Started Tearing Down my 73 (lots of pics)
 

I started the tear down on my 73 TA friday night. I started by pressure washing the undercarriage and engine compartment. The car had been sitting in the AZ desert for roughly 20 years, so it is absolutely CAKED with brown crud. It was a filthy, messy job, but seeing the undercarriage and floors of this car tickle me to death. You rarely find anything this nice in Chicagoland. The pictures are after my first spray down.
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The forward third of the car is still a mess, but once I get the drivetrain out, I'll have to go over it again.
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Interior Tear Down

Nice seeing the actual un-faded carpet color.
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The rear window has rust on the LH side, so I was concerned about the rear floor on that side. Luckily, all the rust is superficial, and started to clean up very nice with just a wire brush.
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I could use some suggestions on a few things:
-Removing the black residue from the sound deadner on the floor?
-Driver Side behind dash duct is cracked, upper behind vent, anyone have one to sell me :)
-Place to have radio checked/cleaned?
-Bezel restoration? Randy Combs?
-Gauge Cleaning/testing/painting source?
-Steering column rebuild service? Ive never tackled this one before.

Thanks in advance guys, I love the information on this forum.

Tom

Wards Classic Car Radio is the place to send the radio. Search them on your favorite browser. There was an article in the latest Pontiac Enthusiast about gauge repair. Can't remember the place off hand. Looked like they did nice work.

that is alot cleaner than anything i have seen in years.nice car to start with,means nicer car to end with,and less money spent.good luck.

Wow, what a dream! More pics please!!

I can't believe all the white "overspray" on the underside, floors and underside of roof!!

Was your 73 a Van Nuys built car? Whats the build date on it?

I sense the start of an NJSteve style thread for a 73 TA!!

Thought I read all were Norwood cars in 73. Not certain that I am accurate on that...I also noticed my car seems to have more overspray than others I have seen.

Hmm, I know the camaros were either built in Van Nuys (L) or Norwood (N), I would assume the FBs were built in either L or N too.

Take a look at your cowl tag, what does it say?

Car isnt here at work, but I thought I read there was a strike in 73 so all were N built.

Norwood, OH was the only plant building Camaro/Firebird from '72-77.

:( Sorry, my bad.

Still, it's strange to see that much white paint covering all the surfaces, maybe because mine being red it's hard to tell where the red ends.

Some may disagree but I have just used wax/degrease and it will come up in no time. I have never tried this but the "Super Clean" in a purple container may also break it down enough to remove it.

As a side note, please make note of all factory type markings:
-Suspension parts
-Drive Shaft
-Springs
-Brake Parts

Thanks in advance.

Will do.

Made a little progress last night. I removed the windshield and rear glass trim, as well as completely disassembled the doors and removed the glass. I was having a problem getting the RH latch screws to break loose, but hopefully after soaking in WD40 overnight, they will break loose tonight. I also removed the hood and disassembled everything in the cowl area. Unfortunately the cowl seal is toast, I assume no longer available through GM, so what is the best available aftermarket?

I hope to start on the front end sheet metal tonight.

The best way to remove the latch bolts is to heat them up. Do NOT try and use an impact (the kind you hit with a hammer) because the metal on this part of the door is very thin. Just use a torch or something similar to get it hot and use a screwdriver.

Please keep posting pics as much as you are able. I'm doing a lot of restoration work on my '73 as well and a lot of what I already took apart was a mess, missing pieces, mis-matched bolts so good pics of correct '73s certainly help. Thanks, great thread!!

I will post some more tonight or tomorrow AM. BTW, thank you for the AMK reference chart. I have your first version, and will be placing an order with them soon.

Got the nose off. Deciding how I should bring it to the body shop. I took the bumper reinforcement out of the nose because I want to paint it, but I also dont want it to get primer and paint overspray all over it. I am sure they will need it together in order to align/fit all the panels. I suppose they should fit it all, then disassemble it, paint the nose, then reinstall the reinforcement.

I did the same thing. Complete disassembled the nose and had it painted bare. I had all the brackets blasted and powdercoated and it came out great:

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Bumper off
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Although I located some good originals, I rough fit one of the ABS repros, which fits pretty well considering I didnt tweak it at all and the welting isnt on.
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This is where the night ended
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Still having trouble with the last door latch bolt. Doesnt seem to respond to heat or WD40. Guess Ill give it another go tonight. On another note, the only piece of front sheetmetal that needs to be changed is the battery tray :)

These 2 items were screwed to the LH fenderwell, any ideas?

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Looks like someone tried to "rig" up something on their own. The item mounted to the fender looks like a breaker, like possibly a 30amp breaker. I can not tell what the other items is but clearly these are not "factory" installs.

Looks great, and am looking forward to the point you are at.

I highly recommend powder coating.......did almost everything on my Formula and it provides an outstanding finish......if you do it in large batches it isn't bad $$ wise either.........

