'78 Monza Spyder

[Monza]

I've got a '78 Spyder sitting in my front yard with very little body rust (only under the doors and around the wheel wells). All of the windows and trim are in excellent condition (except for the windshield is smashed) The interior is a bit torn up, the seats, carpet, ceiling and paneling all needs to be replaced. It seems the rear (passenger-side) subframe is rotted right through because it sits to one side. And after sitting there for about 14 years, this legend still runs strong with a 305! There is a big problem with the transmisstion because the car doesn't move when it is put into gear.

I am about a year from getting my license, and I want to pull this car inside and restore it so I can drive it. My dad on the other hand doesn't think it's a good idea (I can't get the reason out of him). He pulled in his 68 Plymouth Barracuda without hesitation. We have a garage, a collection of automotive tools, welder, a fair amount of lighting, and access to electricity, so it would be a great place to restore it. So can you guys who have rebuilt Spyders give me some feedback on my car and tell me if it's worth it or not to fix it up?

[SunbirdMan]

I've never done this kind of rust repair, but I'll tell ya, the sooner you can post some pics, the sooner one of these guys will give you an answer.

[Monza]

I'll get some pics up a.s.a.p.

[AusRs]

yep need pictures .......

[Monza]

Sorry for not having the pictures up soon enough but I'm having technical difficulties with loading the pics onto my computer. I'll try to trouble shoot the problem and get them up.

[marco_1978_spyder]

Just fill the tranny back up with fluid and it should move again.

The tranny might not be in great shape anymore but it should start to move through the gears again.

This always happens when the trannies sit for a few years

[Monza]

I thought of that, and I guess it's worth a try. Also my pictures of the car on my digital camera aren't being loaded into my computer for some reason, so in the mean time can anyone else give me some feedback on my spyder based on my description.

[fyrftr50]

I'd be very concerned about the rear subframe rust. Do you mean the supports holding the rear control arms are rusted through? If so, you have your work cut out for you, unless you plan on tubbing it!

[Monza]

Well, I don't plan on tubbing it at the moment. I just want to fix it to get it on the road. Tubbing may come later when I get more money for it. As for the rear subframe rust, it is hard to tell what is rusted out. The car sits too low to the ground to get a good look under there. However, I imagine the subframe and all the supports need a complete make over.

[spyder_xlch]

If it's sitting that low for 14 years you might have big problems.

[Sirshredalot]

Yup...I hate buying cars out of yards that have been sitting on grass....
thats the reason my car is so rusty...it sat in a guys back yards for several years in the weeds on 2 flat tires and the moisture fro the grass and ground just ate it up on the underside....looking at the body youd never be able to tell there was rust this bad under it.

Nick an ray on here(NixvegaGT, Peterpan) have replace their rear lower control arm mounts with subframe connectors that go all the way up to the front wheel well.
Im sure if you check their garages they will have pictures up.
I think it was them.

MIne is bad enough that I will be doing the same...its a good alternative to back halving the car if you want to keep it a small tire or stock appearing car.

Give us some picture when you get your digital camera out.

God bless
-Shred

[spyder_xlch]

Check out my 79 Spyder in the garage area. It sat 15+ years outside in the grass, 4 flat tires and sunk in. The car looked decent but I couldn't see under it. Got it home and it was trashed underneath. The pics in the garage don't show how bad it really is. To make a long story short, I started cutting it apart and it's worse than I thought. It's a parts car now. It could have been fixed, but it wasn't worth it to me since I got 3 more cars after I bought it and they are in alot better shape. If I were you I'd check it out real good before you do anything to it. You might be better off finding another and use yours for parts.

[NixVegaGT]

OK dude. How did you score that screen name! Nobody else requested that one!!??!! WOW.

Well you are on the hook now, man. With a screen name like that you've got to build one of these cars. What part of the country do you live in?

I'm with Matt. Take your time. Don't spend any money yet. Damn near anything can be fixed with enough effort but you get diminishing return if it's really bad. This is what I'd do. Be really careful how you move it. Don't jack it up on that side that has been sitting.

Start by getting it to the garage. Strip out the interior and take your time here. Be really organized about how you remove things. Put screws into plastic baggies and mark them with what they are. Leave the dash and steering wheel in for now but everything else comes out.

