Holiday Fun - part 3

Being off the week between Christmas and New Year allowed for a few more play days, but like all good things, they were over before I knew it. I did however make some decent progress on the Tomato….

First order of business was to get the shifter assembly out so the hump and floor could get painted with POR-15. Once it was removed it became obvious the shifter hump would also have to be pulled to allow for the shifter cavity to get cleaned and painted as well…

Next step was to remove the sheet metal screws and break the shifter hump free of the floor…

clean up the floor…

then clean up the hump….

and the reinforcement plate…

With those parts ready for paint, I turned my attention to the driver side firewall and floor. I once again removed the dash reinforcement and pedal/column support and finished removing the speedometer cable and cruise speed sensor. I then cleaned the insulation adhesive from the cowl and wiped down the inside of the firewall, cowl and floor with thinner and applied a coat of POR-15…

as well as painting the shifter hump and backing plate…

I also wiped down the dash reinforcement, braces and pedal/column support with thinner and shot them with a coat of Eastwood's DIAMOND CLEAR for bare metal to protect the raw metal. I also repainted the black portion of the brake pedal…

With the interior painting out of the way, I focused on getting the engine side of the firewall cleared off so I could begin prepping it for paint as well. I pulled the start/charge wiring harness, vacuum lines, wiper assembly and cruise control servo and laid the engine/front lighting wiring harness aside.

Next installment, I hope to be pulling the radiator support and components in preparation for removing the engine/transmission and putting the car on a rotisserie to allow for final cleaning and painting of the undercarriage.

Stay tuned….

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Carolina Chem Strip

Received my sheet metal parts back from Carolina Chem Strip (http://www.chem-strip.com/) and all I can say is... WOW! As they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here goes....

BEFORE

 
AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Here's a picture looking up into the structure to show how clean all the nooks and crannies are....

Spoke with Paul Blankenship at Carolina Chem Strip and he said my parts were heated in an oven, then soaked in an acid bath, followed by an alky dip, then washed. All I need to do is wipe down the parts with lacquer thinner and paint... Easy!

More to come....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Holiday Fun - part 2

Had another play day before the Christmas and New Years break, so I got a bit more accomplished on the Tomato. Since I had gotten the passenger side firewall and floor cleaned and painted, I decided to go ahead and do the driver’s side back to the rear seat foot well too. First order of business was to get the main dash harness, pedals and steering column out of the way….

Then pull the cowl and driver side firewall insulation….

The wiring was also pulled away from the firewall on the engine side….

I then rehung the pedals and dash brace to keep all the hardware in place until I was ready to paint….

I will be off the week between Christmas and New Years, so I plan to get the interior side of the cowl and the driver’s side firewall and floor painted. When I get that done, I will start prepping the upper cowl, firewall and A pillars for paint. Really feels good to be moving forward again!

Got a call from Carolina Chem-Strip to let me know that my sheet metal is headed back... It’s gonna be a wonderful Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Holiday Fun - part 1

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a few days off so I went and worked on the Torino for a bit. The first thing I did was to get the inner quarter panel structure shipped off to Carolina Chem-Strip to get the pieces cleaned up. I'll have a blog on all that once I get the parts back…

With the sheet metal parts out of the way, I turned my attention back to the Torino. It had been almost a year since she was last started, so the first order of business was getting the 460 fired. After figuring out why the starter wasn’t turning (I had lost my ground wire off the solenoid to the frame), a quick splash of fuel into the carb and she sputtered to life. After several splash-of-gas sessions, the fuel finally reached the carburetor from the tank and I was able to keep her running. Definitely need to siphon out all the old gas and put some fresh fuel in the tank (along with a couple bottles of carb cleaner to break up the varnish) because she was running rough and stinking up the place!

Next, I decided it was time to pull the evaporator housing off the firewall and drop the heater box from under the dash so I could begin to prep the firewall for paint. After about an hour, I had the housings removed and stuck back together so I wouldn’t lose any of the parts and protect the heater core and evaporator from damage. I’ll do a separate write-up on the HVAC housing restoration one that begins at a later date.

With the evaporator out of the way, I undertook the removal of the EGR tube along the back of the engine between the heads. The spare 460 I have on the engine stand has had the EGR tube clipped off and welded at the head connections, so I removed the fittings for replacement on the Torino’s 460 once the tube was removed.

