Jeff's 1938 Chevrolet

A friend wanted us to do all of the body and paint work on his 1938 Chevrolet 2 door sedan, he was doing a full restoration and wanted a "frame off" job. He delivered the front end pieces first so we could get a head start while he disassembled the rest of the car.

I neglected to get pictures before we got all of the media blasting and sanding done but you get the idea. These first steps are an acid etch primer to bare metal, then top coated with an epoxy primer to provide the base for the body filler where necessary.

Over all this car was in good shape but did need a bit of rust taken care of and some small sections rebuilt. A few small parts were to far gone for repair and he is locating some replacements now.

Yes I know my garage is a mess, I trip over stuff every day! It will get a remarkable transformation to cleanliness before we shoot the paint and clear.

The body is in overall good shape, only some minor spots to be repaired. I was impressed at how well the original paint has stuck to the body, using a 36 grit sanding wheel it still takes a huge amount of time to clean it to bare metal.

Here is the bad spot on the frame, we cut out the bad areas and cleaned up the surface with a grinder.

A little cut and paste and grinder to level off the welds. Back to new!

The trunk was another story, hit on both sides it took many hours to get the fit correct. You can see from what was cut out how bad it was.

Here the left front corner was rotted out pretty bad but after some creative metal work it looks none to bad. Still needs a bit of finish work but is much stronger than the original. I triple layered the metal for strength and use a heavier gauge in the middle.

Now I will finish the frame and put the two halves back together and attach the body mount that holds this corner to the frame. This will insure perfect alignment.

The underside of the car has been painted as well as the frame, the two are now back together.

Now a full push to the end, we are working hard to flatten the body out and get to paint in 5 days. There are many small details to do finish before delivery but I know we will get it done.