| 2008
Here is where it began! It started
with a trip to a You-Pull-It salvage yard where I found a Monte Carlo SS
Aerocoupe with the rear window still in place. EVERYTHING was
there...not a thing was missing! Best of all...I only paid 75 bucks for
the ENTIRE hardware including the glass!!! |
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April 24th 2010
BEGIN PROJECT
Here are a few pictures of where I
started. First things first--REMOVE the trunk lid and rear glass. Then
remove the torsion bars that hold the trunk lid up. The hinges and the
bars will be
removed at a later time. |
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| April 26th 2010,
Here are some notes that should
explain a few measurements before the actual cutting of the sheet metal
on the Regal.
The Aero package tray stops
at the Regals rear quarter panel...which is good. Also you can see how
well the Monte rear end section is fitting to the GN's. |
     |
| Seam sealer allows rust to form
under it so I dig it all out and apply new sealer before painting. |
_small.JPG) |
| Here is the trunk inner frame with
the Monte "skin" removed. The frame is bolted to the hinges to test fit
it to the Regal's body. The lower section of the Monte trunk lid will
have to be cut off as shown in the pictures to the right. |
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| Here is how the body lines appear
while the trunk lid frame is bolted down. It looks like the Monte and
the Regals quarter panels both have the exact same "slope". That's good! |
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| Here is how the rear part of the
Monte trunk frame lines up with the Regals. It appears that it ends in
the same place as the Regals trunk lid did. This will make it easier to
"re-skin" the Monte Aero trunk frame with a Regal outter skin. |
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| Anther point I needed to test is to
see if the trunk latches were in the exact same place on both the GN and
the Monte. Yep, they were! The aero trunk lid actually latched
perfectly on the Regals locking bar.
So, this pretty much sealed the fate that I will
be continuing to install the Aerocoupe rear window in the GN. |
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| April 4 2010. The first major
step requires
additional metal to be added to the Monte Carlo's package tray so it would fit between the Regal's
quarter panels. This also provides more structural support in that area.
You can see in the previous pictures above where
I had to drill out all the factory spot welds so I could remove the tray
from the Monte Carlo. But before I added the additional metal, I cut off
about 3/4" of the original tray so it would also remove all those spot
weld holes. You can see in these pictures where I cut and fit the metal
and welded it to the tray. |
 
  
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| June 20 2010. I'm finally getting back
to work on the project. I've been trying my luck at "leading". This car was a
factory t-top car and back in 2003 I installed a hard-top roof. I
cut the roof where the factory put the lead and the cut caused some
hairline cracks in the paint after about 4 years. So, while I have the
car torn down again to be painted, I might as well re-lead the seams like
the factory did. These pictures show where I "leaded" the seam back on
the "B' pillar and filed it down smooth. The "C" pillar required
much more lead and a lot of filing. It's my first attempt at leading so this will be a
learning experience. So far so good! |
     
Below is the smoothed out lead with primer applied.
 |
| June 27 2010. Back to the Aerocoupe
part of the project. I've cut the rear
section out of the Grand National so I can weld in the Monte's rear
section. Basically, I made a scribe mark on the original sheet metal while the
quarter extensions and the tail lights were still installed. I then cut
the section out so the Monte's tail section would fit. |
  
    
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| June 29th 2010, Here is the Monte's
tail section clamped to the outside of the GN. You can see where I
marked a line so I could cut off the overlapping metal. I want to butt
the two pieces together and then mig weld them back together making a seamless "one
piece" panel. The panels still needs to be tweaked and hammered straight to get the bends and creases out. |
Mark where to cut...
 
After cut. Panel is now on the inside...
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| In these pictures
you see the Monte's tail section on the inside of the Regal's trunk.
It's starting to look good at this point! |
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| WOW! It almost looks
factory with the tail lights and the quarter extensions installed! |
    
  
   
    
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| July 3rd 2010: I got
the rear section of the Monte Carlo's body welded in.
|
I've welded in the Monte Carlo's
rear panels
to the GN's body. Just the upper part was used from the Monte...the rest
of the panel had to be retained so the tail lights and tag frame would
fit.
    
Below, you can see where the
trunks sealing lip has to be cut to fit on the Regal's lip.
   
After welding, I installed the tail light assembly
to check for clearance problems.
   
I just sprayed "rattle-can" paint on the rear
section to make it match.
    |
| July 5th 2010: This part of
the project involves fabricating the trunk lid. At first, I thought
about just chopping off the original Monte Carlo SS trunk lid and
grafting on the rear section of the Regal's trunk. But further
observation into the project made it appear that if I done it that way
it would have looked to "added on". Especially when you opened the trunk
lid and seen how the sides of the lid were extended outward. That
would have looked like shit. So instead, I'm just going to install a Regal's trunk skin on top of the Monte's trunk frame. The pictures to the
right is how I'm fitting them together for a more seamless look. I think
this is the best way... |
The first picture is what I
started off with. It's the inner Aero trunk frame and the full GN trunk.
Plans are to use the Aero trunk inner frame and the "skin" of the GN's
trunk.
Below is a "photoshopped" picture of my plans. It
involves sliding them together and finish tweaking it on the car.
Here are the actual pictures...no photoshopped
pics below...this is REALITY in the making!
   
The first thing I done was the "center" all the
adjustments. This included the forward and back movement and the side to
side movement of the hinges and the trunk latch.
Once the inner frame was centered I slid
the two pieces together. I kept cutting the inner frame of the GN's
trunk lid little by little until I got the perfect fit I wanted to the
body lines and then tack welded them together.
 
   
Here's some of the under-side with the
trunk lid closed.
  
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| These pictures is when reality
started to sink in. I just had to compare my "photochopped" picture from 2008 to
the real thing in 2010!!! WOW! |
Photo shopped image from 2008--->
The REAL DEAL!
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| July 14th 2010. I rolled the sheet
metal over on the inner aero frame and hammered it down. It looked
really ragged at first but the end result came out fine. I do have to
compensate for some slight warping near the front outer edges.
Also, I'm going to add additional metal where the
GN's skin and the Monte's frame doesn't quite match...but, I already
knew I was going to have to do that before I even started the project.
Rolled lip looks bad since it's not
clean...especially when a camera flash is used. |
   
  
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| Here is how I rolled the corners of
the trunk lid at the edges. The pictures are in sequence with the way it
was done. Again, metal will be added to join the two sections together
to make it appear seamless and factory.
The other pictures is just to show how it's
fitting together. |
   
 
  
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|
July 24 2010: Here's the fabricated
filler panels. I'm not finished with the trunk lid
yet but, I decided to start on the filler panels and get them finished. Pictures show
explanation of the process if you click on them. They are in order so
don't skip around while taking a peek!
|
 
     
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| August 1st 2010: Today I weighed all
the "standard" Regal parts against the Aerocoupe parts. This consisted
of ALL related parts taken off the regular Regal and weighing them and
then taking ALL the Aerocoupe parts and weighing them. To the right is
what they weighed. |
AEROCOUPE WEIGHT:
lbs
Everything added together -
125STANDARD REGAL WEIGHT:
Everything added together -
75 lbs
------------
Break-down of weight for the
Aerocoupe parts...
Interior carpet tray - 16
Metal Package tray - 28
Side Filler panels - 2
Trunk w/o spoiler - 29
Glass with seal - 47
Struts & trunk seal - 3
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More to come! |
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.JPG)
