Royce Burnett's Journal

Yesterday was a good day. Got the engine and transmission out first thing. I can see why people complain about the crossmember! It will be quite a piece to put back together with all new mounts I'm sure..

Tidied up the shop a bit, found room for all the stuff I've been taking off ( took more time than anything else I've done)and got to work finishing off the rotisserie. Still have a bit to do on that and should have that done this afternoon.

Received my stretcher/shrinker in the mail, I'm still waiting for my joggler and cleco fittings as well as my repair panels. One great thing about tackling a project like this is the accumulation of neat tools! Which reminds me..is my current air compressor going to be adequate? hmm..

I've got at least a couple of weeks off work ( lots of banked time built up during the year) so have been picking away at various tasks. I've hung the passenger door on as well and got it lined up. Cockpit has been braced along top side of each doorway, but I'm thinking i'm going to do a bit more x-bracing.

Front fenders have been removed, with PS trumpet section in bad shape, DS is good. Top engine compartment rail where fender mounts is shot on both sides, up by the trumpet section.

All trim is off the car, still messing about with the wiper bezels. Looks like a grinder job on the nuts holding the bezels on.

Once thats done, pulling the engine and transmission out. After that, thinking I will add some more braces and get the car on to the rotisserie. My back won't handle laying about on the garage floor while working on the sills.

I've pretty well finished the rotisserie, just have to work out arms and such to attach the car to the spinner. Busy as H at work this year so not as much progress as I thought I would have, but hey.. only took me 5 years to start working on it. A few weeks ago I started looking fairly seriously at the job ahead.. full sill/castle replacement on both sides and floor pans. Ordered a bunch of stuff which showed up pretty quickly.Got busy with flap disc and 3M paint remover disc to discover what all was bondo.. turns out quite a lot of it! PO or someone had brazed/riveted a bunch of patches on in various places; front lower fender, rear dogleg and above the rear wheel arch. Bondo is up to 1/2 inch thick in places, apparently the guy had never thought to actually try to hammer out some of the dents.. which I was able to do in a few minutes once I discovered where the dents were. More time to be spent fine tuning these bits. Purchased a pair of doors from a nice chap for a good price as my old ones were trashed, inside and out. Spent a bit of time hanging the DS door on today and getting it to fit properly, some adjustment to the car will be needed as it's sagging badly. Got the feature line looking pretty good now but not quite perfect yet. Still deciding whether to brace and put it on the rotisserie, or not brace and do this job on the shop floor. Decisions....

Right.. after several life changing events over the past year or 2.. I have at last found a bit of time to get started on this car again. Decided to begin by building a rotisserie, which I may post pictures of if it ends up looking decent.

Didn't do much today.. just cleaned the shop up a bit so I can do some stuff to the wife's Lancer tomorrow.

Daughter got back from Mexico with my camera, so am now taking snaps as I disassemble.

Back to it for a bit today. Removed exhaust pipe from manifold back, not too bad, only snapped one clamp bolt.

Removed fuel tank, bit of an effort there with rusty fasteners making things interesting, finally got it off and found top of tank has rusted through badly. I brushed at least 1/2 pound of rust flakes off the top, filling my dustpan. I'm guessing the PO had fuel issues.