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'62 Chevrolet Chevy II Project

12K views 54 replies 22 participants last post by  acd65post 
#1 ·
Hey guys! I introduced myself sometime ago when I bought myself this '62 Chevy II. Now as it's time to start working on it, I thought I'd post some pics in here as well.

So I'm currently a 19 year old student from Finland and I bought a '62 Chevy II 100 4 Door Sedan from a friend in December 2015. Earlier that year he had mentioned that he had one of these that he might let go. I was thinking about buying it as he told me it wouldn't be too expensive, and finally decided that let's go and see how this little car looks. It looked just perfect for my purposes and while it wasn't expensive, I bought it.



The car had been sitting outside under a tarp for the last eight years. I don't know any history beyond that point, but it hasn't been driven for a long time for sure. Anyway, it's a car that was sold as new here in Finland in 1962.

My plan is to build an Old School style Street & Race type car that I can have some fun with on both, Street and Strip. I will be converting it into a 2 Door Sedan as it looks so much better, and in fact, it was a pretty popular modification here in Finland back in the early days when pretty much all you could find was 4D Sedan models...
Considering it has been sitting outside for a long time, the car is in good condition. It has only few rust spots found so far and it's pretty straight. It needs a lot of work of course, but I prefer working in the garage than going to the bar on weekends (As that's what many of the guys of my age do :D )

So it was in December when we went to pick up this car. To everyone's surprise, three out of four tires were full of air. The fourth one had a hole in it so we just pulled the Chevy on our trailer like that. Next morning we drove the car to the garage at our summer cottage. It was because I wanted it to be inside during the winter, and there was no way I could start building as I had to join the Army in January 2016.










During the spring despite the Army I was able to find a set of front tires for this. They're not really neccessary at this point yet, but as they were not that expensive, I bought them. They're 165/80/15 Hurst Racing Tires.



Well, I was happy to be back home from the Army in June 2016, and now as I finally got another car moved to other place from our home garage, it was time to bring this Chevy II home to start building. So on Sunday we picked it up.





Interior floor was full of little parts. Mainly seals, chrome trim and that kind of little parts. I shelved them for future use and started cleaning the floor a bit. Here you can see how good the floor actually looks when it's just cleaned up. Luckily, only one minor rusthole was found in driver's side.



There's some more stuff in the trunk... Once I figure out where to put them waiting for their future use, I can see better how the trunk floor looks.



Yesterday while I was in our garage, I decided to take a couple of parts off from the body. Front fenders seemed to be in a pretty good shape. Someone has done a good job with rust repairs on both front fenders. Co-Driver's fender is from a "DeLuxe model" though as it has holes for chrome trim.:D They need to be welded shut.



Inner fenders, and actually the whole engine bay looks good. There are some rust repairs, but they're done so cleanly that I don't have to re-do them. That's neat!



And this is how it looks now. Doors are in great shape too. Though some cutting and slicing will be needed for the 2 Door conversion...



Thanks for lookin' and Greetings from Finland! I'll be updating this thread as I make progress...
 
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#7 ·
Thanks Guys!

It's a shame that nowadays very few young people are interested in these older cars. Most of the guys are spending their time with somekind of tuning cars and to be honest, I'm not interested in it at all :D !

Yep, it's good someone has already changed those 5 lug parts on this one. It saves me a bit money and work. :cool:

As far as the interior parts go, no, steering wheel and column and dashboard were only interior parts that I got. Though it doesn't matter in a Street Race project like this, it'll have two bucket seats and aluminum "upholstery" on door panels and no backseat. I will need to order a carpet from somewhere and somekind of headliner too.

I'm subscribed. Looking forward to seeing an international project. Looks like a solid start and I'm sure it must be rare to find a decent Chevy II in Finland. Hope your 6 months in the Army wasn't too painful.
Yep, bunch of these 1st Gen Chevy IIs were sold as new here in Finland, and this is one of them. Most of these were used as taxis so almost all were 4D Sedans. You're right that nowadays it's not easy to find one of these in a good shape. This one has been quite rusty too, but one of the previous owners has done a good job with lots of rust repairs. So there's not that much rust to be fixed anymore and that's of course great.

