'73 Restore

[TabascoKid]

Last weekend I started the girlfriend relationship killer.

This puppy sat in girlfriend's garage for 7 years due to complete front suspension rubber disintegration.

Pulled seats, cards and all except dash & AC last weekend.

Dropping engine and tranny soon - yes it's all coming out.

Need some recommendations on storage of components like AC parts, brake MC, slaves and booster as they look good and will reuse what I can.

All system's hoses, tubing will be replaced. New replacement steering and suspension obtained.

Will be stripping interior asphalt coating as well as undercarriage so some parts will sit for a bit.

A compression test this weekend will determine level of engine rebuild as well as emptying and pulling gas tank.

Rust-wise minimal, typical floor pedal area, small bit rear driver side window - so far....

Any tips for my en devour appreciated!

 

 

[Mike G]

Ziploc bags labeled with a sharpie for all hardware. Rubbermaid tote for each major system, front suspension, rear, driveline, etc. take pictures of everything before you take it apart. Replace the slave, way easier now and not expensive. 

[Son of Marty]

As Mike said, plus black garbage bags for engine and tranny as well as seats and dash.

[BarrettN]

Cheap pawnshop video cam somewhere with a good view of the action. Get in the habit of narrating what you do, when you can't remember what you did, it's instant replay time. 

[TabascoKid]

Yep, Bag & tagging everything with zip locks as I frequent watching restorations on the Motor Trend channel.  Girlfriend is a recent preschool retired teacher so she has about 20 plastic bins that I'm storing each different system's parts. Luckily, I have my first parents home that is not rented out and I have a room for all seats, trim, window glass, hood and trunk storage.  Out of site, out of mind.  I should say shed as it's tin lined and like Swiss cheese, but the roof is great and dry.  I only have a foot clearance on the rear wall and another foot on the door so it's tight. Good point on the video, I'm doing pics and diagrams, but when it comes to engine, tranny & differential pull and reassembly, I'll definitely resort to some video.  Due to the extend of this, I'll be sending out any engine, tranny, differential rebuilds to a shop.  I'm in the New Orleans metro area, so if anyone knows of a reputable shop, please recommend.  I've just started lookin and will soon contact our local chapter for help.

Some mice made a nice dwelling under the hood in the passenger quarter panel space and chewed the ignition/wiper pump harness.  I'll be evaluating how much wire I will replace - from past experience, wiring under the dash can get quite scary!

Thanks everyone for the tips!

[Mike Self]

Master cylinder, calipers and other hydraulic bits--clean as much of the brake fluid out of 'em as you can, otherwise they'll rust as they sit in an opened system.  

 

I did a couple of columns on replacing front suspension bushings, utilizing plastic plumbing pipe, all thread and thick washers as removal/installation tools.  PM me if you'd like a copy.

 

And keep the mice away from your project.  They'll make things much harder to do if they get loose--particularly into the seats.  

 

BTW, if your floors aren't rusty, there's no real reason to remove the tar on the footwell floors.  That's a messy, nasty job and only necessary if you know the floors are badly rusted underneath.   Cut out a small section near one of the plugs (lowest portion of the floor).  If you don't find rust there, the rest of the floor is probably OK

 

cheers and happy tinkering

 

mike

[Son of Marty]

I'm going to have to take the unpopular route and disagree  with Mike. I think if you strip your 50 year old car down to the floor boards you should always strip the tar out and fix anything that needs it  reseal the plugs and por 15 the s#it out of them. The floors don't always start rusting at the plugs the right side of the tranny tunnel/floor area is a quite common rust spot (probably a leaky heater core or heater gasket) but like Schrodinger's cat the only way your going to know for sure is to look. Yes it's a messy job and a bit of work but anyway you look at it it's less work now than having to strip the interior later to do the job.

 

PS the dry ice method IMO is the least messy. 

['76mintgrün'02]

I welded a wide blade onto an air chisel and used that to strip the tar mats.  It was kind of messy, but sort of fun.

