February 2004

Remove the 2 bolts that hold the engine lid, they are accessed underneath the bracket welded to the firewall. Remove the engine lid.

Remove the bolts that hold the rear trunk torsion bars. These bars will not be reinstalled, instead, I plan to add trunk shocks.

Remove the battery ground cable. Note, the bolt broke off and will need to be cut out and welded back in.

View of the passenger's side HELL HOLE. (Not bad looking)

View of the driver's side HELL HOLE.

This shows 2 rust holes in the engine compartment, on the driver's side.

Close up view of the upper rust hole.

A close up view of the lower rust hole.

Driver's side suspension ear. (Not bad looking)

Passenger's side suspension ear. (Not bad looking)

This is a pic before the removal of the driver's rear fender. I used a 1/2" variable-speed drill, with 3/8" spot weld drill bit and a regular 1/4" drill bit. Also used a disk grinder, for grinding metal and a cut off wheel to remove metal.

A close up before removal.

This shows the results of the 3/8" spot weld drill bit, used to drill out the spot welds around the targa area.

I used the 1/4" drill bit to drill out the spot welds where the 3/8" wouldn't fit.

Close up at the engine lid area.

Closed up at the rear of the fender.

Close up showing the PO repair at the rear of the fender. The spot welds are welded over.

Close up of another previous repair where the rear fender meets the door threshold.

Close up of the air tube area, heavy rust.

Close up of hte targa area removed. At this point, I have the air tube area and the tail light area (where the PO made repairs) left to remove. We'll attack it next weekend.

Rear fender removed. I carefully cut away the metal from the air-tube and cut a section from the rear. After that, the fender came off easily.

View of the car with the rear fender removed. Notice the surface rust and the reinforced panels to brace the rear suspension. This is what the factory race cars had.

This is the main reason I removed the rear fender, to be able to remove and repair the rust in the engine compartment.

This shows the rust behind the door stricker, it will also need to be removed and repaired.

This is the back side where the door stricker bolts to. This was completely rusted out.

This shows the jacking plate.

This shows where I had to cut out the PO weld. I wasn't able to drill out the spot welds.

This is the view from the engine compartment. That gray area is the concrete showing where it has rusted through.

This is the other rusted hole in the engine compartment. This is the rusted hole behind the door stricker.

This shows the inner panel of the targa that has rusted along the spot weld seams. It also shows the air-tube connected to the interior compartment.

This is a shot after I began removing the surface rust, to find out where all of the rusted pieces are.

Close up of the inner targa panel after rust removed.

More close up of the rust removal.

Another close up of the rust removal.

Close up of the jack post. It appears that this jack post has been replaced before and there is rust behind it. I'll have to remove the jack post, clean behind, then reweld the post.

Another close up of the stricker backing plate. This plate will need to be replaced and cleaned behind it.