Introducing........RAT’S NEST

[cook_dw]

Paint and letter it back like it was in the photo above (05/70). It has racing history and I will walk past 100 restored to factory spec Camaros to look at a vintage racer.

[R68GTO]

Took the car for a spin yesterday to run some fuel out of the tank. Began the teardown today.I have three main missions:
1) swap out the turbo 400 for an M22 which is what the car was built with according to the 2nd owner's racing partner. Also swap in the BE rear I got from Frank.
2) eliminate the gloss black the 6th owner sprayed all over the firewall, core support & inner fenders back in 1978 when he painted the car its current black/gold
3) clean up the underside including suspension, brakes, subframe, floorpans, etc.

I am going to attempt to preserve the original finishes rather than restoring since it's a low mile car. We'll see what it looks like when I start cleaning. So far it's all coming apart like a low mile car that's never been stored outside. I'm finding a few mismatched fasteners so I'm keeping a list and will likely be asking y'all a bunch of questions on head markings, finishes, etc.
I am fairly certain I found faded remnants of the "427" grease pencil writing on the driver side front fender extension - tried to get a pic but it didn't show well. I'll see what I can get once I get the fender off.
I added a shot of the front spoiler sticker - this spoiler was put on in 1970 by the 2nd owner! Car is a no spoiler car. In between disassembly activities, I have been working on "fin straightening duty" on my curve neck radiator - good beer drinking activity Did you know there are about 18,960 fins in a curve neck? It will take a lot of beer to get this one done!

[R68GTO]

A trip to MCACN yesterday "super-charged" my motivation to keep going on my project so I went back at it today. I posted a few questions over in the preservation forum so I don't clog this thread up. Here's a couple of shots of where I'm at with the teardown as well as the underside of the cowl panel showing the original Lemans Blue overspray. The original foam dividers are still in place and you can see where a few exterior gauges were once mounted - holes were welded shut by the guy who painted the car in 1978/79. I'm not sure what gauges were mounted there, but am assuming a fuel pressure gauge - what else would have been typical back in the day? I think the tach was mounted on top of the dash. Also posted a shot of the cowl VIN stamping - not sure if I posted it before or not.

[R68GTO]

Did some more teardown and made a quick attempt at cleaning some of the frame and undercarriage areas. In general, the vertical surfaces have a good amount of original paint, but the horizontal surfaces have most of the paint gone. Here are a few pictures....

[R68GTO]

Also found a couple of "week" stamps on the firewall and cowl - both stamped "38" which are the same week as one of my rear quarters. The top sides of the suspension where the gloss black was not sprayed, seem to have most all their original finishes intact. Any thoughts, tips, or suggestions on direction are welcome!

[mockingbird812]

That is some good archaeology there! Keep it up!!

[R68GTO]

The original inner fenders cleaned up pretty nicely with only a couple of spots of surface rust. Original flaps are decent, just coated with that damn gloss black paint Also found a couple of gems....positive battery cable had this melted portion wrapped with about 1/4" thick section of electrical tape. Also found a chunk of fan belt down inside the lower cowl area on the driver side....wonder how that got there