"Tear'n it Up!"

Once the interior was cleaned out,it was time time to rip out the floor behind the seats to clear back past the rear suspension and differential areas to make room for the new frame rails and give me room to start cutting for tubs and the fatties that are going under this baby. Now being a uni body car, it wasn't easy to find where to cut into the rear existing framework, but a little patience and a few mythodical cuts revealed where I needed to be. Once that was figured out...the rest went easy and the entire rear floor/suspension/differential unit dropped out as one completed blob.

"Getting to work!"

Ok, now that we have the car in the garage...the next thing we did was to position it in the small bay that we have to work in, so that we can get all around it after it is incapacitated. We got the car off the ground and onto jackstands. After that we had to spray insecticide in and under the car to eliminate any creepy crawleys that may still be lurking about from sitting in the field.
Then we pulled out the seats, carpet, and most of the interior trim to get to the workable metal underneath and check for soundness of the body. Honestly...I hated to cut into this thing because it was soooo perfect! :/

The Find!

Having talked long and hard about what our project should be and reminiscing about all the cars I have owned since I was 15 years old, and trying to decide upon 65 Mustangs, 70 Cudas, 69 Camaros etc. my thoughts seemed to settle on a 71 chevy vega I had when I was 18, one that my friend Alvin had talked me out of or rather traded me fro a 68 Chev Impalla with a Chrysler 440 chained into it (thx a ton Al). I told myself if I ever had the chance to find another one, that I would do it. This seemed to intrigue my son and So...We hit KSL.com, a version of Craigs list etc. in our area. Taran came to me and said he thinks he found a good prospect a clean '72 Chevy Vega...it was, I made a call, Talked to Bronson (the owner) struck a deal for $600, got the day off work, rented a U-Haul car hauler, packed a lunch and off we went. Bronson is seen (lower left) standing next to the car once on the trailer, he told me he had the car for the last 10 years, got the engine out of it and was going to convert it to a V8, then never did. This was a prime example of a nice rustless, dentless California car that he babied for 10 years making sure it didnt rust. Told me it needed a good home, I reassured him it was getting one and that I would keep him updated on the progress, so this is for you buddy. (Thanks Bronson)

"The start" as it were...lol!

I've only tried to start this Blog only about 25 times now, and I keep forgetting to save my changes..lol, so hopefully this one finds me successful. My name is Mark, I live in Syracuse, Utah with my family including my 21 year old son Taran atm. We are both heavy automotive gearheads that really get into the classic and racing scene. We have talked long and hard for years about building something together finally and it looks like we found our mission. My friends now knowing about our little project here and having seen the raw material we are working with...somehow convinced me to Blog this Story and the build. Knowing more about how to program the space shuttle than to blog, I had to recruit my daughter-in-law to help me start the blog...Thanks Caitlyn. My son Taran (who is single btw ladies)..is an awesome addition to the project ie. good welding skills and an awesome imagination! (did I mention he was single?) !!! As a Safety Message !!! Use some common sense if you plan to duplicate anything I have done here! By building it you are accepting personal responsibility for your own safety. If somehow you get injured don’t blame me. I am not some big corporation with deep pockets. Isn’t it a shame I have to include this statement.