It was a slow day in the office today so I figured I would make good use of it and pull the motor and trans. The benefits of working from home🤣 I have off tomorrow so I'll continue the disassembly through the weekend. 

For some reason I can't upload photos anymore? Error -200? Any suggestions?

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Edited December 30, 20213 yr by dar5052

Some progress pics on the car... I stripped the engine bay with the exception of the fuel lines. I'll be taking those out at some point as well. Also stripped the interior and preparing to address any rust I have. 

Any words of wisdom from those that have done this before? The floors are solid so I'll keep the factory sound proofing and just prime and paint over the original. I'll need to address a previous repair under the battery tray as well. 

Looks great! One thing I regret not doing while my engine was out is cleaning and painting the front crossmember. Tackle that now if yours needs it (it looks good though!). It looks like you have new bushings which is nice! 

Start with a nice deep clean of the bay. As far as handling rust, I dont think my method is the preferred way (panel bond), but finding rust is the same. I poked and probed with a punch or screw driver in the problem areas for any rust. From there I used a flappy disc to sand away until clean metal was found around the entire rust spot. That is where I made my cuts. Check under the car too for rust in the floorpans. Just because the sound deadening looks okay, water could have seeped beneath. I discovered a few spots forming after removing mine. I used POR15 for my interior coat and highly recommended it. 

What sort of goals do you have in mind for the car? What steps next to you want to tackle? Engine, paint, interior, etc. Theres so much advice to be had! Depending on your goals, some may recommend a rotisserie to start stripping the underside.

Yes, my crossmember was recently painted but I intend to redo it anyway. The suspension is completely redone with new bushings and tokico springs. The rear brakes are also converted to discs. 

As far as plans for the car, I think I go back and forth on a daily basis🤪 

My plans at this point are to have a nice weekend cruiser. I want to clean up the body as best I can to remove rust, I am handy with a welder so no need to use adhesives, etc. Originally I was thinking of doing a media blast but I think it could be overkill seeing as how solid the car looks the way it is now. I thought about getting a rotisserie to do the underside but not sure if its worth it seeing as the condition of my car/floors are not bad at all, at least from what I've seen thus far. I would welcome other peoples opinion on their experiences particularly with doing a complete rotisserie build. As far as engine goes, I plan on doing a mild rebuild on my L28. By that I mean check compression in the cylinders and if I have no major bypassing, just replace all the engine seals. I will rebuild the entire motor if the compression test indicates a problem. Once I have a driveable car, I intend to build a motor to swap in, preferably a turbo L28. 

If it wasn't necessary, I would do the full rotisserie thing.

I have done it. The further you take the car apart, the longer it takes to  get back on the road. You would be better off fixing the car up. Making sure there's no significant rust and enjoying putting miles on it.

I have found it works best to remove the battery tray from the car, so you can get it good and clean under there. On my next one, I might use Rivnuts to mount it back. That makes it easier to get painted all around and underneath properly

After taking a week off I got back to the car today and made some good progress. Removed the steering and entire front suspension. Like a bonehead, I started lowering the front suspension and the front of the car started lifting off of the jack stands because I still have the rear subframe on the car... Luckily it only required about 50 lbs of force to keep it down so I stood there for about 10 minutes holding it until I could get ahold of someone to come help me out. And I got lucky that my phone was close enough to reach it... lessons learned. 

I then started poking around on the floors and trunk area to see if the rust I could see was surface rust or something more serious. Most of it is superficial surface rust that came off by scraping a screwdriver on it except for the spot under the passenger seat. Oddly enough, I got under some of the sound deadening material in the trunk area and the entire sheet popped off.. At that point I figured there was no turning back so I just removed it all... it all came off very easy, probably within 5 minutes and the majority came off in big chunks. Guess I'll need some Kilmat... Anyone have experience if the floorboard sound deadening is just as easy to get up or does that have more of tendency to adhere better?

I also took a wire brush to the rust on the front apron. There is some serious pitting there... any recommendations? Wire brush and primer or repair it somehow? This isn't intended to be a show car but a nice weekend cruiser. What have others done? I would be interested to know although at the end of the day I know it will be my decision. 

 

Edited December 18, 20213 yr by dar5052

Yes, photos of the pitting would be helpful

@Patcon I was able to convert the pics to PNG's and upload them... 🤷‍♂️

 

I am glad you posted that. I was not thinking of that at all when you said "apron".

That level or corrosion there would be a problem for me. That's a really structural piece. It's important for it to be solid and strong at least up to and past the shock tower. If it were me I would replace all that metal, but many people don't have the tools or the experience to do that.

Can you weld?

@Patcon Yes I have a MIG and a TIG. I can use stick off the TIG but it makes such a mess that I hate using it. 

Do they sell these panels aftermarket or would it be something I need to fabricate? I agree that these are structural because the steel in the area is quite thick when compared to some other areas... which is good because it makes it easier to weld😂. 

I would replace the metal too if I had access to a welder. Since you’re there, might as well. As for the sound deadening, I just did mine but only the front so total opposite of you! I can say it was definitely on there well. Dried ice helped a ton and made it come off in large chunks. Maybe do a test piece that’s smaller to see? Worst case is only about a couple hours to get it all off anyway.