I've been meaning to post some info and pix of my long term T/A project.
I could probably write a novel about the car since I've had it over 30 years now , but I'll try to keep the ancient history of it brief and concentrate more on its current restoration.
I bought the car when I was a junior in high school, in late 1978, after looking for a T/A or an AAR. Just in time for the worst winter around here in history! What a dumb choice for a car...
Its motor had just been rebuilt, it had a little rust, and the rear tires were bald, but it looked nice and it was in my price range. Luckily it died a few weeks after I bought it (fouled plugs, no thermostat). So it sat under a snowbank until spring, otherwise I probably would have destroyed it in short order.
Around the time I graduated HS, I had some rust repair done and a repaint, and not long after that I replaced the cragars with a set of ralley wheels. A guy pulled up next to me at an intersection one day and offered to sell me a set of window louvers for it, which was an option I really wanted on my car.

Here it is in the early 90's with its rallye wheels and louvers.

After college I was pretty tied up with starting my career, going out with friends, etc, and the car wasn't high on my priorities. I bought a house in '89 and a garage was a high priority, living at my parents, their 1 car garage always had too much in it to get my car in there, so it lived outside with a car cover on it. I don't know that it had ever been garaged, and unfortunately I came to find it had a lot of leaks.
My interest in Mopars got renewed in the early 90's and in '97 I bought a Challenger convertible. Buying that car and taking it to local shows got me thinking about starting a full restoration of my T/A, by now the trunk floor was pretty rusty and some bubbles were popping up here and there.
A guy at my work who had lived in MI and had a small collection of Shelby Mustangs and Ford race cars gave me the name of a guy over there in MI who he claimed "was the best in the world in fixing rust". Who knows more than a "Rustang" guy about the old "tin worm" right???
Although he was mainly a Mustang guy, he had recently finished a restoration of a '68 Charger that ended up getting best of show at its first show (Mopars at the Red Barn) and placed at the Nats. So I took the plunge and got on his waiting list. This was '99, I think.
I started disassembling and documenting the car, and a few months later he called and said he was ready to have it. He drove over with a trailer and picked it up. I figured I'd have it back in a year or so. Little did I know!!

Not long after my car got to the shop, his one employee left to take on another career. He was trying to make it as a one man show, but it became apparent after awhile he wasn't making much progress.
I wasn't all that upset, I had just lost a ton in my investments during the "tech wreck" and was sort of glad not to be getting bills from the shop. He got sick and couldn't work for a while, my employer started going downhill and I found myself worrying about getting laid off. Months turned to years, and by early 2005 I got laid off, but lucked out and found a better job in a month. I was really feeling pretty good for the first time in years, and really wanted my project to get back going now that I felt more secure in my career.
I traveled out to MI that summer to see my car and see if he might get going on it again, or if I needed to try to find somewhere else to take it.
Here it is after over 5 years at the shop.

He was back working full time at the shop by now, and was finishing up a car that had been there since before mine. It took him a year or so to get that one wrapped up but then he finally started working on my car extensively.
I had thought to myself over the years that I wondered what I had got myself into, but once he really got going with the car, I really wondered what I had got myself into!
The car had been a good "10 footer", I knew the trunk floor was shot because the rear window leaked. But I came to find that rear window was only one of many places that had leaked probably back to the day the car first hit the dealer's lot.
The interior floor was almost "day one" except for an area below the clutch pedal area, because the A pillar leaked and water had seeped in and pooled under the carpet. Leaves had clogged the drain holes in the cowl and because of that the firewall had some rusty areas. Rust under the vinyl top, several holes in the rear wheel housings and more.
Scott was going to send the car out the the media blaster early on, but decided it would be better to do some metal repairs before stripping the car, so it would be structurally sound during the process.
I had bought a trunk floor from AZ, he installed that. The frame was in mint shape except for the rear spring perch area. So he had to replace the last 4 or 5 inches of the rear frame.
Pictures he sent of the progress were pretty depressing at some point, with the amount that had to be cut away.

This picture shows some of the metal work done to repair the cowl around the booster and the spring hinge area.

Trunk floor and trunk extensions installed, and wheel housing repaired.

New rear quarters installed, along with new tail light panel.

Now finally the car is supposed to go to the strippers for media blasting.
Scott was looking at the doors and really wasn't happy with the passenger side door, rust bubbling through the lower portion, rust in the seams. He asked me to see if I could track down a good door.
I ran a wanted ad here on Moparts and Joe from Lansing MI responded that he had some good doors for sale.
He met up with Scott today, and Scott got a passenger door from him, and decided to get a drivers side one too, as the doors Joe had were pretty much rust free.
Thanks for the help Joe!

