'71 Torino GT

[Big Secz 26]

Just ordered wheels and tires today. Ridler 695 20x8.5 for the rear and 18x8 for the front.

[six_sigma 12]

I'm about to order a set of Ridler 675's! Nice rims by the way.

[Big Secz 26]

I'm about to order a set of Ridler 675's! Nice rims by the way.

 

I ordered mine from Wheelsforless.com. Wheels with Nitto tires mounted, balanced and shipped for $1,860.

[Big Secz 26]

The ugly green and cracked dash is now black and looks a million times better.

[BuckeyeDemon 211]

picture looks blurry.

[Big Secz 26]

Yeah, crappy cellphone pics. Here's some better pics of my progress so far.

 

Also, we had a really bad storm roll through here Friday night (I live in northern Virginia). I live in a townhouse so I keep the car garaged at my parent's. My old man has a huge steel two car garage and he has given up half of it for my car and tools. One of my parent's neighbors calls me about 11:45 Friday night. "Hey Mike, not sure if your parents know this or not but a tree fell into the garage in the back."

 

All of our phone lines were out and cell phones weren't wroking all because of the storm. I run over there, it's now midnight, and luckily the car was fine, and the damage to the garage isn't as bad as it could be. I had to pull the car out of the garage for now until the trees can be removed to relieve some of the weight on the garage.

 

Just brought back memories of December of '08 when the record breaking snow storm we had caused a different temporary garage to callapse onto the Mustang.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Glad you found a car you and the whole family can enjoy, one word of advice though before you go rattle can everything black, if the rest of those panels and seat covers are in fact original and still look that green and new see if you can't find a new home for them first and do someone in the Torino community a huge favor. The green was very big back in the day and I am sure there are lots of folks wanting to keep their cars stock looking for what you can't stand about it.

 

I don't know much if anything about these cars but the parts are much harder to come by than Mustang and I have to believe that from what is available after market the color matching issues are even worse than with the Mustang. Just imagine in our community someone with say like new original ginger comfort weave seats hating them and dyeing them black, it's enough to make a grown man cry.

 

Not to mention that regardless of how well a prep you do spray dyeing a different color is always temproray, especially on parts that see alot of wear like seats and door panels, I know, I've died many an interior in my day.

[Big Secz 26]

Pak,

 

I dyed the door panels to test them out and wasn't too concerned about it because each door panel had a gash in it. The outcome looked good in the pictures but a few days later I noticed that the dye actually came off if scratched. So I ended up order new door panels and then learned something else interesting. At the top of the door panel is a metal piece, the section that actually hooks into the top of the door in the window channel. The new door panels don't come with that. So this piece will actually have to be cut out of the old door panels and installed in the new one.

 

The dash was cracked beyond being worth anything to anyone and the plastic cover actually looks pretty good.

 

So with my lessons learned from the front door panels I'm actually going to have the seats recovered and replace the rear panels and carpet. So I will still have two original rear panels, seat covers, and new green carpet that I will be selling on the Torino forum.

 

So essentially the only things that will be spray dyed will be the headliner, sun visors (which I already did and came out nice) and the seat belts.

 

I'm taking the door panels to an upholsterer and I am going to see if he can replace the black insert with a white vinyl insert to still give me the tuxedo look I'm going for.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Cool, sounds like you have a sound plan.

 

FYI, you can receive very good dye results on the other parts with proper prep and rubber gloves, one finger print wipes out all that hard cleaning work. I personally find the adhesion promoters they sell to be overkill and if you wash and scrub the items first with a good degreasing soap like say Dawn and make sure that water runs off clear with no grease spots showing then simply wipe the items down with mineral spirits then apply multiple very thin coats of the dye that you can have finished parts last for a very long time and take wear and tear well and I have done this with the cheap Duplicolor stuff at the parts stores too. They didn't come in a semi gloss black like I wanted last time but I found doing it in gloss with a fine mist coat of flat at the end gives the same result.

 

Good luck, keep us posted on your progress.

[Big Secz 26]

Got the new wheels and tires on the car today. Also got some more of the interior out of the car. only a few more interior pieces to go.

