Predictable Rust

You never know what awaits you underneath the wing. I was not surprised by what I found. It could have been worse, I had hoped for better. Here is the front part of the inner sill. You can just make out a perforation where the taper ends toward the front. I should have cut that out and replaced it with solid metal. But, its a GT so its less prone to sagging and my goal is to get this car on the road and "do it right" later (like I am with the roadster). I stripped the rust off the inner sill that fits under the wing...
..and did the same with the trumpet section. Removal of the rust with a twisted wire wheel on my angle grinder revealed two perforations. At a minimum I should have plug welded those closed before proceeding futher, but with my goal in mind I left it for later. The metal here is prepared with "Metal Ready" primer in advance of applying POR-15 paint. POR-15 paint applied to the inner sill, trumpet section and area where the wing fits to the body. All had surface rust that cleaned up easily. Next up: Finishing the carb rebuild and body work on the front valence before attaching a new wing!

Wing Removal

Here is the damage present when I rescued the car. It runs from the center of the wheel well forward with minor damage to the bumper and grill.
A closeup of the damage near the front, after removal of the bumper - the first step in wing removal. The valence suffered some good old wrinkling. I'll get to practice some hammer and dolly work on those V-channels and ridges!
Front valence off and grill out.Next to remove the nuts and bolts that hold the wing in place. This last tricky little beggar is accessed through the brake failure indicator light which was broken anyway.
Wing off! The front wheel rim was damaged during the accident and the spare, used as a temporary replacement, has most of the tread sheared off. It must have been a desperate get away. There is some rust along the top edge that must be removed and the trumpet (triangular box section near the top) needs cleaned up for rust assessment. The splash panel at the far right looks iffy along the edge. Yep, that's a broom holding the bonnet open.
Its a real challenge to keep from tearing it all down and "doing it right." I must keep the goal in sight: getting the car on the road by end of the summer. Must focus...must.... focus....!.

We Have Ignition (switch) !

Back in February I had the ignition switch re-keyed only to discover the entire switch was completely knackered. I ordered a new switch and keys from Moss Motors.
For the '73, you must remove the connector (arrowed) and attach bullet connectors to wire it into the dash harness. The wires pulled with surprising ease from the plastic connector.
I ordered a combination pack of bullets and sleeves from British Wiring and the crimping tool for attaching the bullets. Only problem was, the crimping tool was on back order from England and would take a month to arrive. There is debate about the usefulness of this tool, with many saying it is best to solder the bullets on. I knew my soldering skills were not up to the task so I decided to wait for the crimper.

The bullets came packaged all together but are easy to tell part based on their markings. The 24-strand bullets required for the ignition are the 10 in the second column from the right.
Strip the wires such that the end of the wire goes to the end of the bullet, but don't strip too much insulation! If you look up inside the bullet there is a constricted area where the insulation should end and the stripped wire should be begin. The crimp will be placed in the indentation you see on the exterior of the bullet.
Check out this crimping action photo! The tool has a ratcheting mechanism and forms a perfect crimp around the bullet. I checked the wire and could not pull it out. In my opinion it is worth the wait and cost (around $50.00 for the crimper) if you will do much rewiring. If I could solder in a decent fashion I may have a different opinion but for me this was the way to go.Attaching the switch to the steering column was easy. Note the "break away" bolt . The head shears away (as seen on the right) when the proper torque is reached. At least that is my story and I'm stickin' to it.Here is the cover replaced on the steering column and the bullets pushed into the connectors (shown under the dash).
I should have fire now. Next I need fuel. The tank is in, so that leaves the carburetor rebuild before I can try firing her up again.

Minger Defined

From urbandictionary.com: (I'll spare you the link lest some definitions offend)

minger - Now often used by chavs all over Britain to define anything remotely disgusting.
or from Wikipedia:
UK (slang) uncomplimentary description of an unattractive person, usually female.

Yes its true. The GT interior is a real minger. It looks disgusting. It smells bad. Its generally nasty. Check out the "carpet" behind the seats. It pulled away easily leaving little but dust. It was well on its way back to nature.Some wasps were building a nest on on the driver's side rear wheel well.
Most enticing of all was the mouse nest found under the body panel over the rear wheel well. I had a run-in with the previous tenants a few weeks ago and all six (adults) were dispatched to the great block of cheese in sky. That's the nest in white, with mouse-urine drenched insulation near the back. Fantastic.
With the vermin and disgusting carpet removed perhaps it will at least start to smell a little better?

GT Fuel System : Mounting the new tank

I had planned on a full weekend of working on the car, but I decided to run a full virus can on my home PC on Friday after work. Virus scan found a virus, removed it, and at the same time corrupted the operating system beyond repair. Many, many hours later I'm back in business, having only lost a few email and the time I had hoped to invest in the GT.

