February 2006

Well, I've purchased another car. It's a red '74 2.0l. I bought the car from Chris Spence, in the Tampa Bay area. These are the shots that Chris sent me that peaked my interest.

More shots.

Interior shot. You can see that Chris began the restoration.

Front trunk.

Driver's long view.

This appears to be the only major rust found on the car. The jack posts on both sides have rust and Chris has already removed them.

Chris also gave me a shot of the car when he first purchased in Michigan. Hopefully I'll be able to restore it to this or better condition.

This shows the car being loaded on a trailer. Paul Woodbury was kind enough to bring his trailer and help me transport it home.

Another shot of the car and trailer.

Here Paul is getting the trailer ready.

She's up on the trailer.

This is a shot of Paul and his daughter strapping the car down.

We were able to move the car into the new shed, but just barely.

A shot of the front trunk with parts.

Interior shot.

Another interior shot.

Rear trunk with parts.

Engine shot.

Another.

And another.

Chris also gave me several boxes of parts, new and used.

The car safely in it's new home.

I've begun the restoration process. I've decided to restore this vehicle in 3 sections, beginning with the front. This will include the front fenders, front trunk, front suspension, gas tank, hood and windshield. I began by removing the hood, front bumper and front wheels.

The following are reference shots. Front brakes.

Front trunk floor.

The following shows immediate rust areas. This is where the front bumper attaches to the passenger side. You'll also notice the area below where the fender attaches appears to have been repaired in the past.

Here's the blinker area, again, previous repaired area.

Driver side bumper attachement.

The hood channel was previously repaired with bondo.

More channel/bondo repair.

Another reference shot of the front trunk floor.

Fuel tank reference shot.

I began the restoration by removing the headlights. Here's a reference shot before removing the headlight buckets.

A reference shot of the headlight motor, before removal.

Another headlight reference shot.

A close up shot.

I have removed the headlight buckets, cleaned and painted them.

A shot of the headlight/body area before cleaning.