1968 Florida 1600 Restoration Project

[phreshkid]

Time to pull the engine, tranny, and subframe from the bottom in one fell swoop. It was easy. Took 10 minutes.

Before:



After:




And her resting place. Next week is hardcore cleaning and painting and plating and polishing and powdercoating.

[phreshkid]

Been doing a bunch of stuff. But every time I make one step forward, I end up taking two steps back to replace or repair something. So gosh dang time consuming.

Some photos.

Made a run to the container with a few m10 motors. This is about half of the m10 stock.




I forgot that I have the motor from the blue 1600. That motor was really quite powerful, so I intend to fix it. But first, I need to see what is going on with the pulleys and water pump, etc.

Both pulleys are bent, and waterpump is also trashed.





No biggie, I'll replace the crank pulley and throw her in a car and race around. The storm provides.



Also took a photo of the intake ports on a 118 head, and an e12 head. Both engines run well, but they are serving as parts donators (mostly ancillaries)








The other day, I was wondering why I don't have any Haynes Manuals. Then today, I found four of them on my bookshelf. Talk about forgetting important things.






Also found a complete set of IE swaybars. I'll probably sell them.





I don't think I'll make my June 15 deadline, but oh boy am I trying.

[rzerob]

Holy crap.

[Farbin Kaiber]

(speechless)

[phreshkid]

Time to redo the engine bay and the front suspension. I'm trying to do things in waves, as to not get overwhelmed with projects within a project. I made the grave mistake of not taking this car straight to Doctor Detail for the undercarriage steam-clean that I love so much. Now I get to deal with all the dirt and grime and hand-clean everything until I can make my way to Doctor Detail for the final cleaning.


Here are some photos. Everything is new. Either plated, painted, powdercoated, or polished. So. Much. Time. OMG.

Things that are being replaced from the top of my head:
-tie rods and center rod link thing
-both control arms
-new H&R springs
-New Spax Suspension
-New Upper Strut Bearings
-New Fixed Camber Plates
-Every single bushing under the car - New
-New S14 starter
-Newly rebuild Solex Carb
-Newly refinished Air Cleaner
-New triple core radiator
-New Mechanical Fan
-New Thrust Arms
-New Exhaust system - OEM
-New Clutch
-All hardware is going out for plating
-New Front and rear subframes
-New things I'm forgetting

I didn't intend to go this far this fast, but I don't want to do this again in two months, so I rather do it now.

I like nice things but I don't like working for them. This is my problem.

This is stuff going out for sandblasting and powdercoating


This is stuff where I hate my life



This is an exhaust manifold that took two hours away from my life to remove. F U exhaust manifold. I'm throwing you away (NOS 1600ti manifold going in).


This is stuff going out for plating. I have multiples of everything, so that's nice.



And this is how she sleeps. I think I'll put her on the lift and remove the engine this weekend so I can get the new subframe on and detail the engine bay.

[rzerob]

Im excited to see full body shots instead of just the booty

Ditto.

[2mAn]

Starting to look pretty complete. I now realize I don't care for the reproduction black plates - at all. I may just get historical plates and call it a day.

The 7 characters ruins them IMO, especially on the older cars. Shame, because that was such a cool plate for your car...

Im excited to see full body shots instead of just the booty

[phreshkid]

Rear end is buttoned up.

Still need to plug that third hole by the license plate lights but those are on their way.

Starting to look pretty complete. I now realize I don't care for the reproduction black plates - at all. I may just get historical plates and call it a day.

[phreshkid]

I love what you've done with the place.

It's so fetch

That looks instantly so much more complete. What's left?

I want to do a few things in the engine bay. Things like get the original single barrel carb with air cleaner on, new hardware on the engine, new exhaust, battery tray, re-wrap the harness, install radiator, make it pretty, etc.

Then I want to get the suspension done up. New bushings, powdercoated stuff, fresh brakes, maybe spax adjustable dampers and H&R sport springs for a moderate drop. Very simple things. I'm mostly after "clean".

Something's moving in my trousers, that's for sure.

I know that feeling. I get it all the time now.

Please keep this one. It's too good to let go.

Hells yeah. There is only one way I'd ever sell this car, and that's to inject funds into a new venture. The pros outweigh the cons on that one.

[CubbyChowder]

Please keep this one. It's too good to let go.

[bruner]

Oh baby this is getting good

[spiDmang]

gahhh damn

[LJ851]

things are moving.

Something's moving in my trousers, that's for sure.

[kronus]

That looks instantly so much more complete. What's left?

[DEV0 E30]

I love what you've done with the place.