Frame Off Restoration....

In my time, I have heard this term thrown in a lot.....

 By shops, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and tree shade mechanics,  I've even heard of a one man operation.

There is no frame on these cars.......

But, everybody has their own way of doing it, and this is the way we do it: 

This original 1971 Viper green was to be transformed into a Mexico blue RS

 First order of business is to prepare the tub for stripping, we removed the suspension, wire harness and brake lines.

Then it gets cooked............I mean, the tub goes into an oven, at a very slow temperature it melts the undercoating and paint, after that it gets blasted with a media of our choice.

As soon as it gets delivered back to us, it gets hung on what I call the "chicken Roaster"  others call it a rotisserie.

Every project comes with a list of mods to be added, these are a few of them:

Stitch weld the tub.
Replace the rear sway bar brackets.
Replace the shock tower.
Reinforce the tube.
Reinforce the through body front sway bar points.
Remove the battery boxes.
Modify flare to make look like a RS flare.
..and a few more.

Then we turn our attention to some rust issues, they all have it, it's just a matter of how much.  After all that is taken care of, the body work begins.

Yabba Dabba Doo.....

Reporting from Bedrock we bring you an update :

Our short wheel base with the floors issues has gotten something to put the seats on,

After hours of grinding and literally chiseling off chunks of plastic fillers and silly putty, we found ourselves with a dilemma...........I said  Abandon ship !!!   But our customer really loves this car.

Buying new floors is not the answer, the support areas where the new floor would attach are gone.

 But somebody had already tried to attach some kind of floor, and some parts seemed to have a good hold.  After testing some of those areas we had an idea,  find the stronger points of the frame and build from there.

Normally we would put folds on the sheet metal panels for strength, but we are going from something different this time,  we are going to use the existing panels, to sandwich the new panels by structurally weld them together

Then add reinforcement to the side of the tunnel and the new double floor panels,  this is going to prevent straight panels from flexing, and keep our customer's legs inside the vehicle.

Hundreds of little self tapping screws were driven to keep the two panels close together, then we remove and weld, remove and weld...........

The side of the tunnel gets a little more complicated, remember that wires fuel lines and battery cable are still inside of it, so is not only  remove and weld,  it becomes, remove, inspect and weld, then inspect again.

After the welding was 90 % completed, I felt I can withstand any relationship......I've been on my knees for a few hours.

The important thins is that now the floors are very strong, next we will use rust inhibitors for added rust protection, when we get done we will also install a roll bar.....just in case.           you shall hear from us soon.

Deconstruction of an S

 This is how the story goes, one day in 1997, the previous owner drove this 1970 S in the garage, left the door open and the car kept running until it ran out of gas, then he raised it up and left it on jack stands. 

2011, it was put on a trailer and started the journey to Los Angeles.  Its new owner is now going to attempt a resurrection.

But this was no Sleeping Beauty.  time did left a scar on it.  at first glance, the suspension pans and parts of the structure have gotten rust,  and they need to be replaced.  A frozen fuel pump and dried up fuel lines are not going to be delivering the liquid gold this 2.2 liter needs to scream.

Today we pulled the engine  out, and it's not looking too happy,  the mechanical injection is going to need surgery.

The good news is that the interior is in fairly good condition.

Tomorrow....we operate.

Long distant relationship

Hailing from Washington DC, we got us a real contender. a 1969 S that wants to soar with the eagles...it is unfortunately that it was found hanging with turkeys

After removing all the bad feathers, we have to prepare the skin, we have to work fast, the tub was sent to a media blaster, for this application, walnut shells were applied, we don't want this birdy to suffer too much by using sand or glass beads.

Then is attached to a rotisserie, turn every five minutes and tap lightly to remove the excess dust from the blasting, using compressed air and vacuum cleaners the bare skin wets prep for the first step;  Direct to metal primers and corrosion resistant compounds.

Once the skin is well done, we will asses the damage that time and weather has done.  This recipe is going to require, fresh suspension pans, a couple of large doors, two ripe fenders,  one battery box and the whole rear tray.  For now it sits simmering, we should start adding all other ingredients as they arrive.