PROJECT UNDERDOG.
Ok so I'm not right in the head. I guess I inhaled to many exhaust fumes as a child. There is just something sexy about a project that surpases all reason. Funny while Im writing this I can't get the view of my wonderful wife of 29 years rolling her eyes while sighing ....oh brother....
It all started 20 years ago when I saw this car in a guys collections of wrecks. Seems the car got in a head on collision back in the 70's. It was put to the side and ignored with the idea that it could never be repaired. It became a topic of conversation and a place to throw more junk into. Over the years the car was passed up by the car seekers who were looking for their next project. Most just looked at it and said too bad I hate to see a fastback put out to pasture. The car became such a fixture that it came to a point where the owner would not even entertain the idea of selling it. How did I know you ask. I was the one trying to buy it. Ya I was a sucker, the whole idea of bringing it back was consuming me. Year after year I would ask if he he would sell it to me. Well one year I guess I asked at the right time and he allowed me the honor of ownership. Now I am sure you think I raced the car back to the shop and got busy, ahhhhh.........no! That was 5 years ago. The car continued its duties as a conversation piece and continued to get the same comments it received with the last owner. It was only last year that I finally gave the car the attention it required. I had big plans for this car but was most excited about taking it from oblivion to a respectable show/driver for myself. So the next set of pictures will show what we started with.
It all started 20 years ago when I saw this car in a guys collections of wrecks. Seems the car got in a head on collision back in the 70's. It was put to the side and ignored with the idea that it could never be repaired. It became a topic of conversation and a place to throw more junk into. Over the years the car was passed up by the car seekers who were looking for their next project. Most just looked at it and said too bad I hate to see a fastback put out to pasture. The car became such a fixture that it came to a point where the owner would not even entertain the idea of selling it. How did I know you ask. I was the one trying to buy it. Ya I was a sucker, the whole idea of bringing it back was consuming me. Year after year I would ask if he he would sell it to me. Well one year I guess I asked at the right time and he allowed me the honor of ownership. Now I am sure you think I raced the car back to the shop and got busy, ahhhhh.........no! That was 5 years ago. The car continued its duties as a conversation piece and continued to get the same comments it received with the last owner. It was only last year that I finally gave the car the attention it required. I had big plans for this car but was most excited about taking it from oblivion to a respectable show/driver for myself. So the next set of pictures will show what we started with.
You can see in these pix that the car was hit so hard that even the dash was folded in. The first thing to accomplish was to remove all of the damaged metal and prepare the car for a donor front clip. I went out in the parts yard and drug in a coupe we had out there that was Ko'd n the back and surgically removed the front clip. This included the firewall forward.
This is as far as I got with the car during my mad attack to render the car useful. Because it was my personal project I never seemed to have the time to continue the project to completion. We have all met those people who have awesome cars sitting around turning to rust year after year and when begging them to sell it you get the age old response . Nahhh don't want to sell it gonna fixer up one day. In order to avoid being a hypocrite I decided that the car needed to go to a good home. So I contacted a customer we were building a 68 coupe for. He stated on our first meeting that he already had the coupe but really wished he could build a fastback. I offered him the fastback and told him I would trade with him for his coupe and he could pay the difference. he jumped on the idea. So the deal was done and he also stated he wanted me to build it the way I had invisoned the car for myself. Don't ya just love a happy ending!!
Its full speed ahead on Underdog! We cleaned off the rust on the areas that were staying on the car and coated them with POR 15. The roof had some pretty deep surface rust in the middle that probably could have been removed with some blasting, but would have left an area pretty thin. In addition there was a fair amount of surface rust in the frame work around the roof. That being the case we opted to remove the old skin and attack the rust and install a new skin. This will provide me with a good nights sleep knowing these problems have been addressed. We have removed the qtr panel on the left side and attacked all the surface rust that you can't get to while a qtr panel is on. Repaired the outer wheelhousing and prepped for a new full qtr panel replacement. Once we have the roof skin and LH qtr installed we will move on to the right side to install a full qtr, and new taillight panel. For the record the roof skin and full qtr panels were most impressive as far as how well they fit. Very Cool!!
