Disassembly

Basically, I’m doing what’s called a “frame on” restoration. However, this is about as aggressive as it gets – the only items I’m not replacing are the body mount bushings. Everything else is being replaced or refurbished. I chose not to take the body off the frame since this is my first restoration. I bet at some point I’ll wish I had. The original project car was purchased for $700 and was basically a flowerpot in some guys yard. It had no fenders or hood. The only things in the interior were a driver’s seat, a hacked up dash bezel, and a few miscellaneous parts like the kick panels. Everything that could have been easily removed was gone leading me to believe it was a parts car in a previous life. I have a ton of detailed pictures of particular assemblies but just put some general pictures on this page.

The car after initial purchase and towing to the house in August 2001. Despite the missing items the frame, trunk, and body parts had little rust. The parts that were still there were in generally good condition.
A really poor shot of the original interior. When I purchased it I only had a Polaroid and this picture was scanned. Man, did it smell!
Tearing the dash components out
This was about all there was to salvage from the interior. Note the chrome trim on the floor – I cracked the front windshield when removing the trim. Argh!
After removing the interior. I sprayed the interior with a white primer because I thought the car would sit outside for the winter but I was able to move it into the garage and continue. Needless to say, I ended up stripping it all off again
Here’s the donor car I picked up in August 2002. It had EVERYTHING the project car didn’t – hood, fenders, front windshield, interior, etc. However, the frame and chassis are in very poor shape. I’ll scavenge all I can from this car and let it go.