get in her and drive it whenever I need to now. Still have a ways to go but like i said this is a budget build and I am doing everything I can myself with just time and patience. I hope to get some paint on her by next month.

 

[matrixx]

So a week or so ago I posted up a teaser picture for you guys. Well my budget build is starting to take shape now. Like I have said I am no expert but I decided to tackle this project to make a decent drivers car out of it and enjoy it. I have done all work myself so far including mechanical, bodywork, and now I painted it myself as well. It's no 5k job result but I am impressed that it came out as well as it did and I can now enjoy cruising her down the road. I have driven her back and forth to work a few days and everything seems to be going good. About 200 miles on the Odometer since I got it in drivable condition. So enough blabber here are some shots i took, they arent best quality but it was getting dark out

 

[rutkak]

Wow man. Wow. I started reading this thread from page 1 and I'm sincerely impressed. Wow. Great work. I'll be up in your neck of the woods in about a week.

 

[mach71351c]

Looks a whole lot better than where you started from.::goodjob::

 

[jeff8877]

Awesome job...I went back and read your first post and looked at the first pics. You have come a very long way. Congrats!

Jeff

 

[droptop73]

Nice job... please post some daylight pics.

 

[matrixx]

Gotcha coming, I'm still trying to figure out why my alt is overcharging, on my second voltage regulator and it only seems to work for a while and then its back up to 15.5+ volts. Next time I get on my laptop I'll post pics from today!

 

[matrixx]

Ok guys hope everyone is enjoying their weekends. Here I snapped a few better pictures of my car.













Like I said it's not "Professional" but it's mine at at the end of they day I can say it looks a helluva lot better than it did. Got the wheels and tires bargain shopping, They need to be cleaned up and not sure where I'm going with them but they work alright. My still total investment in this car is still well below $1,500 so I can't complain.

I have a stance like "mister 4x4" when people around me said I couldn't do it or it needs more money than it's worth yadayada. Well at least thier mouths are shut up now

Still quite a bit of work to do, I need to find some trim moldings for the sides of the car, fender and QP moldings, need a better condition rear bumper, and quite a bit of interior bits but things are getting pretty tight I just got my property tax bill what a rip off.

Well there it is folks, from ugly, to bad, to getting better in all its glory building it a little at a time, my wife even helped and she painted my air cleaner top to match the body color and did a dang good job too!

And as always, thanks to everyone here at 7173 for being extremely helpful and giving me so many ideas, I couln't have come this far without you guys/gals.

-Daniel

 

[wwhite72]

ever notice that the rear window/c-pillar area look exactly like the early 70's corvettes?

Ok guys hope everyone is enjoying their weekends. Here I snapped a few better pictures of my car.

Like I said it's not "Professional" but it's mine at at the end of they day I can say it looks a helluva lot better than it did. Got the wheels and tires bargain shopping, They need to be cleaned up and not sure where I'm going with them but they work alright. My still total investment in this car is still well below $1,500 so I can't complain.

I have a stance like "mister 4x4" when people around me said I couldn't do it or it needs more money than it's worth yadayada. Well at least thier mouths are shut up now

Still quite a bit of work to do, I need to find some trim moldings for the sides of the car, fender and QP moldings, need a better condition rear bumper, and quite a bit of interior bits but things are getting pretty tight I just got my property tax bill what a rip off.

Well there it is folks, from ugly, to bad, to getting better in all its glory building it a little at a time, my wife even helped and she painted my air cleaner top to match the body color and did a dang good job too!

And as always, thanks to everyone here at 7173 for being extremely helpful and giving me so many ideas, I couln't have come this far without you guys/gals.

-Daniel

might be an option to remove the remaining side trim and fill the holes? i am considering taking off the wheel well trim that came on my car. Im thinking less is more.

 

[matrixx]

I thought the same, but me and my wife are thinking of finding the rest of the trim and going with it. We are 50/50 on what we will do.

 

[droptop73]

Looking good, great progress! Keep on doing it yourself.

 

[matrixx]

Just an update to show a little more how it's come and I had a chance to drive it to work last week. With new exhaust, brakes, and wheel bearings it drives straight as an arrow and the shakes are gone. Now I just need to tackle leaf springs and shocks.

 

[Jim and Jutta]

Great job Daniel, I'm impressed that you did it on your own and kept the costs so low!

Jim

 

[matrixx]

Well today I just got home from work, going to start ripping out my seats, carpet, interior basically all except headliner and parts of dash/steering column.

The floor pans seem solid underneath the car and still have the factory blue spatter speckle paint in them. However I want to see what they look like from underneath nasty moistured up carpet. My plan is to wire wheel any rust down to bare metal and neutralize it and then coat the floors in rust bullet, then some paint over that.

Any other opinions welcome as it will still be a few weeks before it all put back together anyway, still need to order carpet. Doh!