Bandit's 53 Bel-air build

[Bandit Ls-1]

so heres the scoop on my ride since im the new guy... bought my beauty also known as "donna" in december and ive been wrenching, cutting, and welding ever since. picked her up for $1200, and so far ive spent another $450 on a motor and trans and $350 on new sheetmetal. so far ive welded just about every trim hole shut on the body, ive filled the antenna hole, welded the hood together, filled the gas door,smootherd the firewall, welded in lower rear 1/4 panels, and done some patch work around the rear windows. still needs front floor pans and a pass side rocker panel. and a whole new trunk floor. well here's the pics!.
1st one is a few days after i got her..wanted to see what scallops looked like on her. then its her getting some surgery done.

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

i always seem to have a favorite patch or something on the cars i work on and heres the one from the bel air. turns out a 1ton jack handle is the same roundness of that body line. so i just clamped a peice of 20 guage sheetmetal to it and beat it round with a body hammer. i had to do a 3 piece patch since their were 3 different bends in the panel and because i only have average joe tools... no million dollar powerblockTV shop here

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

heres how i filled the gas cap door. drilled out holes in the corners so when cutting it out you wont have to cut pass the the lines on the ends, got some poster board stuck it behind traced the hole out and sut it out in sheetmetal then i rolled the curve on my knee and did some tacs to lock the corners down. cant let it get too hott or it will warp since its such a flat and flimsy area on the panel. blowing the patch with an airgun helps speed things up.

 

[Dobber]

Thats some hella nice work right there...

 

[earthman]

Thanks for including us. What are you plans for it?

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

heres the trunk work. still havent put one back in since im not sure if im gonna have to c-notch the frame or any clerance issues. i wish i had a plasma cutter, this was done with a cut off wheel and about 8 disks and it took about 30min to do... thanks goes to my friend gerard for taking one for the team

 

[Old Gold]

Nice patch and weld work! Gonna be a cool chebby.

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

i did forget to post my plans... thanks lol. shes gonna be traditional ofcourse the only modern looking things on her will be the airbags and the stereo system. shes gonna be two toned with a gloss black roof with pearl blue in it, and a flat gun metal grey bottom, wide whites on the stock steelies that will be gloss black. interior will be all black but two toned also with black leather and black ostrich skin inserts in the middle with a dark grey piping around the seats and the stitching will be dark grey.same goes for the door panels. shes will be powered by a 283 with 3dueces ontop backed by a 700r4, and the exhasut will exit out the rocker panel. and im not sure if i want to get smoked glass or just the regular clear stuff any opinions?

can u tell ive lost sleep over this?? ha!

 

[Gastrick]

Good plan Bandit and nice progress. Since you asked for opinions on the glass, I would stick with clear if I was trying to stay with a traditional look.

 

[Tripper]

Nice ride!

Bandit,
I LIKE IT!!! We're starting to see more early Chev's here in Tejas & I've always liked them. My bud in high school had a station wagon & a chopped coupe. You've done sone nice work so far & can't wait to see the rest... gonna be kool!!!

BoB

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

thanks for the compliments guys, its very encouraging. its been tons of work up to this point and i dont see the end anywhere in sight...

as for the smoke glass... since the car is gonna be pretty much dark colors i think the smoke will set it off and finish the sinister look. anyone have pics of kustoms with smoke glass?

 

[Gastrick]

as for the smoke glass... since the car is gonna be pretty much dark colors i think the smoke will set it off and finish the sinister look. anyone have pics of kustoms with smoke glass?

I'll see if I can find any tinted window customs for you. I think the reason you don't see it too much on trad customs is that it gives the car an 80's/90's look. I'll post them here for inspiration if I come up with some.

 

[BruceR&C]

Nice work so far, Bandit. Keep us up to date as you progress. As for the glass, I think clear is the way to go if you want to be 'traditional' but, As has been said here many times,,,; Do it how you want to, it's yours.

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

got some time in on the rig finally this weekend after a 2 week break because my compressor decided it didnt like the work i was putting it thru lol. got the floor pans welded in, got the pans from cars inc.com pretty nice pans, thick metal sturdy stuff $90 tho... a lil steep just for front section but what you gonna do... its not a 69 camaro. heres some before and after shots on the driver side.

 

[Gastrick]

Looks nice Bandit

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

heres my custom rat rod street sign floor pan on the passenger side... looks like it was stick welded too geez lol. still need some small patch work done on the floors but the time consuming part is done. enjoy the pics. any local guys need work let me know i work out of a nice cosey one bay shop

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

thanks gastrick hope to be draggin ass by the end of the year, and i gotta check out your rides man im loving the ww2 fighter interior on that car. got a thread with pics? or maybe your heading to towers sometime soon?? lol

 

[Gastrick]

thanks gastrick hope to be draggin ass by the end of the year, and i gotta check out your rides man im loving the ww2 fighter interior on that car. got a thread with pics? or maybe your heading to towers sometime soon?? lol

You are welcome to stop by my shop anytime when I'm there which is on the weekends. Just PM me and I'll give you my info man.

 

[Gastrick]

Any updates Bandit? Here's some inspiration.........

 

[Bandit Ls-1]

ah geez now i wont sleep tonight thats exatly the paint scheme im going for except the gold will be silver. well theirs plenty of updates but ive been working on it after work till about midnight evry night and then waking up at 7am to do it all over so the last thing i want to do when i get home is get online and spend like an hour posting pics lol sorry guys but when i get a chance ill put some up.