[dservati]

My son's first car and we started out with a decent '95 civi caprice w/230,000 miles for $500. Looked fine but had some hidden rust (beyond the obvious) and bad radiator, rusted brake lines, and seized A/C compressor (week after we got her). Working with teenagers is a struggle with priorities work on car, hang with friends - we had the car for a year before we really dug into it. Here is the build final touches were done before he left for school in August.

Started with this:

 

[dservati]

Then off came fenders (rusted), wheel wells (rusted),bumper ...

Found more rust driverside quarter and innersupport:

Time to cut it out:

 

[dservati]

anything left to pull off...

Fenders who needs fenders?

Test fit of a donor sheet metal (thanks Poodge):

Trimed quarter and tacked in:

The replacement sheet metal included a portion of the inner wheel well, and trunk section... welded in three dimensions .. lined up pretty good this is shot from inside rear wheel well looking back towards rear of car:

From the front looking backward:

 

[dservati]

rear end too

Some where between cutting and welding we took some time out to remove the rear end (2.93) with drum brakes:

With a Impala SS rear (3.08) with disc brakes came with rotors and calipers (Best $150 we spent):

I had Impala springs from my car (i installed Hotchkis springs) and we replaced all four civi springs. We also used my old (only 80K mile lower control arms) Here is a shot with rear installed, imp springs, air bags, and NOS shocks:

 

[dservati]

front end

replaced the rusted inner wheel wells with some southern units - Thanks Fred

then new fenders:
Pass

driver

It looks like a car again:

Front springs and PST end links, monroe shocks:

We also ran all new brake lines, emergency brake cables, fuel filter, and thats when we found the rusted floor board... so we cut that out:

 

[dservati]

More welding

Got a donor floorboard from Area51 (thanks Paul):

and welded that and added some seam sealer:

The leaky floor must have soaked the carpet and actually rusted the seat's foot I had never seen that before:

Put the son to work fabing up a new foot for the seat:

End result - not too shabby:

 

[dservati]

some bling

Now for some rear end bling, an OEM SS spoiler (I had an extra off my Imp as I had upgraded to a Langless):

Also, in that pic we removed the caprice chrome trunk lip molding and welded the holes. Also, removed the chrome from around the tail lighs, sanded and painted with 3M GM 2K Black Trim paint.

Now it was time to start the body work sanding, filling, removing some dings
passenger side:

Then the driver:

Bumper skins were in good shape but clear coat was peeling so had to sand that down.. for ever:

Just a tip for anyone wanting to replace the chome bump strips in the bumper with the monochrome SS ones - cheap fix is use a utility knife and cut along the edge top an bottom the length of the strip - then peel off the hard plastic covering and chrome film .. what is left is a black strip - that easily accepts paint and won't peel .. they came out great!

 

[dservati]

final prep

Welded up the hood ornament hole:

some spots on the hood:

Then sealed the whole deal:

Look it a middle aged Stay Puff marshmallow man:

 

[dservati]

Color !

Got a new gun for the job, last one was a 20 year old Sata - new one is HVLP and I was amazed at how much material made it to the car .. quart vs 2 for the sealer and only used 3/4 of a gallon to do car with jambs!

DCM was the choice, used DuPont ChromaColor and Nason Clear tape is off, moldings, mirrors, wheels, new deer from CarMotorSports, all together -all done in the family garage - painted the wheel moldings on the wall :

Little overspray around 1/4 window - I used a special masking tape with hard plastic attached it goes between the rubber seal and the body and pulls the seal away from the body allowing paint to reach underneath the seal ... next best thing to removing the windows .. which would have cost $500 bucks by the local glass guy .. more than I paid for the car so we went this route ... cleaned it off later..

Now we have two imps in the family!

Also painted all the interior wood-grain molding, put in a stock radio, and the Impala SS badge:

 

[dservati]

Beauty Shots

At the local burger/dog place:

Lake-shore Boulevard (same one Lou Gramm of Foreigner sang about (he's from Rochester) :

also painted a jacked up car painted to match his ... he wasn't a fan of the lift kit .. go figure cwm2 :

Well thanks for looking at the project .. sorry I didn't post while I was actually doing the work.. but it was time consuming .. thanks to those club members that hunted down parts and sold or donated to the cause ... we now have a younger member of the b-body community ... and his younger brother may follow in his foot steps... Now back to winterizing my winter war wagon .. de-chroming, buick rally wheels, rust repair, hood, and fender replacement ...WOOT!! Here's a link to that project:http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=265528

 

[mrbbody]

looks nice , good job!

 

[mikekend]

Awesome job Dave! Who knew you were a welder / body man / painter!?! 8^)

Will he be joining the ECIRS?

 

[Shttn89]

Youre a cool dad.I would kill to have those kinda times with mine.Keep up the good work.

 

[dservati]

Thanks ..

Thanks, I'm self taught been doing body work since I was 18, and I'm very lucky to have a son that can "tolerate" the old man ! This was definitely a budget build, we only have $2300 invested including the cost of the car. We accumulated parts for about 12 months and bought/begged for cheap $$. Heck we just had to replace the opti and that cost $200! Stuff like cats, cold air intake, radio, springs, LCAs, trunk emblem, spoiler, exhaust manifold, etc. either bartered for, had spares, or got cheap from local and national club members!

Mike he'll come to the summer races as his/my gas budget allows, now he's a full time student a University of Buffalo!

 

[angelo]

THAT WAS AWESOME Dave !!!!!!!

What a transformation, you definitely got some skills...
I'm in the process of getting my DGGM fixed, just picked up a rear bumper skin from Gary M. in NY yesterday and bumper support.
Dropped off the parts at the shop today and hope to leave the car soon to get her lookin OEM again.

Later
-ALF out...

 

[Capriceboi]

Amazing build sir. I can only imagine how happy your son is to have such an awesome car, oh and from what i see, and awesome father . Congrats and keep up the good work.

 

[WwWdotanthony92]

Car turned out awesome!!

 

[Fishah]

Very nice job Dave. Congrats to both of you on a heck of a transformation!

 

[mikeestreets]

Looks good Dave. Nothing like some quality time in the garage with dad. I remember working on my first car with my dad. I'm 25 and he's still helping me with stuff. Just last week he went with me to look at the SS I just bought. Now, I'm helping him with his 73 Gran Torino Sport. He's lucky to have a dad that helps him out, just like i am.

 

[Pooge]

Dave, looks great! I was wondering if you had gotten to putting those 1/4s on. Your work looks phenomenal.

Congrats!

Doug