I have a few minutes so I will update you with the rest of the story.
I brought the champion home in '06, it sat on the trailer for a year and a half. Then it sat in the yard for another year til I got time to look at it good. I was shocked to find that Dad had started welding the firewall in the worst place as he had not matched the A-pillar very close. It was about 2 inches off at the roofline on the drivers side horizontally. Then I ran the two serial numbers and found that I had two different year models going together. This discouraged me again so I covered it up and it sat another year.
But This summer I got everything out and looked at it hard again. First I cleaned all the old parts out of the car and trunk. I found I have almost everything, including 3 instrument panels or parts of them anyway. Anyway I cleaned it all out, sorting out what I realized was not stude parts and keeping the good stuff. Then I took some measurements and pulled the A-pillar over and tack-welded it, then rewelded it and it came out pretty good. I ground it down, welded again inside and out, ground it down, used a little body filler and primed the weld. I decided "hey, I can do this, just gotta get started!" I regret that this won't be the original car I thought it to be but I have to work with what I was dealt. Next I got out the fenders and grille and hood to see that they will actually bolt on as I have hoods fenders and grilles from two different models.
Last weekend, I got ambitious again,re-bolted the right shock that was off for no apparent reason, bolted the "new" body part down to the frame. If I had known he didn't have the body to frame bolts in and only gravity and a 12" bead of weld holding that on I would not have hauled it 400 miles at 60 MPH!
Then I welded the floor to the center door post at the bottom, welded aross the floor from the post to the hump. Took me most of the day to this much but I feel I can do this project if I take my time and make progress a little at a time.
ron ark
I brought the champion home in '06, it sat on the trailer for a year and a half. Then it sat in the yard for another year til I got time to look at it good. I was shocked to find that Dad had started welding the firewall in the worst place as he had not matched the A-pillar very close. It was about 2 inches off at the roofline on the drivers side horizontally. Then I ran the two serial numbers and found that I had two different year models going together. This discouraged me again so I covered it up and it sat another year.
But This summer I got everything out and looked at it hard again. First I cleaned all the old parts out of the car and trunk. I found I have almost everything, including 3 instrument panels or parts of them anyway. Anyway I cleaned it all out, sorting out what I realized was not stude parts and keeping the good stuff. Then I took some measurements and pulled the A-pillar over and tack-welded it, then rewelded it and it came out pretty good. I ground it down, welded again inside and out, ground it down, used a little body filler and primed the weld. I decided "hey, I can do this, just gotta get started!" I regret that this won't be the original car I thought it to be but I have to work with what I was dealt. Next I got out the fenders and grille and hood to see that they will actually bolt on as I have hoods fenders and grilles from two different models.
Last weekend, I got ambitious again,re-bolted the right shock that was off for no apparent reason, bolted the "new" body part down to the frame. If I had known he didn't have the body to frame bolts in and only gravity and a 12" bead of weld holding that on I would not have hauled it 400 miles at 60 MPH!
Then I welded the floor to the center door post at the bottom, welded aross the floor from the post to the hump. Took me most of the day to this much but I feel I can do this project if I take my time and make progress a little at a time.
ron ark
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