John S's Journal

Finally, a day that I could devote a lot of time to working on the GT.
Took the plunge and started stripping out all things attached in the engine bay other than the hard lines. Started at the front and disconnected horns and lights so that I could pull the harness back towards the firewall where I can get it out of the way. Horns came out, windshield washer pump, coil, fuse block and relay, charcoal canister and then finally removed the heater box. This was something that I had to convince myself to do but decided as long as I’ve gotten this deep, I might as well get it out. Pleasantly surprised that all of the screws came out nicely and after disconnecting the cable from the footwell, I was able to pry it up and out of there. It looks to be in great shape overall and I think it won’t be quite as challenging to go through the innards and make sure the heater core doesn’t leak and then sand and paint the unit before reinstalling.

After that was out of the way and all of the fossilized insulation/foam hoovered up, I started in on all of the hard lines. Everything was oxidized and it took quite a bit of work to go over every one of the brake, fuel, and clutch lines with some emory cloth and steel wool to bring back some shine. Sat on the inside of the engine bay and made myself at home because it was tedious work. Came out well though so I gave everything a wipe down with a damp cloth and called it a day. All of the hard lines will get covered in aluminum foil and then I can do some masking in preparation for a little rust converter on the bare metal, primer, and some paint.

Monday

Not as much time today so I’ll I got done was wrapping the hard lines with aluminum foil. Tedious. Next up is masking the wings and other body parts as well as the front suspension even though I’ll be removing the cross member down the road. I kept the one from the ‘70 RD. when I parted it out and it’s going to the sand blaster soon. The plan is to build up a mostly complete front end and swap it in.