I got this car when I was 17 for $3500. The previous owner had done a minor restore on it a few years before so it was still in pretty good shape. It was a daily driver spring, summer, and fall for 2 years util I graduated from H.S., then it made the 70 mile trip to college every now and then. It always made me nervous having it near campus, so I didn't take it up as often as I wanted to. After college I moved to Iowa for a year training for work then came back and lived a couple places where I didn't have a garage so it didn't get driven much at all. I'm not sure exactly, but if I put 2000 miles on it between 2003 and 2008, when I got a house and was able to move it there, I'd be shocked. Five years took its toll, and it got to the point that I couldn't drive it without having to be rescued from the side of the road. Then I got married and we had 3 girls pretty much back to back so there hasn't been much time for hobbies. But, now the girls are getting a little more self sufficient, and I have a little bit of free time, so I'm hoping to get this project done over the next couple years before we start getting busy with sports and whatever else they'll be involved in.

I hadn't planned on it, but I guess you can't finish a project until you start it so I worked on taking getting the seat and carpet out yesterday to see what kind of shape the floor pans are in. All in all it's not bad, but you can see daylight along the seam at the front of the pan and underneath the seat . The floor's also getting pretty thin in front of the driver's seat. Still have the rear seat carpet to get out since I couldn't wrestle the bench seat out by myself. Hopefully there aren't any big surprises there.

My main goal with this is to have something I feel comfortable throwing the girls in and taking for a drive. I want to do some cruise-ins but think I've had my fill of car shows for the time being, but it's still got to be a head turner. Right now I'm planning a frame off restore with front disc brake conversion. I'm up in the air on paint color and whether I want to keep the Quadjet or do a fuel injection system...pretty sure I've got time to figure that out.

 

Not too bad at all. Looks like a wire brush job except for that seam section.
Do you weld?

 

X2, looks pretty solid.

 

Nice starting point. I'm about 100 miles away in Robinson, IL. If you need parts or to look at how something goes together if you get stumped, drop me a line and you can look over several cars at my buildings. Ocean Mist or Dubonett re my favorites on color.