Back to the fuel system! First step was to etch prime and then paint the mounting hardware with acrylic paint. Then bake it in the oven for 20 minutes at 200F to harden the paint. Mmmmm - Just like mom used to make! I scrimped on the prep work so it did not adhere as well as I had hoped. Never skimp on the prep, kids.
The new tank previously coated with truck bed liner was ready for the install. Although you can't see it in this photo, the black isolation rubber strips were run along the tops of the ridges on the tank. Traditional install is to run the strips front to back but they tend to trap dirt and moisture and start to rust the top of the tank. Some spray-on adhesive kept them in place until the tank was raised with the jack to help hold it while it was bolted on. The original isolation piece around the vent and the filler were reused.
The tarp is in place to catch drips from underneath where Penetrol was applied on some rusted areas that were easier to access while the tank was off. Penetrol is a paint conditioner that helps prevent rust by adhering to it and forming a film when it dries. It is often used by owners on the MBG Experience for rust prevention in the sills. Will it help here? Who knows? Its better than doing nothing and I'm not doing a proper restoration at this point. Here it is, all tucked up and bolted in. Now that's some nice GT badonkadonk!
Fuel lines were detached and blown out with compressed air (the carb is out for a rebuild). Some nasty, rusty gas came through the lines. Rubber lines were replaced in the rear area as a precaution. The metal lines will be left alone for now.The original tank had a fuel pickup line built in. The new tank does not and uses a pickup line integral to the gauge. Minor adjustments were needed to the metal lines. Sure, its not pretty and definitely not original, but it gets the job done!Carb rebuild is the next item for the fuel system - a good rainy day job. Body work on the replacement wing is coming soon too.

My Favourite Stripper is not named "Lola"

OR: GT Fuel System (Sort of, but not really)

I thought it would be a good idea to assess the rust damage in the spare tire area prior to replacing the bolts for installation of the new tank. NOTE: This kind of "while you are at it" behaviour is never a good idea when the goal is to get the car on the road. I just could not help myself and need to constantly remind myself of the 80 LE that is sitting in bits in my garage. But, I needed a physical task to burn off some stress, so I took into it. First step is removal of the cover.
Then a closer look at what lurks beneath. It appears not too bad in this picture but there is a lot of deep rust on the "shelf" near the front, in the corners, and near the rear of the car (not in photo).
I cleaned it up a little and used low-odour "Aircraft stripper" to remove the paint. The low odour stuff does not work as well as the regular but is hopefully less toxic. Paint stripper generates a lot less dust than using a wire-wheel to take it off. A wire wheel was used for final cleanup. "Stripper" and "take it off" in the same paragraph and I can't think of anything witty to say. I must be tired!

Here's why they say to put this stuff in a metal or glass container. The stripper was in this cup for about 2 minutes and no, I was not holding the cup at the time. Always do what the instructions tell you, kids! All the paint in this photo was removed before the next steps.After stripping I cleaned the surfaces with Marine Clean, flushed with water, dried, primed with Metal Ready, flushed with water, dried, applied two coats of POR-15, all per the directions. Here it is after one coat. That's a little nicer.
I still have to paint the tank mounting hardware but that's an easy job. What's next? Going to bed! One of my Great Danes had me up most of last night because of thunder storms and I took the other one urban hiking today. I'm bushed!

GT Fuel System (Part 2 - New Fuel Tank)

A new fuel tank was obtained from the local Advance Auto Parts just up the road. The tank is manufactured in Canada, is not baffled and does not have an integral fuel pick up line. No worries - a pick up line will be installed with the fuel gauge. The first step was to strip off the oily coating on the exterior then sand lightly to ensure a good starting surface.This next step is not really necessary, but I felt that a good coat of etch primer would give an excellent base for the next layers. Ah! There's nothing like a freshly primed surface!
Truck bed liner was applied using a brush. A roller would give a smoother surface but the tank is barely visible so appearance is not a concern. Bed liner will help prevent chipping and is a very robust coating. Duplicolor from the local Advance Auto Parts was used. Any cheap brush-on liner would do nicely and you could brush this on directly to properly prepared metal.
With the bed liner flowing it was a good time to do my LE's tank as well. This tank was painted with POR-15 rust paint and required a good scuffing with sand paper followed by a cleaning with mineral spirits before applying the bed liner.Why put bed liner on the top of the tank?? I will be pulling the tank when welding, and much of my work will be accomplished as a rolling restoration - not a full stripping of the car all at once. This approach will require the tanks to come off several times. Coating the top of the tank will prevent any scratching during installation, removal, and storage. Any little scratch is a prime entry point for the tin worm.
Here are both tanks complete after two coats of bed liner. I'm very happy with the result. If I were to do this in a more visible area (like wheel wells) I would try the roller method to get a smoother surface. The key to brush application is to lay it on in a single smooth motion, not back-and-forth brushing like you would with paint.
Next up: Rebuilding the carburetor...or removing the front wing. Whatever weather and time allows!