Diving into a long slow project............

I finally got the title for the car and now I feel comfortable moving forward. I just couldn't see starting and then finding out it was stolen or something like that. It needs lower rear quarters in front of and behind the rear wheel so after some searching I found some posts on here that I believe lead me in the right direction.

http://www.maverick.to/mmb/showpost.php?p=603842&postcount=9
and
http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=56628

Jim at American Muscle Car Parts is awesome to deal with! I sent a question on his ebay auction expecting to hear back on Monday but he surprised me with a reply today. I am paying $427.00 for both shipped to Washington State. Once they get here I'll decide how much or how little I will use from them.

I have to address this as well.........



It's kind of funny to look through nasty, rusty floors and see the inside of the sub-frame is clean and rust free. The inner rockers look to be very solid with the surface rust only on the lip of the floor pan that is welded to it.

Tomorrow I start on building a loft in the barn so I have a place to store parts as I remove them. Once that is done I will start the teardown and post updates!

 

Hey, good luck to you. It does take ALOT of time. And yes, you gotta take whatever measures to keep and store parts.

 

That's no kidding....I had a 68 GTO for 20 years and never really made much progress on it. This one will get finished, the GTO was numbers matching and I just didn't want to continue going down the modified road with it but stock is so boring! My plans are to have the body ironed out by fall and well on the way to paint. The engine has to be last or I'll start driving it and it will never get finished (that was the problem with the GTO).

 

if i get that parts car and it has decent floor pans i'm sure we can workout a deal on those if you want. also if you want just PM me a list of the parts your gonna for sure need and i'll keep an eye out for them :Handshake

 

good luck with the project! have you checked the cowls vents yet? with floors rusted like that, the water must have come from somewhere...

 

I will do that, thanks.

Not yet. I looked from the bottom and from what I could see there weren't any obvious holes. I'll know more once I pull the dash and heater so I can poke areound a little easier.

 

Went to yard the broken windshield out and found this......



My theory is this, the outer skin on the roof is slois and what I can see behind the rusted piece is clean. The car had red interior originally and had been "changed" to black. The headliner appears to have been painted not dyed as it doesn't feel anything like fabric anymore. I figure with the window seal being hard as a rock and leaking combined with the pianted headliner it just held water and caused the rust. Oh well, just more fun to have!

 

I really envy you guys that look at a rust issue and figure oh well just more work. Good luck with your project glad to see it is being saved.

What are your plans for car ? stock/modified ?

I have several Maverick parts so if you need something feel free to ask I am on the northern Oregon coast, a few miles from you but hey you dont just find these cars everywhere.

Mike

 

Trust me, that wasn't my first reaction. I was thinking dang it, I have quarters on the way and it's too far gone to fix. I am also in the car cheap enough that I'm not out much more than my time if it becomes more than I want to do.

 

I forgot to answer your question..I plan to mod it. I have an idea for different tail lights, going to poke & stroke it to a 347. I want an overdrive so I will probably go Gear Vendors down the road, way down the road I'm sure.

I tore in to it a little more tonight, found the cowl to be solid (so far). The dash looks like it took a knee in an accident but it came with an extra.



Some left over damage from an accident, I also have the left front panels to repair this properly.



If it don't go chrome it!!!!!



Disc brakes!! Too bad they are the 10" and not the 11" from the Granada.



Dash is out.

 

The quarters showed up today!!!!

They may not be perfect in comparison to factory stampings but they are good enough for me. At least they don't look like swiss cheese.

On another note, I have door lock issues. This one should be fun to tackle..........

 

Hacked into the drivers front floor today. The torque box is fairly solid, it is thin where the bulk of the toe board rot was. The front and bottom seem to be very solid but we'll see how they look when I cut out the thin, pitted steel to replace it.


I feel like Fred Flinstone about now.


Bought some 24 gauge sheetmetal at Lowes and made the replacement pan for it. $35 for enough to do both sides, seemed cheap enough that if I couldn't make it happen it was no big loss. Now it's time to fix the torque box. clean it all up and weld it in.

 

24gauge?! Thats paper thin! roll a couple of beads at least!

 

I may have my numbers wrong but it's no thinner than the aftermarket floor boards I've worked with in the past. A little thinner isn't that big of a deal, I won't be standing on them. Beads are in the works, I need to take measurements so I can make sure they lay right on the sub-frame.

 

I would use 18 gauge for floor pans but thats just me, no higher then 20 gauge.