6 replies to this topic

[triton]

Alright! So here is my actual "build" thread that I talked about starting in my introductory post. For those of you who may have missed it, last month i made the journey from my lair here in rural southern Iowa all the way up to Chicago area to snag This particular car here which was swapped and restored, to the tune of a few grand, back in 2007 by forum member dkyk25. Originally a California car for the first 270k of its life, it then spent the next 8ish years in chicago area as an on and off daily driver.

 

This thread will basically outline the slow progress of me cleaning up the car to better than its circa 2007 glory, fixing the rust that 8 years in the midwest caused, and pretty much just trying to make the car as well executed and badass as possible on a shoestring budget, the previous owner did most of the heavy spending, I just have to pick up where he left off!

 

OK, on to pictures. The first ones you should look at are the pics I took when I bought the car and the rest of the pics I post in this initial post will be to get you caught up to where I am at with the car now, and explain what the next moves are, sorry this first post is so wordy lol. First thing I did was what I tend to do with most of the sub thousand dollar cars I end up buying, taking them apart! finding all the hidden rust and that kind of junk. fortunately this car so far hasnt thrown me any curves, I ended up with a nicer car than I expected for the money

 

the only major issue to combat is A pillar and rear quarter panel rust, the rest of the car is solid as far as i can tell. the rust is going to have to wait until i either get a welder, or find somebody to do the work for me. in the meantime i'll be removing what rust i can and working to prevent further damage.

 

And here is the first "upgrade" i've actually done so far! VHT wrinkle red valve cover with "gold" leafing on the script and badge, its not perfect but it turned out well enough for a first attempt.

 

next thing on my list is replacing the stock size relocated battery with a much more compact and easy to hide deka AGM powersports battery, which i snagged on ebay lightly used for less than half of retail after shipping!

 

and after the battery the next thing i have to do is replace the radiator, which is shot, the fins turn to dust if you touch them, and about 20% of them are straight up missing! well thats all for now, looking forward to questions or comments. And if there is any interest i can post up more pics of my valve cover project, or anything else really. expect a new post with pics of the freshly stripped (for inspection and cleaning) interior and some more body shots maybe in the next couple days.

 

 

[triton]

minor update, i got the rest of the interior pulled out. here are a couple of terrible low res cellphone pictures of that! lol. good news is the floors look pretty much rock solid. They're just dirty and have shitty carpet padding glued down. shouldnt be too bad to remove most of it, that 3m super 77 doesnt stick for shit in cars because its not stable under high temps lol.

 

Progress will be slow because i'm in iowa, its winter, and our garage has no insulation or heat lol. current plans are to start stockpiling parts and try and find a sheet metal donor over the winter so i can bust everything out once spring rolls around

[triton]

Got a pleasant surprise in the mail today! I'd been talking steering wheels with a buddy of mine because the cheap china tier knockoff I have in the car now is garbage, and the vinyl is slick and gross feeling. so we were tossing wheels back and forth on ebay  when i came across this cool MOMO Marine steering wheel, 2 spoke, New Old Stock. pretty neat, and only 50 bucks shipped. i didnt have the cash at the time so i put it in my watching list and hoped nobody would buy it (it was the last one out of 4 the seller had) and it sold a few days later. Lo and behold it was my friend who bought it and then sent it to me! so now its gonna be a HUGE improvement over the garbage i have now lol

 

[The Quaff]

That valve cover came out niiiiiice.  Looking good so far, keep it up.  Also, wanna sell me that steering wheel?

[triton]

no way, looks way too good in my car lol

[CRXer87hf]

Holy crap, good luck with the car.  I would've run for the hills after seeing all that rust.  

[triton]

All things considered its actually pretty minor, the only spots where its more than just surface rust is around the windshield, and the rear quarters above and behind the rear wheels. 8 years in Chicago definitely did the car no favors but it was only there for 40,000 miles. it spent the first 270k of its life in cali lol. i'm just stuck waiting for better weather and some more money so i can find some donor sheet metal. i may end up doing a mugen style widebody eventually instead lol