Rosco's '69 Build

[Rosco]

It begins!
Finished moving house, and now that she's in a proper home and not just sitting under a carport, I've been able to make a start!



Even though it's a little cramped...



Not exactly sure where I'm gonna go with this build. Nothing too fancy, just a weekend cruiser.
I definitely plan on doing a 5 speed manual conversion. Not sure what to do with the engine yet, I'm thinking I'll just rebuild the 383, though I've also thought about a mild stroker... anyone have experience with a stroked 383?
Going to re do all the lights, electrics and replace all the gauges, but I'd like to keep everything looking "right" like, not factory correct necessarily, but I want things to look like they belong in a muscle car. Including a new stereo of course, which will be hidden away.
I'll probably just get the rear seat re-covered, but I'll be replacing the front seats entirely, as I want something more in the way of comfort. Any suggestions for good seats?

Got everything I need to get started - plenty of tools, a fridge full of drinks, and loud speakers, which are currently entertaining the neighbours with some Black Sabbath



I didn't get a great deal done today, since I spent the first half of it splitting wood for the fire and setting up all my tools and whatnot. Anyway, first step was to gut the interior. Rear footwells are pretty crusty, especially the passenger side, but the rest of it is pretty solid. A little thin up near the firewall on the passenger side, but overall pretty good. Gotta say though, some of the factory welds on the floorpans don't exactly impress me...



Most of the interior panels are alright. The hard plastic ones are all pretty good. The side panels are kinda average though, so I'll need to get some new ones.
Seat frames are in good condition, but all the padding is shot, so I'll have to get the frames recovered.
Windshield is still in, so I haven't taken the dash out yet.

A friend of mine's dad is good mates with a guy who pretty much everyone around here agrees is THE guy for body/restoration work around here. So, my mate's dad is bringing him round to take a look at the body in a couple weeks when he gets back here from the USA. I still plan on doing most of the work myself, but he's gonna give it all a look over and give me some advice on the best way to go about things, etc. I might get him to do some things, depending what he says after looking at it.

Question, how does one go about getting the rear side glass and mechanism out? Does it need to be disassembled inside the side?



Oh, and I bought myself a new toy, which I'm going to be needing in the not-too-distant future...

[Fred]

That's excellent news.    More power to you.  

[tan top]

 all systems go now then Rosco   looking forward to seeing progress pictures & stuff  

depending how far you going with the resto , would take the  bumper / grill & front end sheet metal  off , will give you about a foot of   extra room at front  

are yeah  the rear side glass winder set up , you need to dismantle it to remove it !!  save your self  days / weeks of grief when putting it back to gether ,   what I done ,  
 with a marker pen draw round each bolt & number them before removing,  then as your taking it apart  bolt the winder to a thick suitable size piece of cardboard , so you then have the window winder bolted up as it would fitted in the car ,  on the card board , do same both sides  , then a year  or two or three or down the line you know how it all goes back together , & will only need minor adjustmets
once winders are bolted on cardboard , need careful handling & storage though

[Rosco]

Tan Top, so it does come apart inside the wall cavity? Yay... I can see that being frustrating... Good idea on the cardboard though, I'll definitely do that!

Yeah, I'll be pulling all the bumper and fenders off for sure

[tan top]

  yes enough to give you a bit more room , either for  taking the motor out !!!   then working on the rear , to push it as far forward as possible as possible

[Baldwinvette77]

Yes! a start!!! 

[Rosco]

Not exactly sure where I'm gonna go with this build. Nothing too fancy, just a weekend cruiser.
I definitely plan on doing a 5 speed manual conversion. Not sure what to do with the engine yet, I'm thinking I'll just rebuild the 383, though I've also thought about a mild stroker... anyone have experience with a stroked 383?
Going to re do all the lights, electrics and replace all the gauges, but I'd like to keep everything looking "right" like, not factory correct necessarily, but I want things to look like they belong in a muscle car. Including a new stereo of course, which will be hidden away.
I'll probably just get the rear seat re-covered, but I'll be replacing the front seats entirely, as I want something more in the way of comfort. Any suggestions for good seats?

BTW, added this post into the first post.

[Baldwinvette77]

Not exactly sure where I'm gonna go with this build. Nothing too fancy, just a weekend cruiser.
I definitely plan on doing a 5 speed manual conversion. Not sure what to do with the engine yet, I'm thinking I'll just rebuild the 383, though I've also thought about a mild stroker... anyone have experience with a stroked 383?
Going to re do all the lights, electrics and replace all the gauges, but I'd like to keep everything looking "right" like, not factory correct necessarily, but I want things to look like they belong in a muscle car. Including a new stereo of course, which will be hidden away.
I'll probably just get the rear seat re-covered, but I'll be replacing the front seats entirely, as I want something more in the way of comfort. Any suggestions for good seats?

