73 on a slow road to recovery... by Done Yet?

9 minute(s) of a 308 minute read

Whats left of my donor....

After cutting on this car for over a year, alot of the parts i used and some were used on other members cars, this is whats left of her. I will be removing the sub frame, rear end, frame rails and troque boxes and any other panels that are salvageble.. And then cut up the rest for scrap, heres a pic of how she sits right now.

1-17-2011

Installing a 1/4 skin...

I started out with my skin off of the car and on a table drilling out all of the weld points. Then cleaning the primer off around each hole on both sides of the skin, also cleaned the top seem and where the butt welds will be. And once agian the skin was put back on the car to transfer all of the weld locations, i used a marker to mark each location and check fit one last time. Then the panel was removed and all weld points on the car were cleaned to bare metal. I did have a fit issue with the bent lip that tucked under the B pillar support, it seemed to be bent wrong making the skin bulge out along the body seem. To fix this being that seem was getting welded anyhow i just removed that lip while the 1/4 was off the car.

And for the last time the skin was put back on the car all measurements double checked, Anti heat compund applied and began to tack in place. I began tacking in the middle of the top seem working outward to both ends. then a few tachs starting from the top working down in the front and rear of the panel.

Once i had enough tachs put down all clamps were removed and i continued to tach and tach some more until every thing was fully welded.

After all of that welding it was Miller time with a Bud

1-18-2011

Inching foward, one step at a time

I began the gruling task of grinding all of the welds on my skin, i placed a tarp over the trunk area to keep all of the metal fragments from grinding out of my trunk area. I also tried something new while grinding, i always use a cutoff wheel on its side to remove the bulk of the weld and finish it off with a grinding disc, this time i doubled up 2 cutoff wheels to grind the majority of the welds down and it worked real good. I just drag the cutoff wheel back and forth across the weld to bring it down, seems to create less heat then with a grinding disc. Heres a few pics of the grinding in progress.

Once the grinding was complete i sanded down the outside of the skin and as much of the welds on the inside of the car as possible and gave it a bath in epoxy primer.

Once agian thanks for stoppin bye to check out my work. Rob

1-20-2011

Work after work...

Starting at the begining of the week each night after work ive been working on the inside of the car, getting as much of the metal cleaned down to bare metal as possible. Not a hole lot of progress for the beginning of the week but ive only had about an hour a night before it got dark out. And probably 15 minutes of that getting out all of the tools.

With my car being outside and so much metal to clean on the inside, i only have a few days before new rust will start to form on the bare metal, i needed to extend my worktime tonight. So out came a few halogen work lights. Removing all of the old seem sealer is keeping progress to a minimum.

And here are a few pics of where i left off and closed up shop for the night.

My goal is to have the complete inside of the car stripped cleaned, prepped and in epoxy before the end of the weekend. But with all of the nooks and crannys inside the car it is very time consuming. Thanks for stoppin bye to check out my progress. Rob

1-23-2011

stripping the inside..

I continued my quest to strip the inside of my car over the weekend, I had steady but slow progress. If i encountered clean steel with red oxide primer from the factory all i did was scuff it with 120 grit sandpaper. If the area showed any signs of rust it was stripped to bare metal.

Once I had the inside clean I began to remove the old headliner.. (what a mess) And to my surprise the inner roof looked like new i didnt even bother to sand and prime it. In the pics it looks like rust up there but all it is, is the adheasive used to hold up the insulation and some insulation stuck to the glue under the headliner material.

inside continued..

Ok once i had everything stripped and vaccumed and wiped down with some wax and grease remover i let the epoxy fly. LOL Here are a few pics of the interior stripped and put in epoxy primer. I wasnt sure if i was going to have enough time to get it done but everything worked out well and i was able to get it finished.

Thats one job im glad is finished i felt like i was stripping the inside of this car for weeks Thanks for stoppin bye to check out my progress. Rob