You will get a good look at how bad it is then. I would start measuring things then. Across the floor and stuff like that. See if it is still dimensionally solid. Like measure diagonally across from the rear unibody support to the roof above the pillar. See if the measurements are different. The most difficult thing to fix is a twisted chassis. If it is skip to the bottom.

Sweat equity is worth a crapload here. That's what your Dad is worried about. Your going to get half into this project and have a huge mess on your hands and give up. Don't waste time telling him your going to do it. Prove it. Schedule time and stick to it. Show him you are in for the long haul. No going out with friends. You MAKE them come over and help you if they want to hang out.

OK after you have removed all the interior and measured some stuff and things are in reasonable dimensional shape then you can move to the next level.

If you don't already know how to weld don't worry, you are about to get a whole lot of practice. Get some mild steel tubing. Like 1" or something. Tack weld in some tubes to support the body/unibody panels. All over the inside of the car. You don't need to really weld them on. Just put a quick bead on to hold it there. Connect things diagonally. Pay attention to where they are being tacked on so you can later grind off the welds and pull out the bars. Put them in places that the interior is going to cover.

The idea here is to support things evenly throughout the body to support the chassis while you are cutting it up. You don't need a bunch of them, like six will do.

I just finished fixing a TOTAL goner of a car by doing this. Make no mistake it sucks a LOT! But when you are finished you really did something. It's not expensive but it takes a LONG time and a LOT of work.

Now you can look for places to jack up the car. I'd probably jack it up by the rear axle. Put in some jack stands to keep yourself safe and have a look. I'm betting the trailing arm mounts are totally rotten. Check out Rays and my project journals. That is how we fixed ours like Wes is saying.

You don't necessarily have to do the same thing. You may come up with your own solution. If you are able to fabricate some frame rails to connect the front unibody that should tighten things up and you can get to work fabricating patches for the floors.

Hopefully by the time you get done welding the frame rails you'll have some welding experience and you can move to the advanced stuff. Fabricating the sheet metal patches and welding them in place. MAN can that be frustrating. Lucky for us GM used 18-16 gauge steel on the floors and it's not too bad to weld. The 20-22 gauge steel on the VW rabbit I just worked on… AAAAHHHHHHhhh!!!

So now hopefully you have an idea of the scope of what you're talking about doing. It is very difficult but very rewarding. It will take a long time to fix but you are young and you've got the time! Now is a good time for this. The worst thing that could happen is you bite off more than you can chew and you have to give it up to the grave. That's ok too. This car was headed that way anyway. You could still make some money on the parts and help out some guys on the list here. If it comes to that.

Don't worry about making mistakes. Everything takes practice and this car is a prime candidate for practicing on. Just ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CUT CORNERS ON SAFETY! Use those jack stands. Be TOTALLY certain things are solid before you get under anything. This stuff can kill you if you are not careful.

I think it's worth going through the process on this. You will learn a lot. I did. And you could just build your own car. That's pretty cool. If not you've tried something that not many kids have the stones to try. I think in the end your Dad will appreciate it. It sounds like he's a motorhead too.

I will say this. You are on the hook to build one of these cars, man. With a screen name like Monza you HAVE to! LOL!

[AusRs]

many many projects are 1/2 completed and get sold off/forgotten about
plan how you are going to do things and be methodical ..personally when i got the $hites with welding rust i moved on to something like prep work on the window mouldings or moved to a repair
sometimes i let the car sit for a week or 2 just to get over it then come back refreshed and do a months work in 2 weeks ,it is nice if you have a friend (or a g/f) that is interested in helping you as you tend to motivate each other to continue the project
above all PLEASE post up some pictures of the car !

[Monza]

Well first off, thanks for all the info everyone and i'll check out the garage.
I live in Western Massachusetts and in this nec of the woods no one even knows that Monza Spyders exist, so restoring this car will be priceless. Also, I'm in a vocational machine shop and we do a lot of welding (not to mention the fact we can make whatever we want, so making parts for the car is an option) And I realize that proping the car on jack stands is VERY important while working under it.

I'll get those pics up real soon for you guys