I then proceeded to remove the remnants of the windshield sealant from the cowl area in preparation for cleaning up the cowl. I used lacquer thinner and a scotch-brite pad to speed up the process. The thinner really broke down the sealant nicely and in no time I was finished.

The last order of business was to remove the firewall padding from the passenger side of the interior and get that side of the floor ready for painting. I noticed one of my console bracket screw holes was a little sloppy, so I did a quick spot weld to close it up a bit and ground it smooth. A thorough vacuuming and wipe down with more lacquer thinner and I was ready to apply a brush coat of POR-15 to the passenger side floor. About an hour later I had cleaned up my brush and dauber and was admiring my handiwork.

All in all, was a fun filled three days working on the Torino.

Stay tuned....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Wheel well prepped

Well after MANY months, I finally had a play day and got the driver's side rear wheel well prepped for use.

 

Next step is prepping the driver's side rear quarter inner structure. Since it has soooo many nooks, crannies and cavities, I'm looking into having it chemically stripped of paint and rust to insure I get it all.

More to come....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Structure repair... Part 1

As you may remember if you have been following my blog from the beginning, when I first got my Torino I thought I had “fish eye” in the paint on the roof…



But as I pulled the interior out to change it over to black I discovered the real reason for the roof blemishes... Seems at some point in the past the Torino had been involved in an accident and the drivers side outer quarter panel, outer wheelhouse, latch pillar, inner trim bulkhead and drivers door had all been replaced but the roof skin, inner quarter structure, inner wheelhouse and package shelf reinforcement had all been “repaired”…



To test my hand at panel repair, I drilled out the spot welds securing the package shelf diagonal drivers side brace to the car and hammer and dollied it back into shape, stripped the old paint and reinstalled it in the car. I also fabricated a new filler panel to fit between the package shelf structure and the inner quarter panel structure which is slightly visible in the picture of the reinstalled diagonal brace, but with the acquisition of replacement wheelhouse and inner quarter structure, the filler panel won’t be used.

As I continued to work on my Torino I began my search for replacement sheet metal to replace the damaged panels. I located a Cougar locally from which I was able to pull the roof skin as well as roof bracing (see earlier blog posts Skinnin da Cat and Popping the top) but the search for the inner structure proved a bit more difficult. After exhausting all local leads over the course of several years, I finally contacted John Haney at BlueOval in McDonough, GA. I sent John an e-mail asking about the availability of the inner quarter structure for a ‘74-’76 formal roof Gran Torino and I received an e-mail back stating he did. I forwarded John a picture of exactly what I was needing, but he never opened it nor did I ask for photos of the panel he proposed to supply prior to sending payment. So when he e-mailed me back that the panel was ready for shipment, I requested pics of the removed structure only then to discover that the sheet metal he had removed was from a ’72! The ’72-’73 structure was completely different from the ’74-’76....

Although John would not admit to his mistake and after much haggling (and an additional $150!!), he did supply me with a drivers side wheelhouse that also included the lower portion of the inner quarter.

When the wheelhouse arrived, I set about removing the remnants of the surrounding panels that were not needed for my Torino in preparation for sandblasting.

Shortly after the arrival of the wheelhouse, my buddy Steve Casteel (Mr. Torino BTW!!) whom I purchased my Torino from, put me in touch with another Torino acquaintance of his… Phil Shoop who happened to have a couple Torino parts cars. I contacted Phil and sent him pics of what I was needing and within a month or two I also had the inner quarter structure!!
































Now with the replacement parts in hand, it’s time to get busy and get them sandblasted, cleaned up and ready for installation. My next major obstacle will be to find a local body shop or independent body man who would be interested in installing the panels for me!

Until next time…….

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Format update

Hey guys,

Been ages since I've been to my blog much less posted anything! I just bought a house and got moved in and I'm STILL UNPACKING STUFF... Amazing how much crap you accumilate over time!!!

I also updated the formatting of my blog. Hope it makes it easier to ready and that everyone enjoys it. I see a few of the older posts need tweaked a bit to display correctly but that will be another day...

I promise to post a project update..........

SOON

Stay tuned...........

ZEBRA 3 OUT