What’s the most rusted project you’ve tackled? My new ‘70 is more rust than car

[BoulevardofRustedDreams 2]

So I got this from one of my best friends for $600. He got the car to rob the front discs off of and needed it gone from his shop. It’s nothing special just an H code sportsroof but it’s also a model I’ve wanted for a long time. I’ve had a 66, 71, and 69 coupes in the past. I’ve never tackled one this rough. Usually my past cars were nothing beyond a small frame rail patch or floor pans. I’m even upgrading to a new and better welder for this project. With doing the work myself I figure aside from my physical time I’m better off spending $3500 on sheet metal on my $600 car than buying a $7000 car and still spending a grand or so repairing rust. So as it sets my plans are to first order the new front clip assemblies that have the frame/apron/shocktower as a complete unit. I’m going to be adding the shock tower reinforcements from Opentracker as well when doing this. Also replacing the cowling/floor reinforcements and torque boxes. What is the advantage/disadvantage of the one piece vs two piece torque box? I’m going to order full length floor pans/subframe connectors too. Once I have that portion done then I’m going to do the Shelby drop and do full open tracker road race suspension up front with manual steering. Once it’s a roller then I plan to work my way back and when that’s complete fully cage the car from taillight panel to radiator core. My end goal is to build the car up to pay homage to the 69-70 SCCA TransAm cars but with a few comforts like AC/stereo and retain a rear seat for family cruising and occasional daily driver duty while still capable of holding its own on a track. Having viewed the pics, I’m open to encouragement lol. I’m far from wealthy so I’m going to try to get started ordering some replacement sheet metal every other paycheck. Wife’s car will be paid off soon and free up some more funds. I’m gonna try to bite the bullet on the front clip parts first since they’re the most expensive. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[barnett468 418]

1 minute ago, BoulevardofRustedDreams said:

So I got this from one of my best friends for $600. He got the car to rob the front discs off of and needed it gone from his shop. It’s nothing special just an H code sportsroof but it’s also a model I’ve wanted for a long time. I’ve had a 66, 71, and 69 coupes in the past. I’ve never tackled one this rough. Usually my past cars were nothing beyond a small frame rail patch or floor pans. I’m even upgrading to a new and better welder for this project. With doing the work myself I figure aside from my physical time I’m better off spending $3500 on sheet metal on my $600 car than buying a $7000 car and still spending a grand or so repairing rust. So as it sets my plans are to first order the new front clip assemblies that have the frame/apron/shocktower as a complete unit. I’m going to be adding the shock tower reinforcements from Opentracker as well when doing this. Also replacing the cowling/floor reinforcements and torque boxes. What is the advantage/disadvantage of the one piece vs two piece torque box? I’m going to order full length floor pans/subframe connectors too. Once I have that portion done then I’m going to do the Shelby drop and do full open tracker road race suspension up front with manual steering. Once it’s a roller then I plan to work my way back and when that’s complete fully cage the car from taillight panel to radiator core. My end goal is to build the car up to pay homage to the 69-70 SCCA TransAm cars but with a few comforts like AC/stereo and retain a rear seat for family cruising and occasional daily driver duty while still capable of holding its own on a track. Having viewed the pics, I’m open to encouragement lol. I’m far from wealthy so I’m going to try to get started ordering some replacement sheet metal every other paycheck. Wife’s car will be paid off soon and free up some more funds. I’m gonna try to bite the bullet on the front clip parts first since they’re the most expensive. 

 

[barnett468 418]

" So I got this from one of my best friends for $600."

I think you need to find a new friend.

[barnett468 418]

"With doing the work myself I figure aside from my physical time I’m better off spending $3500 on sheet metal on my $600 car than buying a $7000 car and still spending a grand or so repairing rust."

It will always have rust unless you have it dipped to remove the rust then dipped in protectant or primer to protect the bare metal. In addition, the panels will never completely line up correctly if you have to rplace quarters and door skins and fenders etc.

[barnett468 418]

Dynacorn has, or had, 2 versions of rear quarter panels. One was thicker than the other which may or mat not be a better option. some others here may know. As far as doors and front fenders go, if you need them you are better off finding good originals, but they can be a bit pricey because the same pars fit boss 302's and boss 429's.

One problem is that not a single one of the aftermarket quarters or doors or door skins or fenders are made correctly, so the more aftermaket parts you use, the farther off the panel alignment will be.

I have some nice front fenders if you want some.

 

 

 

 

[BoulevardofRustedDreams 2]

13 minutes ago, barnett468 said:

"With doing the work myself I figure aside from my physical time I’m better off spending $3500 on sheet metal on my $600 car than buying a $7000 car and still spending a grand or so repairing rust."

It will always have rust unless you have it dipped to remove the rust then dipped in protectant or primer to protect the bare metal. In addition, the panels will never completely line up correctly if you have to rplace quarters and door skins and fenders etc.

I’ve been trying to find some options around here for dipping actually. That’s the downside to East Tennessee. There is no such thing as rust free around here. 

[barnett468 418]

1 minute ago, BoulevardofRustedDreams said:

I’ve been trying to find some options around here for dipping actually. That’s the downside to East Tennessee. There is no such thing as rust free around here. 

Yeah, that's a bit of a bummer. I would hate to do all that work and still know there are several places that are rusty that will likely continue to rust. As neil young said, "rust never sleeps."..

[Caseyrhe 650]

Barnett nailed it, your already 3500 ahead of most folks. 

[BoulevardofRustedDreams 2]

Btw, what is the most accurate source for all the measurements for a 70? 

[barnett468 418]

I would probably sell my fenders for around $350.00 each and probably won't sell them separately.

[Midlife 814]

Good luck; you'll need it.  Basically, from what I can see, almost every piece of metal will need to be replaced; some are near impossible to find.  I would pass on this vehicle and use the 3500 bucks towards a better $7k base.

[barnett468 418]

Just now, Midlife said:

Good luck; you'll need it.  Basically, from what I can see, almost every piece of metal will need to be replaced; some are near impossible to find.  I would pass on this vehicle and use the 3500 bucks towards a better $7k base.

 

Just now, Midlife said:

Good luck; you'll need it.  Basically, from what I can see, almost every piece of metal will need to be replaced; some are near impossible to find. 

We did this on a customers car. He inherited grandmas rust bucket and grandmas money. We told him it would cost far less to buy another car that is rust free but he said "it wouldn't be grandmas car then", so we told him that the only parts we could likely save were the firewall and something else, so it wouldn't be "grandmas car" anyway after we fixed it because we couldn't reuse much, and he said, "I don't care what it costs, I want to fix grandmas car, so that is what we did.

 

 

[BoulevardofRustedDreams 2]

10 minutes ago, Midlife said:

Good luck; you'll need it.  Basically, from what I can see, almost every piece of metal will need to be replaced; some are near impossible to find.  I would pass on this vehicle and use the 3500 bucks towards a better $7k base.

I look at it this way. I have plenty of time and it ain’t going anywhere. Plus if I don’t save the car it may end up at the crusher and be one more piece of history we never get back. And making a semi-track car out of it, originality doesn’t mean a thing. I haven’t really saw anything availability wise that worries me. It’s mind blowing what is available now versus when I had my 66 in high school 15 years ago.