Been a while since I could say progress was being made. As just about everyone knows, the car was hit in my driveway on August 30. I was able to reach a proper settlement with State Farm, which deemed the damage repairable, allowing me to keep the clean title.
I did nothing to the car short of removing the airdam and grilles to show the extent of the damage. I wanted to keep the car in it's as-hit state just in case it was necessary to get another appraisal or something. The day the check arrived, I resumed working on getting the car ready for the bodywork stage.
Shortly before the car was hit, I had removed the aftermarket AC components from the cabin, along with the carpet, and the soiled insulation. I was very concerned about what the driver's floor looked like, so it was a top priority. I hadn't removed anything from the firewall forward. So, I decided that was going to be my first project. I further developed my hatred for aftermarket parts.
The aux fan was easy enough. Standard mounting for that. The condenser on the other hand was a real pain. Held in place with 4 M6 bolts, with a nut on the backside of each. The two lower nuts were underneath the radiator. I couldn't remove the radiator since the core support wouldn't allow it to move, so I had to work around it. I had it out after about 45 minutes of trial and error. Ford tire iron for the win. Once the physical mounting was undone, then I could actually get to the hose connections (you couldn't actually turn a wrench for the top connection). Easy-peasy. I then figured I might as well take everything out. Washer bottle is in the way, so I pull it out. I got distracted and ended up removing the entire windscreen washer system - including the lines to the nozzles in the hood, despite the hood being slated for scrap. I followed the AC electrical from one side of the car to the other. I soon realized why nothing happened when I tried to run the AC. Someone cut the red wire to the battery. You're supposed to cut the blue wire! Damn kids fresh from the academy. Once all that was free, it was time to pull the lines. Ugh. Idiots. Just ran self-tappers into the inner fender, then decided to run a bolt - and a nut of course - for another. These people were so smart, they got the longest bolt they could to go 1/2". The end of the bolt was just a couple millimeters from the spring. So, after cranking the nut off of that for a couple minutes, I was able to pull all of the lines out for the Diavia AC system.
Next up, I removed the fender liners. They were perished, and I wanted to see what things looked like behind them - particularly on the left. I found a damn power antenna. I was 90% sure the car had a manual antenna. I was very confused about that. I then pulled all of the beltline and rocker trim. No issues there, except it's pretty hard to get all of the clips off without losing a couple of the expanding pieces inside the rocker. They'll come out sometime, I'm sure. I pulled the drip rail off each side as well. I'm glad I did, too. Everywhere there was a clip, there was a small bit of surface rust. I won't be able to get new pieces as they're NLA, but I'm going to try to get the cleanest E28 ones I can (they're the same) or have mine stripped, polished and re-anodized. I pulled all of the door seals as well. Each door has some minor rust behind the seal. I think it should be easy to treat that. No perforation.
The following evening, I started in on the trunk. On E28s, there are carpet pieces for trim. E12s have the world's thinnest and most fragile plastic. Every piece in my trunk is broken, but there. Still, I pulled everything and set it aside, as you never know what you'll need. I pulled out the spare, tools, license plate lights, tail lights, trunklid trim, etc. I found some minor rust I hadn't seen. No big deal. I did some picking and wire brushed a couple of questionable areas as well. Pulling the rear spoiler off was a pain. You have to go really slowly and really be careful. I thought I did pretty good. Sure, my spoiler is in rather poor shape, but they are NLA and there is probably a way to restore mine to be presentable at least. I pulled the front and rear lockstrips as well.
Next, I pulled off the front fenders. The right front had been replaced and pretty much fell off after undoing the bolts. The left was a bitch and a half. Not only did I have my favorite sealant to deal with, I also had a nice thick coat of undercoating, too. I ended up cutting through that with a knife. The funny thing is that the left side of the car is actually better than the right since whoever replaced the right fender just bolted it on. No sealant or anything. All that was there was residual from the old one. As a result, there's no rust along the left side, but, there is some on the right. Shouldn't be too hard to fix, though. I removed the rear speakers, rear parcel shelf and other pieces since I was a bit concerned about the condition of my left rear shock tower. I think I'll be replacing them, as I don't want to be done with the car and wonder what they're like. Not a great design.
I took a break from pulling things off since I had a few jobs last week. I decided to look at having the car chemically stripped. I did a lot of reading, I read probably 30 restoration threads in their entirety on several boards from muscle cars to Pelican Parts. People have differing opinions, but It seems the people that had it done by competent people and were careful to prime the car immediately. As opposed to acid stripping, the place here (formerly Redi-Strip, now Clean Metal Industries) uses a heated caustic dip (11.5pH) to remove the material, then an acid which neutralizes the base and removes the rust. Once it's out of there, it's pressure washed at 3000psi with water that has phosphoric acid added, and acts as a "conversion coating." They recommend priming it ASAP with an epoxy primer and doing the bodywork through that. They wouldn't quote a price until I gave them a test piece, so I brought them the left-front fender. They weren't sure if the undercoating would come off, so I was really happy to hear that. I haven't heard anything yet.
A couple days ago, I got back to work on the car. I was on the phone at about 11pm and decided to tinker a bit. I removed all of the aftermarket stereo wiring, then the lower left dash panel and next thing you know, I removed all of the remaining insulation on the floor, the rear seat heating ducts and then I had the dash out (cake). Then, I started looking at how wiring was run and where. I found some more rust, but it shouldn't be too bad to deal with.
Thursday night, I pulled the heater fan, the wiper linkage and had the heater box ready to come out, but I didn't feel like undoing the hoses. Friday, I pulled the clutch fan, radiator and the heater. I removed the air intake as well. I photographed all of the wiring at the distribution panel under the dash.
The problem with taking a car apart is that it takes up a lot more space in pieces.
Next up is getting the harnesses from the trunk through the rear bulkhead. I hope to get most of the wiring out of the passenger compartment and trunk this weekend in addition to all of the other work I have to do.
Here's some pictures of the progress.
11-10-10 (still has the fenders):
11-19-10:
After removing the heater:
I'd take the hood off, but I don't know where to put it.
as well.
Well, I think they are a great 1980's correct look for these cars while maintaining the 16" (in my opinion) max size that looks right.
