Finally had some time to work on Old Roy, so I thought an update would be in order.
Last weekend I pulled the grill and gave it the "oven cleaner treatment". It's going to get some of the dents hammered out, polished, black accents repainted, then reinstalled. It will never be perfect, but should look better than it was. More on that later. Here is the oven cleaner doing it's job...
Yesterday I spent a few hours pulling the front clip. The engine and transmission (4-speed stick) will need to be degreased, then the engine will be getting an entire new gasket set (at the very least). After that the engine bay is going to be detailed, then the heater box/core reinstalled.
I was home alone, so I had to get some "machinery" involved to get the clip removed:
Here's how it's sitting as of right now.
Now that the clip is removed, I plan on doing a compression test and leak down test on the engine, then pulling it and beginning the clean up/regasket process. Oh, and I also need to either rebuild the front end (control arm bushings), or swap in a newer (disk brake) cross-member.