GLHS #0469 Ressurection

[Skibbe]

Flashback to 2001. I ran across GLHS #0469 in a used car lot in Valparaiso, IN. It was shiny and someone had swapped in a common block 2.2L (one-piece intake) at some point. So I bought it.



On the way home to Chicago the engine seized up and there was a small engine fire. One rebuilt motor later it was back on the road. And it promptly cracked a piston. (Hypereutectic pistons be damned... oops.) It sat for a while since I was in college and didn't have much time to work on it. So I traded it to Moparboyy for a running 1992 Daytona Iroc R/T. It seemed fair at the time until I had to watch updates on turbododge.com about it being cut and hacked and gutted, etc. Around 2006, after Moparboyy gave up on the 2.4L swap, I offered him $250 for the gutted shell. He refused. It sat at his dad's place for 5 years rotting away, including a massive flood on the property. Good thing it was just a metal shell.

Flashforward to 2011. Moparboyy finally let go of the shell to local SDAC CL member Tommy. Tommy offered the car to me, knowing it was my old GLHS. I couldn't pass it up for $250, and now feel compelled to bring it back to life after previously being responsible for trading it away to an awful life.

[cordes]

That's awesome! What a great history behind the car. I'll be watching with great anticipation.

[Skibbe]

Here's the car on its way home from Tommy's. It's an empty shell, but it has the important pieces: Dash Plaque, Dash with VIN, Core Support VIN, GLHS Wheels. And title, which was still in my name after 10 years. Oh, and rear Koni's still too. I have a Shelby valve cover and GLHS steering wheel in the garage.

Inside the car is the lower front ground effects (hacked up) and a welded in roll bar. You can see the uprights in the nose have been hacked out. There is rust where the framerails hit the floor in the front corners, but otherwise the body is solid. 10 years have taken their toll on the clearcoat. The windows are locked in the up position and the doors have been plated over with aluminum sheet for that authentic race car look.



---------- Post added at 10:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:44 PM ----------

Step one is going to be figuring out the engine bay. There's some modifications to the motor mounts that I have to reverse since it was headed the way of a 2.4L swap. The front core support was hacked out. (by hacked I mean sawsall and then remaining lips folded over with a hammer, not cleanly at all) TurboDave just happened to have a core support cut out of a GLH which I paid him for last night. I see a lot of spot weld drilling in my future. Luckily, Moparboyy saved the upper piece of the core support which had the VIN/options plate and the VIN stamp. The Shelby emissions sticker has seen better days...

I took the nose off tonight (it was mostly held on by hopes&dreams anyway) and here's how it sits:



Don't mind that big hole where the 1 gal fuel cell used to be. That's another piece of sheet metal I need to find and replace.

[CoolV300C]

Lot of work ahead. Good luck.

[BadAssPerformance]

Good project! Subscribed!

[Skibbe]

After finishing the honey-dos I snuck out to the garage for an hour. Took almost all that time to get the driver's side front fender off the car. All except one of those stupid tabbed nut's broke while removing the fender bolts. Once the fender was off I popped the windshield trim off... and then started investigating a rust bubble:



So apparently there was a rust hole here before the car was painted last. It was filled in with a wad of bondo and is probably the worst rust on the car. I wonder what happened originally? In the photo I've already split the bondo wad and removed half of it. I'll have to figure out how to bend a patch piece... or find a donor charger and someone willing to hack out a difficult piece right by the windshield.

The fender I pulled off is rust free. I just need to find a source for the fender nuts before reassembly.

[BadAssPerformance]

Wow, nice to find that now. Was there a spot on the floor below it? Shouldn't be too hard to fab up a patch piece.

[ajakeski]

I may have a donor car for your missing radiator support. I'll knw more by the end of the week.

[Skibbe]

Wow, nice to find that now. Was there a spot on the floor below it? Shouldn't be too hard to fab up a patch piece.

Right below is a soft spot in the floor, but that's also where the frame rail channel dies right into the floor board and is notorious for holding water/debris against the floor in L bodies. So it could be either factor or a combination of both causing the floor issue.

Without a shrinker/stretcher it looks like it will be hard to make the replacement in one piece, but a couple smaller pieces should help with the multiple bends/curves.

---------- Post added at 07:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 AM ----------

I may have a donor car for your missing radiator support. I'll knw more by the end of the week.

TurboDave hooked me up with one off a GLH! But it you're parting a charger, let me know how that metal looks by the front lower corner of the windshield...

[Reaper1]

I like following stories like these! Keep going!

[BadAssPerformance]

Without a shrinker/stretcher it looks like it will be hard to make the replacement in one piece, but a couple smaller pieces should help with the multiple bends/curves.

LMK if you need any pieces TIGd together

[Skibbe]

Someone tell me to take the car to a glass shop next time the windshield needs to come out. There is glass everywhere now.

[JohnnyIroc]

this is a good story, subscribed
but looks like you need to make another trip up to daves

[BadAssPerformance]

Someone tell me to take the car to a glass shop next time the windshield needs to come out. There is glass everywhere now.

Doh! Is that a claw-type windsheild removal tool on the cowl? LOL

[Skibbe]

Indeed

[Skibbe]

Worked on removing the remnants of the core support sheet metal this weekend. I'm grinding through the spot welds rather than drilling. This leaves a solid backer for the replacement panel, which will be removed from the donor core support via drilling, and I'll just weld through each spot weld hole.


Shot showing the cross-section of the piece I'm removing.



Reference photo of what is braced inside this frame section at the front motor mount. I'm wondering if I should beef this up while it's open. It will at least be cleaned up and rustproofed.



And everything removed. You can also see the hole in the inner passenger side fender where the vapor canister area was cut out to fit a 1 gallon fuel cell. After taking this picture and seeing the long tube header in the background, I started thinking about how convenient this hole is if I were to put the long tube header on this car. It's right where the turbo would sit, and the exhaust would be routed down and out the marker light in the airdam fender extension! Hmm... with the roll bar installed and this area already cut up maybe I should pull the race motor from the blue SC and put it in the gutted GLHS...

[turbovanman²]

Congrats on the work, that is some serious time and energy needed,

Holy hackers batman, Moparrboy outta be shot, lol.

[MoparBoyy]

Holy hackers batman, Moparrboy outta be shot, lol.

hey now! it was a unfinished project! i started to just hack away to see if i could even get stuff to fit in there. then planned on going back and finishing it all up.

[turbovanman²]

hey now! it was a unfinished project! i started to just hack away to see if i could even get stuff to fit in there. then planned on going back and finishing it all up.

LOL, sure, sure.

[Skibbe]

Either way, we can fix it all. Full core support stamping ready to get plug welded in place!