Let the fun and games begin! (1974 garage find)

[Lennard]

You're doing great work.    (I've bought some parts from Dave in Havasu years ago)

[Vegas_Nick]

I guess I got lucky! Serious detonation at some point but the cylinder and head look great!


Overall, I have something to work with. It really is fairly clean on the inside for a 1976!

[Bad B-rad]

Good job, so far, hope you enjoy working on your project, as much as I enjoy reading about it,LOL!!!!

I like how you are making it your own!
Good luck, and keep up the great work!!!!!

[Vegas_Nick]

Good job, so far, hope you enjoy working on your project, as much as I enjoy reading about it,LOL!!!!

I like how you are making it your own!
Good luck, and keep up the great work!!!!!

Thanks man! I work a really high stress job so this is my "escape" when I can. I crank up the classic rock and escape to my "happy place" 

[BDF]

Good job, so far, hope you enjoy working on your project, as much as I enjoy reading about it,LOL!!!!

I like how you are making it your own!
Good luck, and keep up the great work!!!!!

Thanks man! I work a really high stress job so this is my "escape" when I can. I crank up the classic rock and escape to my "happy place" 

Gotta stay in the "Happy Place!" 

[451-74Charger]

Did you break into my garage and steal my 74?
Its almost a complete twin of mine. (except mine needs more work).

[family_dodge]

Meticulous thread. Thanks for the documentation of this project.

Meanwhile, I'll 

[Vegas_Nick]

Did you break into my garage and steal my 74?
Its almost a complete twin of mine. (except mine needs more work).

Way cool! It looks ready to run! 

[Vegas_Nick]

Not much this weekend other than pulling the pan on the 360. No metal in the oil pan so that is a plus!


Also dropped out the exhaust and hacked it up for the garbage man. Of course, I had to crank it up for just a bit. LOL

[Vegas_Nick]

Man it's HOT here in Vegas this week! I started out looking at the roof on the car again, grinding away more bondo, and had a total change of direction. I said screw it, cutting the roof off. Just too much rust and too many holes to work with.

The more I ground off Bondo, the more I see that was bad. The entire roof was made of it!


Someone here told me...it's only metal! So off it came!



Glad I did because the rust is really bad. More bondo and newspaper underneath. So now I will get it all prepped for making a new skin and hope someone in town will let me borrow their english wheel for a day.

[Nacho-RT74]

I think you should be able to get a new rook skin from a donor. I know a guy in GA who got one full roof even is not off to ship it, you should pick it up. He is member around here and the 3rd gen board.

Being in Nevada, some other should be fine at some JY

I'd like to get a roof skin for myself allong with the front beam, but in tropic is nearly impossible so I have to live with patches here and there

[Nacho-RT74]

And about the piston... are all pistons like that? It doesn't seems like a detonation to me, but some kind of stuff got into the cilinder ( tiny nut or screw ). I saw that once in an old Renault 5 which btw got aluminium head so the combustion chamber was exactly the same, not just the piston. Somehow a nut got inside the cylinder and made that.

[Vegas_Nick]

I think you should be able to get a new rook skin from a donor. I know a guy in GA who got one full roof even is not off to ship it, you should pick it up. He is member around here and the 3rd gen board.

Being in Nevada, some other should be fine at some JY

I'd like to get a roof skin for myself allong with the front beam, but in tropic is nearly impossible so I have to live with patches here and there

Hi Nacho! I started looking at it. The donor roof was like $600, the back half of the cra was more than I paid for this one. If this was going to be a show restoration, I would o it but since it will be more of a race car than show, I am just patching it. That, and I am using it to learn on.


And yeah, just the one piston. You can see it up close looking like edges were melted away. The cylinder and head are unharmed. Weird!

[Bob]

I think you should be able to get a new rook skin from a donor. I know a guy in GA who got one full roof even is not off to ship it, you should pick it up. He is member around here and the 3rd gen board.

Being in Nevada, some other should be fine at some JY

I'd like to get a roof skin for myself allong with the front beam, but in tropic is nearly impossible so I have to live with patches here and there

I think that roof was only 150 bucks. On the 3rd gen site his name is Tom.

[Vegas_Nick]

Well my 4th weekend is almost over. Started pulling the engine out. Found the K-frame dented. (I missed that somehow all this time) I guess I'll go with a tube one from JEGS now. Oh darn! Also worked on the roof a bit. Saving some $$ so I can buy an English wheel and make the new skin.





One tired old motor. Damn thing ran good. Leaked water from every freeze plug! LOL

[Vegas_Nick]

Was going to pull the motor tonight and then...&#^$%$ hoist is too short! I was going to pull the bumper anyway, so might as well do it this weekend.

[Vegas_Nick]

Motor is OUT!





This poor motor is a museum piece!

[Vegas_Nick]

I started filling in the corner lights now.

[Vegas_Nick]

Started working on this today:


I went old school and made a hammer form for it after I did the cutout.




Hammer forming!






Started welding and getting it in place:


Now I have to tackle this mess:

[Bob]

Very nice work!!
Thanks for posting updates.

[Vegas_Nick]

Thanks Bob! I am hoping someone enjoys it. LOL

[JB400]

I enjoy it.  Looks good.

             

[Vegas_Nick]

Ok, I am starting to stretch my knowledge of body work. I think I have passed the YouTube and Facebook school of body work tests now so here we go:

Started pushing the entire fender back out. I searched Vegas and couldn't find a a body ram so I made do:




I stared doing some light hammer work and realized that this is a pocket. Two layers of freaking metal. So I went ahead marked it off and cleaned all the paint:


I cut off the outer skin trying to follow the contour line:


My plan is to straighten the inner liner, straighten the skin along the contour line, hammer and dolly work on the removed skin till it is smooth again and weld the removed piece back in place. Update when I have that done.

[Vegas_Nick]

I haven't been able to do much lately. My wife is very sick so running her back and forth to blood tests and doctors has been my priority. So tonight while she was napping, I filled in the last corner marker light.



A little more grinding and polishing and a layer of filler and away we go!  It's good therapy.

[70 sublime]

Umm does not a car need side marker lights to be road legal if it had them originally ?