The Snowball Saga - '68 Standard Revitalization Project by Blitz

9 minute(s) of a 403 minute read

And now, a look at last week's progress. 

Trunk prepped:

The lip needed a little work but wasn't too bad.

Doors prepped (inside):

RH fender removed:

Then the next day, the insides of the doors, trunk, and rear valence were primed.

Some prep work up front, and a little brazing by the windshield:

...and a look at the prep work on the front side of one of the doors:

Later in the day I returned to find that the front sides had also been primed. I stood on top of a table to get this shot, haha..

Anyways that pretty much brings it up to speed! I'll go over there later today and see what else is new, but it is coming along nicely. He is doing a lot more detail work than I expected, and the good news is that I'm all paid up (gave him a flat amount to finish the car ahead of time, which was actually a pretty dumb thing to do) but he is not half-assing anything. He's also going to paint the engine bay / aprons black and plans to just leave the engine and components in place and paint around them. Not sure how much I like the idea, which may lead me to pull the engine / trans. But that's a whole 'nother snowball that I may want to postpone getting into.

5-8-2012

Yeah, I was kinda thinking that would be the way to go, but at the same time... it's already a big enough project as is. I think I'm going to leave the drivetrain alone so that I might just be able to drive the car this summer. Then maybe next winter I can start doing mechanical stuff / engine detailing. The car runs well as-is, why hurry to make it a non-running shell? The only major problem with that method is the risk of messing up a nice new paint job by doing the dirty mechanical work AFTER the paint is done. Either way isn't easy!

Thanks for that! It definitely helps having all the Cougar parts in the world at your disposal, and Don has been good to me with advice and some free body panels. The good news for WCCC is that we've sold a few roofs as a result of people seeing the video and deciding that they could tackle it. That's pretty cool, IMO.

Anyway, some progress pics! Hood primered:

Here's what the naked front end looks like. Note the dorky tall air cleaner. This is what happens when you want to run a K&N filter for improved performance.. they apparently don't make a shorter filter in this size. I might just go back to the stock blue air cleaner.

Numbers matching, yay!

Rust spot on the apron, boo!

Never mind, patched.

Also note the seam sealing action here:

Guy likes doing things by hand... prepping the inside of the RH fender:

Fenders got primer by the next time I went back:

There was a little aftermarket temp gauge screwed to the lower dash. Probably put there long ago by my Gramps, maybe wanting an actual degree reading instead of the vague "C - H" on the stock gauge. I debated about leaving it for sentimental value, but decided it looked kinda crappy, so the holes are now welded up.

Yesterday after work I went ahead and pulled out my heater box. Luckily it wasn't too difficult, thanks to the car being pretty stripped out already. I probably should have documented the process, but just wanted to get it done and over with. Took this shot before removal just for reference to see where the vacuum lines and stuff go.

Speaking of the heater core job, we'll eventually come out with a how-to video on that. We're halfway into the process on Don's '69, but that got sidelined. It's not exactly the same as on a 67/68, but there are enough similarities that it should be useful for first gen owners too. Watching Don take out his '69 one helped me figure mine out, anyway.

Final shot - If cars have feelings, it's probably horrified to be sitting where it is right now.  

Yeah, I guess my worry was that he would just hurry to get it done, but it actually turned out to be a good decision because of his refusal to cut corners. At this point I am definitely saving money because of it.

So, the big news is - primer! We're in the final stretch now... just some more wet sanding, then away to a local paint booth to spray the polar white and clear. Pretty exciting.

And here we see the guardian cat, fierce protector of the yard. Making sure no rodents find their way into my car.

Won't be long before it's shiny again! Stay tuned.... Once reassembly starts I'm sure I'll be posting more detailed stuff about fixing up random pieces here and there. It will be nice to get my own hands on it again.

5-29-2012

Very true, it is an inevitable thing... but I am going to put if off anyway! At least maybe what I can do is clean up the outsides of the aprons / suspension / etc before the fenders go on, then I'll be able to do the engine bay without too much fuss later on. I dunno.

Last bit of prep on the shell was done before this weekend... dash and steering column in primer and sanded smooth:

Over the weekend he got busy, aaaand...drumroll... we have paint! The shell is done, but the doors, fenders, hood, trunk, and other misc. stuff still needs to get done. Scott and I just picked up the car today at lunch and here's how she looks!