My 1970 restoration project

[70spider]

Hello All,
The journey begins. I stripped the interior today and took some pics to chronical the momentus occasion.
First the over-all:


Next is the back seat area:


The passenger side floor:


The driver side floor, this is the worst of them all.


The Previous Owner:


And this is impossible to believe, I found a 1970 quarter under the carpet by the consel (the cars a 1970) plus under the sound deadening material there was a 1965 quarter (the year of my birth) This car was ment to be mine



Last but not least I will need alot of these to get me through this.

Any thougts and advice will be much appriciated,
Pesto

[fredguaz]

Pesto,
Good luck! I would say 95% of the info you need is right here on this forum. Make sure you pull up all that rubber sound deadening material to see any rust beneath.
Enjoy the journey!

[courtenay]

I would suggest that "Peroni" is the perfect choice of "installation fluid" for your project. It should provide both inspiration and relief as you work your way through the trials and tribulations to bring your Spider back.

[narfire]

Any thougts and advice will be much appreciated

Well, I prefer the installation fluid in a glass at around 40-50 deg F.
Have fun with the restoration. Anyone gives you the "fix it again Tony" grief.... fixing it as therapy...

[70spider]

Much appriciated for the incouragement, this is going to be a blast rebuilding my own car. Like I told my son I'll know this thing inside and out by the time I'm done, cuz I have to take it apart then put it back together.
The plan is to get a good putty knife and get rid of all the rubber like stuff. Then use a wire wheel to get as much rust out as possible, try to get down to good metal. I bought some Sem Rust-Shield, waiting for it to get here, to paint the floor with and hope it saves me some time before I can get the driver side floor replaced.
Well I'll keep posting pics when I get things done, I'm not trying to make a show horse just a nice looking daily driver.
Oh by the way I have never been able to embrace the European way a drinking lubricating fluid, I have to have it cold .
Thanks

[spiderdan]

Why do the English drink warm beer?
Lucas made refrigerators, too.

[SoFlaFiat]

Pesto,
I just finished cleaning all the insulation and undercoating from my car, top and bottom. I found this:

http://www.amazon.com/Terratek-TPMT15VB ... multi-tool

It comes with a scraper attachment and for the price saves a lot of time and energy for removing that junk. As you are planning, I used a wire wheel for final clean up. Get as much off as you can before the wire wheel since even that can heat the goo up and make a huge mess.

If you are wondering if it is all worth it, I found a good bit of hidden rust beneath the insulation and undercoating. It feels great to know it is fixed!!

[70spider]

Ok I only had an hour to work on the car today but I got through the majority of the driver side. Here are some pics of where I am at.



I have only used a wire brush. The metal around the seat rails looks real good, however the majority of the floor is pretty much pit-marked by the rust. Also along the edge (towards the rocker panels) is not so good. Should I remove some more questionable metal with a grinder or just treat it with a rust cleaner?
So, with the floor looking like this, it feels solid, should I have it replaced or can I buy some time with using Rust-Shield?
Thanks, time for some Peroni, Pesto

[fredguaz]

Pesto I would say if you can't poke a pick through it, I would just cover it up. But I am using por15 and I don't know anything about the sem product. Even por15 can mess up without the proper prep so double check the prep for your product. My floor is rusted through in a few spots so I needed to get me a mig welder to patch up. How does that rocker look from underneath? Some people use fiberglass cloth with por15 for small holes with good results.

[azruss]

I would not try to grind down to the bottom of the rust. you wont have much left. wire brush to get the excess rust off and treat with a rust converter like extend or rust reformer. you could even go as far as to find a paste epoxy and work it into all the rust cavities with a bondo spreader. Your big issue will be the edges. I can see from the picture you have a serious issue there. I would clean that out thoroughly and see if you have any metal left. If not, weld that seam.

[70spider]

Thanx for the info, I'll just clean it up and put the converter on for now. I wonder what a typical body shop would charge to put in a new floor. As you can see I have good metal under the seat rails, if I got a new floor would they just cut out the bad and put in a section or the whole floor?
Well I am off to clean up the passenger side.

[fredguaz]

Pesto, for what a body shop would charge you could buy your own mig and sheet metal and probably still come out ahead. You can get floor pans from sponsors here and weld them in yourself. Then when you're done, you'll have another neat tool you'll find indispensable.
When I bought my Eastwood 135 mig welder, I had NEVER touched a welder in my life! My son and I are literally learning as we go. It's not difficult. I've always been of the opinion that I could eventually learn most (not all) things better than a pro because I don't need to learn the time saving tricks pros use. That being said, my welder, though relatively inexpensive (299. plus gas, hood, etc.) is limited in what thickness metal it can handle. It's perfect for patching floor pans.

[70spider]

fredguaz,
Thanks for the incouragement, you are the second person who has told me that learning to MIG weld is straight forward. I just might have to go that route, I need to have a couple of patches welded for the front quarter panels, rocker panels, and a couple of quater size patches on the front shock towers. So, maybe investing in a welder might be smart. Plus my contract at work wasn't renewed so I only have 3 more pay checks to work with.

[70spider]

Hello again,
I have made progress. I chised out all the ruuber stuff on the floors, wow what a choir (10 hours). Next is I am going to remove the dash this weekend, weather permitting. After I get the dash out I can remove the heater and get to the firewall then final prep it for the SEM Rust-Shield. I read online how to remove it so I feel fairly comfortable, however are there any suprises I need to look out for?
Next I was thinking the exhaust and the suspension. The exhaust is simple but I have never done the suspension on a car before so is it something I should attempt or leave to the mechanics. I don't have alot of funds and the parts for a fairly complete rebuild is about 1000. So what could I expect to pay a mechanic to do the work? Another thing does anyone sell stock springs for the Spider? All I could find are performance springs that drop the car (specifically the ones from Vicks Autosports) I don't want a super stiff ride.
Well enough talking your ears off, thanks for reading .
Pesto

[azruss]

unless something is wrong with your current springs, i would clean them up and reuse them. You need to assess the level of wear to decide what you want to do. If you are planning on upgrading all the suspension, i recommend buying new A-arms as they come with ball joints and bushings already installed. You can just buy the components and install them in your old A-arms, but that is where all the work and frustration comes in. A nasty job. If you are rebushing the rear trailing arms, you have some work there as well. I havent done mine in years, so others with more recent experience will chime in. There is lots talked about on this subject here, so do some reading up. It is a big job, but not very technical, so can be done in the home garage easily.