Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

any updates rick? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/drool.gif[/img]

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 300deluxeL79</div><div class="ubbcode-body">any updates rick? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/drool.gif[/img] </div></div>

Should have some soon.

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

Soon is GOOD [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

Dan

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] yes it is Dan

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

Pretty COLD outside...crank up that heat in the garage Rick!

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

Rick has more room in the garage now [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

Looking forward to more progress pics!

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

I have been able to make some more progress on the sheetmetal rebuild, and also have found the original owner's wife/widow who remarried awhile after her husband was killed in Vietnam.
After much searching I located where she lived and got a phone number. She answered the phone on the 2nd try, and was very nice and willing to discuss the car.
It turns out her husband Willie Debolt had bought the car without her knowledge, and she was pretty ticked off when he brought it home the 1st time. They had only been married a few months and she didn't want a car payment while they were saving money to get a house.
He taught her how to drive a stick, and while Willie was away in basic training, she and her brother would go out and drive the car around, even though she was told not to let her brother ever drive it.
As the weather turned colder later that year (1969), she took the car over to a local dealer for an appraisal and to see about selling it. She had told her husband she wouldn't drive it in the snow.
Well, the dealer talked her into selling it to him. So it wasn't even a year old when they sold it, and before Willie was killed in Nam the next March.
The owner of the dealer was named Lou Sprague, The dealer was somewhere in the Warsaw, IN area, so if anybody here remembers him and the name of his dealership, that could help me follow where the car went next.

Here are some progress pics showing the rebuild of a very rusty cowl area.
Enjoy

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics..._rebuild_1.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics..._rebuild_2.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics..._rebuild_5.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_14.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_16.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_20.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_22.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_24.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_27.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_29.jpg

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

Few more

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_30.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_31.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_37.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...rebuild_38.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...2-dscf7435.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...3-dscf7510.jpg

Shifter hump donated from another car.
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...5-dscf7433.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...7-dscf7431.jpg
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...8-dscf7445.jpg

After the first panel fit test.
It's all apart again, and the doors have been straightened and some small rust repairs on both.
Should be going to the blaster soon to clean all the donated sections to bare metal, then time for some minor smoothing and a fresh primer coat.
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/pics...9-dscf7450.jpg

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

Great job. That looks like a LOT of work!

Re: Black L78 1969 SS396 300 Deluxe Post Sedan Found
 

Looking great Rick I'm always looking for progress pictures on this car.I never done any extensive panel replacement like this but it's something I'd love to try.