Steve’s ’73 Restoration Thread – It starts with a little crack, While I'm in There Options

[Gudhjem]

Here's my story so far.

Last summer I noticed this creeping up my driver’s side long:




So I decided I had to fix that, and then noticed this a little flaking of the tar under the driver’s seat:



A little poking around and cleaning revealed this:



And while I’m fixing those, the PO’s repair of the passenger suspension console looked a little suspect:



and I should probably figure out why I occasionally smell gasoline, and While I’m in There ™ ……

so these things go, until I arrive here:
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

I discovered enough rust and other issues that I’ve decided to strip her down to the bare tub, and do everything right. I’ve been at it since July 2010, and figured I’d make a progress thread since all the cool kids are doing it. Besides, I rely on this site a lot, and it will be easier to explain what I’m asking when I come up with lame questions (and there will be many of those).


About the car: It’s a 1973 2.0 that’s pretty much stock except for the FG flares a PO put on and the unusual 4-bolt wheels.


As far as I can tell it’s straight and never been in an accident, unless you count a dent in the bottom of the front trunk. It started out as a Florida car, but as far as I can tell from the title it came to California in the 70’s. I’ve owned it since 1996. I rebuilt the engine from the bottom up in 1998 (back when there were sites like the 2-trunk tribune and roadglue was big).

continued...

[Gudhjem]

The car has, I’ve now discovered, a few rust issues:








About me: I’m no mechanic . But did work my way through college as a metal fabricator and building and maintaining industrial machinery. That means I know how to weld a bit, or at least used to – mostly Tig, but also stick, never Mig until recently – and also means I’ve worked on machines. I’ve also rebuilt a couple engines besides the 914. But that’s the extent of my experience, and I have pretty much zero body work and car painting experience. My day job is Paper Pusher.

I’m also married with 2 kids under the age of 2. So, this restoration will be a challenge, and will be a long process.


Here’s the basic plan:

Replace the FG flares with steel flares. The FG flares are cracked, and I got in on the last group buy.

Install Engman long kit

Repair hell hole and surrounding area

Repair firewall



Replace and repair floorpan

Repair trunk



Repair cowl/fender areas

Strip the 4 or 5 layers of existing paint and repaint . I think I’ve narrowed it down to orange/red like the Erich Strenger car, or else the original Marathon Blue Metallic, which you can see on the firewall behind my wife here:



5-lug suspension (already got pretty much everything I need from Eric Shea, I’ll show some Shea Pr0n when I get to installing it)

Transmission rebuild (got the Doc’s video!, how hard can it be?)

J. West Rennshifter and linkage (I think)

Lots of other things that will get done while I’m at it, like SS fuel lines, backpad refurb, Dynamat on floor, new carpet, rebuild doors, etc.

The engine itself I’ll leave alone, for now. It’s running great, and I think I have a long enough list of things to do before I get to drive her again. The plan is to put in a 3.2, but that’s for another day, and another thread.



My progress so far:

I built a rotisserie using the excellent plans over at Roadglue. It went together without much trouble. As I said, I’d never Mig welded before, but figured it couldn’t be that tough to learn for someone who can Tig, so I went out and bought a little Miller Mig welder. Mig is no doubt much faster than Tig. My welds are pretty mediocre, so I’m glad I’m getting to practice on this before the car. So far the rotisserie has been great. The materials cost a lot more than I expected they would ($500), but I ordered them online, and probably went overboard on the casters ($100 just for them).

I think if I had it to do it over again, I might make the rotisserie have a height adjustment. It would make loading the car much easier. Getting the car loaded was dicey, and I nearly had it fall off the blocks I had stacked underneath it. I finally lost my nerve and bought this:


The crane made lifting it very easy – just hoisted the whole tub at once using the seat adjuster mounting holes. Of course, if you have a few friends handy, you could easily lift it and don’t need a crane.

I have the car pretty much stripped. Just need to finish removing the wire harness and a few odds and ends. I’ve also removed most of the floorboard tar. Once I finish that I’ll install the supports I bought from Chris at Tangerine, orient the car rightside up, put bottle jacks under the front and back of each long, check dimensions (I measured before I put it on the rotisserie) and start to work on the hell hole.

When I started I figured I could have things done my this summer, but based on how slowly things are moving, I’ve stopped kidding myself. No finish target, and I’ll just enjoy a little progress here and there as time allows.

--Steve