I put a deposit down on another F-body!

[Xelerator]

These photos show the dissection from my 72 Donor shell. Shown below are views of the LH pillar. The last photo shows how the structure should look under the dash/cowl.
I am trying to dissect the "A" pillar as close to the reversal of how it would have been assembled. I am going to remove the piece parts and transfer them over my 73 Trans am.
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[Lucky SOB]

I'm hooked on this thread. I'm sure the attention to detail and quality of work will continue to be amazing! Keep it up!

[Gottork]

just re-read this whole thread, good luck on a job and hope to see more progress soon

[98blackbeauty]

nice work so far.

[Xelerator]

Here is the removal of the Cowl/Dash. I was going to just repair the rust issues but then decided I might as well replace the whole piece. Removal of this piece also allows repair of the lower cowl too. I was surprised, it only took me 1.13 Hours!
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[Xelerator]

After I removed the Upper Cowl/Dash, I went back to removing the LH "A" pillar inner structure. This piece as you may recall, was completly gone at the base (where it meets the door hinge structure), this piece was pretty thick in comparison to the majority of the shells sheetmetal, this must mean it takes the majority of the loading. Because it seems to take a lot of loading from the roof and torsional stress, I decided to completely remove it, reversing the assembly of it. I did at one point decide to cut it in half but then I thought better, "just do it right".
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[Xelerator]

Here are some comparisons between the 72 Donor car and the 73 Project car of the LH "A" Pillar parts (Inner structure and outer skin). In the first picture, the top row shows the "good" usable parts from the 72 donor car, the bottom row shows the rusty parts from the 73 project car.
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The other two pictures are some detail shots of the LH "A"-Pillar's inner structure. This is the piece that utilizes some thick material compared to the rest of the sheet-metal surrounding it.
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[Xelerator]

Back to the Donor car, For the RH "A" pillar, I had to also remove the outer skin, however since the sub structure or inner structure was solid on the 73 project, I did not need to remove it from the donor car.
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This last picture is just another comparison showing the difference between the Donor's "A" pillar skin and the Project's "A" pillar skin. For Reference, the "Red" parts are the project and the darker parts are from the Donor car.
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[Xelerator]

And here is how it sits as of this morning!! I am happy with the progress I have made so far, yes, I have a LOT to do yet.
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[Xelerator]

Ok, one last post for today or maybe for a while.

I decided that I am at the point where I need my Plasma cutter and welder so... I am going to transport the shell to my Dad's shop, this is where the major bodywork will take place.

Since I was the only one around and I don't have patience to wait for help, I decided to tackle loading the shell by myself, using an old Block-N-Tackle, the loading went very smooth.

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[Gottork]

I am so amazed at your progress and patience of this whole thing, this is going to be one amazing project car when your done, how many cars have you done like this? How long have you been doing this? is this just your hobby or something you do for work too?
Your details and tear down is fabulous..

are you going to media blast the body?

[Xelerator]

I am so amazed at your progress and patience of this whole thing, this is going to be one amazing project car when your done, how many cars have you done like this? How long have you been doing this? is this just your hobby or something you do for work too?
Your details and tear down is fabulous..

are you going to media blast the body?

Thanks for the comments! I hope others are getting some interest in this project too!

When I was in college, I restored a 1977 Jeep CJ-7 (1999-2001) (see my website in my sig) The next large restoration was my Green 73 Camaro (2005-2009). I learned a lot from both those projects which steered me to document everything. This is my hobby, no kids and a very understanding wife lets me do this hobby. I am a Mechanical Engineer so the meticulous detail/documentation comes naturally. I get a lot of fun out of doing this stuff, it's like a natural high when you plan a project and it goes well and looks good!

I am not sure how to handle the body yet, I have thought of doing the tank dipping process to remove the Paint/seam-sealer/rust/crude and then a phosphate finish to help protect the bare metal after the dipping process, this way the whole shell and all body components are completely rust free.