Since our garage was a little bit full while we were doing a tranny swap in my Dad's 428 mach, my buddy Kody and his dad Mike let us store the car at their house for a bit. While it was there, Kody and I got everything prepared for the engine pull and starting pulling a few things apart to see what we were really working with. We first scrapped the hood because it was fiberglass, along with the bumpers.
To prepare for pulling the 302, we took off the export brace, monte carlo bar, headers, radiator, and some other stuff like the fan and battery just to get them out of the way.
A real first look at the drivers side floor pan and it seems solid, a little bit dirty and covered in factory seam sealer but solid. You can see this car was originally a manual transmission and someone had just pushed the clutch pedal to the floor and put in an automatic transmission instead.
A nice surprise after pulling up a bit of the carpet for the first time. Factory paint in awesome condition, hope the rest of the floor is like this.
A nice aftermarket radio.. and no heater controls.. Further inspection revealed there was no heater box either.
After removing what was left of the headliner and trim pieces this rust was revealed. Although it may look a little rough most of it is just surface rust.
A common thing to do with these cars was to cut holes in the package tray to add speakers in the back of the car since they only came with factory front speakers in the dash. This will need to be fixed.
After ripping the rest of the carpet up, we were pretty happy with what the floor looked like. Only problem was a couple of small holes where it looks like somebody cut with a torch for some exhaust hangers.
Back home with the mustang so its time for the real tear down!
The engine came out in a matter of minutes with all of the prep that we did back at Kody's house.
Looks like Dad is taking the dash apart. Having fun?
Most of the interior sheet metal looks like it is in fairly good shape.
Looks like we're missing some stuff behind the dash...uh oh.
Engine is pulled!
After pulling the front windshield, we really weren't happy with what we had found. At some point in this cars life somebody had done a terrible job at replacing the front windshield and used a type of sealant that held in moisture, result in major rust issues all around the edge of the windshield. Because of this, the cowel panel, A-pillars, and roof panel will all need work or need to be completely replaced.
The rear window lip is in a lot better shape than the front.
This is also another reason why we are going to need to replace the cowl panel assembly. The rust hole in the left of the picture is a result of leaves and debris inside the cowl holding moisture eventually rusting through the panel.
The rest of the panel and firewall may also look rusty but most of it is just surface rust and will easily be removed with a wire wheel or fine grinding disc.
The floor is looking even better after a bit more clean up! No rust issues here.
The driver and passenger side floor pans are solid after cleaning the seam sealer off of them. Only a few small pin holes to fix later.
Quarter extensions off
Grille and front valence off
Seats disassembled and ready for rebuild
Dad inspecting my work after the fenders and extensions were off
After taking the fenders off we found out that somehow the drivers side coil spring cover was missing and the passenger side spring was broken. What were they doing with this car?!
The plan for the steps of this restoration is to have all of the interior parts and exterior trim/mounting parts all restored before we start body work so that once the car is painted it will all come together in a matter of days! That being said..I think the seats are up next.
No comments:
Post a Comment