This is what the car looked like shortly after I towed it home in September of 2001. While stripping the fenders I found that the white paint was the third coat of paint on the car. Originally Caspian Blue, it had been repainted red before the white. The cans of white Rustoleum in the trunk provided the final color.

There was the original block and heads, but no intake or carb and no transmission. A bunch of parts were thrown in the trunk for good measure.

The left quarter needed to be patched as did the right. The fenders were no good, the doors needed to be reskinned, and there is massive amounts of "surface" rust.

While the drivers side floor was rusty, the passengers side floor didn't exist. Had I known what to look for, I never would have bought this car. Along with the fllor pan, the toeboard, firewall end and cowl side panel are rotted.

It is easy to see why the floors rotted out. The cowl pan is rotted as well.

At this point I had two choices: Haul the car away for scrap or learn how to weld sheetmetal. In a past life I had done structural steel welding, but had no experience at all with welding sheetmetal. I had the basics of fitting down and basically had nothing to lose by trying. The worst that could happen was that I would waste some money on a MIG machine and haul the car away for scrap. So I decided to give it a go. The restoration events have been documented within the pages here.