Jehannum

I bit the bullet this weekend and started pulling all the hard lines, wiring, and components from the engine bay (in order to get the best results when painting it). Passenger side is done, except for pulling the wiring harness (which is now totally disconnected from the engine bay). Driver side is well started - no more windshield washer reservoir, no more brake master cylinder, no more vapor return, no more ignition. Left to do are the brake booster, clutch master cylinder, proportioning valve, steering shaft, and various and sundry hard lines. Just a bit of BFH work to do on some residual body damage up in the corner (where the car got bent):

1) call the detailing guy 2) drop the car off 3) return with money

Day 1 of reassembly was just a bunch of cleaning. The RH side of the bay is where I put forward all my effort (and all of my cleaning supplies). Unfortunately, all I had was my phone to take pictures with, so that's what you get. This is clean and ready for touchup paint: This is not (yet): This also is not (yet):

Last week: There was a bit of a screwup on the door, but they fixed it: The cowl/wing doors/new valance. Note the fixed headlight buckets! Today: I pick it up tomorrow.

It's when they start helping that things get really interesting... That's my Jason, at about 2 and a half years.

Except for a few things I have to pick up on my own - some brackets for the front bumper, replacement turn signal lenses - yes, it is. They're really going the extra mile for me here.

Single stage, I told them I wanted it as close to the original paint as they could get. They're using Glasurit paint, and 4 coats, I believe. Thanks for looking!

My God, it's full of stars... or not. Of note (in addition to the gorgeous yellow) are the brandy-new gaskets around the front and rear glass, the bangin' new windshield, and the complete lack of bends, folds, tears, and crinkles. Left to do are fitting the fascia, lengthening the rear bumper brackets, some spot-painting in the door sills, under the hood, and in the hatch sill.

Out of the booth after primer, first round of blocking: After final blocking, waiting for the glass guys to come and cut the f/r out, so smooth!

Original, so... 38 years old?

Hey all, I'm looking for a muffler to suit my car. The exhaust as it currently stands is a wrapped 6 to 1 MSA (or clone, it's off a junkyard car) header, and a 2.5" pipe from the header back. I like the sound of this quite a bit: I'm not sure whether that'll be possible while maintaining my neighborhood tranquility, though. So, the impossible dilemma: is there a relatively quiet muffler that gives that sort of sound?

Yeah, the paint process is really not as interesting to me as the body restoration - priming and sanding just doesn't make for as compelling content as when Ed was cutting the rear end of my car off :eek: I'm planning on going and taking another look on Friday to see if Ed's knocked out the last of the issues with the passenger fender and hood, hopefully that moves it all the way over to the paint guys.

Any poly bushing needs to be greased to prevent squeaks.

I can't recommend the quality of their work enough - they're really top notch, but expensive. My '71 is 31917, so we're all of 200 cars away - maybe on the same boat, even.

I went down today and removed the side windows. The front and rear glass will be fine - the trim is off, the adhesive is scraped out, and it's primed down to the channel around the glass. I was kind of bummed that they weren't going to remove the side glass, though. After talking with their body guy, the worry was that my interior would crumble during removal. I got it out no problem along with the glass in under an hour without breaking it, though (which means that they could have done so easily).

You've given me something to think on, that's for sure. I'll go down this afternoon and have a talk with Chris about it. Body shop is Loid's Rides, by the way.

They're going to. This is just the first coat of primer, which they told me is just a guide coat for the body guy to go over what he's done and correct any bad spots. I'm unsure whether they plan to take the rear window and windshield all the way out, though. As you can see, they've already taken the finishers off around the F/R glass, which would cover the paint edge (plus, I was quite insistent that they not break the vertical defroster rear glass).

It's next in line in the paint booth for primer! Getting masked off: Hood finally done: Fender finally done:

You and me both. The body work would have been finished by now, except for a freak hailstorm that swamped the body shop in late July-early August. Unfortunately, I'm a one off, and since they're pretty much the best in New Mexico, they get a ton of insurance jobs, which pushes me back in line.

Shortly before its removal from the frame rack: Final welding done on the back! They've got almost all the rear sanded. The carbs are back on the L24 (I had them cleaned and rebuilt by Art Singer, a member 'round these parts), much rejoicing was heard. My son, Jason, was much amused by the radiator fan that is now also on: Where I left the engine last weekend: The corners are now cleaned up and beaten flat: They've taken all the waves out of both sides. Now, I've just got to wait patiently in paint jail for however many more weeks it takes them to get through priming, blocking, and painting. They're doing the car in a Glasurit single stage yellow (mixed to match the color under the carpet in the back), and they're doing the whole car, so it should be as good as new, once they're done.

The rear cut down to size, and roughly square: Ed, finishing off the frame rail: Starting to block down the crappy orange peel the PO had put on it in the late '80s:

I know it looks it because of the flash, but I swear, swear, SWEAR: it's not Ford Blue. The body shop started pulling the rear, too. Their plan was to pull as much as they could, in order to save as much of the original metal as possible. Unfortunately, even trying that, the metal ripped when they put it to the frame rack. So, they developed "plan B", which was to cut the ends of the frame rails from the periwinkle rear cut (which, by now, was reduced to component, sand blasted parts): Here's Ed doing his thing: The body shop also ordered my new bumpers (carbon fiber, yo!) and front fascia. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about a grill right now, but I have a line on an original.

The last 12" of a '72 240Z: I took the periwinkle beast down to the body shop, where they stripped and rendered it for the parts they needed: Can't beat the price ("come get it off my property"), either. Saving money on the parts budget also makes more room for the repaint the body shop's doing, too. Meanwhile, down at the body shop (just after I dropped off the periwinkle beast)... No more fender wrinkle: The front is "roughed in" Hood is almost as good as new: RH headlight bucket is as good as new: No more RH fender wrinkle:

After that, I cleaned the timing cover, and replaced the front crank seal Cleaned and painted the bracketry, motor mounts, and the heater hose junction. It's not Ford blue, I promise - my camera is just crap: Cleaned and painted the harmonic balancer: 2nd coat on the block: Still hadn't gotten to the oil pan, only drained it:

Motor's torn down as far as I want to take it. Head off: Bottom end, after pulling the timing cover: Front, after pulling the timing cover: Timing cover, just needs a little cleaning: Degreased, first coat of paint: After a little lovin' with a scotchbrite pad (it's going to be covered in header tape, so I figure it's best to get it down to bare metal to begin with): The head needed a bit of work - though it had hardened seats put in in the middle '80s, the PO obviously ran some kind of crap gas through it, as there was a ton of buildup on the valves: