Start of a Dart
You will get another head start on me, as I'm currently going backwards. Not only do I have no brakes, now I have no gas tank either. My buddy came over yesterday to help get the tank out. It didn't look bad on the outside, but Oh My, the inside was another story. The entire top half is crusted with rust. When we dumped out the old fuel it looked like the broth from a can of chicken noodle soup, and that was after I added several gallons of fresh stuff to drive it out of the PO's back yard for the tow truck, and then into the shop. Oh wait, there's more, what's that rattling sound inside the tank? Why it's the float off the sending unit, long departed from its mooring on the end of the arm. It's completely rotted across the face and rear of what you can see, in a straight line. It must have sat in that 1/4 full tank for most of the 25 years since it last ran on the street. Perhaps this could be part of why the fuel gauge doesn't work?
I'm starting a pile of junk metal to go to the scrapper, the first residents are the tank and the 70's era Gabriel air shocks which were just about welded into position. I bet they have been on there for 40+ years.
The trunk looks to be in pretty good shape, but I knew the spare tire pan had something odd going on. From below, it looked like it was delaminating. The inside didn't look great, but a little digging revealed two holes (in orange) about the size of my thumbnail that had been goobered up in some kind of putty to plug the holes. I just received a replacement tire pan so it appears replacing this will move to the top of the to-do list. There is no sense replacing the gas tank if I have to take it back out to do the tire well. I have feelers out for a local welder who can do sheet metal (which is way above my pay grade).
Today will see the removal of the 7-1/4 rear end and a cleaning-fest on the 8-3/4 to get the surface rust off, and get it painted and assembled for installation. New springs, spring mounts, shocks, and hangars are here and ready to go in. Forward progress is a nice feeling!
You will get another head start on me, as I'm currently going backwards. Not only do I have no brakes, now I have no gas tank either. My buddy came over yesterday to help get the tank out. It didn't look bad on the outside, but Oh My, the inside was another story. The entire top half is crusted with rust. When we dumped out the old fuel it looked like the broth from a can of chicken noodle soup, and that was after I added several gallons of fresh stuff to drive it out of the PO's back yard for the tow truck, and then into the shop. Oh wait, there's more, what's that rattling sound inside the tank? Why it's the float off the sending unit, long departed from its mooring on the end of the arm. It's completely rotted across the face and rear of what you can see, in a straight line. It must have sat in that 1/4 full tank for most of the 25 years since it last ran on the street. Perhaps this could be part of why the fuel gauge doesn't work?
I'm starting a pile of junk metal to go to the scrapper, the first residents are the tank and the 70's era Gabriel air shocks which were just about welded into position. I bet they have been on there for 40+ years.
The trunk looks to be in pretty good shape, but I knew the spare tire pan had something odd going on. From below, it looked like it was delaminating. The inside didn't look great, but a little digging revealed two holes (in orange) about the size of my thumbnail that had been goobered up in some kind of putty to plug the holes. I just received a replacement tire pan so it appears replacing this will move to the top of the to-do list. There is no sense replacing the gas tank if I have to take it back out to do the tire well. I have feelers out for a local welder who can do sheet metal (which is way above my pay grade).
Today will see the removal of the 7-1/4 rear end and a cleaning-fest on the 8-3/4 to get the surface rust off, and get it painted and assembled for installation. New springs, spring mounts, shocks, and hangars are here and ready to go in. Forward progress is a nice feeling!