And yep, the Army wasn't a big deal after all. ;)

I took out all of the extra parts that were in the trunk. Now I could see that the trunk floor looks actually really good. A couple of rust spots have been fixed in the past and now everything looks solid.



But then I started watching the rear quarter panels from inside... I was sure this is a Chevy II 100, but then I noticed someone has welded holes for side trim shut. After looking at the chassis number I found out this has originally been a Chevy II 300. Well looks like I have a replica :D !



Then I started to make a bit clearance for wider rear tires. I'm not going crazy with the rear tires, but if I could make a 10.5" wide tire fit inside the wheel wells, I'd be very happy. I started from driver's side as the wheel well on that side is a bit trickier shape than on passenger's side.




I cut half of the original wheel well off, and it'll be moved inwards so that it starts from the point where the "frame rail" ends.



I had to weld the floor to the "frame rail" as originally they were welded from place that I just cut off. Those welds need to be smoothed out before I can weld those wheel wells back on.



Here you can see that someone has worked hard with this car in the past. Lots of new sheet metal has been welded to the rear wheel well.



And as I had my welding machine out, I filled the gas filler cap's hole from driver's side. My car will have a fuel cell in the trunk so this hole is not needed anymore.




Antenna hole was also filled. It was on top of the rear fender.

 
#8 ·
A Little rust spot was found on the "frame rail". Luckily it wasn't a big one so it was fixed pretty easily.




And today I had to weld a couple of rust fixes to the wheel well that I cut off from the body. Now the weld seams just need to be smoothed out and then I can start fitting this wheel well on its new place.



Removing that old underbody coating from the wheel well was no fun...:D
 
#10 ·
Thanks David! I gotta keep busy if I want to drive with it next summer. :D

Well today I did some more work on the driver's side wheel tub. After a bit of fitting I was able to weld that original tub, or a part of it, on its new place. After all the fitment was really good, only in the front corner there is a little hole. I'll fabricate a correct size patch in there tomorrow.



Then I started making pieces to patch the tub as one piece unit again. I had to make it from three pieces, and the center piece that went on top of the tub was of course the hardest one to make, and to weld on place. Luckily I was able to make it fit and I also succeeded covering the whole seam with welds from upside so I didn't have to do any welding from underneath the car.


 
#13 ·
I've been working on co-driver's side wheel tub now. I did it the same way as I did driver's side, so I started by cutting half of the tub off and removing floor so that the tub will be welded where the "frame rail" is. Then I welded that floor and frame rail together, and a small rust hole was found on that frame rail too. That was an easy fix.



Next I mocked up the tub on its new place and welded it there...




To be continued...:D
 
#14 ·
Looking good, wish I had your welding skills. I bought my car with the tubs cut out from the previous owner and due to cost of paying someone to complete the mini tub I had them welded back in the original position. When I go to buy wheels I know I'm going to regret that.
 
#15 ·
Thanks! I've done pretty much welding in the past on different projects as cars that have been here in Finland for a long time are usually a little rusty... And you're also right that the original tubs are not too large.

Last Friday I had a day off from school so I headed to the garage to finish the wheel tub on co-driver's side. It was done the same way as I did on the other side, three pieces plus that little patch on front that's welded to the tub and to the floor.





Here they are both completed. Another choice would have been buying them from Detroit Speed, but the price tag of $475 per pair forced me to do them myself. That price together with shipping, tax, etc would have been a bit too much for me. And doing them myself cost me only a couple cut off disks for my angle grinder...



Next project is converting this from Four Door Sedan to Two Door Sedan. Luckily a friend of mine has done the same thing on his '66 Olds Cutlass so I got some good advice and pics from him.

