My newly acquired 69 Grande

[Ry-speeed]

Here is my 69 Grande Coupe I am begining to restore. The car was my fathers and in the early 80s he did alot of work in hopes to keep the car on the road. Instead, the car sat since about 1985. I have alot of work ahead.

302 w/ C4 (engine completely disassembled waiting for measuring, cleaning and possibly machining...)
Clean interior w/woodgrain/buckets/console, clock.
New 1/4s, shock towers, trunk metalwork from early 80s
Rotten torque boxes, frame sections, driver side floor vent area.

Plans:
Cut/replace torque boxes with Dynacorn (in the mail)
Cut replace rusted portions of frame.
Clean/prep/paint all preservible areas (undercarrige/eng bay, ect)
Remove vinyl top
Renew chrome trim pieces
Rebuild mecanical compenents


Future Plans:
New intake w/ 4 barrel carb
Paint
Dual exhaust
Change gears (currently 3.00:1)
Power steering
Rear Disc brakes

[stangme428]

looks like a fun project! cool history.. which will make it even more fun to drive!:tongue_smilie:

[69RavenConv]

Great project car. Black Jade is cool. Grandes seem to be popping up more regualrly around here. Keep us posted.

[unfrozen1969]

Welcome, take lots of photos to document your progress and feel free to post lots of pix as well..

Bill from Canada

[Trav_450R]

another grande guy!!! sweet! just an idea but, something my dad did on my families back in the 90's was he hand built and made his own frame rails and made our grande a full frame car... hooks AMAZINGLY WELL! and uses no traction bars, just an 8" rear end, M/T ET drag radials, and air shocks :D

i can get pics if you like

[Ry-speeed]

Grande yes, but I'm not crazy over the look. Since this car isn't rare or anything there was some things gonna be left off and or modified.

I'm definitly gonna put subframe connectors on mine. She needs some frame repair and I'm envious of my friend's '71 Camaro which the front end completely unbolts from the body. Makes it ten times more accessible.

Speaking of which, at a show this past Saturday, there was a 69 coupe and in his restoration photos showed the whole rotten front end cut off and a new one welded in its place. Anyone done or seen that on here?

The full frame sounds pretty wild. Throw some pictures up here if you can.

[Ry-speeed]

Little update. After some searching, I found this video on how to remove window trim that actually made sense. For anyone worried about scrapping the stainless trim around the windshield, check out the link. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRJf5Ow4YbU

Today I removed the windshield trim, drip-rail trim, rear window side trim, vinyltop trim, 1/4 panel extensions and most of the top.

There was rust where the vinyl cracked at the top of the windshield, a little on the drip-rail near the front fender, but the top as a whole looks pretty good.http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/ryanasprey/002-1.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/ryanasprey/010-1.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/ryanasprey/012-1.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/ryanasprey/008-1.jpg

[Mike65]

My Coupe had a vinyl top originally, the last time it was painted the holes were puttied up, I only found them when I was stripping the old paint off. The roof has alot of little dents in it so I am going to have the vinyl top put back on once it is painted.

[Max Power]

Little update. After some searching, I found this video on how to remove window trim that actually made sense. For anyone worried about scrapping the stainless trim around the windshield, check out the link. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRJf5Ow4YbU

Today I removed the windshield trim, drip-rail trim, rear window side trim, vinyltop trim, 1/4 panel extensions and most of the top.

There was rust where the vinyl cracked at the top of the windshield, a little on the drip-rail near the front fender, but the top as a whole looks pretty good.http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/ryanasprey/002-1.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/ryanasprey/010-1.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/ryanasprey/012-1.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/ryanasprey/008-1.jpg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRJf5Ow4YbU

Better link.

[Pakrat]

Don't know if you are going back to the vinyl top or not but in any case take extra care of that trim, it's hard to find. If you don't reuse it someone will want to buy it for sure.

[Ry-speeed]

It's been a while but here's a small update. Its been difficult finding time to work on the car since returning to school for the fall semester.

Today we (had some help from a friend) took out the driver side seat riser, driver front torque box (upper and lower) and some sections of the driver floor. The thickest part of the frame (see pictures) is where the rot is concentrated. I'm probably gonna end up replacing the driver side frame rail and frame extension. The shock-towers are in good shape but the frame rails will need to be patched in at least 2 places or replaced completelty.

With all the needed stucture replacement I'm leaning towards doing an IFS swap. I want to go that route eventually anyways. would start from scratch, new rails both sides+torque boxes, weld in the mustang II style crossmember. Any opinions?



Also, throughout the summer I picked up an early fox intake mani, used edlebrock preformer 600, and double roller timing chain. Received both front torque boxes as well a Scott Drake export brace, which I may not not end up using if I decide to go Tower-less.:tongue_smilie:

[69grandecj]

Good luck with your Grande resto.

[Ry-speeed]

If my car was a Grande with rare options or colour I'd be restoring it with alot more attention to originalilty.

Vinyl tops on dark coloured cars just don't do it for me.