1973 Hardtop

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[Anth]

OK guys, Its not my car but I am helping in the restoration/modification.

1973 Hardtop, built in Dearbourne and built for export.
We know it arrived in Antwerp after that we know nothing until it arrived in the UK in 1991.

The body was completely rusted, its had many new panels.....no photographs that I know of at this point.

The car sat for 4 years not running, the owner had put in a 351w in place of the straight 6 and couldnt get the car running. Fast forward to March this year and I got onboard. Car was running inside 5 hours and then the work began again.

[kermit]

Let me know which picture you'd like to have for this post.

[Anth]

Let me know which picture you'd like to have for this post.

I think.....the first one mate, thanks

[kermit]

cool, I'll take care of that from home tonight.

[Anth]

We started to nitromorse the bootlid, but decided it needed blasting because it was so pitted.

So its been removed and is now being blown to pieces probably 


Heres what we uncovered:

[kermit]

Had to pick another picture than you first one, it didn't work out correctly as a small picture.

[10mpg]

Blimey another one! looks pretty sound, certainly much better than my 72 coupe project!

Keep us updated

[Anth]

replacement screen is in.
New exhaust fitted......we made it from glvanised steel pipe. Spent ages making sure it all fitted nicely etc, straight through pipe. No way is this baby going to pass an MOT without some baffles.

Noticed we can get 2 Cherry bombs for about £50 so that looks like a good option.
Need to move the sidelights out over as they dont define the approximate width of the vehicle.


So once the Cherry bombs are in she's going for MOT.
Still painted red oxide, but hey we want her on the road and running, we'll tart her up once we take the engine out in the winter for its rebuild.

[Anth]

Cherry bombs arrived Last wednesday, booked her in for MOT on saturday morning.

She failed
Front tyres where not on correctly (we forgot to check the direction of rotation 

Passanger seat would not lock down, the mechanism had snapped

And the stitch welding on the boot floor panel needed a seam weld instead.


So Sunday was a bit frantic, welding near the fuel tank, but its done, retest yesterday and she PASSED!!!!!!

Now to find the £220 for tax!

[351mustang1972]

Great to see another "71-73" getting back on the road just reading your post and am a bit puzzled by your statements:

Need to move the sidelights out over as they dont define the approximate width of the vehicle.

Which side lights are you on about and where are you moving them to
You shouldn't need to move any lights on the car as thats the way they come, side lights on the wings and running lights on the grill
In fact you have a 71-72 front grill on that car, (but could be fitted on an early 73), as the lights in the grill were vertical on the "73" and acted as INDICATORS. On the 71-72 models the indicators were in the front valance under the bumper, see photo's.





These are the 71-72 grills:



Also you said the following :

And the stitch welding on the boot floor panel needed a seam weld instead.

which area of the boot failed as I have just welded my one in and dont want to make the same mistake.

Cheers

Scotty

[Anth]

We fitted lights off a volvo truck to act as side lights. You can see them between the front number plate and the addon indicators we have fitted.

The car has been a nightmare to get bits for. the replacement panels cost a fortune and dont fit properly. Thats something we are going to take another look at.
She also need a final paint, but red lead will do for now

In the boot the plate the runs the entire width just in front of the fuel filler pipe. Thats what we had to seam weld to get it past its MOT, because it gets too close to the rear springs mounting .......... apparently.

I hope eventually the owner and myself will get her back more original, although right now he is trying to figure out whether to add a rear bumper or not.

We also are awaiting confirmation of a free 4V carb and plate for the 351W which is good

We are hoping to get her driven around, see what breaks see what needs tweaking. She's never going to be show room condition and she's never going to be entirely original.
We are planning an engine rebuild next year, bored out etc want to take her to a straight 6 litre if we can. But its going to be a case of playing when we can and when the money is available. This year we have got her on the road for not much more than the price of 3 budget tyres + the road tax!

Just wondering what to do colour wise, we think red and black would be good.

[Anth]

Just looked through your Resto project scotty.
The welding you have done on the panel (after cutting too short   ) would fail an MOT according to the garage we went too, because it runs between both sides of the chasis and and runs too close to the rear suspension.
It has to be seam welded.

BTW your car looks great so far!

[351mustang1972]

Cheers mate its been a hard slog for me. I will look at the welds and upgrade them, (just in case). The new boot panel actually came short As Jav said I should have waited till it came but I wanted to be prepared just to weld it in so cut out the old one.

It said on the panel "cut near top for UPS shipment" so they must have taken off 4" just to ship it.

Scotty