1971 Demon, FC7 Plum Crazy

[Dartswinger70]

Man that's alot of work I commend you but I imagine alot of the cars are like this these days. I was around in the 90s when you could still find a fairly rust free specimen etc.

 

[tom999w]

Yesterday I finally received the outer rocker in the mail, so I finished up removing the rusted rocker today. I didn't want to take the old rocker out until I received the new one, so the car didn't have to sit unsupported for too long before the new rocker went in. Now I have to start prepping and also adding some patches here and there before putting in the new rocker.

 

[tom999w]

Just for fun, I'm keeping a rough tally on the body work hours. So far I'm up to about 22 hours (removing what was left of the floor and full length rocker, and drilling out about 150 spot welds). (The rocker took 7 hours to remove, after all the rocker spot welds were drilled out.)

So if I was paying a resto shop $125 per hour, the bill would be climbing up to $2750 by now, and this project is just getting started...

 

[tom999w]

Just a quick test fit to be sure that the tolerances are being met. I was watching a pro on a video installing a full floor and he was stressing out about a 1/16" gap between the floor and torsion crossmember. With this rough test-fit I had bigger gaps than that, but still need to hammer and dolly the mating surfaces and do some minor patching.
I'm going to spot weld the three pieces of the rocker together (front, back and end cap), and install the whole rocker as one unit.

 

[tom999w]

Last weekend I prepped the rocker halves (normal primer on main surfaces and ground contact surfaces down to bare metal and primed with weld-through primer) and welded on the end cap. I also bought a spot welder to put the rocker together, and also to weld the connection of the front of the floor to the firewall. Alot of other places the spot welder just isn't practical to use, unless it can be reached by the tongs easily.

 

[tom999w]

I used Seymour weld through Primer for the weld contact surfaces (thanks Princess Valiant), and will hopefully be putting the rocker together tomorrow, and install into the car this week.

 

[tom999w]

Last weekend I picked up the "frame" (both front frame rails and torsion cross-member) in Staten Island NY. It needs some prepping and small patching before installation.

 

[tom999w]

This past weekend I picked up the firewall in upstate NY. As someone in this forum stated, instead of replacing the whole firewall, I'm going to cut out the rusted areas and overlap the new pieces. Then prep the bottom edge where it will be connected to the new floor.

 

[tom999w]

Today I spot welded the rocker together and did some more test fitting to the car (3 hours). The AMD parts so far were pretty good, not the best. But working with new imperfect parts sure beats working with mangled used parts.

So the overview of the project so far was uphill for a long time, especially with all the friends and family chiding about putting it in the junkyard. But when restoring a car, you have to remove the bad parts in order to install the good parts. And all of the "non-car enthusiast" public in my area just sees a car that is losing more parts off of it every month and looking worse and worse. Because of all the work that has to go into deconstructing a car, I can see why alot of car resto hobbyists let life get in the way and give up on the project halfway through. I'll admit, there were times when I would prefer to go swimming or go drink a beer in the mountains, but I've done projects like this before, where it gets alot harder before it gets easier. But fitting the rocker today gave that spark of excitement that it's finally at the point where new parts can go on it. And at that point there's a fresh new feeling of motivation to get the car done. Also very motivating is the people in this forum who have helped every step of the way. Also, some have been, or will be where the Demon is now; and I'm glad if this build thread helps someone, if even a little bit, with their project.

 

[tom999w]

Today I finished installing the rocker (3 hours). I just need to finish prep the welds for smoothing out/paint.

 

[tom999w]

Tomorrow I'm going to start removing the frame and K-member to prep for the installation of the new frame. I formulated a plan, penned the cut marks with the paint marker, and will start chopping tomorrow..

 

[tom999w]

Today I finished disconnecting the front fender brace things, what was left of the trans crossmember, and drilled out all the spot welds of the engine "enclosure". I also cut the frame ahead of the k-frame, like I said in a previous post. I then dropped the whole frame, k-frame, and suspension out of the bottom of the car (9 hours).

 

[tom999w]

Tomorrow I'm going to start cutting out the bad areas of the firewall and patching it up. Then patching/prepping the enclosure and the new frame for installation.

