I put a deposit down on another F-body!

[Xelerator]

Update 2, 9/11/09.

So since I was in the "Decoding mood" I decided to find out if my rear end is original along with anything else I could find. I am having a hard time seeing through the pitted rust, sucks, but from what I can see all the numbers/letters that are important seem to be there.

73 TA 02D Build Axle Decode (6).jpg

As you saw in my previous posts, I did conclude that my M21 is original to the car as well as the block, heads and other important parts. But until yesterday I did not know if the Distributor was correct so as I discovered, the distributor is correct too! (3A16 = Jan 16 1973)

73 TA 4spd 02D Build Distrib (1).JPG


I also snapped a couple of pics of the rear shocks as they could be potential originals but I am not sure they can be reused, still neat to have if they are original? All four shocks have the same color (gold) and appear to never have been removed.

73 TA 02D LH Rear Shock.jpg

[Xelerator]

Update 3, 9/11/09.

Ok, now I will post pics of what my original intent of yesterdays project was suppose to be.

Like I said before, my goal was to remove the front fenders and the wheel wells.

I was very happy to see that the front fenders have very minimal rust damage and never had any "fender bender" hits to them either. I am definitely going to reuse these fenders (once I clean them and restore them). The wheel wells were also in great shape too.

IMG_6170.JPG

IMG_6138.JPG

IMG_6140.JPG

IMG_6171.JPG

73 TA RH Wheel Well.JPG

[MP81]

Man - I love these updates!

The holes in the rotors were very intriguing, I must say!!!

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

The upper ball joints are clearly the originals as they still are attached with Rivets, however the number/letters on top confuse me if they are date codes. My 73 TA has a build date of 02D (fourth week of Feb, 1973) and the numbers on the ball joints look to be March 3 and 5 of 1973, maybe the codes mean something else.

Very interesting...but no, I think you have it right...those appear to be factory from the first week of March...there's a story here.

Was there a bad batch of ball joints that made the car sit for a week after final assembly? We may never know.

You don't happen to have any of the original paperwork, do you?

It's a reach, but delivery date to the dealer or customer could shed a bit of light on it...

I also discovered that my rotors (A303, Feb 30 1973) and possibly the pads/calipers are original. I may be able to clean/straighten the rotors for use in the restoration, pretty cool!

Wouldn't A303 be January 30 of 1973?

Extremely cool none the less!

Notice how the factory balanced the rotors! They drilled like 6-7 holes! scary but it must hold up to the stresses. The LH has no holes, while the RH has the holes. Has anyone else seen this before?

Nope...never even heard of it...not sure if it's a factory modification...is it possibly tied to the ball joints?

Bad vibration up front during initial drive, and the factory/dealer swapped the ball joints and drilled the rotor?

If they could only talk...

[Xelerator]

Very interesting...but no, I think you have it right...those appear to be factory from the first week of March...there's a story here.

Was there a bad batch of ball joints that made the car sit for a week after final assembly? We may never know.

You don't happen to have any of the original paperwork, do you?

It's a reach, but delivery date to the dealer or customer could shed a bit of light on it...

Good thoughts and questions! I do have a copy of the invoice and it does say a delivery day of 2-27-73, darn. But you maybe onto something with a swap out at the dealer. I do have contact with the last owner but not the first owner, may have to do some more digging.

Wouldn't A303 be January 30 of 1973?

Extremely cool none the less!

Opps, Duh, you are right, that would be January 30, 1973

Nope...never even heard of it...not sure if it's a factory modification...is it possibly tied to the ball joints?

Bad vibration up front during initial drive, and the factory/dealer swapped the ball joints and drilled the rotor?

If they could only talk...

I know of a guy on Performanceyears.com who posted a picture of his RH rotor and it too had a hole drilled, same as mine only he had 1 hole. I may have to ask him about the "codes" on his original ball joints.

Thanks for the feedback!

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

Dude, that car is a gold mine.

Original nice thick American made fenders and inners.

Original date coded calipers.

Wow.

Just WOW.

When you're done, that will be one of those rare cars that will be worth every penny of the restoration.

Congrats, sir...I am jealous...

[steddy]

Another finder of the "needle in a haystack". Congrats! Good to see it in the possession of family.

[Xelerator]

Dude, that car is a gold mine.

Original nice thick American made fenders and inners.

Original date coded calipers.

Wow.

Just WOW.

When you're done, that will be one of those rare cars that will be worth every penny of the restoration.

Congrats, sir...I am jealous...

Well Thank you!
I have a long road ahead of me but I do think it will be worth it when all said and done. The 73 TAs don't bring the biggest amount but being that mine is a 4spd will help increase the value.
Have you seen the 73 TA Super Duty on ebay? it has a couple of days left and it's all ready over $100K, and it's an automatic! Wow!

[98blackbeauty]

This thread is so interesting. Keep up the pic's and info I am really enjoying it.
Thanks

[732ndgen]

great work bud,

[92conv]

Very interesting thread....very cool to have all the right date coded stuff. Even if you can't reuse some of them, it still speaks to the car originality.

Keep us posted on further progress!!!

[WMCC Doug]

That's a very cool project, Derek. Interesting car and a cool mystery to solve. Keep us posted, we love pictures.

[Xelerator]

Update 9/29/09
I decided to check out the rust damage behind the windshield seal. Since someone has tried to seal out moisture from entering the interior with many layers of clear silicone, the rust has multiplied because the silicone actually trapped moisture thus producing rust.

While I was removing the front windshield, not only did I notice a lot of rust issues but I also found a very important clue! This clue has led me to make a new friend!

Notice in this first picture after I pushed the windshield out and laid it on top of the engine, you can see three objects that obviously fell down between the dash and the front glass. Until 9/29/09, these items would not see the light of day for some 25years!

IMG_0190small.jpg

IMG_0189small.jpg

One of the three objects is a blue plastic card, at first I got excited because I thought it was a credit card (possible previous owners credit card). After looking at the card I could tell it definitely was not a credit card but some sort of military ID card, then I got really excited. This card has the full name, SSN, DOB, rank in the military and some sort of a phone number! Could this card have belonged to one of the 73 TA owners?

ID Card_modified.jpg

I quickly wrapped up the project and ran inside to do some digging on line only to come up empty handed and then proceeded to bed.

This morning, my wife and I were still pretty excited by this discovery of the blue card so when my wife had some free time, she decided to do some research. To make a long story short, she found out the person who's name is on the card passed away in 1999 but had three children, one of the children listed had a phone number. My wife then called the phone number and talked to this person who we eventually found out is the son of the card owner, the son confirmed that his dad (card owner) was one of the owners of the TA and has memory of the red 73 TA! I am going to leave the name of the son out of this story as he may not feel comfortable. I was able to talk with the son for about 12 minutes on the phone today, we both agreed that I would send back the ID card and he would look for any photos/documentation his family may have on the TA. I also told the son to sign on to mifbody and post in this thread any memories or info he has of his dad's car! This is too COOL!!

So now that makes it two owners of the car have been contacted and confirmed!! I believe there is one more original owner and he may be the first of the three!

[M_Juntti]

NICEEEE!!! thats one of my dream cars right there, a nice 73 TA with a shaker hood scoop... right up there with a 68 z28

[MP81]

That is so very cool!!!!