74 Budget Project

[pureaudio]

I bought this 1974 2002 in January of this year from a member here on the faq. It was pretty much bought out of frustration from my 75 as I had just come in from the garage having discovered hole after hole in the roof thanks to rust. It was pretty bad, it is going to need a roof transplant...luckily I have my first 2002 still that I rear ended someone with. Front end toast but a nice clean roof. Enough about that car, I came in and found this in the for sale section and jumped on it. Got it for $2000 in Oakland, CA and towed it home to Redding.

This is a picture the seller took when he was selling it. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of it myself before I started the tear down.

I had to do some work on the drive line right away, it ended up being just a center bearing. Replaced that and the guibo and drove it around for a couple months. Motor is really strong and only stock with a 38/38 as far as I know. It came with H&R springs, Billy sports, front/rear sways and number of other goodies so the suspension is right on the money for me.

The steering had a lot of play in it but after trying to adjust it a few times I came to realize that it was done for. Looking at replacing it with one sourced from a parts car, doing it with the motor in did not look fun. The engine bay was pretty grimy anyways so I decided to pull the motor to do it...and so starts my project blog.

I pulled the motor and while cruising the archives of the faq, I found the M20 swap. I was convinced this would be what I wanted to do and decided to just prep the engine bay for it ahead of time. I was going to repaint it anyways so why not.

And so out came the front tray. really opened up the engine bay which was nice. As you can see from the picture, this car is not a show vehicle so I didn't think twice about making the cut. Well as it turns out, when you start digging....your gonna find something.

Underneath that was this...

Now I had to make the decision on how to repair this. I decided that this car was my driver, I don't baby it and it wasn't worth taking the only front clip we (as a family) have to put on this car. So it all got cut out.

The rest is just surface rust all over the engine bay so no more cutting was needed. I ground it all out and used a rust converter on the light pitting. My fix ended up being the box tubing I used to strengthen up area where the tray used to be.

And the common M20 conversion strengthening of the nose.

Here is where my "budget" project really starts to show ...I got the idea from some off-roader forums. It is rust-oleum product and is only $9 bucks a quart. It seemed to work great for rust prevention on off-road vehicles according to that group so I figured why not. It brushed on and as you can see I wasn't to careful about getting it on the paint I had put on the engine bay about a week prior. This was fine cause I ended up just sanding the entire thing down again, primed and painted all flat black.

The spots are from a can of brake cleaner that got hit and went everywhere. Annoyed me but I gave it a light sanding and resprayed so no more spots...this is why I like a flat black engine bay.

And the reason this all started...

Here is the motor back in place with new motor mounts from Ireland. Oh yeah, I had since decided to not do the M20 swap but I am glad I cut out the front tray anyways. I'm not sure when I would have noticed the rust had I not. I am very please with how the engine bay came out. Simple, clean and I wasn't sweating bullets as I worked on it with the new paint.

That is an RX7 radiator I picked up from a friend. With the box tubing welded in as new supports up front, it messed up where I wanted to put the stock radiator. This one is 3 inches shorter and wider than a stock rad so it fits perfectly for where I want it. Still need to clean it up and mount it along with hooking up a couple more wires. The electric fan is from a Mercedes at Pick N Pull. It fits perfectly in that spot and spools up like a jet engine. My only picture of it, it since then has bottom mounts and wiring cleaned up.

Sooooo I am done...or so I thought. The paint on my car is atrocious, the seller told me it was horrible but my first reaction is that it wasn't that bad. I changed my opinion really fast. The whole car has the skin of an orange. If you peal a chunk off, you can see the better condition (stock) paint underneath. I don't know why someone, somewhere down the line decided to do it. I couldn't leave it so now...

So that is how she currently sits. I will be repainting white, doing it myself in fact. I like to do everything myself and if I don't know how, I learn. Not going to be as nice as if I took it to a professional but I have confidence I can do a good job. Prep before the paint will include breaking out the bondo out of the trim holes and welding them up. Welding up bumper holes front and back and welding up holes left by the side markers front and back. I also have to clean up my sunroof mechanism and get it functioning again. I think I have read the guides it enough times that I can fumble my way through it. The trunk will get a matching job to the engine bay but with a textured surface similar to factory. For now, the interior will be going back in the car. Its actually a pretty nice, blue interior that came with the car. Next winter I will tear it out again and remove all the sound deadening that came with the car. I can't be sure there isn't rust underneath, but with looking at the rest of the car I can take a guess.

Thanks for checking it out, updates will come as I complete them. My car won't be everyone's cup of tea but I have a vision of what I want it to be and I'm pretty happy with where its at so far.

[indisguise]

This is fantastic. I always enjoy a good DIY post. With regards to,

My car won't be everyone's cup of tea

sign me up for an extra cup!...