[Grabber70Mach 107]

Looks good, post some more pics when you get her out in the sunlight and get the chance. :cool2::thumbup::thumbup:

[Big Secz 26]

Having some carb issues right now and the interior is ripped out of it. So it will probably be a while before she gets outside.

[Mike65 476]

Nice looking ride, I always liked the stripe on the side of the car.:thumbup1:

[Big Secz 26]

Today I dyed the headliner and painted the rear package tray and a couple other rear trim pieces and installed them. Slowly coming along.

[dpuwookie79 11]

Lookin' good! How are you enjoying the hard top experience vs the vert?

[Big Secz 26]

Lookin' good! How are you enjoying the hard top experience vs the vert?

 

I've only driven the car once. The springs in the seat are wore out so I felt like I was sitting on the floor, while the seat back was stiff so it was a less than comfortable ride. But what I did like was how smooth the car seamed to float on the road. Before I can get the car back on the road and once I finish the interior, I need to address a carb problem and see if I can adjust the steering to take out some of the play in the wheel. One thing is for sure, I will NOT be putting a Borgeson kit in this car.

[Big Secz 26]

So I got the new door panels, and discovered that they didn't come with the top metal frame. So I ended up having to take the frames off of the original panels and install them on the new panels. What a huge PIA. No matter what I did I couldn't get the teeth of the frame to bite into the backer board. So after two attempts at trying to rig it to work I think I got it. I ended up using a two part epoxy and then adding a strip of gorilla tape across the top just for added support. All that is left is to install the window felt. Wish there was an easy way to do it, but I don't have a stapler that will shoot through the metal frame.

[Big Secz 26]

Finished the rear panels, installed the dash, painted and installed all the interior metal trim pieces, dyed and installed the sun visors, and dyed the seat belts. I just need to get the carpet and some new kick panels.

[bnickel 10,004]

So I got the new door panels, and discovered that they didn't come with the top metal frame. So I ended up having to take the frames off of the original panels and install them on the new panels. What a huge PIA. No matter what I did I couldn't get the teeth of the frame to bite into the backer board. So after two attempts at trying to rig it to work I think I got it. I ended up using a two part epoxy and then adding a strip of gorilla tape across the top just for added support. All that is left is to install the window felt. Wish there was an easy way to do it, but I don't have a stapler that will shoot through the metal frame.

 

 

i drilled some small holes in the frame and installed the staples and folded them over with pliers. several restorers have noticed that on my car and of the all things strange things to get compliments for that has to be one of them.

[Big Secz 26]

i drilled some small holes in the frame and installed the staples and folded them over with pliers. several restorers have noticed that on my car and of the all things strange things to get compliments for that has to be one of them.

 

 

If I were doing a concours restoration then that is what I would have done. But for the sake of time, and my own sanity, pop rivets worked great and took a LOT less time.

[Big Secz 26]

What a friggin' nightmare. None of the pre-cut holes of the aftermarket panels lined up right so they all had to be modified, and then none of the panel clips line up with the holes at all. There is no way to fix it at this point other than double sided automotive tape.

[Big Secz 26]

Got some more done on the interior. Carpet, seat belts and most trim is in. Just need the seat recovered and waiting on replacement kick panels that I scored on eBay for a great price.

[Big Secz 26]

Finished up the interior. Sorry for the bad cell phone pics. The vinyl for the seats is in really great shape so I opted to give spray dying them a try. Even though I chose gloss black, it dried sort of flat. I found some vinyl cleaner that I had used on the Mustang and it's helping to bring out the shine in the seats.

 

No. 1 rock song in '71 was Stairway to Heaven. So I scored this great condition Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven 8 track on eBay for the 8 track player. Haven't tested it yet.

 

All-in-all I'm much happier with the black interior. Now I can focus on the leaking carb issue.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Looks fantastic!

[miketyler 15]

Love the car and the vintage 8track player! I still remember my brother's yellow 70 Torino GT with shaker. Did that car come with that rimblow? I would have thought the Torino had the standard two spoke but maybe they had deluxe interior option also?