The Teardown - Part 1 - 09/13/2014

As a result of the rot, it's now time for this car to move on to its fate: saving the lives of other cars in better shape. We'll strip the interior first, then sheet metal before finally sawing it up and sending what little remains off to the scrap yard. Quite a few people have requested parts, so I get to think of it as a hobby with work that's fun and I get paid for it too. But it also means I have to be extra careful not to ruin or break anything as every broken part is $$ down the drain!



Backed out and driven under its own power for the very last time. Kind of sad really.



Most of these pictures are reference for me on how things went together for when I put parts back in cars, so they may not be overly interesting other than showing how rotten things were (and in the strangest of places). Passenger front door panels removed, exposed water barrier and original paint. Orange plug in front is for the courtesy lights that the door panels have.



Rear passenger door hardware.



Rear door glass. Very nice shape. The 3 nuts on the guide bracket below have to come off to remove the bracket before the glass can be removed.



All of the inner door hardware. Beefy solenoids for the power locks.



How the door jam wiring is fed. I have no idea how they snake the lone white wire to the door jamb switch as it has to go in the big hole up top then slide down and only has maybe 3" of play in it... Note the lip of the weatherstripping on the door itself has scale and corrosion with a bunch of holes in it. All of the doors were like this.



Rear driver's door hardware. You can see the factory was lazy about where paint got applied that wasn't seen. Sometimes it's no big deal and everything will be fine, other times you get nasty rust. I don't think these panels have ever been off the car before, so I'm not sure if that helper spring next to the window switch was factory... None of the other doors have it.



How the rear door power lock solenoid mounts to the lock to function (pivots on a bolt). People will sell you the solenoids and wiring and forget to include these little parts that no one makes so it helps to know what you need.



More wiring in the pillar.



Wipers and bright work being pulled off (2 rusty\stuck screws hold the bottom trim still). Note the junk and holes in the cowl below the wiper transmission assembly.



Removed the lower dash panel assembly and found this! Rear defrost switch still works. Removed CB radio and vintage trailer brake controller too.



Driver's seat removed. For remembering, these cars had 2 bolts per track side, for a total of 8 bolts\nuts per seat. That was fun trying to get them all out...



Passenger seat out!



One thing I love about old cars is the treasures you find. In addition to a tennis ball, vintage McDonald's cup lid from the 80's, an Exxon receipt for gas (no date but $16.45 for 21ish gallons), and a dozen pens, this wedding announcement in the Knoxville News Sentinel. None of the names are related to the previous owner, so I don't know which couple was the intended in remembering. August 6th, 1978 is the newspaper date and it was cut out so it was intended to be saved. The ads on the back are also pretty funny.



Back seat comes out nicely.



This is the main event... the no going back part. Splitting the car's electrical apart. It is now officially a non-runner as the passenger compartment is dead and cannot power the engine. Washer jug being removed makes this an easy task. Blue, yellow, & orange wires are from the trailer brake controller.



Lowering the column and all associated wiring to it to get the dash harness out. The purple wire is the defrost for the rear window. The brown and green wires snaking out of the column on the left and over are for the cruise control knob button. Two brown wires directly above that are mounted to the brake switch to cancel the cruise when you brake.



Windshield area is rusty!



The dash comes out as one giant assembly. Except for the ATC air conditioning wire harness that is on the passenger side still stuck...



Everything removed and coming out without issue.



The pile of parts in the garage grows. The dash didn't break and made me happy. It's already sold as is the back seat setup.



All of the plastic and regulator assemblies are stored.



That's enough work for today. 7.5 hours and some very sore joints\fingers.



Almost everything of value out of the interior. The A-pillars are rotten too, so cowl, roof, and window channels are all bad on this car. Such a shame.

Next up is sheet metal, engine\transmission, and whatever remains of value in the interior (body harness, trunk release, etc).

Return to 1972 Grandville

Last updated September 14th, 2014