I bought this car in January 2001. It had sat, non-running, in a field for 7 years before I bought it for 700 bucks. The entire bottom sheet metal in the car was toast. In fact, in the trunk it was so bad it ate through the top of the gas tank. I started by welding in a new trunk floor and taillight panel, installing a new gas tank, then welding in new full-length floor pans on both sides, and the fender apron where the battery sits. I had to fabricate the rear seat floor area and passenger's side seat riser myself, since no one makes those parts for my year of car. Next was a complete suspension replacement, and then a complete brake system replacement, converting the front drums to 4-piston manual discs (SSBC brake kit). I pieced together the exhaust myself from a generic "split-dual" exhaust kit and a generic H-pipe kit. Last year, I spent 750 hours stripping the entire car to bare steel, doing all the bodywork, priming, painting, and finally color-sanding and buffing the paint. No one else has ever done any work on my car but me, other than American Muscle mounting and balancing the wheels and tires (which, by the way, are absolutely incredible... no hint of any vibration whatsoever, anywhere from 0 to, shall we say, "highway speeds" ;-).
I figure I've spent about 3000 hours "resto/modding" the car. When my time comes I may ask to be buried in it. ;-) |