My coater quoted me $500 to do the subframe, a-arms, core support, bumper support, fenderwells, and any other misc underhood brackets & supports. I thought my 59 Impala complete x-frame for $700 was a bargain a few years back, but this seems even better.

It has come down......you cant hardly sandblast and paint for that.........

That is a GREAT deal!! I spent $500 just for the sub-frame and a few small parts. Another $200 on a large batch of parts including core support, inner fenders etc... so I prob have $750 in coating front end parts.

Finished removal of the glass and front end sheet metal, and the motor came out this afternoon. A productive day making the parts pile larger. Now on to the rear of the car.
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Upon removal, I found some damage to the AC box. It appears to have been when the headers were installed on the car 20 years go. Hopefully, we can repair it :confused:

We restored the air cleaner a few weeks ago, and I am anxious to get to the "restoring" and be finished with this messy brown tear down.
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So far, I know I need a LH upper air duct (not sure what years interchange), rear bumper guard rubber, front spoiler hardware, battery tray (repro), and possibly an AC outer heater box (not sure what years will be correct).

Could definitely use your help with the bolt guide. I couldn't cross hardly any of the bolts used to mount the alternator & associated brackets or the A/C compressor & associated brackets. Sooo if you get some time ;)

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Most important tool thus far
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Sorry for the delay, do you still need this info?

I have some information to work with and need to do an update. I'll get back to you. hopefully your labeling all the bolts as you remove them ;). Very cool idea on the labeler. Use those alot building datacenters but never thought to use one to restore a car!!

ok, feel free to email me, Ill help where I can.

Another fun project to follow! Good luck with it!

BJ

parts are back from Coating already. It was a little more expensive than the quoted price, but still very fair. Core support has some pitting from a leaking battery, that is my only disappointment.
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I started stripping the firewall, cowl and interior floor boards this weekend.
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Is there a particular seam sealer I should use on the cowl and the in interior?

I used 3M Fast n Firm Sealer and was very happy with it. I bought it in a "caulk gun" style tube and applied it that way. Once I had it applied I went back and tried to smooth it flat to mimic the factory method. Just don't try to do too much at once because it really is fast. Dries fairly quick.

I'm using the powder coating approach with my 71.

My question is:

Are you using any sort of clear coat or protective coating on top of your powercoated parts?

My concern is I've heard that powercoating may become "chalky" over time due to UV.

Is this true? Anyone have thoughts on this?

Ive used it a lot, and havent experienced that problem.

AFter stripping some areas to bare metal last weekend, I wanted to get something over the bare metal, so I shot some DP74.
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Spent time this weekend pressure washing some of the parts, and taking pictures.
Before
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After
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Measurement from where front of tubing begins
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Found this in the trunk, any ideas?
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There is a tire bar sleeve that goes over the jack and creates a pocket for the tire bar. Hard to tell size of this item from your picture since there is no reference but it could be that ?

Took the driveshaft down to bare metal, then painted it. I still have to reproduce the factory markings on it.
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I still may replace the fuel and brake lines, but I started cleaning them up with a wire wheel, and a coat of clear.
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My original faded 73 front mat, with the repro 73+ mat that some of the vendors are selling.
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Some of the original interior plastics with a fresh coat of red
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Still waiting for the body shop to let me bring the shell to them :(

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Nice work, that thing is unbelievably solid.

Few more parts restored
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I was able to bring back the bezel luster with fine steel wool. Other than the lenses, I reused all other original parts, including the gaskets (which I put a coat of aerosol Plastidip)
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Interesting. You're kick down switch has the same resister soldered on the outside as mine does. I've seen many switches without that. Does anyone know the significants of that?

The resister mounted switch was the switch used primarily for the 72 T/As as it served the purpose of triggering the shaker solenoids. Even if you had a four speed car, you still got the resistor kick down switch mounted on the gas pedal bracket. I think the reason for the extra resistor was to somehow alter the voltage going to the solenoids. When was your car built? Pontiac dumped the working shaker option for 1973 and gave a $ credit back on T/A window stickers, but I guess they still used the same dual purpose kickdown switch.

Mine is a first week of June '73 car, auto. It would be interesting to learn how this affects the voltage to the solenoid. I recall trouble shooting mine at one point and the flapper (I have a conversion) was opening intermittently and some times late. I noticed that the solder had come lose, but I also opened it up the case and cleaned it up a little and put 'er back in service.

Curious about the interior parts. Did you spray them with a gun or rattle can? I assumed you used vinyl dye. What brand? Thanks...

I used a gun with paint mixed for me by my local body shop supply house on thehard parts. I am using rattle can dye on the flexible parts since my supplier said they couldnt make it. I found that 73 Corvette uses the same interior color code and purchased it from one of the vendors.

The original rear lower side panels are badly sun damaged and have since bought another nice set. You can see in the picture that the color looks lighter in that area.

Got My new hood Latch :)
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That looks prety good.....Do you mind if I visit the shop sometime to check it out?


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