A12 - time to get busy

The inside

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Smart to not try and remove the bottom completely, but they kind of had to on the top or be ready for eventually failing bondo on the cowl.
 
A long time friend, now passed, that ran an upholstery business, had a saying: "The dissatisfaction of poor workmanship far outlives the discomfort of high costs".
 
I was up there yesterday. He's running shorthanded but tries to get a couple days work on it per week. The right side, firewall, and cowl are done, they've got to finish fitting and welding the quarter on the driver's side. He hopes it will be on the rotisserie by Christmas.

They did some slicing and dicing on the PS quarter to get the gaps and lines where they need to be. So I once again got a lecture on bad fitting aftermarket parts.

I always forget to take photos, but TBH, there's not a lot of change to see.
 
Aftermarket panels are hit & miss, on the first car the holes in the quarters for the side markers were off, I drove them all the way back up to Connecticut we checked the rest of the inventory & all were the same, watched the guy pull out a file & elongate one hole, I could have done that at home, 6 or 7 hours wasted!
This car I had to rebend the dropoff that meets the rear pan, it was about 1/2" off at the bottom but pretty close at the top, my side (as I posted a while ago) came out better than the one I didn't mess with!
 
b-body-bob said:
They did some slicing and dicing on the PS quarter to get the gaps and lines where they need to be. So I once again got a lecture on bad fitting aftermarket parts.
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Tell him you don't make 'em and if he's got a better option, you're all ears. Even good used are very expensive and hard to find.

Kevin said it best, and he works for AMD: "I'm glad these parts are available, but they're nowhere near the quality of OE." My roof skin needed a lot of tweaking in the window channels, which were too deep. I bought that when he worked at Year One, so it wasn't an AMD part. I've no doubt the AMD would've been a better part, but it would not have been as good as an NOS roof. The left-side trunk extension was not AMD either (CBL?), and it was a dreadful stamping, just like @RUSTY Cuda's.

It's the same thing in southeast Asia as here: The almighty dollar makes the decisions. If it's good enough to make money, it's good enough. In the case of any of my cars, I simply can't justify a $5,000 NOS fender or quarter panel--so I guess I'm no better.
 
sad fact is even on new (2000+) stuff the fitment is often GARBAGE that needs fixed/modified....so its industry wide regardless of what/when its for
 
It's been a couple of months since there was progress aka a bill to pay, but I've been expecting one and sure enough ...

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I noticed the cut off wiper stud that was missed and pointed that out to him
 
He said it would be on the rotisserie by the new year, and they're cutting it close but they also lost a couple of employees ...

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There's still a way to go on that door and am holding out hope but won't be surprised if it doesn't end up with a new skin on it yet.
 
More ...
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Yeah I know those floor patches should have a hole in them but it's too late now unless they've got a way to dimple-punch a big hole with it in place. NBD like it is.
 
I like that they're only replacing what's necessary, rather than willy-nilly replacing full panels with reproduction parts. I'd much rather have OE steel anywhere and everywhere possible on the car.
 
Dr.Jass said:
I'd much rather have OE steel anywhere and everywhere possible on ANY car.
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Fixed that for you.

It's getting dangerously close to rotisserie time. So far I've said yeah go ahead and do that, but OTOH maybe not. I kind of feel like it has to happen to get the crazy quilt of patches straightened up under there and everything painted. It would also be a chance to get the k-frame and rear end powder coated, but at the same time, good quality paint is just about as good.

I'll be visiting it the day after Xmas.
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
Looking good, at least it looks like they are trying to do the metal work on the door rather than 1/2 gallon of bondo!
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Yes they are not hacks.

I remember when I first got the car I thought it had a little rust at the bottom of the quarters, and that turned into homemade patches tacked halfway up the wheelwell with the seam buried under a bucket of bondo. The welding had puckered it in and they just filled from high side to high side to cover that. Boom, done. I'd bet whoever did it had it down to a system.
 
I'm slowly backing away from the "let's rotisserie it" ledge, sort of at the shop's suggestion. That's money that doesn't need spent and really, it's just a driver. I'm unsure what they would do instead, maybe rhino liner. :unsure:

I mentioned having it in paint by summer, he talked as though it could be done sooner, but I know better. It's gonna ebb and flow based on how much of that sweet insurance work he can get done.
 
We're hauling a bunch of parts to the bodyshop today. Not all of these, mostly the left side less the glass. Tins, dash, and window mechs. I'm holding on to the wing window/window track for now too.

I dug it all out to get an accounting. I still can't find a pair of rear quarter tins for a post car that I know are here somewhere.

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If anyone needs 69 b-body post car parts, I've got all the removable parts for one.

Going to the shop after the hospital. No notice but I do have a check for him in my pocket :)

If it's sitting on a lift it's got to go in the air, maybe even if it has to be shoved to a lift. I need to get a drop dead date on the paint, this is getting stupid. It's nice to only get a bill a month but c'mon I know $1k isn't getting a lot of work done. It can sit here.
 
The word is he wants it out of there this year to give me time to assemble it before next spring..

He told me he's working it on a 30% markup deal. Whatever the guy working on it costs, + 30%. He says I pay the bills and never complain. Nobody else does, not even the insurance companies.

Right now the next stop is the rotisserie so it can get painted everywhere. In the mean time they're blocking blocking blocking.
 
I would say it nice to be on the good side of the man who figures up the bills!
So is this time frame better or worse than you thought it would be?
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
I would say it nice to be on the good side of the man who figures up the bills!
So is this time frame better or worse than you thought it would be?
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He's had it for two years now, which is a year past the expected date. I also don't think he's going to get it done by the end of this year. Time will tell.
 
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