Trash that pedal assembly. There isn't a whole lot of steel left in that pan. You are going to be kicking those pedals, but not for very long before something bad happens.

2) Pedal board and accelerator stop

got it

3) All the front trunk heater stuff, I mean everything

Do you mean the fresh air vent or the flapper boxes? I think I have both anyways.

4) Heater control for dash

got it

5) Heater control lever

Might still have it

6) Late style parking brake lever

Might still have it

11) Original 73 jack

Got it

12) Rain tray and hoses (any condition works for me)

Got em

13) Stiffer rear springs (originals are 100#, correct?)

Brand new 100#ers I'm not going to use

14) Backpad (any condition works)

Got it


I am in my first year of my masters in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in energetic materials. I'm hoping to go for PhD if I can find the stamina. Right now its looking a little bleak.

Shoe will be cheaper for shipping... He's closer, I'm up at Purdue.

-Ross

Yeah... thats what I was thinkin. Its pretty much pitted through in some spots. Not sure where to get another pedal assembly though. Don't want to pay for a completely rebuilt set.

-George

Hey Terry,
Thanks for the kind words. We are going to get to the roll cage at some point once the major frame stuff is done. I don't think this is something I want to attempt myself, for a number of reasons. However, when I do get it done, I will certainly take your advice. That makes sense - since a roll cage ties the left/right and front/back sides together, I would certainly expect some shrinking in the doorway (as well as right/left, but I assume the bulkheads probably prevent most of that). If anyone knows of a good cage builder in the Tampa Bay area, let me know!

-George

Yep, Trash that George, I may have one or at least some good parts

T.C.

T.C.,
If you do indeed find one, let me know. The base is really the only part that needs replacing. However, I did bend the clutch tube a little when I had to use a pickle ford to remove the clutch pedal arm. I think I got it bent back enough to be okay, but this part would help as well. Thanks brotha!

-George

When Ferrari first started building cars there was a shortage of steel after the war so they had to improvise. The result was many missing street signs around Maranello!

LOL, good to know!

Do not Por15 the pedal assembly when you get the parts, that stuff is thick and things might not work. Just sand blast parts and paint with rattle can.

Its looking good. Keep up the great work. There will be times you wish you took the torches and cut the car to pieces but don't get discouraged. (I had a few of these days myself) The final product will be sweet! I understand the college budget, I am currently in school as well. Goodluck.

Clow

agreed, good work. and looks like the trans is rebuilt. way cool.

just make sure you have fun!!!

Thanks for the replies all. I'll keep that in mind for the pedal cluster - no POR. Also, its not a rebuilt trans.... yet. Paint can be deceiving! I pulled it out before getting into the metal work and degreased/painted it while I was at it. Still crunches first and second. Thats on my list of things to due, however.

-George

Good luck on your build. Looks like you got the right attitude to just keep at it until it's done. There's alot to these little cars.

Also, I'm far from a college budget but I still try to manufacture my own parts when I can. Everyone can't buy new parts.

Dave

Thanks Clow, been following your work as well. Truly remarkable. Good luck with your own studies. You're at Purdue, correct?

Hello again all,
Sorry I haven't done a great job updating in the past few days. First weeks of classes have been pretty hectic. However, I was able to get a little more work done! The outer long is basically complete around the jack post. Also, I just welded in the support from Restoration Design today. I'll have pictures of that tomorrow. Below is a picture right before I finished the second layer. To those who haven't attempted this yet, remember that its double walled. So if you fabricate a piece you actually need to duplicate it. You can get the picture of this below. It actually doesn't double up all the way around, though. The "inner" layer of the double wall that I made just sort of floats along the bottom of the long. Then, when you weld in the outer layer, you rosette-weld the two together. I'll try to get a picture of this if I can remember. So far I've already doing a poor job of that.


Also, I'm probably being anal because as you can see, I have been POR-ing between each piece that I've made. Everyone else just does a good coat of weldable primer. Meh, I just want to have to come back here again, so I'll keep doing it this way and never have to worry about rust again... at least in the long.

While I was already busy getting covered in POR, I decided to go ahead and do the window channels and part of the floorboard. Even though I bought mine in 6x4oz cans, I don't want to waste any. Once these cans are opened, regardless of what anyone says, its a crapshoot whether you get them open again.

