My wife says I need an intervention. I just can't help myself, I love hot rods and sports cars. This one followed me home, can I keep it? All seriousness aside, I probably spent too much for this but it was going to the dismantler if I didn't snag it. The wreckers wouldn't know what to do with something that didn't say Hondayota on the hood. It is way down my list of projects but eventually I will get to it, I promise. Anyway, here are the pics of how I found her. I am on the hunt for some parts, like a nose and right front brake and drum, because it would be nice if it rolled.
Here it is, literally outside the walls of the salvage yard, before I could stop them they drug it over there. It was literally minutes from the crusher. I don't think the family knew what they had!! These are beautiful little cars, with double overhead cam engines that rev to the moon.
The engine turns over just fine, the oil still looks great, but when the front end was hit the fan got really close to the radiator. I don't think it was running when the nose was hit, because the fan didn't spin around and hit the radiator. Both the radiator and the fan appear to be undamaged. Here is the nose:
Somewhere along the line someone tried to sculpt a new nose out of bondo and finally gave up. I found some miscellaneous parts in the trunk.
Here is the engine side of the radiator and you can see that it is untouched. The mounts are tweaked a little but will be easy to repair.
This is the driver's side rocker panel. It was apparently previously damaged then poorly repaired.
And inside the left rear wheel well.
It is a little hard to see here but the horizontal sheet metal in the floor is rusted through.
And the trunk has some rusted through areas as well. All of this seems very repairable to me.
The instruments are all there, but sun faded.
The top bows are complete and fold and unfold. The floor under the seats is rusted through.
The right side of the car is straight and seems sound.
The left has had some repairs but seems sound enough.
Tonneau, will probably clean up okay.
Seat belts,
Spare transmission??
VIN tag under the hood.
Here is my first problem. I will have to buy a brake drum and bearings just to make it roll. I have the rim and a flat tire. Actually 4 flat tires, but the others are mounted on the car. It is sad that the previous owner's family didn't want to keep this cool little car...
So there you have it. It is on the list of projects, after the 62 chop top ford truck, the 56 ford truck and the 1969 Porsche 911. If you want to see the progress on the chop top truck, it is on the dixie high school welding blog at dixiehighwelding.blogspot.com . The kids are really getting into it, but I can only fund one project at a time!! I am just 6 lottery numbers away from being able to play with my cars full time. 6 measly numbers!!