 

[limegreen70]

If you could take some nicer pictures in the daytime, that would be appreciated. I mean no disrespect when I say that

 

[Big.J.007]

Looks like it's well underway to being solid again!

Today I finished disconnecting the front fender brace things, what was left of the trans crossmember, and drilled out all the spot welds of the engine "enclosure". I also cut the frame ahead of the k-frame, like I said in a previous post. I then dropped the whole frame, k-frame, and suspension out of the bottom of the car (9 hours).

View attachment 1716459479

View attachment 1716459480

 

[tom999w]

If you could take some nicer pictures in the daytime, that would be appreciated. I mean no disrespect when I say that

Ya, I design cell sites for a living and really hate phones. As a result, my phone is a piece o' junk. I'll take better photos tomorrow.

 

[mygasser]

Ya, I design cell sites for a living and really hate phones. As a result, my phone is a piece o' junk. I'll take better photos tomorrow.

the pic's quality are ok, they're just dark so we can't see them properly
neil.

 

[tom999w]

Yesterday and today I worked on prepping the frame for install. I'm keeping all five pieces together (right frame rail, left frame rail, torsion crossmember, left & right side brace thingies) and going to install it through the bottom as one unit. That way I can't mess up the factory specs of the frame connections, because they're already connected to each other from the factory. I figure that the less I actually have to measure, then the less can get messed up. I ground off the spot welds, cleaned up the mating surfaces, and still have to patch one area and prep/paint it before install (6 hours). Then after that will be patching up the firewall and prepping the car connections to the frame...

 

[Big.J.007]

Good deal

 

[tom999w]

An update on the labor that I would be charged if I brought the car to a local bodyshop at $125 per hour: Since my last calculation on August 19, I've worked 3 hours per day after office work and before it gets dark, Monday through Thursday, = 12 hours per week X 6 weeks = 72 hours x $125 pr hr = $9000. So $9000 + $2750 from the last calculation = $11750 into this project if I was paying someone to do the work.

To calculate the actual cost: tools and materials = about $400. Then adding the purchase price of the car $1200, parts = about $1000, and renting a uhaul car trailer and driving 6 hour round trip (twice= $200 + $200) + food and beer for the trip = As of today I'm into this project for a total of $400+ $1200 + $1000 + 400 = $3000.

 

[SixPaksRule]

If you were to take the time to seam weld the car - especially in the more than several critical areas - the end result would be a very solid unibody that does not flex.

 

[CFD244]

An update on the labor that I would be charged if I brought the car to a local bodyshop at $125 per hour: Since my last calculation on August 19, I've worked 3 hours per day after office work and before it gets dark, Monday through Thursday, = 12 hours per week X 6 weeks = 72 hours x $125 pr hr = $9000. So $9000 + $2750 from the last calculation = $11750 into this project if I was paying someone to do the work.

To calculate the actual cost: tools and materials = about $400. Then adding the purchase price of the car $1200, parts = about $1000, and renting a uhaul car trailer and driving 6 hour round trip (twice= $200 + $200) + food and beer for the trip = As of today I'm into this project for a total of $400+ $1200 + $1000 + 400 = $3000.

LOL......Don't blink

 

[tom999w]

If you were to take the time to seam weld the car - especially in the more than several critical areas - the end result would be a very solid unibody that does not flex.

Very true. I was thinking about doing that but figured that if the connections were all spot welded at the factory (panel to panel, and frame to panel connections), then re-spot welding (or at least simulating the spot welds) was enough.. But ya, I agree, welding along the seams would make it alot more rigid.

 

[tom999w]

LOL......Don't blink

Ya, I don't know how people do it, sending their car to a company for a restoration and watching the bill climb by the thousands every week...

 

[340sFastback]

Ya, I don't know how people do it, sending their car to a company for a restoration and watching the bill climb by the thousands every week...

Or sending their car to a shop with a big up front deposit and have it sit forever not getting done then have to go pick it up take it to another shop.

The way yours was rusted out very few shops would even take in a project like that. Probably ask for a 25k deposit up front ....