My '70 Formula resto

Todays progressing on the car - I got some later model seats on the cheap while I order the stuff to rebuild my roached 70 original seats. But, found that these seats the tracks were a good 4 inches shorter than the original seat tracks. Because I plan to get my originals repaired, I didn't want to modify the floor pan or braces to accept the new tracks. So I did a simple fix and got some 3x5 chunks of flat steel, drilled a hole thru, bolted the seats into the back bolts and the steel square into the front. Laid the seat on top, and just pick a nice tack weld the track to the flat steel. Pulled the seats back out, and used some clamps and did a proper bead to attach the flat steel to the mounting track. Will make it easier to pull the car in and out of the garage for the short term. It's going to take some time as legendary interiors have quite the waiting list.

Got the rear seat pan fitting. It took a bit of modification, as the replacements are really meant for 71+ and the 70 pan is a bit different. Not sure what exactly the reason, but it was a bit of tweaking it and cutting little sections out, but Im happy with how its fitting now. Got the seat belt bolts thru the pan for now as well so its nice and tight for me to spot weld it in.

Got the front pans all cleaned up, and por 15 coated.

Went to take the exhaust manifold off, and found that that the down pipe to collector connection was fubar, looks kind of like the exhaust was ran into or back into, as it was twisted and pushed back, and the was a full on hole. exhaust leak found lol. The other thing that became clear was the drive side motor mount was toast. it had full on clasped, and the motor was resting on the pan and exhaust manifold. So, got the engine jacked up, and pulled the motor mount that attaches to the block side pulled. The rubber was more like the consistency of wet gum. Got a new one on order. Also got new exhaust manifold gaskets coming. One nice thing, once we had that exhaust manifold off, saw that it can be cleaned up and put back on, isnt cracked up or anything.

We also pulled the oil filter off, and changed the oil, and cut the oil filter in half and looked thru the filter element. Was very happy to see that there wasn't metal, rust, or anything nasty in there. The oil was old, but not bad either. The motor was running nicely just had an exhaust leak, and needed some vacuum lines replaced, but very healthy. Eventually Ill likely pull and rebuild, but its lower on the priority list as it sounded so healthy. Will be pulling the intake manifold, and cleaning it, repainting, and rebuilding the carb. All new vacuum lines will go on as well, but for now, its not getting pulled. Ive got a ton of metal work to do, and don't want to overwhelm myself / and my wallet, so the rust repair is the bigger priority. But it looks like we will be able to get it to run well enough to move it around to clean the garage, and atleast here her purr for motivation and grins.

Speaking of metal work, today was a big day, as I finally got the rear seat floor pan welded in, and then seam sealed put in. I did the front floors with my father in laws welder which is a flux wire instead of gas, (he worked for pape and had to weld out in the woods so that's the kind of welder he had - the wind doesn't blow the gas away, but its not nearly as pretty, way messier, and in general, harder to make a nice bead on) and the back I did with my brother in laws actual gas shielded, talk about night and day difference. I am still learning how to weld, and I think now I could have done a better job on the front, but it's in, its solid as hell, pans aren't coming out, and this will be a car I intend to keep, so it is what it is. In 60 years if gets restored again someone can laugh at my globby welds.

Got the cowl shoulder removed - what a fun amount of spot welds that thing had. This area had been hit at some point in the car's life, and I needed the access to really get the damage out. Happy to look in and see the lower cowl panel looks solid. Upper cowl is shot, but I need to have a sheriff do a vin verification before I pull the upper cowl off. Hopefully have that done soon so I can pull the cowl and replace that to. I wanted to learn how to weld and do metal work - this car is teaching me for sure as pretty much every single panel needs work.

oh yea, and I am working on getting the motor looking better - it was running great before I started tearing poo apart, and removed the fuel lines, so for now I won't be pulling the motor. I'm working in my father in laws garage, and don't have one of my own, so It's not really a time in life where I can do a rotisserie resto, but we can still have some fun and bring it from the graveyard.

Got the rear seat floor pan all por 15 coated. I had a little left in the can, so also went partly up the wheel well and seat back pan, till I ran out. Was at a weird place, but such is life. I got the package tray drop off / extension panels, so will be cutting out the rotten ones, and replacing those here soon. So after I get those in, Ill finish the un-painted sections, and do another nicer coat all the way thru the pans. I know it doesn't look perfect, but for this novice learning as I go, I'm so happy to not see thru the floor pans anymore.