Restoration - Progress - Part 1
So far on the Torino Tribute build I have acted as Designer, Engineer, Project Manager, Graphic Designer, Industrial Designer, Body Repair Technician, Painter, Parts Hunter, Researcher, Fabricator, Welder, Engine Assembly and Test Guy. I know I have a big head, but that is a lot of hats for anyone to wear!
Since I brought the Torino back home in Mid June I have spent most weekends and several weeknights working on the car. In my last blog I mentioned that I had planned on starting on the rear of the car and will work my way forward.
Below is a photo of the Torino on one of the nights that I worked past dark. I really haven't done much of anything to the exterior of the car yet. My focus so far has been to get the internals rebuilt and then start replacing body panels. Just over the roof of the car in the center of the photo is a stack of "new" body panels.
For the rest of the post I think I will add some before and after pictures and describe what I have done up to this point.
My first order of business was cutting off all the old bars and such from the trunk area. The mounts for the fuel cell were a bit too low for me, so I decided to replace the whole mess. The original 1972 Gran Torino has open channel frame rails for the first 18 inches or so. In order to give the car more strength, I boxed in the rear frame rails.
I removed the factory sheet metal rear crossmember and added a rectangular tube between the rear frame rails. I fabricated new body mount brackets and filled in all the holes that were cut by previous owners. I also added a protective cage around the fuel cell.
Next up, I designed and fabricated new fuel cell mounts and a new battery box. I also added long roll bar tubes from the back of the main roll cage hoop down to the rear frame rails. Those bars were also reinforced about midway by a couple more tubes that run down to the coil perch area.
The green color in all of these images is a self-etching metal primer. Once it was coated with that, I added a semi-gloss black topcoat.
Inside the car I discovered that I had a lot of work cut out for myself. Once I started removing the patch panels, it looked like about 80 percent of the floor needed to be replaced. The most discouraging thing was that someone had cut the drivers side main crossmember completely out.
I ordered the only passenger side replacement panel I could find for the 1972 Torino. It didn't seem like it was a very good match to the original but it was better than the shoe-formed piece that I cut out!
The next big challenge was the drivers side floor. All I could see on this side was one patch panel added on top of another, all the way to the firewall.
I ended up cutting most of the floor out and made the decision that I needed to find a factory floor pan. I wanted to keep the floor as original looking as possible to keep the car looking like the ones they raced in the 1974 season.
I then spent about 8 hours cleaning up and fitting the "new" junkyard floor panel.
Well, that gets me up to the next project. Before I weld in the drivers side floor I need to take care of a few other issues. The entire steering mechanism was rusty and old so I need to replace that.
The race car came with an automatic transmission so it only has a brake pedal. Since most of the Gran Torino's came with automatics, I haven't been able to find a clutch and brake pedal assembly. I did locate and purchase a hand built brake/clutch pedal assembly a while ago, so I need to see if I can make it work. I will also have to fabricate the clutch Z bar and linkage.
Once I get a few of those mechanical issues figured out, I will finish welding in the drivers side floor panels.
For now I better get some rest....take care.
