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6 minute(s) of a 200 minute read
1-12-2009
Yeah I think its a K24 also. Not sure nor am I really too concerned about it. I think I might be able to use a T3 spool in the middle. When I get around to fiddling with that I will take some pictures and toss out some more updates.
Speaking of updates, this weekend was very productive! The plan was to tear into the floors and see how bad the damage was. Need to prep it for blasting in the next week or so and see if we are going to need to weld in any patches. Here was our starting point. Can't really see how messy the floors are here though.
After chipping a crapload of ice out of it.
The worst is the passenger side. Behind the seat area there was about two inches of standing water that had frozen hard. I was REALLY concerned about this area. But when we brought the car home one of the 4-speed trannys puked all its gear oil out. Turns out the gear oil probably prevented any damage from happening. It took a LOT to get it even this clean though....
I stuffed a heater into the car to get everything nice and warm. Hopefully that will help with getting this oil cleaned up the rest of the way. Once I get all the oil up, I will tackle the sound deadening on this side. Cooking gear oil STINKS. The sound deadening is bad enough as is.
So the worst of the rusty areas on the car is the foot well on the passenger side. Pictures really don't show this well but its not anywhere near as bad as I would have thought. So far it seems its all very minor surface rust. Just lots of it. Soon as I scrape it and get the rust off its actually smooth and not even pitted.
Onto the drivers side. It was pretty clean over here. Still had to drill a drain hole to let water out. But mainly it was just cleaning up the mess here. The scary part is actually going to be the OE wiring clean up. Theres a random circuit board and a rheostat attacked to the steering column that I am completely lost a to what its function could possibly have been. No matter as I am dumping ALL the OE wiring from tis in the garbage. Updating it with the harness I pulled out of the 83 unless I manage to score an inexpensive CE2 cabby harness.
Anyways the damages, or lack thereof.
The back of the car cleaned up very nicely. Only a few areas with very minor surface rust. Still have some random leaves and stuff back here we will ave to get rid of after blasting. We will have to give the whole car a super thorough cleaning then anyways.
The dash area looks even more amazing! I am betting the windshield on this car has never leaked. All the areas where I usually see rust damage are spotless.
Since I am working outside and don't have a MUCH NEEDED garage I needed to tackle the area where much of the water was getting in the car. Where the heater box goes. Cleaned it up and taped it off. Nothing fancy for now, but this will defiantly slow the ingress.
As soon as its blasted the heater goes back in and this should solve the rest of it.
A question though. On the newer rabbits I have always seen a drain tube off the bottom of the heater box. Granted most of these cars have AC, so its pretty much a necessity. I am wondering though if putting a drain tube on the bottom of this is a good idea though? I guess the rain tray plastic cover SHOULD keep the water out of there, but I am not counting on it. Any thoughts here?
The engine bay has been cleaned up and most of the unnecessary brackets removed. I still have a few more to pull out. Trying to decide where to put the washer reservoir... I really don't want it in the engine bay, but relocating it to the back of the car is silly too. So far I have left that bracket in place. I will need to run another reservoir The bracket on the drivers strut tower is perfect for the adjustable fuel pressure regulator so it will stay unless I end up using an OE FPR in the rail. I really like having an adjustable one though.
So far I am very happy with the progress we are making. Most of the engine bits are done and ready to go. Just need to paint the motor and tranny and start bolting it all together.
One of my best freinds is a body and restoration guy. He gets tons of practice as his father builds enlish cars. Hes picking up the car sometime in the next week and doing it. Not sure what media he is going to use. I think he said garnet.
Once its blasted the floors are being done in Por-15. Less critical CLEAN areas will be hit with Vari-Prime primer and then painted. ANy non critical areas that still have a little rust will be hit with Rustoleum and then painted. The plan is to not have ANY rust left on the car.... But still going to need to keep time and material costs down and "the plan" usally never goes accordingly.
Price? I am giving him a Toughbook in exchange for materials and labor. Cash rarely changes hands. So far for this project I am only into it the cost of the shell and a single can of clear engine paint.