Keep it up.

[Armond]

So that is how she currently sits. I will be repainting white, doing it myself in fact. I like to do everything myself and if I don't know how, I learn. Not going to be as nice as if I took it to a professional but I have confidence I can do a good job. .

good for you..I wish I had the ability to paint my own car. Good luck and do keep us posted.

[jgerock]

Nice job on the engine compartment. Looks like your front bulkhead may have rusted out due to a leaking/overfilled radiator. Too bad the factory didn't install a longer overflow hose to prevent this.

[pureaudio]

Nice job on the engine compartment. Looks like your front bulkhead may have rusted out due to a leaking/overfilled radiator. Too bad the factory didn't install a longer overflow hose to prevent this.

I hadn't even thought of that. The entire car is in about the same state of surface rust but that one area was destroyed. Thanks for the insight.

I'd love to put an update up but my car is sitting almost exactly as it was when I posted these pictures. Work and an 8 month old son leave little time at the moment for play...unless of course play consists of bright musical toys, tickling and other silly games. I started grinding the old paint out of the trunk which is a major pain but the factory texture comes off in this weird, web like stuff that is kind of cool. More pics to come.

[Armond]

Nice job on the engine compartment. Looks like your front bulkhead may have rusted out due to a leaking/overfilled radiator. Too bad the factory didn't install a longer overflow hose to prevent this.

I hadn't even thought of that. The entire car is in about the same state of surface rust but that one area was destroyed. Thanks for the insight.

I'd love to put an update up but my car is sitting almost exactly as it was when I posted these pictures. Work and an 8 month old son leave little time at the moment for play...unless of course play consists of bright musical toys, tickling and other silly games. I started grinding the old paint out of the trunk which is a major pain but the factory texture comes off in this weird, web like stuff that is kind of cool. More pics to come.

Having three kids, (2) Six year old and a 18 month old, I know exactly how busy it can be. I sneak out during nap time or after evening bed time..I even get to work out but I have to be up at 5 am to make it work..it's all good. Keep it up.

[pureaudio]

So work that past couple months has been a little slow on the 02. I have been doing a lot of little things that need to be done though. Lots of random rust that is completely caused from poor bondo work and silicone shoved into random crevices that were doing just fine without. I decided to take the entire thing down to bare metal just so I know it will be done right. All trim holes will be de-bondoed and welded. I have just about all of them in the back done and just need to grind a couple more to make them flush. Running on pure welding adrenaline, I decided to take some spare box tubing and make my own rear strut brace. It is by no means pretty, but I am still proud of it. I will extend it to the floor of the trunk and integrate my battery tray in to it.

I also cut out a shroud to enclose my radiator and hide the supports. I like how it came out and I will probably paint it red for some contrast under the hood, maybe textured red if I'm feeling froggy.

I picked up the primer and hardener today from the local auto paint supply. They are pretty awesome there, I've gone by a few times just to pick their brains and always helpful. They always throw in something free when I buy. Something small like a 10 pack of gloves or a mixing container but still pretty cool. They are called Norcal Color Supply or something like that if anyone local to me is looking for paint. This stuff will go on in sections as I finish. Planning to do all my welding, grind it down and shoot primer. I will do minimal filler after that. The 2 quarts of primer and 2 things of hardener came out to just under $100 with tax so I'm pretty happy about that. I was planning double that but they just got this stuff in and thought it might be a good product for what I am doing.

I also tore off my dash cover because I always hated how it looked. I don't like the spaces and the cheap look/feel of it. The plan is to follow the faq on dash resto using bed liner. My dash is pretty torn up so if it ends up failing I will source another one. Not hating on other people's dash covers, just isn't for me I guess.

Lastly, I picked a new toy/DD for $150!!!!

The owner could not figure out what was wrong with it and did not want to deal with it anymore so I got it for $150. He said it wouldn't hold a charge and had other smaller problems. I got home, pulled out the battery that had no liquid in it and threw in my 2002 battery. Drove it for about a week with no more problems. The first night I got it I thought it ran a little rough. Got all the stuff for an oil change and emptied the 1/2 a quart of oil from the pan. This removed any guilt I may have had from getting this car. Seafoamed the engine and did a full tune up. It runs great except when the engine is cold it will not idle at all. I found the problem but I can live with this until I find the part at a junk yard. I don't plan on throwing anything money at this car until my 02 is completely finished.

So for some advice to anyone wanting to cheaply bondo trim holes...DON"T!! I had a quote from a body shop to sand down, weld and apply filler to all trim holes on the car for $260. That is an excellent deal for anyone who can not weld. I learned to weld on this project and its the best thing I could have done on this car.