1970 GTO the next project

[jasonL78]

Next project 1970 GTO. I will need a good straight frame original is bent from a previous accident. This car was pulled from a so called body shop. Not a big fan of following someone else's work. A lot of corners cut. I have to fix what I can. You are looking at 16K in work people. I feel real bad for the owner. He was taken for his hard earned money. Just not right! I took the car off the frame today to find the frame twisted like a pretzel. Come to find out it was in an accident prior and this so called body shop was working around it.

[jasonL78]

Look at the back of this frame hit hard on pass rear. The top of the passenger rear spring perch is actually 5 degrees higher than drivers side. The frame rail is kinked.

[jasonL78]

I’ve been digging in on this GTO and have come up with a lot of discouraging news for the owner. He paid almost 16K to a so called body shop for restoration. After 3 years and no progress, he pulled the car from the shop. He found me and now I have to straighten this mess out. This shop cut corners all over the place. Trunk pan installed over old, finished the top but not the bottom (Who will see the bottom of the car?). Cut off the old outer wheel wells put new under old inner wheel well lip. Never replaced inners but beat them with a hammer. Kind of replaced trunk frame supports. (Just lay over old don’t weld or only partially weld!) Then try to align them with a bent frame, this was visual to me! Don’t bother to re-weld the back support to the new trunk pan. (The factory had no idea what they were doing.) The quarters all need to be re-welded for structural reasons each wheel well only has 4 welds holding the to the inner. The cake last night was he used black silicon for seam sealer. Thank god I found that before I started welding in that area. That stuff is toxic when heated up or burned.
To the owners of cars being restored at a shop, please ask questions things like this just shouldn’t happen to hard working people. Shame on the owner for not following up and just keep giving this guy money for poor work. Shame on the body shop for taking advantage of a hard working person, we all work too hard for our money and shouldn’t have to worry about crooks like this!

I welded the two pans back together and will blend the 2 with filler. I reattached the rear panel to the new trunk pan. I will replace the trunk supports I think.

[HawkX66]

Wow... I hope the guy is going after that last shop. I've seen a lot of hackers like that unfortunately. Glad to see you're fixing the mess.

[Craig_Maiorana]

There are some vile disgusting creatures in the "Automotive" world .... I've had the displeasure of tripping over a few here in southern California. Hopefully he uses what you've found to crucify the bastards.

Those type of people need to be fitted for a special set of those concrete Nike's

[jasonL78]

I've been picking away at the GTO. I finished up the pass wheel wells both installed with no problem with the quarter on. Mocked up the body onto the new un bent frame and found the floor brace installed by the other shop was located wrong. I installed a new one and got everything lined back up. I sand blasted the floor this weekend and I must say they are in great shape. While working in the trunk area I found the rear tail panel was sectioned 3 times. I have located an original to replace damaged. It will be a really solid car once I'm done. Still have the challenge of replacing the tulip panel under panel I call it the package tray area. The last body shop put a new panel over the old rusty package tray panel. I was also informed the radius of the aftermarket quarter is not correct for the trim. This will have to be resolved also. That is why you need to mock everything up.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

Nice repairs Jason, especially @ areas made more difficult by the botched attempts of others.
Great to see how you're helping the owner out of a tough situation too, hopefully he can just let the past foolishness go and stay happy/healthy finally enjoying his Goat!

~ Pete

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[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Nice repairs, you are working fast, or I am working slowly?

Did you replace the gas tank supports and trunck supports beside the wheel wells?

Ryan

[jasonL78]

Ryan,
The car still has the original gas tank supports. The floor braces where replaced by the previous body shop. I had to replace the passenger side again because the body shop that had it was trying to align the floor support up to a bent frame. The car is moving along I hate doing things twice. It's hard following someone that doesn't have the same work ethic you have. Some things I would have done totally different. I think when it's done the owner will be happy. The owner has already made a comment that I've got more work done in 2 months than the last shop did in 2 years LOL. I do have a 9-5 job and all this work is done after hours and weekends. I really do nothing except work and work in my garage.

Jason

[markinnaples]

Jason, beautiful work so far. You're a good guy for fixing what others did wrong. It's a shame that so many body shops take advantage of people these days.