 

 

Mineral spirits works well for removing the residue.

 

 

 

 

[Get2theBimmah]

^ for those not skilled enough to make it themselves, they're sold for relatively cheap to make your life easier.  

 - https://www.homedepot.com/p/BLACK-DECKER-2-0-Amp-Variable-Speed-Oscillating-Multi-Tool-BD200MTB/203124595?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&mtc=Shopping-B-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_9_PORTABLE_POWER-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-PortablePower_PLA&cm_mmc=Shopping-B-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_9_PORTABLE_POWER-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-PortablePower_PLA-71700000034127218-58700003933021540-92700060764889375&gclid=Cj0KCQiApsiBBhCKARIsAN8o_4jJUlaBzf47c0OnMMnjpZEpePQIV-3LTvxtsWFttA1WD6YAjPr5hV8aArtgEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

I'm with Marty on stripping everything down.  If you're taking it that far, expose all you can to make sure nothing is hiding.  A little extra effort now to know that it is solid and nothing's harboring.  Not to mention, modern sound deadening is much better when you go to put everything back together.   

 

Also for parts storage tips - feed all bolts, nuts screws back into areas they're removed from or tape/zip tie baggies of hardware to their associated components.  Easier to find when reassembling later on.  But yes, as mentioned above - label, categorize and stay organized.  The more OCD you are about storage, the easier your life will be weeks, months, years later when you pull them back out again.  

 

Good luck and post updates! 

['76mintgrün'02]

2 hours ago, Get2theBimmah said:

^ for those not skilled enough to make it themselves, they're sold for relatively cheap to make your life easier.  

 - https://www.homedepot.com/p/BLACK-DECKER-2-0-Amp-Variable-Speed-Oscillating-Multi-Tool-BD200MTB/203124595?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&mtc=Shopping-B-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_9_PORTABLE_POWER-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-PortablePower_PLA&cm_mmc=Shopping-B-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_9_PORTABLE_POWER-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-PortablePower_PLA-71700000034127218-58700003933021540-92700060764889375&gclid=Cj0KCQiApsiBBhCKARIsAN8o_4jJUlaBzf47c0OnMMnjpZEpePQIV-3LTvxtsWFttA1WD6YAjPr5hV8aArtgEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

That tool cuts with a side to side motion.  The one in my video is an impact chisel/hammer that shatters the tar.  Mine is a cheap one.  Probably similar to this--

 

https://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools-compressors/air-tools/air-hammers/medium-barrel-air-impact-hammer-61244.html

 

It does take a decent size air compressor to run them though.

 

Tom

[TabascoKid]

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback.  I haven't replied lately, but doing a 18 hour average weekend on this.  I did the dry ice 2 weekends ago and it works great for the flat floor boards areas and under rear seat.  Forty pounds  of 10"x10" slabs at total $50 price was reasonable.  Here in New Orleans Metro area temps were 70 then down to 66 working late into the night (very late start). As I did each section I made adjustments yielding better, cleaner results.  Some say 15-20 minutest of chill time was enough.  I got better results as I increase the time to 50-60 min.  All sections were covered with a cheap Harbor Freight moving  blanket folded over to insulate each section.  Also, the degree of the hammer force to break up the scored material was vague and I was apprehensive to apply the required force I soon realized was needed.  I used an old dense rubber mallet from my girlfriend's past uncle and it worked great till the small wooden handle broke on the next to last section.  Dry Ice yielded poor results on the drive tunnel or rear seat wall/towers. 

 

This past weekend I bought a $18 heat gun and it helped greatly to remove the rest of the asphalt paper on the verticals.  The more I worked, a general heat up of a section then high heat (1600) applied just before the the area being scrapped helped separate the material in a roll.  Don't over heat as it may separate the white paint from the metal.  Working with minimal heat is the key an you can roll of nice sheets capable of filling with cream cheese for those nasty neighbors down the street.

