Restoration1

Restoration in progress

Here she is in all her previous glory.

Complete with firebird emblem I made myself.

I never liked the old square dashes in these trucks.

I like the old round hot rod style.

Word of advice, don't use aluminum.

Lots of trimming and bending.

More trimming and bending.

and more....

Just about got here where I want her.

Time to find a home for those new gauges.

Little fiberglass to work the shape.

Did I mention not to use aluminum.

Now for the guages.

Little stain and clearcoat.

My new Stewart Warner gauges.

Had to get rid of that 10 bolt open rear end.

I got a 14 bolt posi unit out of a '91 454 SS

Time to chuck this old thing.

This is Version 1.0 of my home made traction bars.

They came out real nice.

The mounts took the longest to fab up.

The week point in this version ended up being my welds on the ball ends.

Lost of the bars going up a friends driveway. Not before I broke into the 12's at the 1/4 mile track.

Getting the bed off by yourself can be a fiasco.

Welcome to the new home of this restoration.

Wish it were a little bit bigger, but this will work.

The rear fenders were a lot easier to get off then I thought. Only had to drill off one bolt head that the torques bit rounded out.

I plan to weld in the gas tank doors. Can't afford to buy whole new fenders without the doors.

Doors are in good shape. Little bit of body work needed on a crease in the passenger side door.

The following are the steps in disassembling the front clip.

Hood came off. This one is going to find a home on my shop wall while I order a new fiberglass 2" cowl hood.

Time to remove the fenders.

And then the inner fenders

I don't think I am going to reuse these inner fenders. I'll either get some in better shape or go without them all together.

I am short an engine lift till payday, so this jewel will have to sit here till then.

The bolts on the core support to frame were in pretty bad shape also. Took a few minutes with the impact gun to remove them.

Wow, the one seized bolt on the bumper was the hardest part of this whole disassembly.

I did all this in about 5 or 6 hours.

Had to clean out the house garage so I could get this stuff out of the rain while I sand on it.