Well I figured its time to start documenting the rustoration of my 1973 1.7L.
This car was bought for and used by my oldest son to drive thru 4 years of high school in Montana.
You have to realize in Montana kids can get their license at 15.
I think we only put it on the trailer twice in those 4 years.

It was bought on Ebay. I think the closing bid was $1600. So off he went with his Grandpa, the truck and the trailer.
Then I get the call. Dad they lied .............. it does have some rust.
So here's a 15 year old negotiating a Ebay deal gone sour with the owner of tow track company.
So I told him to take inventory of the parts that we could use. Then make him a offer. So after handing him 10 $100 biils it was loaded on the trailer.

So me at 55 decided that I want to rebuild this car to be my daily driver for next 15 years.
It started out to be a quick tidy up and repaint. But we all know how that goes.

I have $1400 worth of new interior that James did for me. All bagged up.
I just received my $3300 order from Restoration Design.
I have a $1600 list for Mark at 914 Rubber.
So I figure I'll have $9000 into a car that might be somewhere in the $7000 range when I'm done.

Here's were we're starting.

Here's the floor

Here's the left side longitudinal opened up.
The muffler was in perfect condition.

Here's the trunk.

Here's the Hell hole.

Here's the floor pan on the rotisserie.

I see some good metal here and there (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Pull James' interior out of the packing every now and then so the carpets don't develope wrinkle seams - if it takes longer than 12 months that is.

That and Mark's rubber kits get fresh oxygen and prison exercise every 6 months in my garage, since the timelines to finish have stretched soooo much (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

A rotisserie, welder and Resto Design parts are always a sign of good progress...

Good Luck,

Dave

Thanks for the words of wisdom.

Well finally getting back too it. AXing and family car repairs took precedence.

First I thought we'd give it a hot shower.

Then I layed out my RD order ...............

I'm tearing into the drivers long.
It's going to be some work. Back 8 years ago we kind of claubered it together to get it on the road for my oldest son. More welds and more metal was better.
It was square and stiff. But at a price. But now trying to get it back to normal will be some work.

Because of all the extra welding finding the spot welds is a bit tough.

Yes, I cut it open with a disc and a sawsall.
I wanted to be able to see the bottom seam. It was really over welded.

Super In-Law is building a jig to line up the four corners and keep it square.
One inch square tubing.
The door braces are good.
And we have the measurement from the targa bar to the windshield frame written in a couple places.
But we'll need to remove the suspension ear on the passenger side. So making preparations.

Did have one mishap.

I tore the sun visor pad as I was taking it out to remove the windshield.
Looks like the dumbass windshield tech glued it in when PO changed out the windshield. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
Should have left it in when I cut out the windshield. Lesson learned.
Would have had a better angle to look at it.

Oh yeah, ran out of wire and gas for the welder. Dandy.

Consumables. I now know it takes 45 seconds to use up a cutting disc on my 4 1/2 inch grinder. Took 3 to open up the drivers long.

Here's Super-In Law finishing up the bottom keep it aligned frame.
When we're finished I think I'll add some legs and wheels and use it as a body dolly.

Finally finishing up the body jig.



After that rolled it outside to start sand blasting the bottom.
98 degrees in PDX. A little too warm to get a bundled up for sand blasting.
Gave it a couple hours. Made some good progress.
I'll get after it again in the AM.

As I'm really beginning to disassemble the car.
It would be nice if we had something ( Thread or Forum ) that showed you how to remove body parts without damaging them too much.
Maybe going back to the Body Work Forum idea.

Must common locations of spot welds.
Was it spot welded or tack welded?
Tools used.
I going to try and restore this better than new. Primarily focusing on sealing it up so the restoration will last 20 years.

Just a thought. This car is tough. We WAAAAYYYY over welded it to get it on the road for my son to drive to high school. Never thinking we would be taking it apart to restore.

Taking a time out to finish the rebuild/restoration of the Better Engineering parts washer I bought last winter.

Today's plan was too put new wheels on it.
Wasn't rolling at all.
So we laid it on the lift to work on it.