Then moved on to the rust along the drivers side fender in the front seal channel for the trunk lid seal. I started by cutting the rusted area until I hit solid metal, about 1/2 inch wide by about ten inches long.

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Then I cut a piece of metal to fit and tacked it in place. My goal was to not hit either the bottom edge or top edge of the channel where the body creases are.

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Then finished it of with a preliminary sanding and shaping, still a little touch up to do, but got frustrated with my welder becuase the wire wouldnt feed at a constant rate, so ended up with several pin holes.

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Since I couldn't figure out the welder I moved over to the drivers door. The PO had installed an adjustable mirror, but mangled the mount area in his process. So I started by cutting out the damaged sheet metal, trying not to further damage the mounting structure underneath.

Once I got that cut out I could easily see how much damage was done to the support structure for the mirror. I will try to cut out only the damaged section and re-drill and tap the mounting holes for the mirror.

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Okay, so after spending over an hour this morning trying to figure out why the welder would feed consistently, turns out the label on the wire spool started peeling away and was building up like a snowball behind the spool. Cheap and easy fix.

So I cut out the support structure for the mirror on the drivers door. As it turns out there are actually 3 layers to this part of the door. 1) the outer skin, 2) the sheet metal support, 3) the nut plate that the mirror screws into. In my case all 3 had been destroyed.

So I started by making the sheet metal support. I tried using the pieces I cut out to make the holes for the new piece and that was a mistake. They were off by about a 16th of an inch. So I grabbed an old broken mirror and made a new one using the proper measurements...

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Then measured to make a new screw/nut support plate. After drilling the holes, I tapped them to fit the mounting screws for the mirror....

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Then welded the screw / nut support to the sheet metal support. Then welded the sheetmetal support back into the door ....

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Then double checked the allignment by attaching the mirror to the support. I am please with the allignment in the end.

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Tomorrow I will weld the outer skin back onto the door.

Nice job, keep it up..


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Got the support metal ground down and primed

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Then cut and formed the patch piece

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Checked the fit, getting the curvature correct took a bit of time, but finally got there and tacked it in

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Got it all welded up and the properly aligned holes re-drilled.

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And for now shot it with self etch primer. Will come back later and finish up the entire door.

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Then went down and filled in the hole in the channel next to the drivers side headlight bucket.

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Excellent fab work!

Very nice work Kevin!

The finished product is going to look great!

So today I decided to take the day off from body work....why, because all of my parts arrived for my steering column.....and I love to play with new parts...

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After laying everything out, I decided to start by cleaning, modifying and re-assembling all of the sub-components. I started with the modification of the windshield washer switch.

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Taking the advice and experience outlined in Bob Krantz's post (Building Inside Out) I started with the Carmagic Switch (very nice product) I cut off the narrow portion of the push button in order to fit the modification method Bob used.

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Then I drilled out the plastic mounting surface in increments until the hole was large enough to accomodate the nut for the switch mount. This ended up being a 7/16 inch hole. Be very careful when drilling so you don't break the activating tab.

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Then mounted the switch where the old fluid switch used to reside. As bob stated in his post the mount for the new switch stuck out a little past the mounting surface of the original switch mechanism, so I borrowed my wifes emory board and sanded it down till it matched (hope she doesnt find out).

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By using Bob's method I found the mounting to be a bit more sucure IMO.

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From there i moved on to the ignition switch replacement. As with many of these old cars the switch was cracked so I replaced it with a fresh part. For those who have never done this it really is a pretty simple straight forward procedure.

You simple unscrew the tiny set screw on the side of the ignition unit, remove the old switch and insert the new one, then screw the set screw back in place. The good thing is it will only go in one way.

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Since I plan on changing from a stock steering wheel to a Momo, I went ahead and set up the adapter. The part number I used was a Momo 8002, solid mount.

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Momo sends the unit with all predrilled holes, and sheet metal screws to screw on the horn ring. I had planned on using the mounting screws from the original steering wheel to mount the ring, but they are like a 3.5 mm screw and I could not locate the proper tap, so I re-drilled the original holes and tapped them to fit a 4 mm x .7 x 10 mm screw. I had to drill out the holes in the horn ring a tiny bit but everything lined up great

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I wasn't aware of that wiper switch modification, it's a great solution thanks for posting! I had already purchased a pump a while back but was just going to install a hidden switch somewhere under the dash for it. Because of this post I went ahead and ordered the switch.

