Motivation needed

[innerware]

Allright. So the interior is mostly out. I just took the rear hatch off and hood off. I have been painstakingly working the body for a while now. Side markers and rivet holes shaved. I am finding little bits of rust everywhere. Nothing too big. I still have to replace a bit of metal at the drivers rocker and drivers rear lower quarter panel. As well as the lower portions of both fenders. It is seemingly never ending work. Go figure. I am at the point where I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of this thing and am a bit overwwhelmed. I usually only spend two to four hours a week on it too. I still want to take all the glass out, the rest of the interior, and motor. There is sooo much to do. At this point I would be happy if I just got it primed and straight with the stock motor in and running. Everything else can come later down the road. But that would suck if I didn't put the color and clear on it with everything stripped. How far do I bring this thing? I see so many of you with fully striped cars that have just gotten paint and it looks awesome. Do I spend the time with all the undercoating removal? What about the interior sound deadening material? Do I just leave it as is and get the body clean and painted? I'm trying to finish grad school, arghhh. I will then have to find another job. Or I should anyway. Then I have the pressure to move back east closer to the wifes and my family come the summer time. I need this thing to at least get onto a trailer and get shipped to me back east. Who knows if I will have a garage to put it in or even a parking space. Time is running out and I am just feeling way overwhelmed. Someone light a fire under my *** and tell me some good advice as to what I should do. Inevitably I know I just need to find 20 hours a week for a while and just move on it. I've never done this to a car and I know if I did things correctly it would take way less time. Show me the way oh wise men of the Z world.

 

Thanks for listening.

[JMortensen]

I'm in a pretty good situation where I have a small garage to put the car in. It went in 2 years ago and I'm about 1/2 done with the crap I wanted to do, which sounds like at least twice as much as what you're planning on.

 

If you're trying to kill rust, definitely get the sound deadener off the floors. On my car there was a ring of surface rust most the way around the perimeter of the sound deadener.

 

If you don't have time, then don't pull the car apart. It is a lot of work and it does get overwhelming for me sometimes. I just figure that if I keep hacking away eventually things will start to look like they're progressing, and it is starting to look that way in my case.

 

One thing I can say is that I should have broken down and built a rotisserie when I started. I knew I was going to take this car ALL the way down, but I was convinced that I wasn't going to need it, that it would take up too much space, etc. After about 50 hours laying on my back grinding and welding under the car I decided to do it. I now have the car ready to go onto the rotisserie, just haven't gotten out there lately as it's been ~40 degrees here for a couple weeks. Regardless, I am convinced that having the rotisserie will be a HUGE benefit when I'm working on the frame rails and such. If you're going to be replacing rails or fixing rust on the bottom of the car or working on the bottom of the chassis extensively I'd say it's worth it to have the rotisserie.

[Here comes trouble]

with my Tomahawk project in shambles from vandalism and theft, I started the GTO project.....My biggest waste of time is doing all the things ... I teally do not need........................like rear disc brakes on a car with wire wheels.....I stopped myself just in the nick of time on that project. the GTO project http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/larryjohnson97438/album?.dir=8223&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

[spotfitz]

I bought my '74 about 8 years ago and didn't do much of anything to it for the first 4 years. That was until I bought a house to have a garage to work in. I then rebuilt the whole suspension. It took about 4 months. I got it all back together and then started the body work. After half the body work was done and 5 months had went by, I thought I would never finish it so I talked to a shop to finish the body work and paint. I then proceeded to go all out and strip the car to just a rolling shell for the body shop to have an easier time and to get a better overall job. The only thing left in the interior was the steering wheel and e-brake handle. The exterior was totally stripped of anything not body work related and the engine bay had nothing but the fuel/brake lines pulled away. After 11 months at the body shop I got it back and proceeded to redo the interior. I have the back interior pretty much done(sound deadening) excluding some plastic paneling and waiting for the c.f. tail light panel. Now I'm finding rust in the floor boards from it sitting out side with no windows at the body shop, after they painted the interior. I'm now spending all my time stripping all the paint off the floor boards to treat the rust and replace rust with metal.

Needless to say, if you can't do things in the proper order and under the right circumstances, either it will screw you later or you'll be redoing alot of stuff and wasting even more time. Don't know if this is exactly what you wanted to hear as for motivation, but I hope it atleast helps make a decision upon your next steps.

[innerware]

Thanks all. I guess it is hard to digest what should be done sometimes. I get so jealous looking at others projects after they are done. That should be motivation enough. I guess it is. If it weren't for this site I wouldn't have started this project at all.

 

What is the approved way you all take your doors off? I think that should be my next step. I will stay motivated and keep you all posted.

 

Thanks for everything.

[BWRex]

I'm sure you've heard of the Whileimatit bug.It bit me hard after visiting this site.It's cool though,I wouldn't have had solid subframe connectors,sectioned struts w/coilovers,and maybe even a TPI V8 that's going in my 240 soon.A project like this is overwhelming,I'm sure for the beginner as well as the experienced,but if you can see yourself smoking a GT,TA,or any of the assorted ricers,the time and the effort will be well worth it,and I was a proud owner of a built 1987 Pontaic GTA for 11years!:redface:I think other than money, the secret is hard work and careful planning.Anyway,it's 25 degrees outside and I'm going to fire off the portable heater in the garage and 'put in a couple hours'.Good luck and stick with it!

[spotfitz]

As for removing the doors. I found the easiest way for me was to throw a cushion of some sort on a floor jack and jack it up to the middle of the door while it's partially or completely open. Take all but one bolt out of each hinge from the inside of the car or from the hinge to the door(later being alittle hard because of wrench virsus ratchet, unless you have a racthet wrench, and while taking the last bottom bolt out start making sure the door won't tip to one side. As your taking the last bolt out keep a better hold of the door. It makes it alittle easier with a friend holding the door and especially so with the door stripped when by yourself. Once all is unbolted, just pull the door away from the car using the jack to roll the bottom while you hold the top. If using the bolts going into the door, you can do all this without the jack(leaving the one top bolt for last), but you need to use your knee to keep the door from moving.

Hope this helps.

[Here comes trouble]

If no floor jack...use a bottle jack with a wood 2x4 between the jack and door .................Kind of shakey but can be done wirh a little dexterity

[innerware]

Thanks. I think I will use the budy system. Thought I would see if there were any problems but as mentioned it sounds pretty straight forward. Today I sanded and applied some filler to some low spots. Also removed the rear hatch seal and wire wheeled away all remaining rubber. Also removed the tail light seals and wire wheeled that too. Almost no rust at all in the rear hatch area on the body. The hatch itself will need to be replaced though. Weird. At least I have a spare.

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

[DavyZ]

Just keep at it---make a plan and stick to your plan. Make a timeline and give yourself deadlines if you can....

 

....man, I wish I'd listen to my own advice. I figure that I'm telling you to do the opposite of what I've done so that you'll make some progress

 

Seriously, if you can't do it all, don't. Get some POR 15 on the rust and go from there. Having a perfect car is a near impossibility if you are still going to school unless you have some serious $$$$ and expertise.

 

Good luck!!

 

Davy