Thought I'd post some pics and progress here. A little history on the thing to start with. Bought it when I was a sophomore in high school for $250 from a kid a year ahead of me. He moved to Michigan from Alabama and brought it with him, then didnt have the time or room to work on it here.

When we got it we drove it home, about 5 miles. It had a slant six with a three on the tree. Ran pretty good, but no brakes. Sat out of the way for about 6-7 years then about 4 years ago my younger brother started pulling it apart to start to redo the thing. That lasted about 2 weeks and back to the side it went. Now I am starting back on it as a winter project in hopes of getting it finished for my parents so they can drive it next spring.

The body is really quite nice. Needs a good amount of dent repair work and a full repaint. I have a 440, largely stock rebuild, completely done and ready to assemble, will also get a 727 and an 8-3/4 with friendly gears and a posi.

I found a place that lets you take parts there and sandblast about 10 minutes from my house so going to take the fenders and hood there this week to really get started.





Front glass and door glass is cracked. Both rear "barn door" glass is good. Needs all new seals and the driver side floor is a bit rough due to a leaky window gasket.











I'm going to fill alot of the extra holes on the firewall and box the frame rails as the 440 will be a little stouter than the slant 6.





The previous is an inside shot of the hood. Sunday I spent about 5 hours cleaning the underside of the hood. I started at first with paint stripper and that didnt do a thing. So I moved to a bristle setup in the drill and a DA and 80 grit and a little better progress. Probably would have took a whole 5 minutes with a sandblaster.lol. oh well.



Started boxing the right side rail. Plasma cutter and 3/16 plate made pretty quick work of stuff. At the moment just tacked in as I have to fill weld some bolt holes and fill in the top where the frame was "flanged" for a right hand steering box. Hopefully over the holiday can mock up a motor and built front crossmember and mounts.

Made a little progress today. Got the drivers side boxed, and rear section fully welded. I'm thinking of making a tube crossmember where the motor mounts will bold into and have that bolt onto the boxed plates, but may just weld the tube to the frame since it doesnt really need to be "servicable".

Also started mocking up the motor. Started off centered but pushing to the pass side an inch or so for header clearance on the steering gear. Not changing any steering stuff, well rebuilding, and will put a sweet manufacturing joint in to get rid of the factory sloppy junk.

Trans cross member - I cut the rivets and flipped it 180 so I could use it over along with a new poly trans mount. Hoping to fill some holes and strip more of the cowl over the weekend. Undecided on keeping heater stuff plus thinking of color and wheels eventually.

Don't sandblast the outer sheet metal. It will warp. Contact International Metal Stripping near Metro airport. They're reasonably priced. The metal will come back clean inside and out.
Doug

Those trucks are cool. I'll be watching your progress.

dvw - the only places getting "sand" will be inner fenders and misc little pieces. They do soda blasting and all sorts of media too. After the guy saw the panels we started talking. Good thing is as much paint that is peeling it comes off quick. Thanks! oh and cant wait to see your car next year.

Got the front frame rails done, and the 4 bolt plates have nuts welded on the inside of the plate so once I get some mounts I can make the k-member removable after all.

Filled a bunch of holes on the firewall. Parents want the heat option kept so no work there. Mocking up a brake booster and filling the old clutch pedal holes. Need to fix some holes in the floor and tons more....

The pic below shows the upper roof line on this thing. Does anyone know if they were seem sealed here from the factory. This appears to be sealed and then taped over or something.








This took a while. I removed the old "stick shift" lever and didnt want to wreck everything in the column.







This is a propane tank mount that was underneath this thing. I forgot to mention that at some point I guess a traveling salesman or something owned it. It used to have a stove and water setup inside on the passenger side with a crude vent cutout in the roof and right side. Sorta funny really.


Filled old MC holes and clutch pedal related stuff. Redrilled for new brake booster and quick skim coat.

great job!