About 2 months ago my buddy Kosta and I started the disassembly, Ernest was conveniently on his “honeymoon” in Asia.
Day 1 Compression Test + prepping the Engine/sub-frame for removal (January 24th)
I wanted to do a compression test before removing the motor to know where I stood with it but I f’ed that up because didn’t know you had to have the throttle fully open while cranking. I realized this after adding oil to do the "wet" part.
Everything went pretty smoothly no bad surprises aside from a few unconnected wires/connectors, which i believe were mostly contributed to the car being previously de-smog'ed.
Day 2 Engine/sub-frame removal + Fuel Tank removal (January 31st)
We jacked the car up nice and high in the front and dropped the subframe with motor and tranny (on a jack), piece of cake. Next we were going to mount the engine stand bracket to the motor but the bolts we had were not long enough. We took to the trunk instead removing the gas tank and getting a little high in the process.
Day 3 Getting the Engine the engine stand without an engine hoist, remove other items from the Engine bay (Feb 8th)
Being the cheap bastard that I am, I wasn't about to rent an engine hoist to be able to mount the motor to the motor stand. We made a temporary contraption to roll the motor up a ramp and jack it up the extra few inches. It went surprisingly smooth, we did good.
We started cleaning up some of the leftover items in the engine bay brake booster, mastercylinder, brake lines, wiring...etc
Day 4 Removing engine bay wiring + Starting on stripping the interior (February 15th)
Ernest was supposed to finally show-up freshly back from vacation but made up a last second excuse, it was very hurtful.
Kosta and I made some good progress on the interior, unfortunately there were a few nasty surprises hiding under the carpet. The driver side floor was worse than anticipated with a lot of rust/rot. The passenger side had a few holes along the transmission tunnel and a huge patch which was glued and screwed in, a little unsettling.
This prompted me to search for some used floor pans which included part of the transmission tunnel (and sides), the new aftermarket floor pans which are sold are really only the flat part of the floor, so my transmission tunnel issues would still be visible.
Day 5 (half day) Continuing the interior stripping, dash removal + other trim removal (February 21st)
This was Ernest's first day on the job. After we finished breakfast we took to the garage to get the dash out, Ernest started work in the trunk removing tails/trim, etc. #mimosamechanics
The dash was a pain in the ass, and removing the heat/blower box was probably the most time consuming single item of the teardown.
Day 6 Removing remaining wires + removing windows + removing trims (February 27th)
It's amazing how simple these cars are put together.
While I documented and removed the remaining wires from the wire harness, Kosta and Ernest were working hard removing the driver/passenger windows/vent windows plus their regulators. The 1st one proved to be difficult but they learnt a few things for the other side. Following that we took to removing the trim, then called it a night.
I must say, when we started, I wasn't expecting all this. I figured I would get the floor fixed, remove the motor and remove the exterior trim but once we started we just kept going because at every step there's only a few more things to do, and we keep saying "as long as we're here might as well..."
...to be continued.
Friday evening we put in a few more hours...
Ernest was supposed to show up but choked at the last minute (again). He's 2 for 4, said he show up 4 times, actually showed up 2 times. Kosta is 7 for 7
Generally, Friday nights are reserved for "Boys Nite," unfortunately “the "boys" include a couple of guys who don't really care about working on my car (or any car for that matter), including my brother. We started at 5pm'ish my brother's primary objective was to go for a bite, so at 6:30pm he showed up and started chirping about what are we going to eat, I'm hungry... bla bla bla. The extent of his help was to bag & tag 4x bolts and like 2x nuts, while wearing a shirt, pants and having a beer. At 7:45ish Tony showed up, so we had 2 spectators having a beer waiting on us. The pressure to close up shop and go to Village Grecque (Greek Village) was strong. At 9pm I was eating a boner pita, um, I mean doner pita.
Day 7 (half day) - Removed fenders, wiper motor, hood latch (bar), rear bumper and started removing rear sub-frame. (March 6th, 2014)
After struggling with the parking brake, we called it a night at 8:30ish.
I was told the front fenders had been replaced in 2006, so I didn’t expect them to be in bad condition, for once I was right.
On Saturday after soccer I tried figure out how to remove the parking brake cables from the rear-drums. Success, I got those mf’ers out. (FYI, the diff is red because I removed and re-sealed it last summer... I had some red spray paint so gave it a coat)
Then on Sunday I re-removed the front sub-frame, originally I planned on sending it off to paint as a “rolling-chassis” but now I think I going to just make a crappy rolling stand.
I did a little bit of work on a couple of evenings, building a "dolly" out of wood (because I don't know any better) for the frame to wheel it around.
On Saturday, after soccer I took a few hours removing the soundproofing on the back seat/floor, it's tar with a cardboard-like cover. People recommended using dry-ice (or the harder route a heat gun). I figured since the back seat was at an angle dry-ice wouldn't be able to "sit on it," I gave it a go with the heat gun. It went well after 2.5 hours I had all the rear soundproofing removed. The section (driver rear shock) where you can still see "black" is because the previous owner must have tried to spay the rust with black paint.
Day 8 (half day), Doors + Trunk removal and removal of a few stupid things we missed (March 15)
For the first time Kosta choked, so it was Ernest and I. Following a brief yet intense make-out session we started by removing the doors, then the trunk. Fun things first, right. We then had a few little stupid things to take care of, the seat rail adjusters which were super rusted in and a crazy large patch which was screwed and glued to the passenger floor pan, some really crappy repair by a previous owner. Ernest decided he wanted to make that patch his bitch, an hour of heat gun, WD40, a crowbar and a lot of torque (+ a coffee), it was out and in the snow, receiving an Armenian drop-kick.
The floor pan sound proofing uses a much thicker tar and the heat gun did not do much to help removing it, so while Ernest worked on the patch, I brought my 2 donor floor pans outside to see if Montreal weather would have a similar effect as the dry-ice. It did, I was able to chisel away all the tar soundproofing. Unfortunately the removal of the sound proofing made me discover the passenger floor pan had some rust holes in it.I contacted seller for partial refund.
...so this is what she looks like now following Sunday's work.
On Friday night, Ernest & Kosta are coming over we're going to start prepping for the welder, who should also make an appearance Friday night (if we're lucky). It's been fun trying to find a welder but seems Ernest has come through.
TBC....