Hey guys,
Noob to the forum, at least posting wise. Bought a '74 2.0 the summer after my sophomore year of HS. 5 years later its almost ready to be a roller again. Thing was a complete rust bucket and probably shoulda been scrapped. Helped my dad and I learn how to weld and do metal work though. Hopefully in under a month it'll be off the rotisserie and be a roller. Hopefully I'll remember how this damn thing goes back together.

Some of the work I've done so far. I'll spare you guys the carnage that was the rust pit and just stick to the stuff that looks good.
http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/aa164/somesonofabeach/

Not much on there as of yet, just some powdercoating and interior stuff.

Also... bottom of the car is covered in POR15. Primer then undercoat or can I just undercoat it and be good to go? Or just say screw under coat and protect it with something else? Ideas welcomed. Also... cheap or free parts to a poor college student trying to get his car back together are welcome

glad to meet you, and keep us informed on your build!

Por is hard to paint over. read their directions to see what works for top coating. if it were me, I'd hit the bottom with a coat of black epoxy sealer, and call it a day. Just make sure it will stick to the Por.
Zach

Here's a few pictures before I killed it.
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A small part of the rust damange. A lot of custom pieces were made up instead of buying replacement. Free metal from the shops my dad knows is a great thing.

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And here's its current state... kinda. This picture is a few months old. Some rust repair and welding have gone on since then. My little sister's old swing set came in handy for the rotisserie. Gotta love those 4x6's!!!

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Here's a few teasers of some of the work I've been doing while the rust repair has been going on.

Headlights blasted and powder coated flat black. 2lbs of the stuff at harbor freight for $10. What a great deal!!!! Got the coater for $32. My dad still won't tell me how he managed that one.


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Powdered seat rails in gloss black. I do all my small parts in an oven I picked up on sale at best buy for $25. Larger parts like the center part of the seat support I do in two ovens. I cut the back out of them, push them together, and insulate them. Ridiculously ghetto but it gets the job done.

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Seat I recovered with help from my mom. Torn the seat down and made patterns from the old pieces. Some sort of nice stretchy leather that I got on sale at Joanne Fabric for the bolsters and some light grey suede that was also on sale on Joanne Fabric for the inserts.

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Testing out my painting abilities on a small part. I'm planning on shooting the car in basalt black. Hopefully it'll look as good as this.

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Nice work! Truly hands on!! That is great! I would love to come up with a powdercoater like that....perfect for those small parts.

What is the VIN on the car? Looks like '75 bumpers.

Vin is 4742914760. Had a donor with vin 4742913984 that gave up its front fenders and mounting points. As for the bumpers.... a previous owner really messed with them. The hefty metal bumpers under the rubber could have been mounted better by a 3 year old. Support plates were welded onto the bumper with threads welded onto the plates. They drilled holes in the body, shoved the bumper on, and tossed on some nuts and washers to hold it in place.... no bumper shocks at all. Sorry for the crumby picture... the plate is on the left.

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VERY nice work so far. Be satisfied!

That's actually more or less how the stock 74 bumpers were fitted. Looks like someone decided to bolt on some 75 bumpers instead, but didn't want to deal with the bumper shocks and such.

--DD

Hi and

Coming right along, keep up the good work and welcome to the Jungle.Click to view attachment

Nice work. Keep us updated on your progress.

It looks like you are tackling this project the right way, very nice work, keep it up!
Oh and...