And at last it was finally in position to begin demolition. From this angle it looks like a complete car.
Dad helped me remove the hood, which is definitely a two man job, and sit some pieces around back. Old bent hood and old dented hood, which will soon be turned into an old usable hood covered with Verdant Green.
When you're doing a large project, it's funny what you look forward to. The spare tire well at the bottom of this fender is supposed to be black. I have some black chip guard I'm going to use to paint this area, but I can't fix it until I prepare and finish the inside of the spare tire compartment. It's not rusted through as many are, but there is some surface rust. I plan to strip it and repaint it. After that time, because of the drain plug in the bottom, I can then paint the exterior, but I can only do all of that once I get the rear window seals to stop leaking. As a result, painting this part black will represent the final step in a long road of completed tasks and progress and I really look forward to the time I'm far enough along to paint this area. It will symbolize a near completion of my original job of restoring the car.
I was glad to see the rusty rocker trim bracket I sand blasted and painted is still holding up with no rust
Then a big summer storm moved in all of a sudden and halted all progress.
I had to stop midway through removing the drivers fender. I plan on replacing all of the hardware this time around, but I'm still labeling everything so I'll know what type of bolt goes where.
It rained almost the entirety of the weekend. Monday, I started fresh. It was difficult to get some of the bolts out of the front because they were all crunched together and inaccessible. It also took a little prying to get the fender pulled away from the core support and inner fender.
The driver's side grill is still good but the passenger side is smashed up pretty good. Fortunately, both of the mounts in the center, which are broken on the new grill, are in tact and I can use them for measurements when I make repairs to the new one.
The inside of the passenger side fender where I previously cut out the rust and installed a patch panel is dirty but shows no sign of rust which means the process is effective and gives me confidence for the new one, which I will fix the same way.
Despite sandblasting, primer and painted the battery tray, it has once again acquired some surface rust. I'm going to send this, and all other parts like it, to the powder coaters for better durability.
The core support on this side was pretty crunched up and I had to take a long pry bar to bend it in some places to gain access to certain bolts or to give them enough space to come out
Making sure to bag and tag everything takes a lot of extra time and removing the front end took most of the day but eventually it was all gone except the core support.
The cowl drain had come all to pieces and was already stopped up with decomposed leaves. Dumping the water over the fender brace is a bad design and so I'm going to come up with a better idea when I replace this.
No wonder the passenger side fenders rust around the brace, the cowl drain dumps water and debris right onto it. Though this side's rubber is still in good shape, I plan to reroute the water to drain in a way that won't be so damaging.
Finally all off.
This is all the way torn down and is now ready to start rebuilding. After digging in I found that the radiator didn't appear to be damaged. I don't think I'll have to remove the radiator hoses so that means I can save all the antifreeze, which has gotten pretty expensive. I went to the body shop where they straightened the frame on The Caprice and he said that they don't keep measurements for these old cars and the best thing to do, and the most cost effective, is to get a rough measurement to determine if things appear to be square and then bolt on the body panels. If they fit, then it's good. If they don't, or the tires have problems with alignment, then they'll bring it in and set it up on the jig to start taking measurements. Because the core support appeared to be the weak point and bent at the frame horn rather than bending the frame with it, it appears at this point there is no frame damage. I'll take some measurements later to make sure.
Now I have a bench full of Clam parts.
And with the head to the '31 being apart, the '37 unfinished, the motorcycle in the back needing a rear tire, parts from the parts car front clip and now parts from The Clam, the garage has become more stuffed than a Christmas turkey.
