71E Targa rustbucket - where to start?

[BK911]

Check this thing out. Needs just about everything. Not sure what to do first??

Remove engine, tranny and suspension. Then what?

Replace rockers then floors?
Or floors then rockers?
Then front latch panel and front pan?

Maybe get her blasted or dipped first?

Should keep my busy for a while!!

[BK911]

[Jdub]

Frankly I do not know where to begin, but you sure have my support. That is going to be a beautiful Targa some day with enough patience and money. Best of luck to you!!

[pksystems]

I think you'll need to make some bracing

You need floors, to mount inner rockers, to mount outer rockers...etc...

My car was pretty bad when I started, but I had a roof, and surprisingly, the floors were not too bad... It was everything else I replaced

You'll probably need to do something like this... The 1968 Cayman Project

[yel911]

I'm surprised the doors still shut!!!

[theFONZ]

Kudos to you for taking that on. 99% of people on this board would have posted a "Who needs parts" post in the FS section instead of this one. It's great to see people trying to save the ones others wouldn't consider.

[RWebb]

most people strip the car completely and put the unit body on a rotisserie

if you pull the wiring out also, you could get the body dipped...

[Jagshund]

I highly recommend bracing before doing much of anything else. I'm still amazed that my doors open/shut and quarters went back on with little trouble after replacing everything except roof, dash and 33% of front & rear upper wheel wells. The matrix seen in my build thread grew even more complicated as the project wore on mainly because I freaked out every time I heard a groan/creak & added more bracing.

[tharbert]

That will indeed keep you busy. Good luck!

[YTNUKLR]

Bk- Surely you know that thing is really far along in the corrosion process. This is a huge project - you will probably have 600 hours in the body alone by the time you are ready to put parts back on.

That said, here would be my plan of action:
-get everything off it
-media-blast it
-call Resto Design and order everything they make
-get the car on a Celette, and get all the floor members, pan and rockers done (make it structurally sound), and install some brace bars in the interior to keep the car square as you do everything else
-once structurally sound, get good panels from parts cars, ie., bumpers, fenders, etc. You can remove your turn signal boxes and install them on a later galvanized fender that can be had much more reasonably
-THEN you can start bodywork

When you are cutting open the car to replace metal, spray epoxy primer absolutely everywhere you can, and cavity-wax it

It can live again...

[Turpin]

Hey,
Any updates?

I too am about to mount my targa on a rotisserie and yes I am nervous. I only have a few panels to replace...

Russ

[IslandHopper]

Um... Wow. Honestly surprised this can be saved (within all reasonable means), but kudos to keeping another one alive, or rather, bringing one back from the dead!

[cdrik915]

Impressive rust !!!

A bunch of work .

If i was you , i would start to remove all , ..................and i would blast it to precisely have an idea of the parts to change .

But there is really a lot of work to do !!!

And a lot of money to engage.

[BK911]

Oh wow, talk about timing.
No additional work has been done, the car has been in storage until I finished up some other projects.
But the other projects are FINISHED and this Targa is moving into the garage very soon.

Anything can be saved. She only needs:
Inner / outer rockers
Floor pans
Latch panel
Front pan
Pedal cluster area
Doors
Fenders
Some misc patches
???
Then off to paint.

But seriously, one piece at a time.

[Chuck.H]

I have to hand it to you - I'll fix ANYTHING but I draw the line at rust. Also, looking at your sig line it looks like you already have some very similar cars that probably already need some ongoing attention. Are you retired and just having fun and so I'm jealous!

Chuck.H
'89 TurboLookTarga, 364k miles