Some Basic Advice

Hello again everybody, Just yesterday my Friend and I went down to his aunts and tried getting a 1981 Chevrolet Malibu started, but with no luck we resorted to pulling the car home. This is to become our project car, so in the near future you may see a Project Malibu thread opening up to furthur show are progress and to hopefully help us gather advice for any troubles that we encounter. Right now though, my main questions are: For such beginners as we are, I was wondering what are some "basic" tools that we can invest in that will help with body work, and the likes. Keeping in mind that our spending capabilities are probably not that high. We have the motivation and help, and we do realize it is impossible (pretty much) without sinking money into such a project, but right now the bare basic tools is what I am interested in. Thanks for your help.:)

ya, just to maybe clear things up a little, what our first step is (I guess) is to start working on the body, so my assumptions would be that sanding, welding, maybe some sheet metal work, and hammering of dents are going to be our main focus at first. Notice that I am assuming these things, so even if you veterans out there can maybe point us in the right direction of where to begin such an overtaking. Again I am only assuming myself that most people start off working on the body. So links, and anything that can help us will all be very much appreciated.

Alot of good a restored body is if it doesnt drive!

Start with the mechanics first( motor, tranny, rear end, breaks, ect...) and have a safe and as much of a trouble free driving car first, body and interrior will come later when everything else is in working order.

SprayTech

ya ha, thanks for the advice. I know we have thoughts of hopefully getting a bigger engine, since the one in her is only the V6, but like you said at least get her running, thats another thing, when we turn the key it begins turning over but it don't seem to be turning over fast enough. It never catches, we are currently troubleshooting that. Keep the info coming lol, thanks.

If we do have plans on an engine swap, do you think we should still try and get the current engine fired up and working correctly? I think we may do that just in case an engine swap is out of our reach. Another thing, what would you people reccomend for cleaning up the real rusty engine components, if we have no connection with a sand blaster? ttyl.

Before you ever turn a wrench on this car, have a plan. What do you want out of this car? Is it going to be a daily driver? A bracket racer? Show car? What are your final expectations?

In your planning, a decision needs to be made on a location. Is this being done in your garage? Or a friends garage? Is this a driveway project?

Have you decided on a drivetrain? What engine are you going to use? Are you going to build it (do you have the skills to handle this work)? What about a crate motor? Will your car have a manual or automatic transmission? What rear end?

Who's going to do the body work? Or the interior?

What is the realistic condition of the car and the parts that you hope to reuse.

What is your expected budget? Double it! What it your expected time frame? Triple it!

Do you have a parts manual for your car? A service manual? Do you have a plan to store the parts removed until it's time to put them back on the car? Will you know where they go? I use zip-lock bags, wire tags and a P-Touch labeler. I mark these with the appropriate part numbers and the parts diagram for it's location. These are then boxed by subassembly.

Do you have a game plan to the disassembly and reassembly. Is the body coming off the frame? Do you have a final assembly sequence in mind. Have you thought of the minor details? Where will you route your wiring? What about the pad between the firewall and the intrument panel?

I bought my Studebaker last July. I have a plan in place. I feel I have a realistic time frame (5 years) and budget ($80K). You don't need to spend big, but understand what you're getting into. And when you've thought out your plans, write them down.

I think you'll find that in going into this project with a plan, it will be a lot smoother. As for the V-6, if you plan on selling the engine, I'd make sure it runs OK. If you're just junking it anyways, I wouldn't bother. But leave the car intact until you're ready to get started.

Good luck!

I figure I'll go ahead and try and answer most of "Swifsters" questions, which would help you all understand more of what we have in mind with the Malibu.
* We figure a Daily Driver/Show, but only a sort of Street side Car show, which is all we have around here.
* Turns out this is going to have to be a "driveway project"
*Body work is going to be worked on by all of us, which we will be learning more and more as we go, all the more fun.
*The realistic condition of this car is, it has been sittin up for over a year maybe, umm some major and minor body rust, and we are currently trying to get the thing to start.
*Our plan of storage is our friends basement
*Plans for the V6 I think is to get it working good enough to at least get something for it to help with our budget a little bit, we need all the help we can get, so anything will do like that.

Now another question, I am currently looking into either an Orbit Sander or an Angle Grinder, to sand down the body to the bare metal, what works best of these two? Or which is actually meant for this type of work?

Never use a angle grinder for body work such as sanding snows,it will put deep scratches and gouges on the body that will be a nitemare to get out.

Go with a orbital sander and since your first question was for what tools to get if you have a decent amount of body work to do and you plan on doing it yourself then invest about $250 in a 30 gallon compressor to power the sanders that you will need to preform the body work.

Also go to the local book store and take a look in the auto section and you will find at least 2 or 3 good books on doing basic body work. I have a couple that i still reference even though i've done the body work on other cars i've done its still good to have the info on hand to reference.

BG

So are you saying the "electronic" Orbital Sander just won't cut it? Or can you do just fine with an electric?

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Originally posted by snows
ya ha, thanks for the advice. I know we have thoughts of hopefully getting a bigger engine, since the one in her is only the V6, but like you said at least get her running, thats another thing, when we turn the key it begins turning over but it don't seem to be turning over fast enough. It never catches, we are currently troubleshooting that. Keep the info coming lol, thanks.

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put a new battery and cables in, 1 of the 2 are bad.

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Originally posted by snows
So are you saying the "electronic" Orbital Sander just won't cut it? Or can you do just fine with an electric?

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Well....yeah & no...:whacked:

The electric sanders "will" take the paint off and i have used the flat ones that move "side to side" in the past so i guess to answer your question...yeah it will work,but it will be 10 times easier if you get a compresser and use a DA (dual action) sander.

I know you said you are tryin not to spend any more than you have to but i think a compresser and a few "body work" air tools are almost a nessesity on any project in my opinion.

BG

Thanks for the continuous help people, its very appreciated. Another thing that my buddy was looking at was the trim around the windows and stuff, we were wondering just how hard that trim is to get off and get back in?
As for the air powered Sanders, I am not sure about them yet, but I'll keep my eye on them until out project starting date ha.
An as far as the engine goes, ya we started on that and ripped out all the old spark plugs and we have new wires as well, so hopefully that will get something moving like was mentioned. I'll continue to keep you updated as we progress further into this.:)

The Stainless windshield and back glass trim is fairly easy to get off if you have the tool to remove it.
you slide the tool under the moulding and slide it across the windshield till you hit the clip. then you give some slight pull pressure and it will pop the moulding off the clip.
Its kind of hard to explain and the tool isnt an expensive one to buy. But be carefull as the trim is easy to bend, you cant be brutal with it.

SprayTech

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Originally posted by snows
An as far as the engine goes, ya we started on that and ripped out all the old spark plugs and we have new wires as well, so hopefully that will get something moving like was mentioned. I'll continue to keep you updated as we progress further into this.:)

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I hope you replaced them one at a time or at least have a diagram showing the firng order and the points on your distributor.:HMMM:

Ya no worry, we took the plugs out one at a time and made sure of the right firing order as well. Thanks for the concern.:) I think I may be finally deciding on an Angle Grinder with interchangable disc capabilities so that I can sand instead of grind. Seems thats all my own price range will allow right now. BTW concerning the engine troubles, umm we tried boosting the Malibu and still didn't get enough power it seems to turn over, so if this info can point to anything else that could be the trouble, please let me know. ttyl