First thing to do was to cut rear end of the inner door sheet metal off. That will be then moved a bit backwards as both, the outer door skin and the inner sheet metal will be stretched by pieces taken from original rear doors.
Someone has welded a couple of rust repairs on this door, too.:D They were so nicely done that I couldn't tell from top side if the door was welded or not.



Then I had to cut outer door skin and inner sheet metal as separate parts from the rear doors too. This wasn't so easy as the angle grinder simply didn't fit in all places. So I had to do the rest with a saw... And, someone has been welding this door too! The bottom part is completely new and there is a patch or two on the outer skin too.




Then I mounted front doors on place and started fitting rear door outer skins on them. Minor fitting was required, but then I welded those rear outer skins together with front doors. So now I have long doors. :D Those are not completely welded yet, but enough to do a mock up. When I get them completely welded together, I'll measure the right spot to cut new, longer, outer door skins on front doors.


 
#16 ·
Now I'm (unfortunately) back home in Finland again after a trip to California and Pomona Swap Meet. It was my first time in Pomona Swap, but not the first time in the States, and actually we were at Pomona a bit less than a year ago watching NHRA Finals 2015.

Here in Finland none of our little Swap Meets start as early as it did in Pomona, so it was a bit unusual for me to be there at 5AM searching for parts. :D About seven hours later most of the parts were gone through and I moved on to drool over those complete cars for sale.

I found a new Moroso oil pan, tail light assemblies and headlight bezels and that '62 hood trim that is not one of the easiest ones to find. None of those parts were too expensive so they were taken home.

My dad was with me there and he bought those SBC Fuelie heads on our 383 Stroker engine project and then we had to buy the wagon too to haul the stuff around the area. :D



Right now that wagon, heads and oil pan are on their way to Finland in a shipping container...

Of course we visited other places too, for example Drag Racing in Fontana and Irwindale, Big Bob's Cruisings in Burbank, NHRA Museum, Las Vegas etc. I bought that legendary Half Sweep Tachometer from Mooneyes and new tail light lenses and gaskets and some clutch linkage parts from Classic Industries.



Now it's time to get back working on the car, the one thing I've been waiting on for a while. Otherwise I'd definitely prefer being still in the sunny SoCal!
 
#18 ·
Thanks! Unfortunately I haven't had too much time to work on it lately, but here's at least one picture... I started welding those, well, whatever they are... Supports?, that are behind the backseat as I had to cut them when widening those tubs. It's a bit of a puzzle and those welding seams didn't turn out the best. Anyway I think they'll do as they will get covered under a carpet anyway (This car is not gonna have a backseat).



Now on to the other one. :D
 
#19 ·
Today I spent some time working on driver's side door. First thing to do was to cut that outer door skin in correct length using the measurements that I took from friend's car as a guide. I used a jigsaw for this as it could create those curves too.



Then after some minor fitting I welded rear end of that front door's inner sheet metal on its new place. Now the next thing was to stretch that window frame, but it wasn't so easy... I'll have to shorten that window frame from original back doors, but the top part of that window frame is a bit curved and it doesn't fit on front. The vertical part of that window frame though, is straight so I had to buy another rear door for this. I got it cheap from a friend and it's not in perfect condition so it's a good one for my use...



So I cut a correct size piece of that window frame from there and welded it on place. Then the door looked like this from outside... Pretty good, only that place where door handle and lock will be installed, needs to be moved a bit backwards.



And here you can also see that I had to weld a small piece of metal to that door skin as well...



Next I moved on to fill gaps inside the door. I cut pieces from original back door and welded them here. They were not exactly the same shape, but of course that's no new thing that the parts differ slightly from each other even if they should be the same. Nothing major was wrong though so with some careful fitting the pieces fit fine and this is how it looks now. Not quite finished yet, but getting there...