Click to view attachment

The floorboard we fabbed. When you see the whole floor, you can barely tell that this isn't a Restoration Design or AA piece. Once I get all the interior cleaned up and painted, I'll be sure to post that pic for your opinions.

And finally, the front windshield channel. I discovered some rust here too. Glad I got to it when I did. I'm not sure how I'm going to try and seal the other side yet. But this POR should stop anymore rust from appearing on the outside. Still having fisheye problems. I'm starting to think I just got a bad batch (I have heard this does happen from time to time).

good luck on your build! mines is a college budget resto as well, but i'm glad i didnt start with something in such bad shape! respect for rebuilding it. i suppose im just lucky i live in socal where the rot doesnt hit so hard.

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get any flack from anyone else for this....


Are you unemployed or just living off of your parents? You must be to find time to go around telling people how they should live their lives.

FYI - I'm at the end of my coursework in my Masters Thesis, holding a 3.76 GPA while teaching several labs and busting my ass at my day job out in the sun. I'll be happy to provide a copy of my transcript as well as letters of reference if it pleases you. Otherwise, .

VOX,
I seem to remember hearing that about yours as well. You are truly smarter than I for starting off with a better example. However, I knew getting into this that I wanted to tackle one of the things that I had not done before, which is metal work. I definitely got more than I bargained for, but I also saved a ton of money by picking a less complete car. I'm sure most of us would probably recommend to anyone that 99% of the time its better to find low-rust cars to start with. But for the crazy few of us who just want to learn, at least we're saving a car in the process! To me, its worth it just knowing that Kevin311, one of the previous owners of this car is happy to see it being saved. Good luck with yours! What are you studying?

Yikes! Sounds like the mess the in between owner (I owned mine from 99 - 2002 and 2010 - present) did on my first car. He actually put fiberglass over the rotted inner rocker, and riveted sheet metal to the longs

In my experience, having a diversion from studies helps you make better use of the time you DO spend studying. BTW, I'm the one at Purdue. Clow is up in Canada I believe doing ME in Ontario.

[quote.


Also, I'm probably being anal


Geez....that kinda talk gets some of these members just a tad too excited



And humbled/inspired by the skills and determination...that is truly a project car...and you'll be done and driving long before I get my repainted car reassembled....

Diversions from studies....or work....are a necessity

Ed, the in between owner of your car must have owned my car at some point in time. the repairs, and I use that term loosely, were eerily similar.

George, I agree whole heartedly with your colorful reply. Your rebuild is what inspired me. Keep up the good work!

Dawn

Thanks for the positive replies all. Dawn, I don't know if I'd call this inspiration, but its proof you can do this relatively cheaply as long as you're willing to put the time in and have an open mind to learn. If you ever have any questions, I'll do my best to show you what I did, whether its considered 'right' or ''wrong.'

I've got some more pictures to post here this evening. Took off the old suspension console and what I found scared the crap outta me. It wasn't pretty and it was rusted almost all the way through.

Also, one of these posts I'm going to list some of the "do's" and "I wouldn't if I were you's" that I've learned. I've been keeping a running tally on what I've been spending and in some areas what I initially thought would be saving money probably has cost me some. The floorboards come to mind. While I'm happy with the way they've turned out, I do think that some parts should just be purchased instead of being fabricated. For example, I've bought well over $150 in Dremel and angle grinder discs which I had not accounted for at the beginning. If you buy pre-made parts you're not going to spend as much time or money cutting and grinding. It certainly equals out if not completely outweighing the money saved by making hard to replicate pieces on your own. Plus, no matter how much better I've gotten at fabricating, the replacement pieces are always going to look better. Like I said, this is a learning process

I have one solid susp. console. I cant remember if it is right or left though...

LOL we paid $300 for the rolling chassis and another $300 for the engine and tranny.

George, you are doing great and you will have a good portion of self satisfaction. I do some things just to see if I can.

With the POR cans...

I usually just buy the little cans and cover one small area at a time, but you can drill a hole in the lid and then use a cork from the hardware store to re-seal them if you don't want to use the entire can at once. They don't get exposed to too much air and will keep for a little while like this.

Thought I hadn't quite said it that way, this is exactly what goes through my mind, lol. Much to my girlfriend's chagrin, however. Thanks for the kind words!

