1968 Chevrolet Malibu Body Work - Malibu Gets The Waves Out

...fenders, bumpers, and other important parts will fit. As you might have noticed, no damage was apparent at first, but when we stripped the front end it showed up. We're told by top-level restorers that they put every car, damaged or not, on the frame machine before doing any rebuilding. Saves wondering why the front bumpers won't bolt up right.

There's no way we could live with the firewall that came with this car. We're not even sure what some of these things...

...are for. We demo'd that junk and built a nice smooth panel, then welded it up like it belonged there.

As we said, with the frame nice and straight the Year One fenders and inner panels bolt on nicely, meaning that the hood fits between...

...them and the gaps are not hard to get right. That nice SS hood is from Goodmark, as is the brand new core support.

Frank Perez knows what he's doing with a spray gun. That's why we let him wear...

...that t-shirt; no use spraying while wearing a cool Super Chevy shirt, right?

We're doing it right. The inner door panels, the underside of...

...the hood, the engine compartment, the underside on...

...the deck lid, and all the detail areas will be finished...

...first. No chance to get overspray on the outside finish that way.

Doesn't it make it easier to do all this before the drivetrain goes in? Since we didn't have an engine or trans to begin with, we didn't have to worry about pulling things out. That smooth firewall looks good from top or bottom, as does that Goodmark core support.

Here's how cool the finish color came out. It's PPG 2006 Corvette Yellow, 83556. The undercarriage and parts...

...of the interior are black but we did the engine compartment in Yellow, and then we'll have lots of shiny parts...

...in there later. Now it's on to the trailer for a trip to begin on the suspension and rear end.