Great job on the car, keep it up.

After completing the sub assemblies, I began assembling the main structures. To make the bearing installation easier I first put the steering shaft and both bearings in the freezer for a couple of hours. I also put the lower bearing carrier and the upper housing out in the Texas sun, to heat them up. I was hoping that this would aid in easier insertion of the bearings, and it did to a point.

I did the lower bearing first. I did get it about halfway into the carrier, but then had to gently tap it into place. The key here is to insure that you only tap the outer bearing race, so I used a matching sized socket and just tapped it in. It has to go in until it bottoms out and is past the groove for the circlip. Then I inserted the circlip that holds it in place.

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I then did the same with the with the upper bearing in the housing. The new bearing came with a plastic insert, which I left in during installation.

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Then it was time to install the steering shaft. It sat in the freezer for an additional 30 minutes so was really quite easy to slide in.

First I removed the plastic guard that was in the upper bearing and installed the crush sleeve on the shaft.

Now, if you do this quickly enough the shaft will slide into both bearings without any force. I installed the lower end first, since it is more of an interference fit, Then installed it into the upper housing since that part of the shaft has a crush collar. Then installed the lock rings on both ends. When I spun the shaft in the bearings it was a 100% improvement over the worn bearings.

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Once everything was in place I reinstalled the bolt that holds the two sections together in the housing.

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Then it was time to re-install all of the guts. First I re-lubed the switch mechanism as best I could, using dielectric grease. Then reinserted the mechanism back into the housing. The wires for the new washer switch just feed down the open area where the lower and upper housings screw together and the rest goes back into the channel that they were originally in. (Sorry, but I failed to take a picture of this). Be careful not to overtighten the four screws that hold the mechanism in place or you can crack the plastic portions of the mechanism.

Then re-insert the ignition switch / key assembly. You may have to gently tap it to get it to seat all the way in. You may also want to turn the key to the on position which may help getting it to seat.

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Then screw the retainer back in place. This would have been the last step if it werent for the Momo adapter. Installing it is just like installing the steering wheel. Just make sure when you install it the the turn signal cancellation prortion of the horn ring is lined up with the turn signal stalk, that way when you turn the wheel it will hit the cancellation mechanism when you turn the wheel.

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If all has gone well, there will be no left over parts and you'll have a nice new steering column with all the modern upgrades

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You may want to reference Bob Krantz's "Rebuilding Inside Out" post as well for any clarification on the process, or feel free to contact me if you have questions.

I forgot how much I love chipping the spray on under coating that was on this car....Said no man ever.

And now its time for NASCAR and a

Spent most of the day sand blasting miscellaneous parts today, but did get the passenger side seal gutter patched where the windshield pillar/cowel and fender come together. I started to weld it, but then realized that most of the finish welding will have to be done from underneath, so I will finish it when its on the rotisserie since my back won't bend enough to climb underneath.

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Today I decided to work on the engine compartment cover. si First I had to re-install the missing hinge.

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Then I went to work on the engine lid. I started working on this about 2 yers ago. My goal was to create something similar to the GT lid, only leaving more of the frame intact for rigidity. So I took an extra lid that I had and cut the solid portion out to about 1 inch smaller than the screen. Then spent hours bending the lip down so the screen would fit.

So today I decided to go back to work and get the screen properly fit.

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Then I drilled holes to mirror the regular screen in the lip of the cut out, these match the studs that are on the edge of the screen. The rest of the studs that face downward had to be carefully removed, being careful not to grind into the mesh.

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Then after spending the better part of an hour grinding off the remnants of the welds from the screen, I began to shape it to fit the cut out in the lid. Since I don't have access to a metal break, I used two pices of sharp edged wood and slowly hammered the bend on the front edge and sides.

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After getting what I though was a fairly good fit, I was having a difficult time seeing if the joints looked crisp, because of the paint missing from the lid frame. So I shot it with a quick coat of white paint, so I could get a better visualization. Still a bit of tweeking to do, but so far I am happy with how it turned out. I even gave it a trial fit on the car to make sure everything lined up.

