#2 Disassembly

The engine and transmission had to come out so they could be rebuilt.  I offered to rebuild both of them, but the owner had someone already lined up. 

The first thing I did was remove the hood and start disconnecting everything needed to get the engine out.  Everything was still in the same shape as when the car had been running.  There was no battery, but other than that it looked as if you could have started it up and driven away.  In the picture below, the engine has obviously been removed.  But also, the entire engine compartment has been power washed with high pressure water.  What I didn't do, and should have done, was pretreat the whole thing with a degreaser.  There are areas around the lower portions of the compartment that will need treating with degreaser and then re-power washed.  I should have known better.  There are no short cuts when it comes to doing the job right.  I was trying to save a few dollars by not using a ten dollar bottle of degreaser.

Note along the inner edge of the fender, on the right side of the picture above, you can see one of the many colors the car had been painted.  The green string you see draped over the blower motor and windshield wiper motor is there to support the exhaust pipes.  Also, if you look closely, you can see the plastic bags that I used to try to keep water out of the exhaust.  The battery was located on the left side of this picture, where you see the rust.  The battery tray itself was in such poor condition a new one has been ordered.  The cable you see coming forward, sticking through the radiator support, is the shift linkage.

After the engine and tranny were out, the rag-top was the next item of removal.  Here the top has been removed and the frame folded down.  Shortly after this picture was taken, the windshield was removed.  It had a large crack in the drivers area.  The rubber gasket was original and full of cracks.


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