A fork in the road...

Yesterday we were able to get stuck into the car again. We were at a bit of a loss yesterday as to which aspect to attack first so we took the option of tidying up the garage. It was certainly needed. Now we can easily move around the car. Ah, much better...

After finishing the tidying, we took some time to reflect on where we want to go with this car and what should be the plan of attack. Our original plan was to get this thing on the road ASAP, but that goal is slowly slipping away as we discover more and more things we need to do. As you can see from the photos, in its current state it is not far until it is complete stipped. It really is the front suspension, wiring and cabin section that are left. We deliberated for some time as to whether we continue down the path of stripping it down entirely (and add considerable time to the project) or do we tidy it up from where it is now and ignore the cabin section. What do you guys think?

The interior is not too bad, but we don't know what lurks beneath the carpet. What we do know is that the coolant lines, wiring and chassis down the sides need some attention. I think we are now of the opinion that we will continue to strip this thing down. We have come so far, we'd may as well do the whole car properly and then we have no worries about the car in the future.

OK, so with that thought in mind we decided to start ripping out the front suspension. It's quite a funny design. Bascially, all they have done is ripped the front cross member and suspension off a Cortina and bolted it to the box-section chassis. Not much to it really. It looks heavy, but being a dual control-arm setup, hopefully it has reasonable handling. It's amazing how much little front collision protection there is. Haha

We were  able to undo all of the bolts apart from one (yes there's always one). It was jammed in between the cross-member and the panelling behind the pedals. Impossible to get at without removing the pedal box and panelling. This caused us much grief. I was lying upside down under the dash for several hours. Not fun.

We eventually removed the pedal box. There were a few painful screws and bolts on this one. By this time, we'd yelled a few profanities and Dad had to head home. I decided to plod on and attack the panelling. My wife, Kristen came out to the garage and couldn't find me until she saw this...

Nope, that's not photoshopped. Hilarious...

There was one bastard of a screw in there that was near impossible to get out and just about threaded. Damn flat-headed screws. Worst idea ever! In hind-sight, I should have just drilled it out, but I was determined to get it out and ended wasting 45 minutes (and my sanity) to get it out with vice grips.

In other news, we visiting the engine shop yesterday with the intention of picking up the block. Unfortunately the engine builder had forgotten we were coming in and hasn't progressed yet. No hurry. We have lots of work to do.

Unfortunately, I'm away for the next 2 weekends, so not much is gonna happen for a while :(