Recently retired and am beginning the restoration of my father's 1972 Gran Torino Sport. He was the original owner and I inherited the car. Will look forward to chatting with others on a similar road. Many Thanks
Ford Gran Torino Sport 1972 restoration
Wing2003
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You might even find the build sheet. Usually in the dash or under the seats or carpet.
I am already finding relics from the past <G>
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Cigar butts and pop cans were commonly found also.
Every day I come down and size up another small piece of the puzzle. I do something every day to keep it going, but when I start to feel hurried I let it go for the day. I'm cleaning the grime and dust off the vinyl with Dawn dishwashing soap and warm water. I need to find a good vinyl cleaner and preservative and a good grease for the door joints and window mechanism. I imagine there are several good choices for both. The arm rests will need upholstering, as will parts of the seats. Enough for today...
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Look for dirt up in the frame rails to.
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Yes, I see what you mean...I'm not yet underneath the car, but when I get there I will sure look out for anything stuck up in there. It's a tedious process, isn't it? But, that's what we signed up for <G> It's still too cold in the garage to get to work, but I think I am going to continue to work on the right side of the interior...I have some gauges and accessories that need to be removed. I find that no matter what you clean, if you go over it the next day, more comes off. It's in layers, it seems. I'm constantly having to rearrange the garage to make room for things...but, better to stay organized than to start losing things in the mess. Slow and steady wins the race...sometimes <G>
Today's project was removing the rt. passenger mirror and clean it up...also got a bin to keep my small parts in. All labeled and bagged. I would like to take the entire mirror off, but I have not been able to get to the bolts that hold the entire assembly on - can't see them, so I took the guts out and dealt with that for now. I tried removing the distributor, but that sucker was not going to budge. I'm soaking it and will ease it out over time. That's enough for today!
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Ok...not being able to find the bolts for the mirror was not going to let me sleep tonight so I went to E Bay and found some of theses mirrors for sale - looked at the bolt alignment and finally noticed the holes in the door sheet metal for the socket...
Tomorrow , I am going to start de-rusting the small screws and parts with my electrolysis set up...
Well, today I started de-rusting some small parts. The trunk was the main goal - it was a dump for all kinds of parts and I needed to get in there and clean it out, organize and re-organize and sort through things. I had forgotten that I had a tire in there LOL...it is the only original one I have left. The radiator is good, as are all of the parts stored. Some will have to be upgraded, for sure. Overall, a productive project day... that's it for today. Lunch time
Ok...long morning getting not a whole lot done...was trying to get the rear light assemblies out and discovered I will be in a whole lot of pain digging those out. No videos showing anybody doing it, or a procedure or tips for it. From what I have been able to find, it seems you have to drop everything just to get them out...PITA extraordinaire. I do not have any of the manuals for this particular task yet, so, I guess I will have to figure it out. I did get a few bumper bolts out, but the assemblies themselves seem to have one last bolt that cannot be reached without dropping everything underneath. Some days you're the pigeon, other days you're the statue. Today is a statue day.
Ok, figured out the rear bumper...I'm glad I had a set of sockets, swivel joint adaptors and impact drivers at my disposal, otherwise, this would have been a profanity laced morning <G> It's done. Tomorrow I will get on with lights and connectors in this area and bag and tag. Lunch time.
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As a side note, I found a great video explaining the different shades of "Ford Blue" that are used for painting Ford engines. I always knew the color I used many years ago seemed too light. The deeper blue is very nice.
Today's task involved removing the left tail light from the car (unhooking the assembly from the lights) and what fun that turned out to be...well, everything was pretty much stuck and so I had to bend the light bulb holders out to get the lights loose. I'll have to replace those. That was just a bucket of fun. More cleaning. Started cleaning the rear bumper of rust. I'll see how far I get with that. More electrolysis on small parts. It's 2 o'clock and that was all I got done - just a step a day. I have begun to realize I have to decide how far I am going to go with this restoration / rebuild. It was never going to be a frame off show car. But now I have to decide just how much I am going to do...the body work and paint will cost a good deal. I think I can get the motor performance I want without breaking the bank. There is still a great deal that I can do to help moderate costs, but we all know that at some point the check book has to come out <G>
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Another note: The rubber and foam seals around the lights will have to be replaced as well as the light bulb holding inserts.
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