[Formulabruce]

Grats Steve!, Looks sweet! On the grilles I used the exact same argent silver as the honeys. People say its "slightly" brighter than stock, but I doubt the original grille paint was enamel. My car just has a "stock" flavor" but the argent grilles really show off the honeycombs!

[Lloyd-TX]

Originally Posted by Formulabruce

Grats Steve!, Looks sweet! On the grilles I used the exact same argent silver as the honeys. People say its "slightly" brighter than stock, but I doubt the original grille paint was enamel. My car just has a "stock" flavor" but the argent grilles really show off the honeycombs!

BEAUTIFUL!

[njsteve]

Grant, the man I bought the car from sent me this original ad he found over the weekend at a local swap meet.

[njsteve]

I brought the car to my buddy's garage last night and we put it up on the lift. Lots of loose bolts in the front end, including the subframe to body bolts! At least the oil pan plug was tight. (Grant warned me about how many bolts he had to put back in this thing when he found it).

Looks like its going to need some portions of the rear frame rail on the passenger side replaced. The bottoms of the rails near the front spring perches are notorious weak spots on these cars. Unfortunately, the trucking company used the factory hold down spot in that location when shipping it here and it pulled the metal out of place a bit. This spot is a place where three different pieces of metal are sandwiched together to form the end of the frame rail. It holds moisture and here is the result:





And the broken-out section of the pass side rear frame rail from the tail pipe hanger holding the entire weight of the exhaust due to the broken universal rubber hanger that was carriage bolted to the floor pan above the rusty aftermarket muffler.





I won't be able to make an accurate assessment of the underside until I can get this thing steam cleaned. I checked with the local equipment rental place near me (the only one that rents the hot water pressure washers) and they quoted me $275 a day to rent the thing. JEEZ! Are the hot water sprayers really that much better than the regular cold water ones? You could almost buy a cold water pressure washer for that price.

[njsteve]

And here is the dirty bottom half of the car. The floor pans looks nice, with some red oxide showing through the grime in places.

[Lloyd-TX]

Pans look great, Steve.

Your car reminds me of a '72 Formula 455 we inspected down here in Houston a few years back - for a fellow PY-er.

Dry pans, but seriously rotted rear subframe rails.

It was a hard-loaded Revere Silver auto/air car, which had a crappy black re-spray. Was located at an exotic sports car dealer.

EDIT: This was NOT Rick's car. It's another Revere Silver '72 Formula 455, re-sprayed black.

[FunctionalShaker]

Originally Posted by njsteve

I won't be able to make an accurate assessment of the underside until I can get this thing steam cleaned. I checked with the local equipment rental place near me (the only one that rents the hot water pressure washers) and they quoted me $275 a day to rent the thing. JEEZ! Are the hot water sprayers really that much better than the regular cold water ones? You could almost buy a cold water pressure washer for that price.

That's one of the reasons I plumbed hot water to a tap between my garage doors. It's really handy.
That amount of undercoating scares me. Once you get moisture in there... Unless your lucky, expect it to be worse than you initially thought. Nice to find one in overall great shape though.

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Lloyd-TX

Pans look great, Steve.

Your car reminds me of a '72 Formula 455 we inspected down here in Houston a few years back - for a fellow PY-er.

Dry pans, but seriously rotted rear subframe rails.

It was a hard-loaded Revere Silver auto/air car, which had a crappy black re-spray. Was located at an exotic sports car dealer.

EDIT: This was NOT Rick's car. It's another Revere Silver '72 Formula 455, re-sprayed black.

I know where that car is. Shhhhhhhush!

[Lloyd-TX]

Originally Posted by The Boss

I know where that car is. Shhhhhhhush!

Yep, and I've already been reminded to keep my big, fat, blabber-mouth shut!

My reputation precedes me, I'm afraid . . .

[Guilty]

Steve,
Since the car is in the USA right now, we should change your thread to Part Two. If you need an NOS rear console for your car let me know. Brian.

[njsteve]

I went crawling around the car some more. At least there is some good news: it has two NOS GM quarters, NOS drivers side outer wheelwell and NOS tail panel installed. The labels are still there. That's about $6k worth of GM sheetmetal I don't have to search for. :-)







And some bad news: The end of the passenger side frame rail is missing the flange that mounts up with the inner tail panel.

Here is the drivers side:



and here is the passenger side:

[njsteve]

So far it needs a passenger side frame rail for donor sections, left and right trunk drop offs to replace the home made ones. (I just ordered the new reproduction units), a passenger side outer wheel house and portions of the inner wheel house.

[The Boss]

Or you could just drive the **** out of it.

[Lloyd-TX]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Or you could just drive the **** out of it.

Yeah, right . . . this is njsteve you're talkin' about here!

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by FunctionalShaker

That's one of the reasons I plumbed hot water to a tap between my garage doors. It's really handy.

Actually you gave me an idea: I can plumb the water feed with a garden hose from the washing machine hot water outlet in the mud room, next to the garage. That water gets so hot it will melt your hands! Thanks for the tip!

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by Lloyd-TX

Yeah, right . . . this is njsteve you're talkin' about here!

Actually I do drive my motorcars in a fairly spirited fashion (sounding like an official old person here)

What I am aiming to do is maybe get the underbody repairs done one project at a time and wait til later for the paint job. And drive it...a lot!

[Lloyd-TX]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Actually you gave me an idea: I can plumb the water feed with a garden hose from the washing machine hot water outlet in the mud room, next to the garage. That water gets so hot it will melt your hands! Thanks for the tip!

Positive that I'm "preaching to the choir" with this post, but be SURE that you source hot water rated hose for that purpose.

You don't want a regular garden hose to possibly burst - and spray you down with 130*+ water!

[Lloyd-TX]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Actually I do drive my motorcars in a fairly spirited fashion (sounding like an official old person here)

What I am aiming to do is maybe get the underbody repairs done one project at a time and wait til later for the paint job. And drive it...a lot!

You got me wrong Steve, no way did I mean to imply that you don't like to drive 'em like you stole 'em at times.

I meant that there's no way Steve S. is gonna just drive that gorgeous 455HO and ignore the resto . . .

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Lloyd-TX

You got me wrong Steve, no way did I mean to imply that you don't like to drive 'em like you stole 'em at times.

I meant that there's no way Steve S. is gonna just drive that gorgeous 455HO and ignore the resto . . .

Oh come on - he'd have the toaster apart on a Sunday morning if there was a hint it was burning his toast.

[FunctionalShaker]

Originally Posted by Lloyd-TX

Positive that I'm "preaching to the choir" with this post, but be SURE that you source hot water rated hose for that purpose.

You don't want a regular garden hose to possibly burst - and spray you down with 130*+ water!

I wouldn't use a standard green hose. I use a heavy duty black Craftsman hose -- works fine.