New Member building a 64 G modified...comments? suggestions?

Very Nice work!!!

Looking good! Love that DH metalwork!

Outstanding Tin Work!!

jsut what springs did you put on that van that you needed
to move the front bolt back? nice work by the way!!!!

sorry about the spring question just had to read a little, 55
truck front monoleaf, still nice work!!!!

Hey y'all thanks for the feedback the boys were loving the comments on their work!
Things have progressed a little but not too much since we had a rusty 71 Celica come in for a full resto- crazy guy!?!

Shaved the bumpers and taken out the grille, not sure what we're going to put in there, any suggestions?????

Also here is a pic of the side exit exhaust opening, we are just going to make a box tip out of stainless to sit in there.

Starting to think about paint now too, he is thinking a burgundy/dark reddish
......... Hope you like, please give any comments or suggestions on all of the above, this is a collaborative project that is being designed as we go!!
Thanks, Rochelle.


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vertical tubing with cutouts for some fog lamps

That might look a little too much like teeth. we want to get away from the whole "mouth" look.

Howdy, I like the burgandy paint colour......on the darker side anyway. for the grill maybe that chrome squares stuff that is used for light lens covers in offices. Try getting it from a Canadian Tire store in your area. EH! lol

Welcome the show.

something like this?it is ford toredor red

Just a note on the exhaust ports, the interior ribs are open to the rocker panel area, they extend thru the floor and anchor to the back rocker panels. Im sure you were already on top of this but make sure the passage is sealed up well. Again thats some very cool work you guys are doing !

Thanks for the heads up on the rocker to interior opening. We are also going to have to contend with the torque box area where it attaches to the inner rocker. We will post some pics as we go.

Kevin, BSG

Blue Star Garage wrote:

Shaved the bumpers and taken out the grille, not sure what we're going to put in there, any suggestions?????

The factory grill is beautiful, so I'm not sure why you felt the need to remove it? I guess your customer wanted something different?

My suggestion: Retrieve the peices you cut out, reconstruct the grille, fabricate some mounts so it can be removeable, trying the keep the factory design & look as much as possible, but then have the whole thing chromed... I've always thought a fully chromed grill would look amazing!

Especially with the front bumper removed and smoothed, you're going to need some chrome up front or the van is not going to look right... chrome the headlight trim rings too.

Please keep the body mods tasteful, some people go overboard and butcher these poor vans with radical body mods and they end up looking kind of stupid... that's why its so hard to find a clean uncut 1st gen these days!!

Always wanted to cut my grill out just couldn't ever think of what to do after I got it out. Been watching "Highway Child's" project ever since he cut his out last year waiting to see what he was planning to do. Rochelle, what are your plans for it?

Dan

We all have seen some hack jobs over the years and no one likes them, but from seeing your metal work on the doghouse I know that won't be the case here. I agree with KK the stock look is very nice, but customizing these vans goes hand and hand with our vans. Without customizing there wouldn't be vanning as we know it today. That's what really started the vanning craze in the 70's and truck'in followed. My 64 I'm doing some things that is not everyones cup of tea, but as I look at it this van would have been in the bone yard if I didn't save it and it was to far from stock to bring it back

I think some nice horizontal bars with the turn signals and a fog lights worked in to break it up would be nice, Id try it.

i think a billet grille with rectangle turn signals maybe up & down , with a chevy emblem in the center.

i think u r doing great, its ur van. have a good time with it....................

How about a steel sheet grille with a bowtie cut out of it, couple square tubes or bar stock behind it blacked out? Or if you have a name for the van, cut the name out with a small bowtie? Maybe bowtie cutouts for your signal lights?

I prefer something that's been fitted to the fabricated stuff.
How about taking a Nova or Imapla grille and trimming to fit.
You may need 2 grilles to section together to fit the opening.
I also prefer a bit of inset, rather than flush mount.

Thanks for all the input on the grille ideas. I agree with KK that it's easy to go too far and end up with something that looks a bit "tacky" and overdone. We like to make some body mods to everything we do but our style is more to clean up what the factory did. Examples would be removing marker lights from the corners of fenders and quarters or tucking in the bumper to match the lines of the car better.

With this project, it's hard to guess what others will appreciate. Some people really seem to get into the glam look of the 70's and others more on the conservative side.

We are trying to take a little of this and a little of that and mix it tastefully together. The body already had portholes cut in the sides and we plan to leave those, even though it's not my thing. The bumpers were completely toast when we started and we thought the rolled pan look is a bit cleaner.

The grille also was in very bad shape and we thought it needed something shiny up there. Our basic idea is to replicate the original in stainless and polish it, probably with round tube as the basic construction.

The roof had a vent in it and I'm not quite sure what we are going to do with the hole as yet.

The plan for the exhaust came about because the owner asked about putting on side pipes, after talking it over we all agreed that it would be the wrong look. We figured with the side exit through the rocker it would have the same effect sound wise but fit the lines of the van a bit better.

That's all we have planned for body mods other than repairing some previous mods that were not done well.

Here is some fun we had on photoshop one day playing around with color schemes and hillbillies.

Disclaimer ***This didn't really happen, this is several images pieced together, please don't take this seriously, we are only having fun***




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yay some new stuff for you to look at! we have been on other projects for a while, but finally back to the van. we have finished the side exit exhaust.. with custom made tips which we are pretty proud of...and it looks nice! Have a lot more pics of the rocker cutouts, tips being fabricated etc. that i will post soon.
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And radiator support
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as soon as the radiator is in we can start it up woohoo!!!

on other progress, we have been repairing rust, most is done but the doors has some wadding stuffed in them and have rusted the bottoms which, uppon further investigation, look farked! we could fix em, but really dont want to spend all that time doing it, and our customer really wants to get the car done.....sooo anyone know where we can get doors that look better than this?????... side and rear thanks for looking!!! Rochelle @ Blue Star

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Thanks you for the update, this is one of my favorite builds going on here. The tips thought the body are super sweet!!!!

I'm liking the Xhaust tips to. Neat ! Can't wait to see more!

Can hardly wait to see those rocker cutouts when their finished!!!