Saturday, December 18, 2010

Car is delivered in the middle of a three day rainstorm

The seller brought the car to me this morning and was nice enough to do it in the rain. He got the car running for me so I had no trouble getting it off the trailer and into the garage.

Having another look at the car out in the open made me see more than before. The interior is just disgusting. Rats nests and droppings several inches deep in some areas. The carpet is desentegrating and the headliner is falling down. The trunk and the interior had lots of extra parts littered about, some of which don't even belong to this particular car. Removed the extra parts and stripped out some of the biggest pieces of trash just to get an idea of what the floor looks like. So far so good, but until all the interior is removed, cleaned, and disinfected, it's hard to really inspect the interior further.

Closer inspection of the outside shows sheet metal damage to the front lip of both doors and the door hinges probably need replacement but that's to be expected of a car this old. Both front fenders need work but at least they seem salvagable. The seller threw in a really nice R/T hood he claims is from a 71 model. It looks good but I'll need to flip it over and inspect it better. The radiator support has been replaced but the person who did it didn't do a very good job so that will be part of the overall redo. It looks as though both inner fender wells were straightened but they really need to be removed and replaced with better ones. The seller threw in the passenger side replacement with the attached piece of frame rail and shock tower. He offered to give me the other side if I thought I needed it. The cowl is the last part of the damage. It has dents and definitely needs work but I may not have to do any cutting. In any event, the seller threw in an entire cowl section with the lower firewall. 

If the rain lets up tomorrow, I'd like to strip and clean the interior really well. Time permitting, the engine could use a nice tune and I'd like to check all the fluids throughout the car. I suppose if the rain doesn't let up, I can still tune the engine and start going over the outside to photo and document the issues.

I found no build sheet or fender tag which is a real blow to the authenticity of the car but on a brighter note, the federal sticker on the door jamb is intact and I might be able to use it to get a replacement fender tag made down the road.








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