Shuie,

I had heard/seen that as well. May try that if I find myself getting to a stopping point with an open can. However, so far I've done a pretty good job of predicting what I would need before I started. Also, have heard that keeping them in the fridge helps once opened. Of course, I don't have kids, so I would be EXTREMELY careful if I did!

Open the can then put saran wrap over allowing the wrap to contact the paint. Then put the lid back on. The wrap contacting the paint keeps all the air out. Then you can wad up the saran wrap when you're done, put it in a paper sack and have a good ole' huffin' time....

Click to view attachment

Exactly what Scotty B told me at the start of my project. Buy everything you can and it will still need work but at least you're 90% of the way there.

updates?

I like this thread

Man, I had no idea anyone was even really following this. Thanks for the reminder to update this! Well, as the semester has worn on, time to work on the car has been limited. However, I have finally gotten the suspension console done and fully buttoned up. This is what it looked like first, after I took the console itself off. BTW, this is a chore, if no one has done it yet. The spot welds are one thing, but cutting through the brace from the inside<-> console is a whole other story.

Obviously the outer skin on the inside was trash. So I carefully cut through it to keep the inner intact. The inner wasn't ALL that bad, I suppose as you can see below. Initially I was just going to re-skin the outer section of the inner long. However, as you'll see on the next page, I had some issues.

Bruce Stone (bdstone914) sent me a whole inner frame section from a parts car. This is the console with several pieces including the engine shelf removed. The problem with using non-replica parts is whatever you cut out, you're going to have to do it TWICE. I drilled out all the spot welds on this suspension console, only to get to the point where I could not figure out what was keeping it attached to the remaining frame piece. So I got frustrated and....

George, I'm sure there are a bunch of us following this ( Check the Views) You're doing Great

Yeah dude. We are all watching and waiting. Keep up the good work.

Cut the whole thing out to replace it all as once piece. In hindsight, probably NOT the best solution, since its very easy to weld in the whole piece too far in any direction. As you can see in the next post (GD post size limit! ) , I used the old piece to line up my cut lines on the "new" piece.

The "new" piece.

And the portions I used to line up the cuts. If you look closely, you can see I sectioned the original piece where the folds in the inner section are. Also, those round holes helped line it up. Otherwise I would have been fuched.

Once I got the piece cut to size, I then had to go and cut the outer skin off about 1/2 in on both sides as well as the outer skin on the remaining section of the frame on the car. Not sure how to explain this, but it allows you to weld the inner skins together first. Then you grind this down and weld in your outer skin patch so that the seams of the welds aren't in the exact same place. If anyone is curious I could post a picture with a diagram of what I mean.

Of course, I took measurements before all of this. I had no friggin idea how to follow the measurements provided in body dimensions section, to be honest. So I used the drivers side console as a reference. I ended up with the exact same length from the center of the console bolt hole to the large dimples on the bulkhead, maybe +/- 1 mm. Obviously, its pretty hard to get the thing out of line on the Y or Z axis, since the flanges of the two frame halves should match up.

A couple other things are done (well actually a lot, but I just don't have pictures at the moment.) The jack point is below. I ordered the support plate from RD, which in hindsight, I should have ordered all of this stuff from them. Long story short, if is not a flat piece of metal, or a since 90 deg. bend, just order the shit. Its going to cost you more in grinding/cutting discs than its worth. I might have saved a few hundred dollars here, but thats about it. Of course I learned a ton though and got to - all of my favorite pastimes. Note: the cool thing about doing this yourself though is you get to make your own "modifications." As far as I can tell, my jack receiver tube is at least twice as thick as the RD version, which I did not order. I'm hoping it'll stick around a little longer than most of them seem to do.

Hole that existed before, plus a little extra cut out to get rid of all the damn brazing.

The piece that Mark (76911s) sent me cut and fitted. FYI, this guy is one of the many people who went FAR out of their way to help me in this endeavor. He went out and cut seat hinges, a parking brake mount, the center cross beam and the firewall hump out of one of his parts cars in the F'ing snow. Truly this car will be a testament to all of you guys as much as it is to me.

The next few posts will skip ahead, since I've gotten all of these holes filled and welded since I last took pictures. Its no fun not being able to reach through the firewall anymore to grab tools laying on the floorboards!