So, here we are in March 2009, around 10 years after I had put a deposit down to have Scott restore my car. I have managed to track down a lot of rare parts for my car over the years that I have stashed away waiting the day I can install them on my car, steel wheels, original E and G 60 polyglas tires, NOS mufflers, mint trim, I redid my seats with a Legendary kit, etc.
I never expected I'd have to replace so much sheet metal. I have a pair of mint '70 fenders, a mint rear tail light panel, an mint AZ trunk floor, 2 repro quarters, NOS front valence,and now 2 nice used doors. Plus all the patching of the cowl, the floor, the rear wheel housings.
Just to complicate life further, I lost my full time job late last year and have been getting by on unemployment and income from a side job.
Last summer I refinanced to take money out to build a bigger new garage so I'd have room for my T/A when it comes home along with an '09 Challenger R/T I had planned to get this year.
The '09 dream is on hold, but since Scott is making so much progress the last thing I want to do is tell him to put it on hold. I opened a new HELOC when I did that refinance, I wrote my first check drawing from it a few weeks ago to put down another deposit on the resto work.
I hate to take on any debt, but fortunately other than my mortgage I had no debt going into my unemployment. And the interest rate is only 2.25% on the equity line right now so interest payments are tiny. Hopefully I will get back to full time work again sometime in the near future, I don't want to take on a lot of debt but I don't want to have this project go on indefinite hold after it has dragged on for so long already.
Somehow this car needs to be finished before I die of old age!!!

Man...that's almost a happy ending. Usually stories that start like yours end with "I went to see my car and the guy told me most of the parts were lost/stolen/sold and he wouldn't be able to finish it so I should take it home the way it is."

It looks like it'll be pretty sweet when it's finished. Is the engine #'s?

My restorer has lived in the area he is in for his whole life and also is friends with and has worked with Vance Cummins on several projects years ago, so I figured he wasn't going to "skip town" on me! I have most of the small easy to sell type rare parts stashed away here, so all in all I figured it unlikely I was going to get ripped off!
The engine and 4 speed trans are #'s.
In the first 30 year old picture you might see the Grand Spaulding dealer sticker on the spoiler. In the 90's I was able to buy my original sales paperwork including a set of keys for my car. That was really cool and was one thing that motivated me to want to restore the car. The broadcast sheets I found in my car were for another T/A (returned to its owner in the early 90's). So the sales paperwork documented options the car had that aren't shown on the fender tag.
I did have to go track down a set of '450 steel wheels for the car after I got my paperwork, because I found it didn't have ralleys when new. Those are the most expensive parts I have bought so far, though I am glad I bought them in the late 90s'. A few years ago I could have tripled my money if I wanted to sell them.

A cool little side story.
Several summers ago I had my convertible at a local show, and saw a red T/A pull in that looked a lot like mine. I walked over to check it out and noticed the owner was pulling out his Mr. Norm's paperwork to display with the car. Then I checked his VIN and found his car was 2 VIN's past mine!
What's more, I find that the car was optioned identically to mine, and the owner tells me the car after his was another identical Mr. Norms sold T/A that is in Georgia!
That evening I contacted Barry and found that the car after mine was another identical car, he had seen the Mr. Norms paperwork for it.
That car has never surfaced. So my car was the first of 4 identical sequentially numbered T/A's ordered and sold at Mr. Norms!!
3 of the 4 still exist, maybe the 4th one is still out there somewhere and will turn up some day too!

Nice read, nice car! I hope all goes well to the finish, esp. with you finding a job.

Take care,

Mark

Very cool story and glad to see you still have it. Are you in the Burbs or City ? You don't have to say in the open forum but I'm in the Western burbs. I've had 3 T/A's but none currently. I have a few projects I need to finish but hope to get into another very soon. Hopefully I'll bump into you and your T/A in the near future. I would love to see it.

Just on the off chance any Chicago area folks reading this might know him, the original owner of my car was a Patrick Willford who lived on Algonquin Road in Rolling Meadows. Online I found reference to someone with that name in Streamwood, with previous addresses in Mt. Prospect and Rolling Meadows, who was in his late 50's. Has to be the same guy! I found a phone number but when I called it it was dead. I sent a SASE to the address with a note asking about the car, and included my phone and email. Never got it back or any contact.
But if by chance anyone has heard of the guy, let him know I'd like to have a chance to talk to him for a few minutes!!
Here is a picture of my floor where Scott patched the area rusted through because of a leak in the A pillar. When the vinyl top was removed we found that both A pillars were pretty trashed and he rebuilt those.

Here is the area of the rear frame that was rebuilt with pieces that came with the trunk floor I got out of Arizona.
Scott is meticulous about replacing every last bit of rusty metal on cars he works on. He talks about how cars he restores are better structurally than they were when new.

I showed a picture of the rebuilt wheel housing and trunk but should have included a "before" picture.

I'll be sure to keep an eye out for you in July. I heard a few of the Mopar guys hit up that Rolling Meadows show. That's the one Friday night near the horse track, correct ? I can't remember the exact locaction but when I checked it out there wasn't any Mopars there. Maybe I picked a bad night. BTW I live in Bartlett and work in Schaumburg.

Are you familar with the Black Chally that sat off Algonquin Road ? I can't remember the street name but you turn North by a Hot Dog stand. The car is supposed to be a V code. It's now been moved or sold but thought you may know the car being so close.