Newb with a '66 428 project

[82Daion]

Hey, everyone. As my thread title would suggest, I'm a newbie here, and I have an interesting project T-Bird that I'll be working on for a while. It's a 1966 Town Hardtop, Sahara Beige with Emberglo roof(or at least it was), with a factory 428. Currently, it's mostly white, primer, faded Emberglo, and rust. The interior is in good shape, amazingly, with no tears in the seats and good foam. The dash could use a cleaning and polish, but it's all there. It goes downhill from there. This thing is a RUSTBUCKET. The whole left rear quarter panel is rusty and will need to be replaced. The right rear quarter, although not as bad, still is rusted through in spots, and needs to be replaced. The front wheel wells need some new sheetmetal welded in as well. The doors are rusty, and need to be replaced.The floorpans need to be replaced. At least the front fenders and hood are usable, with only mild surface rust. Fortunately, the guy who has it has accumulated, over the years:

A new rear quarter panel, whole, for the left side
A half rear quarter panel for the right
Usable doors
Trim out the wazoo
A new gas tank
A new fuel pump
New wheelhouse extensions

The car has not been driven in a while, and needs to have the fuel pump and a battery installed before it will run. And that's not the end of things. :blush :

Needs new window motors
New heater core
Probably some A/C related work
Needs new trunk metal, probably
Exhaust is probably okay, but maybe shot
New paint job is a must.

At least all the electrical systems(seq. tail lights, interior illumination, etc.) seem to work.

$600 for everything.

Eh?

I'll try and get some pics up tomorrow.

 

[danielbi]

well they are fun to work on but very complicated. You need to find someone in the area that has done major renovations on these birds before. I have a 65 and been working on it for 3 years. getting ready to paint next month. I found a guy here ( Harley Eaton ) you will see his name a lot on the boards, and without him it would have been tough,

My guess is you will have more in it when you are finished than what you can buy one ready to drive

have fun

 

[82Daion]

I have means to do the bodywork at a very low cost, so that opens up a fair amount of budget. The only work that I'd actually have to farm out at this point would be the paintwork, since I want it looking nice. Currently the parts totals plus the car are under $3k, but that's certain to change. Fortunately, I'll have plenty of time this summer to do the work it needs. Once you get over the initial shock of the body, the car isn't that bad.

 

[82Daion]

Now that I've had a chance to see the car in better lighting conditions, it's better than I thought. The left-rear quarter is the only really major rust spot on the car, although the doors probably still need replaced. The trunk is almost rust-free, as is the underbody(minus the gaping hole in the driver's-side floorpan).However, I'm glad I didn't try to run it today-one of the valve covers wasn't attached, and I didn't have time to put the fuel pump in, so...

However, the interior is a little worse than I thought-some of the parts might need a replate/polish, and there are a few switches that need redone. At least it's not as bad as I originally thought. Now I just need to find a creative way to get the fuel tank back in...