Mock up

The 'Cuda is being put together prior to painting. Hood, fenders, doors, decklid and valance panels are bolted up so all the seams will line up afterward the paint goes on. The old cracked and broken grille is in the front of the 'Cuda for size, it will be replaced with a new piece after the color has gone on.
Ready to step inside...the doors are in the hinges, open and close perfectly. All this will be taken apart again for paint.

Door jambs are lining up, a little tweaking is necessary in the rear.

The new decklid from AMD. Very expensive part, but it fits like a glove without any further work.

Have a seat

I picked up the rear seat from the upholstery shop today. I think he did a wonderful job! Contrary to the front seats there was no ready made molded foam, all of the "internals" of the rear bench had to be made out of regular foam. The covers are, as are the front, from legendary interiors.

The vinyl looks very red already, and the interior will absolutely rock with all the other parts!

Front sheet metal

Wow, the front fenders haven't been on the car since sandblasting last summer! What a sight. Only with the front end on do the proportions of the 'Cuda, the sleek combination of long hood, short deck and really wide build, really come to life. Wait till you see the stance ...

The engine bay of the 'Cuda with all the rust removed and all the holes filled. both of the front fenders were in quite good shape and are test fitted along with the front panels.

A small patch of the lower front fender had to be fixed, all the edges were blasted, the large flat areas will be sanded prior to painting.

Two minute weld warning

If welding the 'Cuda were a football game, the two minute warning would be on right now! Close to threehundred hours (!) of metalwork have gone into the old car and the 'Cuda is almost ready for paint prep. All the rust on the body is gone, rotted panels have been fixed or replaced. The doors, hood and fenders have been blasted around the edges and are being test fitted.

Not much work on the doors. There was only very little rust on the bottom edge of both doors, no blasting was done on the on the outer doors to reduce the threat of warping the metal.

The doors were in very good shape, just one small patch on the bottom of the passenger side door, two patches on the driver side door.

Detail of the driver side quarter, the welds have been filled with body solder.

Turn left and right

I gor started on the steering column.

The steering wheel went off easier than I expected, the swich for the turn signal had to be replaced. It comes complete with the wiring harness, and luckily the column dosen't have to be taken apart completely to replace the switch.

The top part of the column will have to be painted with the interior color - which I don't have yet - before reassembly.

More welding pics

More pics of the bodywork done on the 'Cuda. The car isn't prepped for paint yet, but it won't thick layers of filler to be real smooth. The gluefor the old vinyl roof came off real easy, some of the original red primer shines through the paint.

The rear valance panel had to substantially changed to fit this good, the crease between the valance and the quarter is now consistent from top to bottom on both sides.

Before and after

This was the lower driver side windshield corner this january. Corrosion had taken it's toll. Rust grows easy here as the water runs down along the windshield and sits under the bottom chrome trim. It is also often overlooked for a long time as this area can't be seen under the chrome trim and the rear edge of the fender when the car is completed. This was not easy to fix as there are several panels coming together here.

The same lower corner after welding. There is a replica metal piece worke in but it did not cover the whole area rusted out. Both sides were in similar bad shape, both are now completed, ready for paint prep.

Body

The body is coming together.
All the welds are finished, body solder is applied to all the seams such as the c-pillar between the roof and the quarter panels and the top edge of the quarters. Way better than bondo!

There were quite a few holes in the engine compartment, all sorts of things were screwed on an in the car, the excess hole were welded over for a clean look in the engine bay once it's done.

Hinges

Got the door hinges ready to test fit the doors. The hinges were sandblasted, and painted black - for the meantime - and then fitted with new pins. The hinges weren't that bad but were a little "loose". Since I don't want any doors sagging on the 'Cuda I went for the new pins, not really an expensive part.

The hinges are now black, but should be painted in body color before final assembly.