I forgot to take any pictures before I started work on the car, so the bumpers, grill, etc., have already been removed. This photo was taken a couple of weeks after I began a complete rotisserie restoration, projected to take until late summer of 2006 to complete. Plans for this update include a partial rebuild of the 360 engine, replace the 727 transmission with a built 904 and hi-stall converter combo, 8 3/4" rear end with 3:23 gears, sub-frame connectors, and Caltrac style traction control bars. This car has been blue since it came from the factory, so this time it gets a new coat of red paint, along with a replacement 2/3 vinyl roof, as per the factory original. Car was an original 273 cu. in. V8, automatic, 7 1/4" rear end, bucket seat model. As you can see, some minor modifications have been made and a few more are currently planned.
Then it was time to pull the 360 engine and 727 tranny. Several cans of Easy-Off oven cleaner, carb cleaner, and a couple rolls of shop towels later, it was looking presentable.
Continued dismantling fenders, doors, hood, trunk lid, tail lights, stainless trim, interior, etc. I spent a couple of days scraping off the old vinyl roof and related glue. I then sanded it to bare metal, treated it with Metal Prep, and shot two coats of Epoxy and three coats of high build primer. Then there was the week or two of mindless, hand-blistering scraping to get all of the factory undercoating off the inner fenders!! I just loved THAT job!!!
