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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Alas, I must confess. I have neglected my B; it has sat in my garage for over a year without having moved an inch. I could make excuses and give reasoning, but the end result is the same: what was once an average daily driver B is now a project car.
Why did I go back? I took a long look at it in the garage. Flat tires, dirt and gunk all over the body, rodent droppings in the trunk and under the hood (thankfully, no chewed wiring) and a massively dirty interior. After sitting in it for a while, I could feel a sense that it was not the end of the road; the car wanted to live again.
Allow me to explain the "remove paint" quip in the subject line. A while back, when I was redoing the carpet in my car, I had the top assembly off along with the interior panels so I could apply a coating of Rust Bullet to the tub. While the top was off and sitting on the floor, someone knocked over a gallon of beige paint and it splattered all over the place. It got the vinyl on the top. Most of it was mopped up, but there are a few noticeable stains on the top vinyl.
I took a shot at removing the remaining stains tonight with some vinyl cleaner and a stiff hairbrush; I'm bald nowadays, no need of a brush! I have to say that the results were quite surprising. The stains came off in pretty short order, so that was a good morale booster. The top and frame took some damage during the reinstallation, but I should be able to repair that. I have a bent bow on the driver's side, and two sheared rivets on the passenger which is currently held with two 1/4" bolts until I get proper rivets.
So far, this post sounds more like a blog than an actual question thread, so I apologize in advance for that.
In my infinite resourcefulness, I somehow managed to break my emergency brake handle. As near as I can figure it, it happened when I was replacing my battery; I folded the passenger seat forward and sat on the base of it while I was working and somehow, I ended up putting weight on the handle. On removing the passenger seat, I found the handle itself snapped clean in half; the mechanism seems fine otherwise. I tried the time honored tradition of JB Weld on the handle to no avail, so it looks as though a replacement is in my near future. Call it the cost of a lesson learned; I'm thinking that some threaded bar in the seat bolt holes would be a wise mod for the future, held down by nuts.
As it stands now, I classify my '77 B as a project car. I'm following Tony's "Awakening" list to get it back to proper running condition with a view to refurbishing the interior and getting it cleaned up. So far, I've got the fluids changed in the engine, gearbox and rear diff and greased all the greasing points along with some significant interior cleaning.
Here's to getting back on the road...I came within a cat's whisker of selling the car a while back, but couldn't make myself 'pull the trigger', so to speak. That was even knowing that I was selling it to someone who I knew would take care of the car and love it. Hopefully this way, if I do end up needing/having to sell it after all, I can at least send it off in style and on top.
Why did I go back? I took a long look at it in the garage. Flat tires, dirt and gunk all over the body, rodent droppings in the trunk and under the hood (thankfully, no chewed wiring) and a massively dirty interior. After sitting in it for a while, I could feel a sense that it was not the end of the road; the car wanted to live again.
Allow me to explain the "remove paint" quip in the subject line. A while back, when I was redoing the carpet in my car, I had the top assembly off along with the interior panels so I could apply a coating of Rust Bullet to the tub. While the top was off and sitting on the floor, someone knocked over a gallon of beige paint and it splattered all over the place. It got the vinyl on the top. Most of it was mopped up, but there are a few noticeable stains on the top vinyl.
I took a shot at removing the remaining stains tonight with some vinyl cleaner and a stiff hairbrush; I'm bald nowadays, no need of a brush! I have to say that the results were quite surprising. The stains came off in pretty short order, so that was a good morale booster. The top and frame took some damage during the reinstallation, but I should be able to repair that. I have a bent bow on the driver's side, and two sheared rivets on the passenger which is currently held with two 1/4" bolts until I get proper rivets.
So far, this post sounds more like a blog than an actual question thread, so I apologize in advance for that.
In my infinite resourcefulness, I somehow managed to break my emergency brake handle. As near as I can figure it, it happened when I was replacing my battery; I folded the passenger seat forward and sat on the base of it while I was working and somehow, I ended up putting weight on the handle. On removing the passenger seat, I found the handle itself snapped clean in half; the mechanism seems fine otherwise. I tried the time honored tradition of JB Weld on the handle to no avail, so it looks as though a replacement is in my near future. Call it the cost of a lesson learned; I'm thinking that some threaded bar in the seat bolt holes would be a wise mod for the future, held down by nuts.
As it stands now, I classify my '77 B as a project car. I'm following Tony's "Awakening" list to get it back to proper running condition with a view to refurbishing the interior and getting it cleaned up. So far, I've got the fluids changed in the engine, gearbox and rear diff and greased all the greasing points along with some significant interior cleaning.
Here's to getting back on the road...I came within a cat's whisker of selling the car a while back, but couldn't make myself 'pull the trigger', so to speak. That was even knowing that I was selling it to someone who I knew would take care of the car and love it. Hopefully this way, if I do end up needing/having to sell it after all, I can at least send it off in style and on top.
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