The LeSabre & Bonneville Project -- New SSEi Progress: Pg 8

[gweg_b]

Bad Nick! Don't tempt me!

Here's some more chunky-ness. This is the back driver side seat, where the bottom seat belt attaches to the body. Not a whole lot left there:

[tcolvinOH]

The things we've learned since these posts. Working on the 97 LeSabre certainly brought a lot of things to light, as well as developed skills that will be useful when we get back to this car.

The SSEI is next on the project list. Quite an extensive list of things to do on that. Pulled it into the garage this past Saturday. Stay tuned.

[gweg_b]

I'd nearly forgotten about this thread.

Yes, the SSEi is going in for some major surgery soon. The car is just not in the best of shape right now.

[SSEiMan01]

I'd nearly forgotten about this thread.

Yes, the SSEi is going in for some major surgery soon. The car is just not in the best of shape right now.

At least the exhaust sounds good!

[gweg_b]

Haha, yes, all the best, loud 3800 sounds!

I need to post of video of that for fun.

[tcolvinOH]

LOUD NOISES!!!

[SSEiMan01]

Where's that meme someone made of the vomiting giraffe when you need it?

[gweg_b]

August 3, 2019:

Tear down of the SSEi has started. Didn't get too far into it as other projects and tasks needed completed before this. But, Tim and I got the first look at the car behind the plastic, and it is not pretty.







Both driver and passenger sides are chunky. That's only the back half. Haven't been able to get the front halves off, yet. As the weeks go by, we'll dig more into it, and I'll keep this updated. Based on how long it took for us to do the 1997 LeSabre, if the weather cooperates for a few more months, I'm expecting us to have this finished sometime late spring / early summer 2020. But, I also have a lot more work planned, so we'll see.

I will miss that supercharger whine (actually have been missing it for awhile thanks that loud exhaust), but this is all necessary work and will be worth it by the end.

[gweg_b]

Dead post coming back.

So, I missed the planned deadline for getting the SSEi done. So many other things came up, but Tim and I are back at it. I've shifted some plans for this car for another time (mostly dealing with engine and trans stuff), and decided to focus on the body, and having this car back on the road around fall 2021. We'll see.

I'll actually have some progress pics to post, mostly of chunkiness, but it might be useful for anyone wanting to see where all the places the 2000 bodies like to rust.

I'm really going to try and keep this more up to date.

[gweg_b]

Here's some tear down pics. Most of these were from about a year ago.

The rockers are done:




My mess of wiring (which will be cleaned and organized when it all goes back together):




Gas door cancer:


Thanks to continued door leaks (which I had fixed at one time), this was the state of the floor when the carpet was removed:


Cutting more of the rockers:




Grinding down all the rust on the floors:


Getting paint on the freshly cleaned metal:


I'll get more posted as soon as I get a chance. I wanted to show that Tim and I are making progress, it's just slow, and I've been too lazy to edit and upload pics. This car is proving to be much more of a challenge than the 97 LeSabre.

[95naSTA]

Nice. Keep up posted.

[gweg_b]

And more tear down pics. Most of these were from around the spring, like March and April.



This was the real reason the car went into the garage for repair - rotted flex pipe. It was not fun driving for almost a year on that:


Spring perch rot and filler tube area rot:


Inside the filler tube area. Full of dirt and rust:


The filler tube area inside the car. Not much left:


Cutting the bad metal of of the filler tube area:


The sacrifice (and also the template for the replacement):


Dropping the rear subframe:


Everything removed from the rear subframe, and getting it ready to be cleaned:


Dropped the gas tank. Have to replace it because the tabs for the locking ring have rotted away, and the fuel pump unit can no longer be sealed:


I'll add a few more here soon. It's all just catch up for now. This spring to summer should see a lot of things coming back together (I hope).

[gweg_b]

And here's the last set of pictures I have. These pretty catch everyone up on the project.

Everything on the front has been removed:


Rust behind the headlight:


Finding rust under the front floor, and cutting metal to check it:


Surprise:


Painting metal bits:


The rear subframe has now been cleaned of rust, and covered with rust converter:


Primer layer (I don't have any pics of the final coat of paint with undercoating):


A peak into the rear frame rail. Not a pretty sight:


Headlight area rust cleaned up, coated, and painted (also painted the radiator cross bar):


So, this should be all for now. As we make more progress, I'll keep this updated. From here on, this thread will be focused on the Bonneville. The 95 is on hold until after this, and possibly one other secret project, so there's not going to be much posted about that. And like I said earlier, I'm hoping this body work is finished around late summer, as I really do miss driving this car.

[gweg_b]

Things will be happening soon!









Got some sandblasting to do.

[gweg_b]

I know it's been a few months, but it has been a busy summer. Parts and metal are starting to go back on the car, but we are far from done. I will have a bigger update to post soon, but right now, I want to show what I think is one of the more awesome things to have happened on this car: new metal!

All new, rust free inner rocker structure:


And, it doesn't look like much, but this is the start of the new outer rocker skin/structure:


We've hit a few bumps, but things are starting to smooth out, and hopefully, I'll be able to get this out on the road at least once before winter.

[95naSTA]

Slow progress is better than no progress.