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Today started off by identifying any PO drilled holes in the firewall. I found 2, the first one is evidentally where he drilled through to "bolt" the broken engine lid hinge in place....

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The second was two holes he drilled, for what I dont know....

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I began by forming a piece to fill the latger hole. Just my luck it wasn't in a flat portion, so had to put a slight curve in it so it wouldnd have thin spots when finished. I have got to get some smaller magnets to hold these small patches...

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Then welded it all up to include the small hole below the large one.

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Then filled in the hole from the hinge bolt

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Then I removed the body filler that was in the lower wall on the passenger side, afraid of what I might find. I was pleasantly surprised to find a half decent repair, probably as a result of battery rust in the hell hole, but insted of using seam filler, they used body filler to cover it up. It needs some touch up work, but it is a solid repair.

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And with that I decided I was tired of trying to climb under and around the car to weld in odd positions. So I decided I would start prepping the car to go on the rotisserie. I removed the doors and installed the adjustable support bars in their places.

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Only two? Your PO was much lazier than mine, which had at least a dozen drilled and punched holes.

BTW, nice work!

Thanks Bob. I noticed as I was looking back through your posts that the PO had turned your firewall into swiss cheese. I consider myself pretty lucky so far. Thanks for your post, it has given me allot of encouragement.

Decided to take a break from working on the body this weekend. So cleaned up a bunch of parts and re-packed them. Now they are ready for re-installation and easy to find.

The first to get a serious cleaning were the two fuel tank rubber supports...

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The next thing I unboxed was the climate controls. Years of grime and dirt and dried grease. Overall it was in pretty good shape though.

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One thing I did find is that it appears there is a piece missing from the upper slide control. There are 3 detents on the top of the unit and what looks like two mounting holes on the slide, which lead me to believe that there should be something that slides into these detents, Can anyone tell my if this is the case?

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So I spent about an hour dis-assembling parts of the control unit, cleaning and re-lubing all of the slides and cables. and cleaning all of the electrical contacts.

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Then re-assebled the clean product. Everything seems to work much better. Still need to find out about the detent issue on the top slide and obtain parts if necessary.

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Cleaned up the passenger side B pillar trim, couldn't find the driver's side, must be hiding in another box somewhere...

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Then cleaned and checked the center console. Hooked the clock up to my wifes car battery and low and behold it works...yeah.

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To finish up the weekend, I cleaned the entire guage cluster. To include dis-assembling the guages, cleaning inside and repainting the needles etc. Also changed all of the cluster lights to LEDs

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Welcome to Texas. I had to look up Mineola, wasn't familiar with it. We retired and moved here from Michigan last December, now down in New Braunfels. Lovin' it!

Thanks Steve, wish we were closer.

Since today was a rainy and cold I decided to lift the car onto the rotisserie. I left in on the rolling cart and started lifting first at one end then the other, 5 inches at a time.

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Only had 20 inches to get it onto the mounts

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Then after getting it onto the rotisserie had to remove all of the lifting block materials and the rolling cart

And some 5 hours after starting, Its finally on the rotisserie, a day I wasn't sure I'd ever see.


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I feel ya on this.. I did kinda the same song and dance, raising the car a little at a time until it was in place. Took more effort than I expected. I may add a lifting/lowering mechanism of some type, would probably be easy enough.


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Now you can look forward to the day it comes off! Mine was on the rotisserie 6 months.

Yes Bob, I was already out there planning new work strategy. I think I need to go get a white board like you used, that will help keep me on track.

Wouldnt have been so bad, but it was raining outside so I couldnt back the Hot Rod out of the garage....wife told me if my car touched that hot rod I was a dead man...lol...kinda wanted to live to work on my car....

Yeah I think I will try to find a different way of raising it when I do the second twin. Maybe a maintenance lift or something....

So today was spent stripping the undercoating from the car. I had started doing that in Colorado, but will be much happier now that I dont have to lay underneath it to get the job done.

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At least some of it was already done, but there are places where it is about a quater of an inch thick

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The good thing is the engine compartment is pretty much scrapped clean where it had undercoating. Does anyone have any pointers though on removing the glue that was used to hold in the pad on the firewall?

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