Yes, this will be a long term project. I plan to start on the bodywork next fall or winter 'cause this winter/spring is going to be too busy. If I get some time, I might start hammering on some stuff.

Initial thoughts are to use this car to mock up parts for Avalanche, since neither Dale's nor Craig's cars are terribly stock. Having it in my warm garage will make this much easier to do with my unpredictable schedule and levels of motivation.

Secondary to this, I want to practice doing some bodywork and improve my welding skills. This car will give me lots of opportunity to do this! The paint is already bought and paid for, body panels aren't that expensive, so I should be able to get it looking half decent (or completely wreck it) without blowing the bank.

If the bodywork turns out well (and with Craig's tutelage, I'm sure it'll be pretty good), I'll continue on to the suspension, brakes, and running gear, getting the car to "roller" state. I could toss a B18 or B20 together pretty easily and putter around with it, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't stay at that power level for long should I get to this point.

I have a rough image of what I'd like it to evolve into, but honestly that's a pretty fast moving target, since it'll have many stages to the build. For instance, I won't be spending money on OEM-style interior, perfect trim, or unobtanium bits until that cash is burning a hole in my pocket, and there's nothing else to do to the car to make it better. That's the plan for now, anyway.

Figure at least the winter of 2010/2011 for the body, spring of '11 for paint... and we'll revise the schedule when we need to!

Starting point:



























It was at this point where I started asking myself, "what the hell have I gotten myself into?" The minuses are all pretty apparent, but the plusses include a straight hood, a straight roof, a straight trunk, fairly decent floors and rails, and 100% original rust. This car doesn't appear to be any worse than what Dale's car started out as, and in many ways it's better. It's sure uglier, but that's because nobody patched it up and sprayed it a pretty colour.





















Factory LSD FTW - still appears to work, or is at least locked up pretty solid.



The worst of the frame rot that I could find. In fact, all of the rails and suspension attachment points looked really solid.



A face only a mother could love.

The car drove onto and off of the trailer, barely running at best. Once I got it into my garage, it refused to start. I'm not sure I want to put too much lovin' into this engine, but I will want to move the car around and having an engine that runs is a good way of doing it.

So...




Off come the carbs, valve cover, and out come the plugs. I also drained the fuel from the tank in preparation of cleaning it out & putting fresh stuff in.



Gunky!







All that silt in the float bowls can't be helping matters...



That's what came out of ONE of the bowls.

And in a flurry of nearly Craig-like activity, I bust out the bead blaster:









I'll have to throw some new parts at these carbs if I want to keep them around... for now all I want to do is get the car running reliably, if not perfectly.



Clean and adjusted to basic levels. On to a valve adjustment, leakdown test, points adjustment, timing adjustment, and some rough tuning.

More later.

I lol'd

I've got a set of brand new throttle shafts here. In fact, I think I've got a rebuild kit for SUs around somewhere.

That crossmember looks familiar...

I'm very excited to see this project take sail. When you need parts, remember I've got some parts made of the afore mentioned unobtanium. As far as I know, the only truly unavailable part is the rear window seals - the rest is all available.

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing this progress Matt. I get stoked anytime you're working on cars, and this is no different.

I probably didn't explain myself well enough: I'm only coaxing the car into running well enough to be able to move it from the back to the front, and vice versa. Also, I want to seafoam it and change the oil, clean it out, unstick the rings (if possible, or necessary), and see what kind of compression can be restored. If it's good enough, I may re-seal and re-paint it while it's out of the car, but if not I won't bother. To determine that, I need to get it running first. While it's apart, I can rebuild carbs properly.

Had a good look under the car today. From what I saw, this car is more solid than my 122 was when Craig and I started at it. Driver's side floor is rough but they all are. The passenger side looks solid. The passenger rocker is nice and solid. Don't know if there's any reason to open that one up. The driver side is rough although the flange under the car is still solid so no need to fabricate that. The floors look a little questionable from inside but underneath they look and sound pretty solid. The spare tire well will need work and the flat floor section on the passenger side of the trunk will need replacing. Not nearly as much decay in the front frame diagonals and the inner fenders are solid above the frame, unlike mine which were totally stress-cracked. We'll find out what the A-pillars are like once the fenders come off but from what I could see and hit with a screwdriver, they seemed far more solid than mine.

So...the poor fellow looks a little thread-bare but in terms of what we're starting with, it's better than it looks...

And it runs, too. With a few vacuum leaks dealt with I might even get to idle below 1100 RPM. It's a bit noisy and one cylinder leaks REAL BAD past the rings (all 4 do, one's just really bad), but mission accomplished.

Now what do I do with it???

nifty project mister dupuis

Great project Matt
I like your staged approach, working on bits over a longer time period and not killing yourself trying to meet a deadline.

Looking forward to lots of "coaxing".

well i would like to give you some words of encouragement but im not really sure what words to say because i wouldn't have the kind of know how or bravery to take on that kind of project.

so GOOD LUCK!!

123 GT, that just sounds so good!

That'll be an interesting project; rather you than me but I look forward to reading the progress. Lots of bodywork, nice interior though.

Oh, my head.

Stay tuned.