Most of the external parts are removed, leaving the power train and the suspension. Once I get that removed, I will need to figure out how to get it on the body cart without a lift. It turns out a body cart is kind of tall compared to where the body sits on its own suspension.

Engine is out. I unbolted it from the transmission at the back of the bell housing and pulled it forward. I had room with the radiator out. Once everything was disconnected, it came right out.

There is still a lot of little things that need to come out, but now there is plenty of room to make it happen. I just cut the brake lines near the distribution block since I have no intention of reusing them. That also makes it easier to remove the nuts as you can use a socket wrench rather than a brake line wrench. From here, I could also easily remove the steering linkage and the crossmember. I was a bit worried about the 2 crossmember bolts, but with a few taps of the rubber mallet on the breaker bar, they started coming out. These are the last things I want to have an issue with since the nut is welded inside the front frame rails.

It’s a shame that the rot got to the radiator support in the battery corner. The rest of is looks salvageable and solid, just bent a bit on top. Somehow the bottom corner is the only place with rot, and it went hard.

I had to do a quick run to Harbor Freight for another engine stand before I could get it out and off the hoist. I’m not sure what I will be doing with this engine, but for now, it can sit off to the side until I get around to it. It has a number of “custom” things that I am not particularly fond of, but I already have a short block back from the machine shop that I plan on using.

No good pictures of the process, but I crawled under and removed the exhaust. From what the previous owner was saying, it had a new exhaust. What it really had was a half decent exhaust that was installed a long time ago and not installed correctly. There are a number of visible leaks at the clamps because it wasn’t welded and as with the rest of the car, things were also not tightened down. On the up side, it came off easy.

Focusing on the front for a bit, I was able to get the suspension off. I remembered to bring my coil spring compressor to take the springs off, so that was easy enough. Once I got to this stage, I just pulled the eccentric bolt for the lower control arm, then took off the 2 nuts for the upper control arm and it all fell off in one big piece. Im making subassemblies I can tear down later and clean up/restore if I need them. Or maybe clean them up to sell since this is a good set of disc brakes. I probably need those spindles too, unless I go with some big pin aftermarkets like I did on the 65.

Playing some dangerous games with the floor jack, I was able to get the front up high enough to get the front half of the body cart under it and fitted into the shock tower where the LCA was removed from. The tail extension is floating for now, ready to mate up with the back half when I get that under it. Still more of the power train to remove first though.

As I started to take things off the back, I found more hidden gifts from a previous owner. I was hoping the inner wheel well could be salvaged, but it looks like I am going to need both inner and outer on both sides.

On the passenger side, I find evidence that the inner rocker was replaced. But rather than make it fit up well, they just cut a hole. So, basically the whole back of the car needs some love. And steel.

While I’m sharing, I am not sure what is going on here. I guess this drum didn’t fit, so they had to get creative and make it fit, rather than buying the right part.

For the rear end, I jacked it all up and put it on stands at the front part of the rear rail. I then put another set of stands under the rear in order to support it while I dropped the back of the springs. From there, I had a free rear, supported by the jack stand so it didn’t roll forward while I removed the springs from the front connector. As with the expectation with this car, neither of the front spring bolts had a nut. They were just sitting in place with our old friend gravity. The drive shaft was similar in that it had 3 of the 4 bolts holding the U joint on to the differential.

Ultimately, it all came out. This has been my easiest project yet since very little of it was properly torqued or fastened. It came apart pretty fast.

The last step is to get some lift on the rear so I can get the rear half of the body cart under it. Again with some dangerous acrobatics and a floor jack, but the body cart is under the car and assembled.

Now just a bit of scraping and grinding to get it ready to take in to the blasting shop, but its finally mobile again.

Most of the bottom was free of undercoat. I assume its from being replaced years ago and never undercoated again. The only place I felt needed attention before blasting was the front aprons and shock towers on the wheel side. I tried a wire wheel first, but it was slow going. Ultimately, what worked best was the gasket scraper. What a mess.

Blasting is going to show me where the solid metal is as well as the rust. But now its also going to show me where the undercoating wouldn’t come off. At least the job will be clearer after blasting.

Next step if hauling it to the blaster and letting them have it for a few weeks. Since I have the original deck lid and salvaged fenders, I will bring those in too to get bead blasted. They are experienced, so I hope that means no warping. I also hope they don’t find any surprises. We shall see.