Beauty IS only skin deep!!!

The beast…yup, that’s the new name for the TF 1500. At least until something better comes along, maybe the owner has a better name for IT. As dad laughs at my cursing he says, you never know what you have until you get into it. The Beast was such a nice car to look at when it came in…now the only thing I still like about it is the nice shiny wheels.

The sheet metal that came off the body tub (fenders etc.) really doesn’t look that bad (it still has to go to the stripper, who knows how much will come back still looking good.) But the body tub is another story. There seems to have been a water problem at one time. There were a lot of rusted screws, nuts and bolts. The cutting wheel is my friend!!! The rocker panels are pretty bad as well as the rear wheel wells. Also for some reason the top rails, both inner and outer, were cut in the middle and pieced. There were a number of nuts missing, one on the body brace to the roll bar and two were loose. I never test drove this car but it must have rattled a bit.

Top rails when the bolts were out!

A little bondo in the wheel well

Rusty rocker

On the bright side the fight is almost over. All the sheet metal that has to go to the stripper is pretty much ready to go. All I wanted is to have the engine ready to take to the machine shop when we pick up the one that is there now. The last parts came in on Thursday, I ran them down on Friday and was told the engine work would probably be done this coming week. So I had to hustle to get the front off the Beast and while I was at it got the rest apart. It will be easier to get the engine out!!!

Dad has finally gotten the TC he was working on pretty much straightened out. He has the fender for the TD that was in an accident almost ready to paint and has the parts ready to fix the damage. He has a water pump to change and the engine to rebuild and install…then I think he’s caught up and can help with restorations. If he gets this done in the next couple weeks we will be in good shape for the restoration “season.”

Catch you later…