Mopar Muscle Association UK

Wow, like you say, body shell looks superb. I like most muscle cars, but I do like the Trans Am & Bullnose Formula. My mate owned a 455 Formula back in the late 70’s, was a real great car & worth a few quid these days.

Look forward to seeing your progress, good luck with your rebuild

I virtually finished fabricating a strong engine cradle today,
Just need to get some paint on it !
And stared cleaning the floors,
The shell is remarkably straight and corrosion free

Thanks for the update.
I like all makes of muscle car so I'm glad to see this on the forum and will enjoy reading your updates on the project!

You must have been pleased to see how solid the shell is!

I can relate to that having nearly completed my fourth restoration in a row where each car was very rotten!

I've just bought myself a Capri and was very pleased to only find a very small amount of rust at the end of the nearside sill and a small hole on the drivers rear wheel arch.
It makes a nice change to be working on a solid car for once!

Fantastic, rattle through this one quick enough and maybe you'll get one more in eh

haha,
nooooo getting to old for this now!
Ive waited for what seems forever for this particular car, had to be a 70 1/2 and a manual, its bog stock as GM made it, full matching engine ,trans and Eaton posi, M20 wide ratio trans and a 3.55 rear, i honestly did'nt think id do another, but i took a chance on this and thus far its been completely honest, straight and utterly unmolested, so its fitting that i will be the last big job i do, and its a forever car, we still use and love our little B' roadster, the TA will be our pony car coupe, and id still love another XKE'

started on the rear section today, a small amount of surface corrosion but really minor
wheel housing and torque box area's are as new,as is the parcel shelf area, 100 per cent sure the passenger side will be identical in condition,
but ive had to cut the floor as the only seized fixing ive had was one of the subframe mounts, but i'l rectify this and once the captive thread is back in its cage i'l weld the floor and properly dress the repair,
all this was abit annoying at first, but once id made the incision it meant i could see inside the chassis cross boxes, and yep it was perfect and stll had its red primer showing, so not to shabby in the end!

good stuff, keep it coming,

fitted my home made engine cradle, so moving the block around will be easier now,
i have a large heavy duty sealey engine 360 rotate stand, but never overly happy with a big ol iron block motor hanging on it for weeks on end,
this just feels much safer !

As suspected the passenger rear wheel well and floor in equally good or better condition,
The only issue I had in the tear down was a seized bolt on the passenger side rear subframe mount,
This unfortunately me to cut my pristine floor, bummer
So I could clamp the huge nut that was now spinning in its cage,
So this was another job I rectified yesterday,

re the engine stand, a mate (when building a 500 caddy motor) added a bolt on 'leg' from the front of the frame to up under the crankshaft nose. it can still rotate but supports the weight better. if you were really flash you could fit a couple of bearings or castors to the leg so the crank' rolls easier.
neil.

The motor can rotate on this one, but I wouldn’t trust it to actually run the thing on it !
There’s two large plates bolted to the block and supported by the big bell housing dowels to,
The front mounts are actually sitting on the block ledge and the bolts just retain the frame,

Started on the bulkhead and now going underneath!
All this is very hard on one’s body and completely knackering
At my age !

Amazing work you do...especially out of that size garage

haha, thank you, i can be a challenge no needs must etc, and i do have access to some metal work tools at work, stretchers and shrinkers
a small folder etc, Mig tig and a very nice low bake booth, but obliviously all the main work has to happern at home, and ive been doing resto work for well over 40 years,
but this being the last will be work in progress till im to old to open the garage door....................

Really enjoying reading and seeing this thread, thank you.

That looks mostly metal - which is a great start !
I think those are getting better looking by the year. I like the early 70s firebird/camaro type look.

Ok managed to progress over the last couple of weeks
Got the floor blasted and properly cleaned,
Blasting unfortunately uncovered some deep pitting which resulted in me having to patch repair a small section of the passenger front floor,

Managed to get some more metal cleaned on the underside