 
#20 ·
Now I welded that support that's located behind original backseat on co-driver's side too. It turned out a bit better than the one on driver's side, but of course both of these supports will be covered under a carpet anyway...



I found an used piece of sheetmetal that goes between the grill and front bumper. Someone has used an angle grinder to cut three small pieces away from it so I'll have to weld some new metal in there to make this one look stock again. One piece is missing from front in the middle as you can see in the picture, two other missing pieces are in back and they're not seen in this picture.



And actually I already repaired one of the three spots. This is another one of those that are in the back.



Now I think I'll have to go shopping to buy some more sheet metal... :D
 
#21 ·
There was a minor rust spot on co-driver's floor right under front seat. It seems there is one piece of sheet metal under the actual floor, but it's not quite the same shape as the floor pan. Which means, all water, dust, salt etc has been flying between them, resulting that rust spot on the floor...



Here you can see the gap:


The sheet metal under this floor was in a good condition so I just replaced the hole that was on floor. Before welding that patch on place, I painted that lower sheet metal with anti-rust primer.




I'm thinking I'll weld that gap shut so there will be no water ever again. :D


Then I started moving the B-pillar backwards where it should be on a Two Door Sedan. First I cut piece on top of that rocker panel away from where the B-pillar will be moved.



Removing that pillar wasn't quite easy from the top end, but after some careful thinking and cutting I was able to get it off. But looks like there might have been somekind of a crash or something in this car's early history. The place where that B-Pillar meets the roof was fixed with brass joints and some lead. There are also some signs of repairing inside, but luckily they''re not major...




When I had the B-Pillar on my hands, it was time to do some cutting. As you guys know, you can see that pillar on 4D models from between those window frames, but on two door models the pillar is "hidden" behind them. So after some cutting and slicing I think I got it in correct shape and welded it lightly on correct position.



Door closes really nicely, the lock components fit perfectly together.



Then I cut front end of original rear door's window frame off and started fitting it on place too. It required some work before it fit on correct place, but now it fits just fine:



And here is rest of the rear window frame mocked up on place.

 
#23 ·
Thanks! I'll be welding the original rear door skin as part of the body so that it'll look like factory made two door model. I think I'll need to cut that door handle spot away from that rear door and fill that hole with some new sheet metal, and on front I just need to move that door handle place a bit backwards.

The mechanisms themselves will be built somehow from different parts I can find from my or from my friend's "archives"... :D
 
#24 ·
Early last week I was going to finish welding that B-pillar on, but unfortunately my welding machine ran out of gas. Now when it's refilled again, I welded that pillar completely on its new place.



Then it was time to start fitting that original rear door skin on place, to be welded as a part of the body. The fitment was really good, so I welded it there from a couple of spots, but it was already so late that I had to call it a day... Now when I finish welding that on place, I'll get rid of that door handle-spot and fill that area with some new sheet metal.




Co-Driver's side trunk hinge mount was already welded together again, as I had to tear it apart when widening those wheel tubs. Now I'll have to do the same on driver's side as well.

 
#26 ·
Thanks Mark!
"Back in the day" some of the Finnish Hot Rodders turned several 4D Sedans into 2 Door models by just simply welding the rear doors shut. :rolleyes: I wasn't alive back then, but after seeing photos of them I can tell you that some of them were not pretty.... Like in here, look at the Malibu: Early '90s Burnout Party Street Race


I had some minor problems with my welding machine, but I think I figured out the problem as now it's working again. So I finished welding that beformer rear door skin on place. Minor adjustments are still required in the inside, but outside is pretty much there, except for that door handle-spot...

 
#27 ·
Earlier this week I welded the piece I cut on top of the rocker panel back on its new position. I also finished welding that panel that goes under the grill. Someone had cut a piece of it away from the front end.




There is still some work to be done with that driver's side door modification before I can weld that rear window frame on place. It shouldn't take too long anymore, though, as I'd like to move on to co-driver's side soon...
 
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