My 81 Wagon V8 Project

[68AMXGOPAC]

Thanks for the explination.Your work is allways great to follow.

[maximus7001]

My main task is to get this job done by the end of May. Then it is the best time for this car to have road test done. Why is it so? In Finland your car must have its annual road test before the original day of registration (i.e. when the car was new). My Eagle is private import, so it hasn´t this official day of registration... If it is so, then last number of the license plate gives the last day of road test. 7 means end of August. I have three months to do the test. June, July and August... If I want to drive next summer, Test is end of May.... If I do road test before, I have to do it again by the end of May... One day earlier, you have to do the test again by the 31st of May....  

Today I fixed left front brake. Not so easy as it should have been... Cylinder had some rust... It took 1,5 hours to get it done. Think I´m gonna buy new calibers...

Started to strip driver side fender flare. What was hidden there... Guess what? Rust of course.  

Those 1981 front brakes are real nasty. I have a 1981 Concord with similar brakes and they have been nothing but trouble since day one, I lost count of the number of calipers and burnt pads replaced over the 11 years of ownership. I always wanted to swap them out for 82-83 Concord/Spirit brakes but now it is a parts car. They are so much trouble that I won't be using all of the newish parts for a disc upgrade on my 68 Javelin, the original drums have proven to be super reliable after sitting for 8 years compared to the 81 disc brakes that need to be taken apart every 6 months and put back together with fresh anti-seize to prevent caliper failure/burnt pads.

That rust does not look so bad. With your skills it will be fixed in no time.

[juhap]

I removed some bondo, and that´s what i found..

[maddog]

ouch that is some nasty damage to find. but with your skills that shouldn't be to hard to fix.

[Prafeston]

Wow...roll over?

[maximus7001]

WTF?

[juhap]

Yes, I think that the first crash was somekind of collision with an other car and then roll over. There are some fender benders all over the body. After that they painted car white. When the second hit happened they used matt white house paint... Unfortunately... last paint brushed was grey rust primer...

Started hammering. I opened section over windshield, so I could do some hammering. Corner is so hard to reach that I´m going to cut the whole part away. And hammer it separately...

[shaggimo]

Great work so far juhap! roof damage is always a buzz kill, nothing fun about it.

[milliard431]

If you were in the states it would be much easier to get a donor splice from the sanctuary and weld it in. Considering the part, it might only cost you shipping, I mean really, how much demand is there for roof splices. Just a little time to cut it out, wrap it up and ship it. Your time has to be worth something. Given your talent I would say quite a bit! But then you wouldn't have so much fun.

[priya]

I suspect that part of the roof will be work hardened from previous hammering.  Do you think it would be a good idea to heat it to red with a torch to eliminate the work hardening before you go at it again?

[juhap]

There was no other way...



I have to restore this  piece of sheet metal...

[juhap]

It looks now much better... But I have to fabricate new drip rail...

[priya]

Why do you suppose there were those three holes in that part of the roof?

[juhap]

They are for luggage rack...

[priya]

LOL, I should have thought of that, but it didn't occur to me.