On to a quick resto from the firewall forward. My father had merely gunked it down, and then hosed it down with a rattle can of semi gloss black paint. He meant well, but it just wasn't going to cut it for me - even though this is hardly a 1000 point restoration. So began the process of scraping and sanding off many layers of paint, undercoating, and road grime from the past 40+ years.





As I dug deeper, I found some things I did not like. My father hadn't replaced any bushings, it was a low mile car and he had intended on driving it and deciding what it needed based on how it drove. At this point, I wasn't going to rush things, the a-arm bushings were pretty well dry-rotted and shot. I had originally planned to try to clean and paint everything without taking it apart. Much to my father's dismay... I started to tear it down to the bare frame.

I decided to apply paint stripper, and hand sand the a-arms. It was a very tedious process, but well worth it IMO.













Three of the 4 original ball joints remain. They are nice and tight, no wobble in them. I only had to replace a boot on two of them. This car was very low mile, and mostly rust free. I consider myself quite lucky to start with such a good car.

With the a-arms finished, it was time to get back to work on the frame rails...



I actually wet sanded the primer with some worn 600 wet paper prior to mixing and laying down the paint...







Next, time to turn my attention to the spindles and steering components...

Time to put the engine and transmission in. (for storage, and to help compress the new coil springs)



The mopar guys here should like the color of my pressure plate.



I did my best to recreate the accepted factory overspray on the bellhousing.





And it's installed...





And that is pretty much as it sits now. I did manage to get it back on all four wheels. However, all of the steering components need to be reinstalled.

Thank you for suffering through all of that. I will continue to update once I resume work on the car in a week or two. Haven't been able to work on it since the 2nd week of September.

Nice build, looks good, and a good story to go with it. Slow and steady wins the race. The birth of a "Bow Tie". Ma Mopar is even a little happy when its not one of her own that is saved from the crusher.

Great work, theres nothing wrong with partial resto!

Keep the details coming!

Nice Build Brian Thanks for posting. What is the next step?

I am hoping to get the steering box, etc all back in. Then install the rest of the parts to get the engine running and broken in. Once it is all debugged, I am going to strip it down, refit all of the body panels and repaint it. I'm unhappy with the panel gaps and blemishes in the paint.

It may be a bit unrealistic, but hoping for 13.30's out of the car. It's heavy, and underpowered. I am certain there will be lots of experimentation in my future.

Looks good,all the best in finishing the build.66belair,Frank.

Frank your next lets see your creation

An important piece of the puzzle arrived last night. A little gift from Cliff Ruggles...

Finally made time to work on my car for a few hours this afternoon. Steering box, center link, etc. is all in. I also did some touch ups to fix some bumps and scrapes from the engine install.

Great job on the build. Would like to see some more pictures and information on the other projects in the background.

I had to go back and look at what else snuck in to the photos:

1951 Mercedes Benz E170 - has been sold.
1972 SS 454 Chevelle (green) - traded for the 66' GTO convertible.
1972 Monte Carlo (red) - is listed in the classifieds section.
2001 Camaro SS - has been sold.
The old Chevy truck - I'll post a small thread with some pictures and details.

I've been doing my best to drop by my parent's house here and there to work on it. So far, shocks and front sway bar are installed. Got back over there today and installed the water pump and power steering pump. I also cleaned and painted most of the brackets and pulleys. I spent the morning breaking down the 10 bolt for my father's 67' C10 project. Then started to set up the ring and pinion. Used the afternoon to work on my stuff before heading home.





Hoping to get the accessory drive mostly back on this week. I still need to restore and rebuild the alternator.