After buying a 69’ Xr7 convertible in September of 18’ as a retirement project, I finally got to start tear down on January 10, 2020. The story I got on the car is the car was originally purchased in Hamilton OH and was kept by the original owners until the mid summer of 2018, when the guy I purchased the car from bought the car from the original owners.
Sometime in 1993, the car was painted, changing the color from gold to dark green, then pulled into their barn to get a new convertible top and new brakes. The 4 wheel drum brakes were done, but the top was never replaced, so the car sat in that barn from 1993 to 2018!
Fast forward to 2020. The 351 is locked up, and there seems to have been some floor patches and rear quarter patches done, and topped off with copious amounts of roofing tar to seal it all up!
Since I enjoy looking through all of the projects posted on this forum, I thought I would post my own. Hopefully I can keep the posts up to date. Of course I’ll be needing some advice along the way from those of you that have already started and/or finished yours.
I’ve attached some pics of the car the day I purchased it, and I have some after tear down, but the files seem to be too large to post, so I’ll have to address those pics and post later…
So after a few days of removing, tagging & bagging parts from the interior, here are some pics of what I’m up against. Notice the old quarter panel patch with the screws and tar?
Thanks for sharing your project!
Be sure to check out the ECI project thread if you haven’t already.
You guys have more guts than me to tackle such big jobs as thees.
All power to you…lol
Is there a link to that “ECI project thread”? I can’t seem to find it.
Here you are, get a cold brew, some popcorn and enjoy.
https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/picture-diary-of-an-eci-east-coast-idiot-continued/483/1
As neal added to a diary of a ECI here is the thread from the OTHER forum.
thanks
pat
you’re in for a long haul to the end. Enjoy the process, don’t give up and take a break when you need too.
So it’s been a while since my last post. For me, just like almost everyone else, 2020 has been quite a PIA! I’ve taken refuge from the virus by working on my project slow and steady. She’s just about ready for blast in the next week. I knew going in that buying a car from Ohio was “iffy”, but damned, the guy that had this thing painted in the early 90s must have owned a roofing company. This thing was literally full of at least 20 gallons of roofing tar! He repaired the inner rockers, rear torque boxes, and lower quarter panels with aluminum sheeting, ran some screws through it, and then tarred the living hell out of it! I anticipated some surprises, but even I was surprised. I’ve spent 3 days with a heat gun and scraper removing all of the tar with hopes of saving me some $$, because the blaster won’t have to spend extra time blasting out the tar.
I have the new inner rockers, and just ordered the rear floor to trunk transition, left and right trunk floors, and drop offs. I need to replace all of the that plus both rear frame rails, torque boxes, entire floor, front torque boxes, at least the front part of the passenger side outer rocker, frame rail and the angled part from the firewall to the front of the floor pan.
That leads me to a question for the guys who have done this before… What’s the " best" place to start to tackle this puzzle? Do I begin with the rockers and then everything else, or do 1 side from front to rear, and then switch sides? It’s on a rotisserie now, but after it gets blasted, I’m going to drop it down onto a frame table to keep everything level, and make jigs for each piece that I remove, so that I can replace the part in the exact location it came from.
I’ll post again post blasting…
Wow, that is a big project and like somebody said earlier more than I could handle. As Clint Eastwood said “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Since they don’t make repro leather seats now is the time to beat the bushes and see if you can find any tan upholstery stuff. Anything other than black is very difficult to find, I know I have a green interior! Good luck and keep us updated on your progress.
I wish I’d known I just scraped a very rusty 69 with 30,000 original miles it had flawless leather and the guy I sold it to was dying it to another color
Don, maybe this would be a good place to ask about your upholstery sets for both 69 and 70. Is it true nobody makes leather inset ones? I was ready to just go with the vinyl sets that you sell for my 70 XR7, but I understand that the repro vinyl seat sets from Distinctive Industries do not look like the original headrest padding. Their vinyl is spot-on though. Do you have a supplier that matches the original seats well, and do you offer front sets only? My back seat is original and in nice shape.
So I finally got the car blasted last weekend and got it back home. After some sealer and modifying the rotisserie into a frame table, I’ll be ready to start the long task of fixing all the rust on this girl! The new floor is on the way, and the rear seat to trunk transition, L&R trunk floors, inner rockers, and trunk drop offs are here waiting for their turn.
Still have some parts to source , but headed in the right direction.
So that’s what my car would look like completely naked! 
Wow, you have quite the winter project there! Looks like a nice place to work on it too. And I was feeling overwhelmed just by pulling the dash apart for a new heater core in mine this winter…
It looks like you’ve gotten off to a good start, its not a job for the faint of heart! I have a similar project in progress, we cut out the floor and then did inner rockers and torque boxes first to add stability and stiffen it up. Good job with the bracing. Don’t get discouraged! Isn’t the salt belt great, it dissolves cars like an alkaseltzer! Good Luck!
Thanks for the encouragement! Going to drop it down and turn the rotisserie into a make shift frame table while I do the same thing with the structural parts, then back up on the rotisserie for the Sheetmetal.
Merry Christmas guys!
You’re not alone in your quest!
