This is a classic restoration story. It goes like this: The kitchen in your house is original and you want to reface the cabinets and replace the vinyl floor. You rip up the floor only to find water damage from a leaky dishwasher. The cabinets are held onto about 2 of the 20 studs they should be and they used 1/2″ plywood in the floor instead of 3/4″. Now your $300 renovation project just added $2000 of stuff and 4 more weeks of work.

After taking the motor out and getting a good long look at the damage. I can honestly say: I don’t know how we got it back from Washington on the tow dolly… The solid bobble strut, 1 loose control arm bolt, and half of a welded mount were all that was holding the wheels on that car. Need I mention that the bobble strut is there to hold the engine UP? Good stuff.

After an over-extended week of prep Todd and Mike came over last night to start welding. The seam welding is done and the new subframe mounts should be fabricated and on tonight. While we had the motor out we took advantage of that fact and cleaned up a lot of little things. The brake lines will now be routed through a hole in the inner fender rather then around (or – up under) the frame. The AC, airbag, foglight wiring, and connectors were removed. We cut out the front broken radiator support. A new set of shifter cables have been installed. What you see to the left is the inside of the left fender right before welding. Notice I just chopped off what was left of the existing mounts.

Tonight I’ll have camera in hand to take some more detailed shots. I also will take some finished pictures once it’s all painted and back on 4 wheels. I’m excited because I can finally see the end of this ‘current’ project.

Update: Pictures of the welding and mount fab are in the gallery.