Deconstruction
Crappy seats. They gotta go.
I'm glad it wan't real Dynamat. I would have been bummed to pull it up, if it was.
Fifteen gallon fuel cell, with 3/8th inch vent, that quickly filled my garage with gas fumes. Notice, it's now plugged. I got the battery disconnected before the fumes got bad.
Gigantic Auto Gauge tach with buttons and lights. It must have added 10 MPH to the driver.
Cheap ass trio of gauges and Quick Silver shifter, that won't shift down to 1st. I'm hoping it's just mis-adjusted, as it's not a bad shifter, otherwise.
I got that bad boy out, first thing, before my garage exploded.
Seats out and removing Cool It sound / thermal barrier. What is left is stuck to 1/8th inch plates, screwed to the floor. Yes, the off brand vice grip, window crank, came with the car. Score, Yo.
Square tubing, welded to the floor, are stand offs, to mount the seats (with 3/8 bolts & washers). Just some of the Mickey Mouse engineering, that has gone into this car.
With the 1/8 inch plate removed, Fred Flintstone floors. Note the parking brake cable (left of the frame). The inner cable is cut off, at the firewall & the pedal assembly is gone. Weight savings?
Passenger side, big gaping hole. The plate hose clamped to the 3 inch exhaust and screwed to the floor, must be to protect the passenger's feet from the exhaust leak at the collector flange. Please note that the hole was cut by some kind of wild animal. I'm thinking weasel.
Debris, under and around the back seat, included a AA battery and $1.21 in change. I made sure to subtract that from the purchase price.
More crap, incuding a book of matches & a contact lens case. It was still full of solution.
Vacuumed out to show the rust. I have 2, reproduction floor panels.
Under the back seat is solid. I'm just going to weld in the foot wells,
The trunk floor after removing the fuel cell. Yet another 1/8th inch plate screwed to the floor...
,,,covering rust. The large rectangular hole was for the fuel cell sump. The round hole, at the top of the picture, I'm assuming, was chewed by an escaping weasel. I also have a repro trunk floor. Shit rewire job, with incorrect tail light sockets, no back up lights, and...wait for it...NO FUSE PANEL, WHATSOEVER, ANYWHERE IN THE CAR!!!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!
Street rod style, billet door handles, window cranks (except for the right door, vice grips baby), and groovy piston door locks. At least the door panels will clean up, with a little work,
Nice elecrical work. Crimp connectors, scotch locks, and the multi-purpose ground / relay mount. Remember, there are absolutely NO fuses, and a fuel cell pumping out fumes. How did this car not burst into flames? The twisted wires are a trademark of the car stereo industry.
Time to pull it out & search for the elusive fuses. Here, I've already clipped off the rear part of the loom.
This fine bundle of crimp & spade connectors, is wired into the turn signal switch.
Maybe all that work would have been better if there was a turn signal arm.
Turn signal unplugged.
More fine work, wiring into the starter switch.
Front wire loom emerging from the firewall. Yes, there is no grommet. How did this car NOT burn to the ground? The blocked off rectangle, behind the brake line, is where the factory front loom attached to the fuse block.
Headlight wiring pulled from inside the car.
I'm thinking this is the only factory wiring, in the entire car.
This is the radiator fan wire. Since it's a fairly high draw, I figured it would have a relay, like the fuel pump. Nope.
Here it is. The entire wire loom. Not 1 fuse! None! Zero. Why didn't this car burst...oh, never mind. After all the welding is done, I will be ordering a real wire loom, with a FUSE BLOCK!
The main power wire & starter wire heading behind the heater box. Somewhere they exit into the engine bay. Probably through a hole, with no grommet.
Now, what's behind door number 1? The mystery patch.
I had to pull the distributor cap, to get to a few of the screws. Ewwwww I won't be using this distributor, anyway.
The inside if the cap wasn't much better.
Not as bad, as I expected it to be, after seeing the huge holes, under the patches, on the floors.
Another view of the rust.
Some more goodies, that showed up, on my doorstep, yesterday. DSE mini tubs, traction bars, & rear shocks, from Summit Racing.
The old shocks that gave it such a wonderful, truck like ride.
Do you think it got hot, driving it home because the airflow was blocked by the shroud?
I pulled the grill, bumper, filler panel, & headlights.
Another wiring gem; battery cables going through sheet metal with no gromets.
Front sheet metal, heater, intake, & carb removed.
Exhaust manifold gaskets with headers??? I wonder why it had exhaust leaks. Round cup was sitting under the valve cover.
I have no idea what it is but I know it doesn't belong mixed in, with the valvetrain. It looks like a brake spring retainer.
Chinese aluminum heads.
Nice valvetrain organizer I got from Summit.
Heads off.
350 flat top pistons.
I wasn't going to pull the engine but I decided I would.
Now I can access & repair the firewall rust.
10 bolt rear end removed
I said I wasn't going to do it but off with the sub frame.
The side air baffles were rusty & not necessary with the AC system, so they will replaced with flat sheet metal.