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  #1  
Old 01-31-2021, 03:30 AM
Jeba Jeba is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Finland
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Default -65 Malibu 4 door

Hello,

Been a member here for a long time and occasionally made some shorter posts.
I am making this thread in order to keep track of my progress and keep myself motivated, and perhaps get some good ideas if someone gets interested along the way.

The car is a 1965 Malibu 4-door, which had been sitting for roughly 30 years disassembled when I bought it. Most parts were available, but the body is pretty badly rusted and some poor welding jobs (and hammering) have been done throughout its history.

This is what the car looked like after bringing it home:




Disassembled the car and took the body off the frame. Some sandblasting until the weather did not allow any longer before rolling it in when fall came.


Started with fixing some of the floor:




After initially just wanting to get it on the road, the idea of the whole car changed to actually turn it into a 2-door hardtop, since they are pretty expensive and difficult to come by where I am from. Will anyhow need to buy new quarter panels and wheel tubs since they are badly rusted. I did make an attempt to make new wheel tubs on the left side which can be seen in some later images, but these I am not too happy with.
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Old 01-31-2021, 03:49 AM
Jeba Jeba is offline
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Continued with patching the rest of the floor as well, and removing all the old grease and coatings.



The back end of the car was very rusty and patched up pretty bad, so I fixed that. Have mostly only basic hand tools, an english wheel, manual bead roller and a short manual brake, so both the "gutter" and lower sections had to be split up in two parts. It was a challenge for me to repair these sections due to the short flange lengths and small shapes:






I think it turned out nice in the end, considering the starting point and tools.

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Old 01-31-2021, 07:19 AM
metaldahlberg88 metaldahlberg88 is offline
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Looks good so far. Nice work
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Old 01-31-2021, 11:04 AM
Overkill Overkill is offline
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Default Looking good so far.

When you look at going hardtop, if you can eliminate the wind wing, it really gives the car a much lower look - it almost looks chopped. Fools the eye. I've seen it done with flat glass at SEMA with fair success.

In 67 the wagons were all 4 door. I've thought about making mine into a 2 door, hardtop, wind wing delete, but all the mock ups come out looking like an odd El Camino.
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  #5  
Old 01-31-2021, 11:20 AM
Jeba Jeba is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Overkill View Post
When you look at going hardtop, if you can eliminate the wind wing, it really gives the car a much lower look - it almost looks chopped. Fools the eye. I've seen it done with flat glass at SEMA with fair success.

In 67 the wagons were all 4 door. I've thought about making mine into a 2 door, hardtop, wind wing delete, but all the mock ups come out looking like an odd El Camino.
I guess wind wing = the small vent windows?

I think I will try go the "easy" route of keeping them, since the side glass is pretty curved so might be expensive to get custom glass made.

The A-pillars and front windshield should be the same between 2D hardtop / 2D and 4D sedan so I think that part might be quite OK. Bigger issue is the rear roof-section around the rear window and c-pillars which is quite different. Will need to see more later on when I get some new doors and quarters to see how it all will fit and what modifications will be needed. Ideal would of course be to get a donor roof but not easy to come by around here. Same goes for the inner structure of the longer quarter panels and reinforcements in the C-pillars. I think I will try to go by pictures and trial and error to get these made to fit with the 2-door hardtop window mechanisms and rear panels.
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Old 01-31-2021, 05:07 PM
Charlie Myres Charlie Myres is offline
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Wow! Fantastic work on the panel fabrication Jeba!

Cheers Charlie
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  #7  
Old 01-31-2021, 05:16 PM
Pehr Pehr is offline
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Default Sisu

Good job.
Looks nice
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  #8  
Old 02-04-2021, 04:47 AM
Jeba Jeba is offline
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It is nice to see some interest and feedback.

I had some time and interest this week to try sort out one of the problem areas of the roof. It had been pretty badly dented and filled with body filler.

The area is unfortunately covered from underneath by the inner roof structure, so I wanted to try sort it out without cutting into it or necessarily replacing the metal.





This was the result after a bit of time. It is still a bit wavy and had to use the only dent puller I had at my disposal which is not ideal. I also don't have a shrinking disc but have tried making my own temporarily which seems to work only to an extent. Will try to sort it out some more later.
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Old 03-08-2021, 10:38 AM
Jeba Jeba is offline
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I was not too happy with how the damaged roof area turned out after trying to straighten it. It had too many small bumps and waves to to handle with limited access to the backside and the lack of a portable planishing hammer or similar to smooth it out. This section was also pretty rusted from below due to the old damage.

So I decided to try and make a replacement panel for the roof section.
I had to start over once due to overstretching and difficulties with the edges keeping shape, but it turned out pretty good in the end when I got the hang of it. Due to the limited access from the underside, I used the MIG-welder and tacked it slowly, with some hammer and dolly in between where possible.

Started out with a pattern from masking tape:


Wheeling some initial shape in, took forever getting the correct crown without making the edges draw inwards. Should have started with a larger piece and trimmed more off instead.


After getting the shape correct, I used a small brake combined with the tilted wheel in the english wheel to make the edge. Trial fit was quite good. It was trimmed a bit smaller still after this.



Welded it in with the MIG due to limited access and hammer and dolly where possible. Some slight small waves in some areas of the weld still that would pass with a skim coat of filler, but might improve it some more if I can.



I think it turned out quite ok, at least an improvement over the damaged panel.
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  #10  
Old 03-08-2021, 11:06 AM
dwmh dwmh is offline
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You're doing a great job there. I wouldn't have known where to start, from seeing the before pictures.
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