 

So, my personal vote is using the best of both methods.  While waiting on the dry ice to chill a section, you're cleaning up the recent chilled area, working on other areas of the bag and tag dismantle and of course, opening a bottle of wine for sipping during this great process!

 

Finally, this weekend I'll be cleaning the residual tar with Xylene, wearing respirator and a fan at full force, good gloves and such.

I did the rear passenger, under rear seat section and it performed well primarily with the remaining tar and pretty good with the brown-tan adhesive used on the back wall.

Pull the dash, rear firewall wiring harness, and all the glass.  More about the bon-do found on the rear passenger wheel well, Oh, My!

 

Luckily, I've only have surface rust on rear wall, driver rear floor/panel, and of curse the Flintstone area under the floor box.  While much is visible, the worst showings were covered by the asphalt material, which adds the incentive to strip this stuff out , repair and paint, then apply more modern, (more expensive!) and more betta material.

 

More to come and thanks again for all the feedback,

Tabascokid

 

 

Surface rust to be sanded, then blasted for priming.

 

 

 

 

[TabascoKid]

Cleaning up the residual asphalt/tar on the rear sections worked pretty good with half xylene/half mineral spirits mix and a scrub pad.  I'll finish the front floor panels this weekend and deal with carpet glue.  What didn't dissolve well was the thick beige-orange overkill coating of the carpet glue on anything else not covered with sound deadening.  Searched around and will try the goof off pro adhesive remover.  Any thoughts on carpet glue removal techniques appreciated as the heat gun nor half xylene/half mineral spirits mix got nowhere fast.  Rear wiring harness removal, rest of the glass and rear lights "bag and tag" would yield a productive weekend.

[Shawn Piper]

Seeing the tar board clean up is giving me PTSD.  I also used dry ice and it got me 80% complete.

 

The question you have to ask yourself is whether you care about the underlying paint. If you do, be very careful about the solvents you use.  The better it works, the more likely it will remove the paint.

 

I just used a heat gun, goo gone, and a plastic scraper.  These were my results.  

 

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Shawn Piper

[TabascoKid]

Hey Shawn,

Thanks for the reply,

You must be in the west from your pic, probably Cali or Ariz, but you cleaned up the floors pretty well.   I wish I had those overall results but still, you have some heavy rust areas to deal with.  The half xylene/half mineral spirits mix worked well as it didn't sit too long and I agitated it with a stiff nylon brush then soaked up the mess with the blue shop towel sheets.  I'll do the same for the front floor boards, but the carpet glue is now my next issue to complete the stripping.  The goo gone or goof off stuff is so different then the petro solvents used prior - but I see what results I get to remove the glue and bring this to the paint.  I do plan on stripping to metal then blasting the heavy surface rust areas, followed by rust inhibitor and epoxy primer.  So, the weekend process goes on...

Thanks again for the info,

~W

[TabascoKid]

This weekend the asphalt cleanup in the front passenger went quick.  To take a break working in the confines of the cockpit I removed all the rear lights and pulled the rear wiring harness up to the front firewall.   I then tackled the crazy carpet glue on everything not covered in asphalt.  I tried a mix of things but whom ever installed the carpet, their ears and their first born's were burning as this is so caked on.  The xylene and mineral spirits had no real affect.  Tried the heat gun when working the vertical asphalt stripping, but nothing.  Picked up some Goof Off but not much joy.  My assistant picked up some of the 3M Adhesive Removal which was quite pricey @ ~$30 a can.  Finally some results.  This glue is wicked and I'm wondering why the heck am I stripping this.  Spray a bit and scrape. Repeat and scrape in small sections.  Directions say spray, sit for a few then wipe. NOT!  The solvent dissolves only so much and then you are smearing adhesive, not removing.  It took 1 1/2 hours just to do the rear passenger section!  Any ideas or thoughts appreciated.

~W