Hi,
well, it begins... winter is over and I have the whole garage to use..

history.... 73 1.7L....only know the last three owners... one brother purchased for

5 - 6 thousand years ago. he left it to his brother who did not drive it.. sat for

"15 years in a pole barn" supposedly. the last brother auctioned off his possessions

as he knew his days were less than he hoped for. he passed a week or two after the

auction. the person I bought the car from said he paid $1800 at the auction.

he had the car less than a week when his wife backed into the driver's fender.

the truck sustained 22 hundred dollars in damage.. he supposedly bought the

car to have a project with his son.. anyway he didn't want to deal with it anymore.

I bought the car for $1500. I googled the name on the title and read the obituary

notice. from that I was able to search and call a friend of his who told me the

history of the brother's car. the actual price was $1700 at auction.. the extra $100

must have been the tow truck..

so far I have been working on the fender... I used to do furniture restoration

for years in Portland Oregon. I like the process. I will drop the engine soon as

I will need to have multiple tasks going as to use the wait time efficiently.

this is my first time "attempting" body work.. youtube is great..

there are multiple things I plan to address with the metal. hell hole has to be

addressed. longs look great from the outside, no sag, passenger door opens and

closes fine with my weight sitting in the seat. 250lbs. interior is great, no cracks,

a couple scuffs on the driver's door side of the seat "bolster?" has corduroy inserts.

the back pad has some chew marks from mice on the bottom inner corner. the

po had placed Irish Spring bars of soap in the cabin and trunks supposedly to

keep the mice away. didn't work.. still.. car smells good.. the mice left chew marks

in the soap. the bars are the original size... so maybe the "15yrs" is true.

I have so many questions... and thank everyone in advance for the directions

you provide me in the days to come...

first question .............what guage metal should I use for the hell hole?

is there a diagram for the body that gives all the gauges and locations?

the front turn signal buckets that I have do not have the external bracket..

how do they attach to the car when you do have the bracket?

as to the hell hole. I plan to cut away to good metal and then vacuum out as

best I can... I read about using a magnet also. I have a cctv on a cable that I will

use in the long to see what is what. I was planning on using a 4' tube attached

to my spray gun and spraying "picklex" rust converter into the longs. wait for

drying and then spraying "zero rust" using same tube/spray gun. after that cures

I was planning on using "fluidfilm" sprayed using tube/gun. I am wondering

if it would be a good idea to fab a plate that is removable (bolted) in the

hell hole area so I can access it every year or so and spray more fluidflim????

thanks

randal

car at auction home
Click to view attachment

car waiting for summer

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crinkled fender and work in progress

Click to view attachment

Get 'er done!

looks like a nice starting point. Welcome to the madness.

To answer your question it is necessary to "build" capital at all times so you can finish!

Body is 20ga, structural is 18ga., usually. Eastwood makes a product that sprays the inside of the longs and/or tunnel, with 360 degree spray head and long leads. One can will do the longs but you'll need 2 cans if you do the tunnel as well.

Nice looking car. It is good to folks in the midwest. How about some pictures of the Hell hole?

Install a soaker hose in the longs, then you can pump it in by the gallon

I will once I have the engine out.

thank you for the info...

the spray gun with tube has a brass insert in the tip which disperses the

material in a 360 also. it was a kit from a place in ma.

thanks again

randal

question is?? will doing as you suggested affect my gas mileage?