This 73 mk1 coup is in a sorry state, it's had a decent prang in the front left at some stage, not the best repair but will go with it after I repaired their repair. There's not a lot of good to say about it except it'll keep me welding for a while and keep the posts rolling along ..
As with every resto I start right at the front and work my way to the rear , doing it this way is so I don't get confused and do the easy ones first plus I know where I'm at. At the moment I'm up to the front footwells and sills.
If I can find and load pics from when I done the engine bay that'll make a good start..!

Ok here's the culprit that's going to cause the headaches, blood and sweat for a while..




Stripped and on the rotisserie

nice one Marty, good to see you are back on the tools.
Plans? Is this one a keeper or to fund the Superannuation?
 
Is that a handbrake on your rotisserie?
Ive started to build one for the van, but its not as high as your pivot centre.
The vans just under 1400 wide, so I thought 700mm from pivot to ground.
My daughter came out and said that wont fit dad, its not high enough.
Damn pythagoras.
Still might clear with no rims on.
 
Bubbles on this one Marty?

Yup, glutton for punishment me !
The car is pre sold as a shell if the guy likes the end product... If not I'll throw in some stuff and sell it later on. It's my last mk1 coup except the bubble archer.
Superann, I've got Bitcoin for that lol , it's going crazy right now..

Hehe yeah it's a hyd handbrake I made from an old rotor, a Anglia handbrake arm, 1300 caliper and Toyota Hilux master n slave, bit of d!cking about with the ratio but works sweet👍.

If you want measurements from my rotisserie I can do that for you, mine is on wheels which helped when van was on it. Due to the vans tall roof I had to lengthen the swing which means when a sedan is on there it's bottom heavy but well balanced for the van

Hey Deano here's the E brake I've got installed, just made from left over parts..


This is the pivot centre on the rotisserie, if your van is mk2, check my yellow van build for where the pivot was on that van

I didn't do much on the car after work except some CAD for later welding, reckon I'll do the cad thru the week and weld on weekends so I can seal the metal from rusting. I've realised the passenger seat support rib is very brittle so that's more grafting coming up soon, anyway back to 2019 when I started this resto, I stopped not long after to get some shed rooms concreted which meant moving everything out, sorting it and designing hooks to hang items off the ground.
Here's the underside, floor looks fine but the sills are toast.

Usual door hinge rot here..

I have fixed this now though.

I love Nth Queensland but finding any small classic Fords around here is pretty bad compared to  Southern forum members. Last year was a 2 door MK1 from west of here. Far worse condition than yours started, Marty, and demanded ( and got ) $5k for it. Len

Len the prices people ask these days has got crazy, it's the dopes that buy them for such price and becomes the normal for future sellers. This car cost me under $600 about 7yrs ago..

Remembering this as couple of yrs ago. I got the guards off, 1 took the whole rail with it and part of the headlight panel !




This is the previous accident where the repair was cut from another car, very rough and welded on, I suppose back then parts weren't available like they are now..

Moving on to the heater area which is nearly always rusty , standard option nowadays is repair it regardless


Here is the lower rad support I needed to cut away to gain access to literally bash the front panel back into line, holes are where I welded washers for the slide hammer, they mostly pulled off. While there was that gap I had a plan to make up a notch for the radiator to sit further forward, mk2 style..


Test fit, trim, test and finally weld

not really cool that your rotisserie has a cross drilled disk brake, better than my project car.... :)
Great idea though.
 
the whitewalls look cool though, definitely  should be part of the build.

Here's the fully welded and primed rad support

Next I got the urge to buy a grit blast cabinet, a eBay shop was selling them for nearly half price so had to get one..

Fitted wheels for easy moving

A whole bunch of cut off pieces, some to go back on, others go in the bin..
So I got to making a new side rad support as the original one was beyond help , to make the hole I cut a hole in Some wood paneling and clamped the work piece over it and hammered the metal down, pretty simple technique with good results 👍

A small rust repair at the front chassis swaybar bolt , it was meant to have a crush tube, nothing there at all !

Cut a piece of tube, tack welded in place before the plate gets welded back on
And the finished piece all done

After that little job I made a PR of gussets for the bulkhead , I make them bigger and stronger than bought items..