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A little backstory:
I went and looked at this car and agreed to buy on Halloween 2021 and although I’ve always like 70-72 there was something I liked about this car. I was told it was a 2 owner car and the first owner made it a strip car. I was told it had a big motor when the 2nd owner bought it but wanted more money for it so threw the original in. I did have it started before I bought it and she ran strong. 27+k on the odometer.
My plan is to make it a stock looking cruiser/driver and not a 7 year nut and bolt nos parts only restoration.
What I started with. I was told I need to change the fluids and a tune up to drive. Wrong. Got the car in the garage, put it on stands and sold the wheels.
Had the cool braided hose covers and yada yada. Greasy and wiry rats nest. Everything is dirty as can be and everything leaks. The radiator leaks and has holes, the main mess in here is from a bad power steering leak from the pump. It has a ton of silicone to “stop” it. It also has the anti theft battery cables.
Last edited by 68cutlasssss; Mar 23, 2022 at 08:35 PM.
Put an ad on Craigslist for stock 68 parts and was contacted from a 68 guy in Fountain who was interested in trading hoods. Drove down and traded and he was also nice enough to give me the mismatched set of wheels he had.
The hood was worse than I was expecting but the orange one with the scoop wasn’t going to stay no matter what so what the hell. The stock hood was even worse when I roughly bolted it on, including a broken bolt I need to extract and some extra dents I didn’t see.
When I thought I fixed one issue, another turned up. Went to change the water pump, and the timing chain cover was loose. Then the timing chain needed to be replaced.
I’ll be pulling the motor soon to check it over because I’ve already spent a lot of time wrenching in the engine bay.
Tonight’s progress - 3-23. I started taking out the roll cage right away when I brought it home but thought I ran into a big snag at the time cutting it out so I quit. Started it again tonight and here was the result with a portaband. Also got the seats and carpet out and no rust on the floors. They look great underneath too. Lots of random 80’s speaker wires and weird components.
Took a few pics of some typical rust trouble spots, I don’t think much if any. There looks to be a tiny bit on the fenders behind the wells but everywhere else looks damn good. Any other spots anyone suggests?
Under drivers door Drivers door Trunk. Trivial surface rust, pic looks worse than it is.
Yes it was, it seems just looking quickly that all the interior parts are there but I don’t plan on trying to source all that.
I always wondered what folks do if they don’t plan on replacing the a/c , do they weld in a non a/c piece of the firewall? A/c delete plate? It’s a tough decision I would think the heaterbox and all the other bits would be expensive as well? Or skip the heat etc altogether? Vintage air ? I have a convertible without air so not terrible at least if you go the heater delete route it’s a small hole to fill , sorry for jumping in was just curious
I always wondered what folks do if they don’t plan on replacing the a/c , do they weld in a non a/c piece of the firewall? A/c delete plate? It’s a tough decision I would think the heaterbox and all the other bits would be expensive as well? Or skip the heat etc altogether? Vintage air ? I have a convertible without air so not terrible at least if you go the heater delete route it’s a small hole to fill , sorry for jumping in was just curious
Not a problem at all! I’m going to put on an ac delete cover and keep pulleys etc for the ac because you never know what you might find at a swap meet. If I could find the parts cheap enough I’d buy them and store them for now.
Pulled these off finally, they were holding the wood for the back seat delete. Kind of cool I think. Looks like 6-85, and $.29 each so I could see these being from 1985. I get a little geeky about this small stuff.
Lol lots of spaghetti!!! I have never seen the big tubes of jb weld thx! I’ll be getting some , looks like lots of work filling all the holes , you’ll get it done
Got the console looking as good as I can all things considered. I started working on this as soon as I got done with the shifter, so it’s been about a week, working a couple hours a night.
The door is pretty trashed, and the shift plate is unsalvageable along with the door hinge. The console had about 2 inches of standing water in it when I got it opened.
Before. The pic doesn’t do justice to how dirty it was. After. Destroyed Destroyed
Looking at the console storage compartment brings back memories. Had a 68 in high school, would line the box with a plastic bag for ponies on ice during long past weekend nights.
Looking at the console storage compartment brings back memories. Had a 68 in high school, would line the box with a plastic bag for ponies on ice during long past weekend nights.
….
Sounds good but nothing beats the spare tire well in a '66 Charger for that!
It looks like a great project to dive into, have fun. I like the color. Just wondering if the parts car had the rear 1/4 peak moldings? Locating the parts to bring back the AC is probably an easy job.
It looks like a great project to dive into, have fun. I like the color. Just wondering if the parts car had the rear 1/4 peak moldings? Locating the parts to bring back the AC is probably an easy job.
Steve
Most molding is gone off the convertible, most of the holes for the clips are filled with bondo. The parts car looks to have all the AC components intact so it will be an easy swap when I get to that point.
Worked a little on headlight bits. I was going to do some more cutting and grinding on the roll bar mounts, but couldn’t find my safety glasses and face shield so I found something else that was bugging me.
For some reason the bezels are gold. Maybe a cool look in the 80’s. Painted one to test and see if I could mask it well enough. Good enough for me.
Lots of overspray I use cardboard and crude drawings to keep track of screws and such
A couple weeks ago my in-laws moved out of our place after living with us for about 5-6 weeks, and although they aren’t a burden, they did fill our garage with their stuff (a garage that’s already full) so no movement until recently.
I did get under my parts car a bit and spied this which I thought was cool. Hard to believe there’s a transmission in there somewhere huh? So much crud!
Wow, I enjoyed the read. Are you sure you aren't working in my shop cause it looks a lot like it? I get the same way when working and end up with 20 some odd tools, soda or water bottles, notes and such all spread out and then I have to finally stop and clean up some stuff to keep on working! Keep on going and keep us posted on your progress.
Bought a harbor freight 1 ton cherry picker. Saved $139 vs the 2 ton. It’s about $50 to rent a picker (need it twice) so it made sense to buy. However it doesn’t boom out far enough, need about another foot. Keep that in mind if you’re thinking of making the purchase. So I’ll be going to Colorado Iron&Metal this weekend.
Putting the cart before the horse.
Complete brake kit with 2” drop spindles showed up today. I was really contemplating if I should drop the front, because it looks to me like it sits too high. Should still have plenty of clearance Clarence.
Are the wilwoods overkill? Yeah probably.
Will hopefully get the motor out this weekend or very early next week 🤞
Looking good. Dropping the car is a personal preference. I dropped mine but used coil overs on all corners to adjust the height where I wanted it. I like to tuck the wheels/tires up into the large wheel wells a bit rather than having lots of clearance and space above.
Wilwood makes great stuff but a bit pricey. I've used allot of Right Stuff brake components and been very happy with it. Good luck.
