My Limited Four Door Project

[Smartin]

I finished the passenger front floor yesterday. I was going to work on finishing the rocker today, but my 99 Tahoe needed some help. I changed the oil, transmission fluid and filter, distributor cap and rotor, fuel filter, serpentine belt, and tenshioner pulley. That pretty much took all day, so no real progress on the 58. But now my Tahoe runs right again!

[Smartin]

I finished the rear passenger floor this evening, as well as part of the wheel house that butts up to the rear floor pan. I was dreading this section...for good reason! What a pain in the arse.

[Smartin]

ALMOST FINISHED!

I finished the rocker and the front cowl where the fender gets bolted to...




That's a lot of dead metal that came out of the front corner of this car...





One last thing that I want to do before liftoff: The car had been in an accident sometime in the las 51 years, and the right quarter panel was replaced, but they did a crummy job of repairing the inner wheel house, so it rusted out in a couple spots. The other side is spotless in this area.




As soon as I get the body off the frame, I will button up any welds that need to be done from the underside. I have a couple spots on the inner rockers and some of the body braces that need to be touched up.

Then I'll really have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do about space in the garage!

[Smartin]

Well, the body lift wasn't too bad. The shell is much lighter than I originally thought.

Calm before the storm...




People showing up to help...I did some seriouss recruiting.




We were going to try a test lift, just to see if we needed additional help, but the test ended up being the real deal...so no in-action shots of the initial lift.




Once the body was up on the posts, we rolled the chassis out into the driveway. I only broke one linkage bracket when we lifted it off. I forgot to remove it from the firewall. OOPS.




The obligatory goofball shot..




We had to shift the body over to the wall so I could fit the 71 back in the garage. But we had to maintain the wide stance of the posts to allow the chassis to roll back under the body.






Back in the garage it goes!




It's difficult to steer a car when there's nothing to steer with!!




Mission complete!

[Smartin]

I'm trying to clean up some of the parts that got ripped off Saturday night before the liftathon on Sunday, before I get tempted to put them in the basement unfinished.

...this looked like fun to reassemble!




It was...

I took care of the two air door "cages" while I was in the garage tonight.

[Smartin]

This should look good bolted back on the firewall.

[58limited]

You sure are getting a lot accomplished. My Limited is sitting in the garage feeling neglected and needing a paint job. It is blocked by a '78 Lincoln with a slipped timing chain. Haven't had time to work on cars, I'm finishing up house repairs and renovations started thanks to Hurricane Ike.

[Smartin]

Since it's not supposed to rain this week (for once), I kicked the 71 out of the garage and moved the chassis into the open spot. Time to start stripping it!





I pulled the exhaust manifolds off this evening, and all the bolts came out like I just installed them yesterday.....funny, considering all the other bolts on this car have been just the opposite. I had wondered why there was an extra passenger side manifold included with the car when I bought it, but I know why, now. One of the downpipe stud bosses is missing, and the one on the car was cobbled together with a big ball of weld. It just fell apart when I tried to remove it.

I cut the exhaust apart and tossed it aside.

I decided not to reinstall the majority of the the air poise equipment on the frame, mostly due to the horrid condition of those parts and lines. The steel air lines running to the back were just about completely rusted away, and just fell apart when I was pulling them off. I had to sweep them off the floor, they were that bad. I did manage to save a couple pieces, and will be listing them on ebay tonight.

Yesterday, I detailed the air conditioning evaporator box....too many bolts on this thing!!! Also, I'm not going to try to make the foamy coating on the box look any better, because I think I'll just ruin it trying....so it stays a little beat up.

[Smartin]

...and the fun continues!

Looking for a buddy with an engine hoist to pull the engine so I can get the frame to the blaster.

[Smartin]

I started pulling suspension parts off this evening...beginning with the front left wheel. It felt like it was loose, like a bearing was going bad. Everything looks good there, though. I think the castle nut was a bit loose, though.

I found a pretty ugly sight with the shoes and drums, though. Looks like someone never bothered to "mic" the drums and the lining disappeared...digging into the shoes as well. I think the other side is the same way, it has a grinding sound to it when I spin the wheel freely.






I did manage to clean a few things up before I gave up for the night, though.




Is there a market for a full set of original shocks?? I'd hate to throw them away if they're worth something as a core.




I about had a heart attack when I pulled the rear shock mounts. I found that the rear end was hanging on the shocks themselves, and it made quite a racket when I zipped off the last bolt! I had no idea the springs had that much of a load on them.

I'll need to get a spring compressor for the front springs, though. The engine doesn't weigh enough for me to be able to use the jack under the lower control arm. All it does is jack the entire frame up.

[58limited]

I have seen some original shocks on ebay in the past that the seller claimed had been rebuilt, but I could never find a rebuilder when i searched. Haven't looked in a few years. I am interested in those shocks if you don't want them.

[Smartin]

Engine and transmission are out! The trans mount and both engine mounts are toast. I'll just add those to the list of 1,000,000 things I need to complete the chassis work.




I made an attempt at making my own spring compressor, since the other store bought ones don't work on this car..

I got about halfway through the cranking process and my homemade plate buckled. Looks like I need to reinforce it there a bit more! It looks like my welding is getting a little better

[Smartin]

I love freshly blasted parts!




Adios to Mr. Frame for a few days...




This is my "faux" gold cad paint job. I'm too cheap for the real thing...especially on parts that won't really see the light of day, unless you get on the ground with a flashlight.




Does anyone hate painting springs as much as I do? Jeez...what a pain!

[Smartin]

I picked up the frame from the blaster this evening. Looks good! No surprises, thank God.

[dvonk]

wow, that looks great! just out of curiosity, approximately how much does the frame weigh?