Rocker's 1973 Duster "Clara"
Well in June I happened to find a friends garage I could rent, and it is less than a mile from my place! When I found out, I had intended to take the car out for one last night drive, but my excitement got the best of me and I drove the car straight to the garage to get started. I had no plans of how far I wanted to go beyond at least getting the engine bay painted to match the rest of the car. I knew I wanted to do a thorough job, so that meant I was going to clear the firewall as well. The pictures below are but a few I took of my journey to strip the front end of Clara. I will admit that I got only about halfway into it before I had made up my mind that I was not putting the slant back in.
This picture was taken at the end of the first night.
Continuing the process.
Almost ready to pull.
Is it wrong that I am excited about rebuilding this?
My pile of parts continues to grow...
...and grow.
Well the day had finally arrived. I am very fortunate to have a lot of friends who share my enthusiasm, as well as RAD members like craigibc, and his son JonsGottaDusta. With the whole group, we were able to rip that slant out of there, load it into the truck and haul it to storage in a flash!
A big thank you to both Craig and Jon for all of their knowledge and help on my car! I am keeping the slant in hopes to use it as my first "father/son/daughter" engine buildup someday.
Here we go...
I love this picture!
I admit, Clara looked pretty sad with a gaping hole where her heart used to be.
Getting the rest of the firewall and other odds and ends would be a lot easier now. I set some old towels on the K-frame for a seat and went to work. Below are a few shots of the engine bay fully gutted. At this point everything under the dash, inner firewall, and floorboard had been removed as well.
I was curious to see what was under the paint.
Now it was time to Grind!!!
Still more to come...
Well in June I happened to find a friends garage I could rent, and it is less than a mile from my place! When I found out, I had intended to take the car out for one last night drive, but my excitement got the best of me and I drove the car straight to the garage to get started. I had no plans of how far I wanted to go beyond at least getting the engine bay painted to match the rest of the car. I knew I wanted to do a thorough job, so that meant I was going to clear the firewall as well. The pictures below are but a few I took of my journey to strip the front end of Clara. I will admit that I got only about halfway into it before I had made up my mind that I was not putting the slant back in.
This picture was taken at the end of the first night.
Continuing the process.
Almost ready to pull.
Is it wrong that I am excited about rebuilding this?
My pile of parts continues to grow...
...and grow.
Well the day had finally arrived. I am very fortunate to have a lot of friends who share my enthusiasm, as well as RAD members like craigibc, and his son JonsGottaDusta. With the whole group, we were able to rip that slant out of there, load it into the truck and haul it to storage in a flash!
A big thank you to both Craig and Jon for all of their knowledge and help on my car! I am keeping the slant in hopes to use it as my first "father/son/daughter" engine buildup someday.
Here we go...
I love this picture!
I admit, Clara looked pretty sad with a gaping hole where her heart used to be.
Getting the rest of the firewall and other odds and ends would be a lot easier now. I set some old towels on the K-frame for a seat and went to work. Below are a few shots of the engine bay fully gutted. At this point everything under the dash, inner firewall, and floorboard had been removed as well.
I was curious to see what was under the paint.
Now it was time to Grind!!!
Still more to come...
