Quote: The only thing I could think of was to locate an absolutely pristine Survivor that still had EVERY single original part, hose, gasket, weather strip, etc…. that it did when it left the assembly line.
I'm following along and reading your answers Dave, and I have ask how you're going to handle parts/pieces/assemblies involving gaskets, especially those gaskets which do not usually make it through the disassembly process well enough to allow them to be used again upon re-assembly?
I don’t think that paper items like gaskets or even certain paper tags fall into the realm of original "parts" if they need to be replaced. I have a few NOS rear end gaskets still in their original packages (some are old GM items) and you cannot tell the difference from the ones that are made today. It is impossible, for instance, to reuse an oil soaked rear end housing gasket once it is disassembled. Items like paper gaskets are classified just like the paint that will be used to re-spray items such as the axle tube, power steering unit or K-frame. As we get into disassembling the car some things like brake hoses (just speculation at this point) might not be safe enough to reuse. The oil filter had been replaced sometime in the life of the car so it will have to be replaced with an NOS assembly line version. Concerning the car, all body panels, interior pieces, tires, glass, suspension parts, hoses, clips, fastening hardware etc….. will be the same ones that came on the car in 1970. Common sense and safety will certainly be a factor for evaluation as we start to break down and document the components.
The car has right at 10K miles on it. The original owner must have never driven this thing in bad weather. After strapping down one of the tires (for the trip home) we un strapped it, only to hear the sad sound of psssssssss. One down four to go. Just for the record the owner told us the air was still original in the tires. Who could ever know for sure?!
