This weekend marked some good progress on the car. I have the interior 90% stripped out, with only the dash/firewall area left to go over. I want to take my time with that.
I did find one more tiny rust spot in the floorboard that will have to be repaired. It's in a really bad spot, up on a 3-way corner of the driver side kick board. I haven't wire-wheeled it to see what the real extent of the rust damage is yet. Not looking forward to that. But I still shouldn't complain. I'm really lucky that the floor wasn't completely rotted out of this car, given the amount of time it spend out in the weather.
I also took the rest of the glass out of the car. Removing the rear quarter windows took a little time to figure out, but was easy once I got a good look at it. I didn't see any reference to this area in the factory assembly manual, so I didn't have much to go on.
The headliner stripped out fairly easily, and from looking at it, I don't think reinstalling the new one will be much trouble. Also, on a very positive note: The roof supports only have some very minor surface rust. I was worried that they'd be completely rotten, too. That's a stroke of really good luck. So as it stands now, I should be able to get away with replacing the roof skin.
One sad note is the area between the rear window and the trunk. Don't know exactly what that's supposed to be called, but it's another common problem area in these cars. It will have to be replaced. But in the scope of things, that should be one of the easier repairs to make.
I also ran into the old lead body filler at the quarter panel/roof seams. I took a quick stab at removing some of the lead, just to see how difficult it will be. It's not hard, but I'll have to take care not to burn the hell out of myself doing it.
Next on the list: I need to get some 1" square tubing to make body supports for the roof replacement. I think instead of reassembling the front end to make the car easier to deal with, I will just move on and try to complete the body work before I do any re-assembly.
I also need to move the car a foot or two away from the back wall of the garage. Haven't quite worked out how to do that yet, but it shouldn't be too difficult. Probably just a matter of getting it on the floor jack and easing it out. Then I can move on to the trunk area, and see what I'm up against there. I'm hoping it will be OK. I've checked on the trunk a few times over the years, and it always looked like it was holding out. But I won't really know until I tear into it.
Found some nice parts I'd stashed away in the interior. A pair of sway bar links that came with the poly bushings I put in the front end. I also have a set of polyurethane ball joint caps. The replacement headliner and door panels, a chrome valve cover for the 250, and a set of replacement mirrors for the doors as well. I believe there are a few more parts stashed in the trunk, but I don't have an exact inventory. Yet.
I also got a coat of POR-15 on the subframe. Really, I should've been completely done with the frame, but for some reason (lack of humidity???) the POR-15 took all day to cure. When I painted my A-arms, it cured in a couple hours. Don't know what's different, but I checked this morning, and it was all cured up. I'll go over it once more probably tomorrow, and that will be all done, ready to go back on the car.
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