patrick66
Old Man with a Hat
Very nice! Is that a lifelong PA car?
I decided to go digging
- Thread starter Meltshop Mikey
- Start date
Meltshop Mikey
Member
@patrick66 Thank you! Yes, it is a lifelong PA car. I picked her up from a person who bought out the original owners estate.
Meltshop Mikey
Member
Freshly painted rad support and one fender on. Starting to look like a car again!
Meltshop Mikey
Member
The process continues, I'm having a great time seeing her come back together. The goal is to hopefully catch my neighbor this week and borrow his engine lift and get the engine and trans back in. Shooting to have her fired up by Christmas.
Meltshop Mikey
Member
It's pretty nice to find a body color frame under a ten foot thick layer of undercoating!
Meltshop Mikey
Member
A little behind schedule for what I wanted to have done, but a little late night fun and the guts are back in!
65sporty
Old Man with a Hat
Looking good, that's a nice project
Meltshop Mikey
Member
Thank you! It's been a trip so far, but I'm on the home stretch now. Hopefully she runs fine again and I can make the trip to Carlisle this year.
Meltshop Mikey
Member
She's alive again! Just a short run since I don't have the radiator hooked up yet, but after very few tries she fired right up. After a teeak on the distributor she ran butter smooth.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...l&id=100008209063088&sfnsn=mo&mibextid=RUbZ1f
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...l&id=100008209063088&sfnsn=mo&mibextid=RUbZ1f
Meltshop Mikey
Member
First time out of the garage in over a year. Feels good man!
Meltshop Mikey
Member
Some weekend fun! The end of this project is getting closer! Lower valance came out nice, a couple fisheyes, runs, but good enough for me. All that's left is getting the inner fenders cleaned up and putting the hood back on.
Meltshop Mikey
Member
I ended up sanding down the lower valance and reshooting it again. The runs and fisheyes ended up really bothering me ha! It's back on the car and I'll have to touch up a few spots. For some reason I had a harder time getting it to go back on than I had getting the bumper on. And as a reminder I do have the original grille polished and put away if I feel like swapping them out
Meltshop Mikey
Member
More progress today! New carpet and the engine compartment cleaned up. All that's left is the vapor return line to the tank, one kick panel, hood, sorting out the brakes, alignment and a wonderful PA state inspection so I can blow my alignment out on the PA roads 
Meltshop Mikey
Member
A year later and that's a wrap...for now!
Meltshop Mikey
Member
It's pretty wild that this is the same car. When I found in in 2019 to now in 2023.
thethee
Senior Member
I'm a sucker for good "before" and "after" shots, looks good!
Meltshop Mikey
Member
@thethee thank you! Not a concourse job but very presentable for a garage job in my spare time.
Meltshop Mikey
Member
This was a good easter gift to myself!
Love that driver's seat view, same thing I saw driving my Dark Sherwood green '71 to work 40 mi each way for many years..
My blue '71 <---- in the pic came out of NC about 10 yrs ago and was headed for a derby when I rescued her. A bit of rust in the trunk and floor was about it. Fixed it and sent her to a friend who ran the auto body shop course at the local Voc-Tech for paint. The kids did a really crappy paint job and put a big dent in her driver door after it was done. I shoulda sprung for doing it right but got so pissed off and disgusted I sold her... bad move that I've regretted ever since. Your "Gray Ghost" sure is coming a long way, nice work! Wish I still had that kind of energy!
My blue '71 <---- in the pic came out of NC about 10 yrs ago and was headed for a derby when I rescued her. A bit of rust in the trunk and floor was about it. Fixed it and sent her to a friend who ran the auto body shop course at the local Voc-Tech for paint. The kids did a really crappy paint job and put a big dent in her driver door after it was done. I shoulda sprung for doing it right but got so pissed off and disgusted I sold her... bad move that I've regretted ever since. Your "Gray Ghost" sure is coming a long way, nice work! Wish I still had that kind of energy!
Meltshop Mikey
Member
@firedome thank you very much! It's still not done yet. This winter I'm planning on dropping the rear end, gas tank(again) and scraping all of the undercoating and sealing it up to match the front half. There a few small spots that will need welded up and I'm looking to get my hands on a new set of leaf springs as well. Also, I've been trying to come up with a name for this car. I was going for "uncle ray" since that was the owners original name. I bought it from his nephew after he passed and he said his uncle ray loved that car. However, "gray ghost" sounds really good too or maybe a combination of both!
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