(Hi I was 15 years old when i started this in dec 2008)
I got the car from a brother-in-law looking like this...
He let it go to hell when the person in front of him stoped short. But this was a plus for me because i got it pretty cheap. And for a first car - cheaper = better!
So because it was so cold outside in these Michigan winters, i couldnt work on the body too much so i decided to do some interrior work.
My brother gave me his old 500$ radio that didnt work anymore. I took it all apart and cleaned everything. It works like new!
I had to cut the factory wires and wire it all up by myself because i was too cheap to buy the right connections (maybe later i will buy all the right connections and solder them all up nice).
I'm also planing on making an ipod dock for my video ipod that connects to the cd changer/aux input in the radio and to the bottom of the ipod. This ensures the best sound quility for an ipod to radio instaltion.
I searched around nearly all the junkyards in Michigan to find parts. Man who knew this car was so hard to find parts for? But i found a turbo coupe in a place in Flint and bought the header pannel, bumper, and hood. (I wanted to switch out my plane jane parts to Turbo Coupe stuff).
Heres the Header Pannel when i first got it! There is a small crack (4 inches) near the thunderbird symbol so i ended up talking the guy down to about 75 bucks with all the headlights.
I took all the headlights out to clean them up (they were a bit scratched and yellow) and to fix that crack!
My parents let me use the garage one day to take the old parts off and luckily it was only -5 degress out. thanks winter... I started a kyracine heater and later had carbon monoxide posiening. I HATE THAT HEATER!
Update: Sunday March 1st 2009
The snow around here is pretty much melted, so i got to take some pretty good pictures of the still damaged parts...
The driver side fender and passanger side inner fender is finaly orderd. $205... not too bad. its shipping from oklahoma from a guy off NATO.
Heres some rust...
Update: Thursday March 5th 2009
Okay so today i finaly got the fender from the guy off NATO. It came all the way from OK! I put the fender and the hood on with help of Montana and Brooks. LOOKS GREAT! even without the scoops in yet... (One has a crack in it and needs a fiberglass job). Today i also found all of the bent up header pannel connections and bent them back into their original position.
Off to buy some fiberglass
UPDATE: Tuesday, May 5th 2009
So i finaly fixed that crack in the header pannel with some fiber glass on the inside and the marical of bondo on the outside.
The car has been entirly sanded and bondoed all up so its nice and smooth.
I also got that dumb trim off of the whole car... Man that took a long time with a rag and laquire thinner... I will save these peices and put them back on once painted.
I also finaly fixed the driver side window with some windsheild adheasive. (the previous owner ran the window off the tracks and it was never fixed)
The left front fender that was replaced had been bent when shiped so i also had to tap that out and bondo that in the upper corner. It also came off a cougar so it did not have a hole for the side turn light. That was cutout by freehand. Not Too bad EH? looks like it was ment to be there! Now if i only could find the trim that whent over the lihgts...
Here is some shots of the bondo.
NO MORE RUST! That is proly the best thing on this car. In this picture you can also see the new shinny exhaust system. 400 bucks... more on that later when i get some pics.
If you look and see the before pictures it is sooo much better!
Man i need some new rims and wheels. These rims are original i think? The hubs are in the barn.
The Wheels are spose to be new but i dont know if i want to trust them. Im pretty sure they are Japonese... I think they are spose to be white walls but you can not tell. I need some new ones too bad rims and tires alone cost 1000 bucks.
I also replaced the back drum breaks with a new spring kit. Works like new!
To fix the rust on the trunk i fiberglassed the inside for reinforcement and bondoed the front to cover up all the pin holes. When i bought this car i was thinking that the biggest project on it would be cutting these sections out and welding in new metal. After i cleaned the metal off with a high speed sander i realized that there are only pin holes and i did'nt want to go through the trouble of shaping new metal so fiberglass worked wonders. (Plus my trunk walls are more sturdy in case i ever want to install a sub? hint hint?)
This is the Turbo bumper i'v been working on. And look what i found! another CRACK!
Radio with ipod dock in the making...
Man The look of this radio still just blows me away!
Too bad my stock speakers suck and are over powered when try and get some bass out of them...
Ipod dock needs the cable still, and paint.
UPDATE: 7-04-09
I did this a while back but i had to post it up.
The headlights that i got with the headerpannel were extreamly foggy, so i did this methode...
320 grit
600 grit wet
toothpaste
buffed out with a drill buffer.
The one on the left is a final. The one on the right is from the junkyard.
