Can of rusty worms

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Nice work! Keep up the great work!

 

[Glenwood]

Getting ready to finally re-install the cowl. I decided to coat the underside with POR after a thorough derusting, cleaning and descaling. Cleaned off the weld spots and straightened the edge, with a slight inward angle to help tighten the lip to the airbox. Not many places to put clamps so the metal will need to be tight against each other.

 

[Glenwood]

Followed by some weld-thru primer.

Put some seam sealer in the airbox to help keep the water from seeping into the air box welds and rusting all over again.

 

[Glenwood]

Lining the cowl up with the original spot welds. It's actually tough to get it to all line up. I'm starting with the windshield area first, clamping it down and then pressing the lip down onto the airbox.

 

[Glenwood]

Thought I check how the window trim fits the curves. Looks ok to me.

Planing to weld it all up tomorrow then epoxy everything after I clean up all the welds.

 

[Superfreak]

Looking mighty fine, you are almost there.

 

[Glenwood]

I can almost smell the exhaust fumes!

 

[Glenwood]

woohoo, the cowl is finally back on!

Last item is to weld this bracket for the fender back on. I marked it and drilled the top of the firewall to weld from underneath. Then I filled these holes in the bracket.

Lots of welds to grind but it's finally coming together.

 

[Glenwood]

Side tracked for a couple of days with the kid's civic. She hit a tree nearly dead center. I had to pull it all back out with my truck then cut out the rad frame and welded in the new frame today. Lots of work but it turned out pretty good. A few days of assembly and it'll be just about ready. Now I have to figure out how to paint the new hood and bumper cover. Good practice before painting my cowl!

 

[threewood]

Hope she is ok.

Just looking at that makes me appreciate the ease it is to work on our older cars.

 

[Glenwood]

She's fine and lucky. All the parts that should absorb the impact did their job and minimized damage to the frame, etc. She hit it dead center. The replacement rad support was reasonably easy to replace. I hope I measured everything right! With any luck I'll have the car re assembled and out of the shop this week so I can get back to having fun on the 64.

 

[Crumley]

Glenwood, you are knocking it out. You will be back driving that convertible before you know it.

 

[Glenwood]

Took me about a week of evenings and a couple of weekends but got the kid's car back together and on the road. Turned out pretty good considering the damage. Never painted before but I'm happy with the results.

 

[Glenwood]

cleaning up the front

 

[Glenwood]

decided to media blast some parts so I can epoxy everything. Interesting taking the e-brake apart.

 

[Glenwood]

Started blasting but was getting so much water from condensation from the compressor running constantly and the high humidity, I had to find a solution. Compressor a bit too small for blasting so it runs too much.
I sealed the cabinet a while a go and rigged some dust collection which helps to see what I'm doing.

Added this cheap desiccant filter...works like a charm. I could hardly believe the difference!

Got rid of the crappy light and put a flood light in...much better.

Even the old battery tray cleaned up nice. I may even fix it now!

Started to prepare to drop the front end. K frame bolts loosened nicely as did the torsion bar adjusters. Popped the upper ball joints and was able to loosen them with the ball joint socket. I'm surprised nothing was seized. Now to get those torsion bars out!

 

[Glenwood]

Off with the Kframe but spoke too soon. All bolts seemed to loosen ok and then one didn't. The plate busted loose from the spot welds...

 

[Glenwood]

Cleaning up the front. Now with the A arms off, I can clean up those shock towers.

 

[Glenwood]

I tented up the front and blasted it with crushed glass. Shock towers cleaned up nice.

 

[Glenwood]

Now how to fix the Kframe nut. I don't really want to cut the frame open so I thought I'd try drilling out the spot welds and re-weld the plate.
The plate slides forward enough to drill the holes.

Used a reamer tool to debur inside so the plate would sit flat.

Picked up a large tap to clean out the threads so I can easily screw in the bolt.

Slid the plate back into position and tightened the bolt.