68 Spider Restoration

[fiathead]

Hi folks,

I just dragged a very rusty '68 Spider home today. I've been looking for a good candidate for a restoration and saw this car just two hours away. After talking to the owner, I decided to drive down and take a look. In case it was worth restoring, I brought a trailer and cash along. Once there, I decided it was too far gone to warrant a restoration and was going to pass on the car. The owner said he was probably going to have it scrapped which would have been a real shame since it has a complete torque type style rear end intact and also since there were never too many '68s to begin with and are very few around today. I ended up offering him $250 and he accepted.

Once home though, I started to poke around and am finding that many of the parts this car needs, are parts I have as spares for my '69 Spider. This car's engine was disassembled completely, then allowed to rust heavily. I have a spare 1.4L Twincam. This car needs a driver side door. I have spare doors. It's missing a carb, but I have a spare carb too. Then I started to look at the availability of sill repair panels and am finding a lot of stuff is available. I used to work as an aircraft mechanic that specialized in structural repair and this car is calling out to me to fix it. Maybe I will.

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq59 ... AG1375.jpg

[htchevyii]

They are few and far in between, hopefully you can save it.

[FiatBen]

Go for it! Looks better in the pic than my daily driver '69. Would love more detailed pictures of its features.

[narfire]

A couple of fist-pumps from BC...go for it. There is a 68 or was not too far from me,however he was asking in the $5000.00 range and it needed the shock towers re/re and the inside of the fenders had some serious rust.
If you have the parts, you are going to have an easier time of it. How is the or is there any rust on the structural parts?
Good buy.

[fiathead]

Right now, I'm thinking restoration, but it will not be easy with this car. I've scrapped two Spiders that were far better than this one structurally. The drivers side sill structure is completely shot through all three webs. On a Spider, that is a major structural area and will present a huge rebuild issue. On the bright side, if I can successfully rebuild the sills, the rotten shock towers will seem like child's play by comparison. There is going t be some considerable sheet metal fabrication on this car. It may need a lot of work just to make it strong enough to put on a rotisserie.

I'll keep posting photos as I go. I was just exploring the sills and really hate what I'm seeing. The exterior sill cover panels are new and just need the correct trim sourced. The outer structural sill is mostly gone, but I think I can source replacement sheet metal for that. The center sill is half gone and I'm not worried about that too much since it's a fairly easy to fabricate section. The innermost web has a couple of holes through it and will need some serious support. The floorboards are mostly rotten and the seat rails are hanging in there by threads. Once I start disassembly, I'm going to need to fabricate a cradle to mount the chassis on while taking stress off of the sills while they get rebuilt.

I was wanting to bring a car back from the brink of destruction and this really is going to test that goal. I was considering having this car dipped to strip off all old coatings, but I think they provide half the strength of the chassis and I don't dare remove them.

[fiathead]

Here's a shot of the drivers side sill on the Spider. The rust extends through all three webs and exposes the wiring on the interior. There are three webs in this photo. The outside web is 90% compromised. The middle web about 60% and the inner about 20%. I love a challenge.

[narfire]

Hmmm...yes some serious issues, looked decent on the trailer. My opinion only... take a breath and see if any other cars are out there,same vintage. perhaps not rush into this one tomorrow sort of thing but have a look around as to what else might be out there in this era car. Idea being making one out of two sort of thing...
For what it is worth, I had/have a 72 that once I started into it, I ended up cutting the whole front end off and splicing another on, way more that what I wanted to do but I was into it for $$ so why not get it finished. Had someone fabricate the sills as well, turned out fine in the end.
Be cool to have a documented 68 though..

[fiathead]

That's good advice. Right now, I'm planning on spending the next couple of months just in inspection and documenting what is there and what needs done before putting any additional money into repair parts. There are a couple of better restoration candidates around, but one of the reasons I chose this car was, in part, I wanted a challenge, and second, I wanted something that would be worth the effort needed. I was looking for a car that had one foot in the grave. I think the one I found, had both feet in the grave and a couple of feet of dirt dumped in already.

Still though, I think it's a car that can be saved and is a car worth saving. Once I start drilling out spot welds, if the thing folds in two, I might rethink that. When I do get to the point of disassembly, I plan on shoring the chassis to relieve stress on the sills and adding batons to the cockpit to keep the structure from shifting. Then I'll start repairing one sill at a time and if at any point, it goes horribly badly, I'm still only out the time spent. Right now, I'm still optimistic, but that does fade a little bit each time I push a screwdriver through what looked to be solid metal.

[vandor]

Actually I've seen worse Spiders restored

>The drivers side sill structure is completely shot through all three webs

After my '70 was wrecked I cut it up and saved the floors, which also include the complete rocker area. Let me know if you are interested, I can send you pics.

[seabeelt]

I'm currently cutting up the 78, I might be able to salvage some of the inner sill if your interested

Great project and challenge

[KeithVZ]

Tim, I'm in the midst of restoring a 68 Spider as well. Chassis no. AS0006106. This has been a looooong term project but I have every intention to Git-r-done. I just thought that you and I could provide "encouragement" to each other one way or another in our efforts. I continuously look for and accumulate spare parts for these cars. I have most of what I need to complete the body work and have fabricated the middle layer of the rocker "assembly". I also have made templates of the patch panels needed to cap off the front and rear ends of the rocker assembly.

I'm happy to share some pictures and information with you if it will help in getting one of these early cars back on the road safely.

Keith

[vandor]

Hi,

>I'm in the midst of restoring a 68 Spider as well. Chassis no. AS0006106.

Does it have a tag in the doorjamb with the production date? Most 68s I've seen do not.
I have an XL sheet with the VINs I've found/seen, and would be interested to know any info on the doorjamb or firewall data plate.
Thanks,

[manoa matt]

Is that the 68 that is posted on the Cincinnati craigslist for $1000? I was going to have my dad drive over and look at it for me.

[fiathead]

Is that the 68 that is posted on the Cincinnati craigslist for $1000? I was going to have my dad drive over and look at it for me.

This is that Spider.

[fiathead]

Lots of encouraging posts here. It's good to hear that worse cars have been saved. A lot of folks that see the photos are advising finding a better car to restore, but I think this one is worth saving. Besides, for me, I am looking for more of a challenging project than I am for a fast restoration. Long dormant metal fabrication skills need dusted off, and this is the project that will do that.