So you read the first two articles and are chomping at the bit to get started, well then lets go! Ok there are a few ways you can go about this, but for the sake of the normal guy attempting this for the first time we will assume there are no "specialty" tools like a rotisserie or any other big equipment. Here are a few things you want to have handy: A digital camera (any camera will work but now-a-days a digital camera makes things easier).

You will want to have a good supply of zip lock sandwich bags and large 1 gallon zip lock bags, get about 1 thousand sharpies (permanent markers) because if you are like me you will loose 999 of them! Also get a bunch price tags with string or wire on them (Staples or office depot has them). Now that you have all the things you will need for documentation and labeling of parts lets get to work. Get the camera out and take about a billion pictures, you are going to want pictures of any damage, also the frame and underside of the car, the interior the motor and any thing else you can think of.

Make sure you get pictures of all the gaps, door gaps, hood gaps, and trunk gaps. The camera is going to be your best friend through out the entire restoration. There are going to be lots of things you are not going to remember so take lots of pictures as you disassemble, not to mention that all the pictures you take will make a nice picture album for the shows. Get yourself some plastic pry tools for taking the chrome trim off. Be careful when prying the trim up because you don’t want to bend it all up. Once you have the trim off you can move onto the interior, remove the door panels, seats, carpet, headliner, kick panels, and any other panels or parts on the inside. Most interior panels are held in by clips so take out any screws and then, with a plastic prying tool pop the panels off. Once the interior is out you can remove the glass but be careful if you are planning on re-using the windows.

Make sure you cut through the gasket completely so the window will come out easy. Pull the dash out and all the instrument gauges. You can test most of the gauges on the bench once they are out. The fuel gauge is just a gauge that reads resistance so if you have a sending unit you can wire it to the gauge and move the floater up and down to see if the gauge moves. When replacing the sending unit make sure the resistance is in the range that your gauge is set up to read. Volts or Amps gauges you can test with an external power supply that you can pick up at radio shack.

Temperature gauges can be tested by putting the sensor in a pot of boiling water. These tests will ensure the gauge works but will not tell you if they are accurate. Now it is time to remove the motor and transmission. Disconnect all wires, sensors and linkage and label every thing. Drain all fluids. Now you can get ready to hook up the engine hoist. You can take the carb off and use a lifting plate (available at summit or jegs) or you can use a few grade 8 bolts one in the front of one head and one in the back of the other head. Take up the slack in the chain. Unbolt motor and transmission mounts and again make sure all wires and coolant lines are disconnected. The radiator and anything else in the front of the motor should be removed. Pull the motor and transmission out of the car. At this time remove the drive shaft. Leave the front suspension and the rear suspension in tact so you can move the car around. Now you can remove the doors, hood, and deck (trunk) lid.

Now you should have a shell of a car and a ton of parts that are all labeled and photographed. As you take parts off the car decide weather you will reuse them or replace them, if you are going to replace them do not get rid of the original part until the new part is in place. The reason for this is that after market parts are not always a perfect fit so at least you will have something to compare it to.

If you are going to reuse the parts it is best to clean them up, blast them, paint them or whatever else they need as you disassemble them. This is also a good time to take the motor apart or take it to be rebuilt and same with the transmission.

Next time we will look into different ways of stripping the car and what you should do about repairing the metal that is rotten. Now get to work tearing that rusted monster apart and remember you can not take too many pictures or make too many drawings of how things go together.

I like to keep a "diary or log" of what I take apart and how it came apart, this way I can reverse the process to put it back together. So good luck and above all…..have fun.