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'99 - '06 GM Truck Modifications
Interior
The 'Things I build' thread
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<blockquote data-quote="sewlow" data-source="post: 3177" data-attributes="member: 52"><p>This is one of my Dad's cars. A '52 Chevy hardtop. He bought it brand new when he was 18! I grew up in the backseat! Through the mid-60's to the late '70's, it was his winter beater. An absolutely unstoppable tank in the snow! In the late '90's, after sitting for many years, Dad decided to restore it. The beginning of the nightmare. The resto was to take 3 years. In 5 years, it had gone to 3 different body men. The first guy had the car for 2 years. For the $2500.00 that the ole man gave him, all he had done was take off the front bumper, & remove the front windshield in that time. The second guy was supposed to femove the body from the frame & fab new body mounts. All he did in a year was to wrap the old body mounts in tin, then give 'em a coat of bedliner. (Like the ole man wouldn't notice that!) Body man #3 was the right guy, but it still took him over 2 years to finish the job. It then took me & Dad another 2 years for the final assembly. We rebuilt the engine, trans, & the rear-end during that time. Completely re-wired from front to back. I took on the job of polishing all the stainless. A bigger job than what I figured! As you check out the pix, look at all the stainless this thing is wearing! All this time that the car was being restored, Dad always said, "It's just a driver! It'll never be judged!" My opinion was, "Dad, how many times are we gonna restore this? Let's do it once. Let's do it right!" Don't know how many times I had to slap him upside the head with that before he got it! But, it was worth it! In 2011, The Vintage Car Club of Canada, voted it the best newly restored car in Canada for that year! But it ended up costing the ole man about 2X as much as what the car is actually worth! </p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev45.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev45.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p> The door panels had been done before. And done wrong! There's supposed to be pleats in them. But where? Over a 1 year period, I searched out & hunted down several other '52 Chevy hardtops just to get some pix & measurements of original door panels. Not a lot of those around, let alone the few that had original door panels. That grumpy old guy said I was wasting my time. But I did manage to track down an unmolested set! Just for the measurements. 3 hours away in a car that was just days away from being sent to the crusher.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev4.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev48.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev48.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev49.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev49.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev52.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev52.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev53.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev53.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev54.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev54.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev55.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev55.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p> The visor mounts had to be fabbed outa stainless. Only sedans came with the visors from the factory. Their roofline is wider across the windshield.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev57.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev57.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev58.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev58.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="sewlow, post: 3177, member: 52"] This is one of my Dad's cars. A '52 Chevy hardtop. He bought it brand new when he was 18! I grew up in the backseat! Through the mid-60's to the late '70's, it was his winter beater. An absolutely unstoppable tank in the snow! In the late '90's, after sitting for many years, Dad decided to restore it. The beginning of the nightmare. The resto was to take 3 years. In 5 years, it had gone to 3 different body men. The first guy had the car for 2 years. For the $2500.00 that the ole man gave him, all he had done was take off the front bumper, & remove the front windshield in that time. The second guy was supposed to femove the body from the frame & fab new body mounts. All he did in a year was to wrap the old body mounts in tin, then give 'em a coat of bedliner. (Like the ole man wouldn't notice that!) Body man #3 was the right guy, but it still took him over 2 years to finish the job. It then took me & Dad another 2 years for the final assembly. We rebuilt the engine, trans, & the rear-end during that time. Completely re-wired from front to back. I took on the job of polishing all the stainless. A bigger job than what I figured! As you check out the pix, look at all the stainless this thing is wearing! All this time that the car was being restored, Dad always said, "It's just a driver! It'll never be judged!" My opinion was, "Dad, how many times are we gonna restore this? Let's do it once. Let's do it right!" Don't know how many times I had to slap him upside the head with that before he got it! But, it was worth it! In 2011, The Vintage Car Club of Canada, voted it the best newly restored car in Canada for that year! But it ended up costing the ole man about 2X as much as what the car is actually worth! [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev45.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev45.jpg[/IMG][/URL] The door panels had been done before. And done wrong! There's supposed to be pleats in them. But where? Over a 1 year period, I searched out & hunted down several other '52 Chevy hardtops just to get some pix & measurements of original door panels. Not a lot of those around, let alone the few that had original door panels. That grumpy old guy said I was wasting my time. But I did manage to track down an unmolested set! Just for the measurements. 3 hours away in a car that was just days away from being sent to the crusher. [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev1.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev4.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev4.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev48.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev48.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev49.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev49.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev52.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev52.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev53.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev53.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev54.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev54.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev55.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev55.jpg[/IMG][/URL] The visor mounts had to be fabbed outa stainless. Only sedans came with the visors from the factory. Their roofline is wider across the windshield. [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev57.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev57.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/98GMC97CHEVY/media/52Chev58.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j450/98GMC97CHEVY/52Chev58.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [/QUOTE]
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