BTW, added this post into the first post.

nothing wrong with not knowing where youre going, i still dont know where my car will end up  but it helps to have an idea, im going for  a budget restomod / g-machine type project... i think 

[Chargen69]

 

[Mopar Nut]

 

[bull]

depending how far you going with the resto , would take the  bumper / grill & front end sheet metal  off , will give you about a foot of   extra room at front  

At least a foot. If you measure to the outer tip of the bumper it's actually 16" between it and the front of the upper radiator core support. I left my front end off for a couple of years while finishing up most of the rest of the car. It was nice having all that extra room to get around. And when working on the engine bay you can sit on the front tire and lean right in without laying on top of those big, wide fenders.

[Rosco]

Got a little bit done so far this weekend.

Got her up on stands and pulled the grill assembly out.



That took ages. You think you've removed all the bolts, and go to pull it out, only to find something's still holding on. Then gotta figure out where it is, and how to get at it. Got there eventually though, and it's good to have it off the car onto a bench.

Figured I'd pull the grill itself out of the assembly next, and again, fiddly as! Figured it out quickly enough after browsing a few topics on here though.
Question; how do you go about removing the headlight doors? Do they barely squeeze out? or do they come out when you disassemble the rest of the grill?



All the plastic is in good shape, apart from a small crack in the passenger side top corner, and two small missing pieces. One on the driver's side bottom corner - the part that curves out and forwards, behind the top edge of the bumper - which I'm not too worried about, as you can't notice it with the bumper in place (well, I didn't anyway, and I looked pretty closely at the grill when I bought the car). The other missing piece is a bit more of a problem. Where one of the bolts that holds the grill to the bottom frame, here the hole in the plastic would be for the bolt to pass through, that section is broken out, approx. twice the size of the hole on the other side. Any advice? Get some plastic, cut it to shape and get some really strong adhesive to hold it in place?

I'm toying with the idea of restoring the grill now - something I could do without to much trouble, and keep me occupied, while waiting for bodywork related stuff, AND I think it'd be cool to have it sitting there all shiny on the bench!

Also, found out my headlights are made by General Electric. I swear, GE seem to have made just about everything and anything at some point!

Had to stop for the today, since I have a friend's 21st party tonight.
Hopefully I'll get some more done tomorrow - maybe later in the afternoon, depending how much 'ing happens tonight haha

[Mopar Nut]

Good job on getting the parts off, I know that was alot of work. I stored my 68 grill on a top shelf out of the way of everything. 

[Fred]

Good news. Any work done gets you that little bit closer to the finish line.  

re: headlight doors. You need to remove the activator bracket bolts and then just squeeze them off the studs.

[Fred]

  I stored my 68 grill on a top shelf out of the way of everything.  

   Definitely store the grille well out of the way. I swear you'll be sorry if you don't.

[Rosco]

  I stored my 68 grill on a top shelf out of the way of everything.  

   Definitely store the grille well out of the way. I swear you'll be sorry if you don't.

That's why I'm happy to have it off the car, bit harder to accidentally smack it with something while I'm working

[Mopar Nut]

  I stored my 68 grill on a top shelf out of the way of everything.  

   Definitely store the grille well out of the way. I swear you'll be sorry if you don't.

That's why I'm happy to have it off the car, bit harder to accidentally smack it with something while I'm working

So true.

[Rosco]

Been a while since I got much done. Busy with work, then holidays, then busy with work again, but made a bit of progress the last few weekends!
Apologies for the bad quality of some of these photos, I was alternating between using my good camera, and my phone, whichever was closer to hand when I thought to photograph something...
Had a couple of friends come round and help me pull the engine out - making a bit of mess in the process of course - and sat it on a couple of tires.




Then while I was out getting fish and chips and beer, my friends decided to make a start on THIS... It was bound to happen at some point, and once started, I thought screw it, may as well finish it off... So I have, what, 1/12th of a General Lee at the moment.?


Then set about putting the welder into use on it's first proper job - building a cradle for the engine to sit in, along with the transmission.
It has a proper mount point for the transmission now, I just don't have a photo of it, so these will have to do from when I just had offcuts stacked under the crossmember



So with the engine out, it's time to do more body stuff. Front guards and the doors are off - it's nice to have a bit extra room to move around the car - as you can see there's not a whole lot of spare room.



Next to come out was the windshield and dash frame. Windshield came out A LOT easier than I thought it would - no scratches or cracks... nothing!
Too bad it already has a nice chip in it and needs to be replaced! Though, if it WAS still roadworthy, I'd bet money it wouldv'e cracked coming out!
Also, after pulling the glass and rubber out, I found one of these hair clips under there. I swear, girls use these things to mark their territory!


Dash frame was a pain to get out. Anyone else's wiring harness an absolute dog's breakfast? wrapped in, out, through, and around the frame? Got it eventually though.



Tonight was spent pulling all the padding/soundproofing away from the firewall, and disconnecting all the hoses from the vents - Good news is that from what I can see everything under the cowl looks to be rust free. A lot of loose crap floating around in there though, bits of leaves and whatnot.
Hopefully there'll be more to report after the weekend. Anyway, I better get off the internet and get some sleep - early start for work tomorrow!

[Baldwinvette77]

Looks good, i love disassembly 

[tan top]

 been busy !!  keep the pictures coming 

[Silver R/T]

Looks like quite a project you got there, good luck!

[TPR]

Keep at it Rosco. Looking good.

TPR