my grandads '74 restoration project Options

[_stickykitty79_]

just want to say hi to all you crazy people trying to revive these things like me. this is a bit of a sentimental project as its been in the family 3 gens now. was a Michigan car, suffered the consequences as the pics show, trailered it to california where it will remian.
my plans are to address all the obvious rust issues and do some fun upgrades along the way, some chassis stiffening, some minor engine tuning. (webers instead of fuel injection...yes i know the forum doesnt like it but it was always a disaster and carbs just sound better)
im a realist so heres what im prepared to face:

- tons of welding, i can do and thanks to Restoration Design i have plenty of metal to purchase as i go
-spending a few thousand here and there to do this right and time to do it. its a passion project and im in no hurry.
-building a chassis rig as i tear into the longitudinals, along with temp supports in the door jams.

i know this will seem daunting but i also dont think its at the point of scrapping based on what we can buy, and what im willing to do.
thanks

[_stickykitty79_]

totally fascinating! found some mildly interesting stuff in the owners manual, i know where the car was picked up and it NJ. must have been imported to CA and sent to this distributer?

[wonkipop]

totally fascinating! found some mildly interesting stuff in the owners manual, i know where the car was picked up and it NJ. must have been imported to CA and sent to this distributer?

ah this story is interesting.

i've got one other one in the data that was an EC-A but delivered new in the 49 states.
that one is a 06/74. vin20438. delivered in ohio.
that one was an intact A with the throttle body dist hook up all still original.

all the other EC-As on file that i have delivery info for are california delivery.
also i have the CARB emissions certification which only approves the A.

BUT. it was completely legal to deliver an EC-A new in the 49 states as the emissions set up exceeded 49 states standards. it just could not be done the other way around, you could not deliver a B to california.

so this one is the second one to pop up that is an A sold in 49 states.
could be obvious reasons for that.
available stock to match a customer desire. ie color and spec.
both of these that pop up are late in the production run model year for 74.
and as far as i know all the cars came in on eastern seaboard ports and were train shipped out to the west coast. so easy to divert stock at port of entry or an east coast warehouse.

we should dig deeper.
take a close look at the throttle body.
its there on the lhs of intake plenum with the flexible hose piece up to the air cleaner.
on the rear upper side of it will be a little tube pointing upwards and backwards at around 45 degrees. ie it points backwards to rear of car. if its a B then there will be a hose plugged into it around the 5 to 7 mm diameter dimension. but see what is there and take a photo of it. if there is a hose plugged into a port track the hose back and see if it runs to the distributor. alternatively look at the hose that is coming off the vacuum can on the side of the distributor. there will be two hoses. look at the hose attached to the upper part of the outside can. ie the can portion to left hand side of car. where does that hose go. is it just a hose that is tucked under the intake plenum.

you could also look for that three digit number. it will be white paint and kind of crudely stamped but it might be pretty faded on this car. 9 times out of 10 its on the left hand side of the upper tin towards the front of the engine where the tin bends down.
by front of engine i mean front of car. normally you do not notice it as it is hidden by the heater blower hose. now that is more often than not where the paint stamp is on an EC-B engine. what i have noticed is a lot of times on the EC-A engine the white numbers are on the right hand side. ie the battery side. and because of battery acid water splash in that area the tin can be surface corroded and the numbers very hard to see or even just plain gone. if they are there and you can make them out see what they are.
i believe looking at the photos of the engine bay you posted originally to start the topic that the engine bay is very original. so i do not think the tin has been painted or restored.

i'm starting to think this business with EC-A sold in 49 states links up with something else we have discovered previous. that is that porsche revised the emission sticker for the EC-B shortly after or around the time of this car. i'm thinking they had been slipping the odd EC-B across to california because the cars had a very ambiguous emissions certification sticker up until may 74 that suddenly got made very unambiguous.

KEEP DIGGING FOR THE INFO.
i am entering all your data as you find stuff into my tables.
its turning out to be important scraps of data.
you never know with these 1.8s when a car will show up that adds real interesting info.