Bringing a '74 back up to her intended glory.

[Bmachine]

Progress! Since I knew that most of the parts were new, assuming there was no issue with them and that the condenser fan was coming on as soon as the AC compressor was activated, I started wondering if it could something very simple like... the fan spinning in the wrong direction. It is very hard to tell by yourself so during lunchtime I had a coworker help me by turning the AC on and off while I watched through the front grille. And sure enough, the condenser fan is pulling air out towards the front of the car, thereby going against the engine fan which is pulling towards the engine! Doh!

So either I ordered the wrong fan or I was sent the wrong fan. I guess the quick (albeit temporary) fix will be to reverse the wires to make it spin the other way...

 

[HB Chris]

Yep

 

[Bmachine]

Good news. I was really not looking forward to replacing this condenser fan with another one since that would involve draining the coolant, removing the radiator and all that. But going back to my original order for this, I noticed that this was officially a "reversible" fan. So just switching the wires should take care of the problem. Or, at the very least, get both fans in sync...

Next job will be to figure out how to use the sensor/bung at the bottom of the radiator (yes, it is there... but not connected to anything at this point) to trigger the AC fan when the rad gets too hot even with the AC off.

 

[HB Chris]

Your 74 had a control box near the coil to control that temp sender, we have a wiring diagram to use for earlier coupes, we just add a diode.

 

[Stevehose]

See if it still overheats with the fan now going in the correct direction. In 95 degree heat and humidity here, idling with or without a/c does not cause much more than a blip in temp so I've never needed to wire one of these up. I have an aluminum radiator and the 9 blade fan upgrade. Stock condenser fan.

 

[Bmachine]

After only a few days of warm temperatures earlier this month, it has come back down quite a bit in the last few weeks. Therefore I have not had a chance to test the AC in hot temperatures yet. Fingers crossed.

 

[Bmachine]

I decided to get a few bodywork issues taken care of. First I needed a better way to insert and tighten the early bumper side bolts to the car. Since the 74s have a frame reinforcement as well as an added spare tire jack bracket right along the left rear fender, it makes access to that bolt on the left side nearly impossible. After testing various options I decided the best was to drill a 1 inch hole through the frame rail so that a 13 mm socket with the bolt taped at the end of it can be inserted through it. Here is a picture of the inside of the frame rail seen through the opening left after removing the shock absorbers from the 74 bumpers.

 

[Bmachine]

The only rust we had found on this car was a small hole above the left side quarter panel right behind the drivers door. This is the usual area where the drain from the C pillar emblem empties. So I bought a couple of new W&N panels and we decided to open things up to see if there was any deeper damage. Fortunately, apart from this hole on the outside panel, there was only minor surface rust. So we cleaned everything up and sprayed the entire inside of the rocker panel with Eastwood frame rail protection. Then welded the new panels.

 

[Bmachine]

To keep this problem from happening again, and instead of letting that hose drain inside the rocker panel, I installed a 90° elbow fitting that drains outside in the wheel well.

 

[Bmachine]

While we are at the body shop, let’s fill in all the holes left by the US reflectors, the old antenna and the trunk emblem which I am removing since this is no longer a 3.0 liter carbureted car.

 

[Bmachine]

One of the previous owners of this car had apparently backed into a truck (or something like that) at some point and the tail panel had been poorly repaired. Time to remove that. Clean metal will replace it soon.

 

[Bmachine]

My odometer stopped working a long time ago. So it was time to take it out to get repaired. As described in several threads, including the recent one from William Tell, getting access to the back of the instrument panel is pretty challenging. But reading those threads sheds a lot of light on the art of doing it as efficiently as possible. One key trick is to loosen the two knurled knobs that hold the wooden face so it can be pulled forward allowing the speedometer to be rotated and removed.

While there I replaced all bulbs with 4w ones.

 

[eriknetherlands]

Interesting to see your back end exposed, I mean... that the US reinforced version has the two extensions from the wheel well towards the rear ,but also the center beam is different compared to my euro 73 cs.

In your car I see a square box section extending into the tail panel, it is opened up , showing an approx 8x8 cm , 2 inch by 2 inch square.

In my car it is just a simple vertical plate with a flange that is the support for the wooden floor boards.

Also interesting to see your work as I am considering to do thesame. My corners are bad, but the part above the bumper is too nice to sacrifice. What I noticed in your pics is the rust in the floor-to-rear-panel seam where the bumper reinforcements are. Lo and behold, mine have holes there as well....

Could you show a detail how the bumper reinforcements are welded into the tail panel? Spotwelds only?

 

[aearch]

SOME FANS UNBOLT AND U TURN IT AROUND INSTEAD OF WIRING

 

[Bmachine]

Could you show a detail how the bumper reinforcements are welded into the tail panel? Spotwelds only?

Gooie morgen, Erik. I am not near the car right now but here are two other pics I took which may shed some light on what you are looking for. It is interesting to see that there is surface rust on the inside of the two larger 3x6 inch plates that attach the panel to the rear of the car. Clearly there was very poor rust protection there.

 

[eriknetherlands]

The pics are helpful indeed. I see you drilled out spots welds, so knowing that will help me if I decide to pull it (I'm still doubting)
What you're doing is a lot of work; it takes guts to tackle it!

 

[Bmachine]

Just to be clear, for this part of the resto, the actual work is done by my friend Pedro, a very talented body man. Definitely beyond my skill set. I'm just "directing", "assisting" and keeping the fridge full of cervezas.

To be honest, I was really hesitant about replacing this tail panel. I’m only building a driver’s car here, not a museum piece. But the repaint back to the original fjord will cost a lot of money and I would have felt really bad doing it on a panel full of bondo.

 

[autokunst]

My tail panel looks similar to yours. I, too, plan to have the guts (as @eriknetherlands noted) or perhaps blind ignorance to replace. Already have the new sheet metal panel awaiting fitment - one day long in the future. Your pics are very helpful - thank you for posting!

 

[Bmachine]

It may seem daunting at first because it is a large piece but, to be honest, it is not that difficult for an experienced body person. There are two vertical seam lines on each side to cut and then a bunch of spot welds to remove. It’s a large piece but it is easier than having to rebuild rotten window channels from scratch. Look at what @JetDexter and many others are doing. Now THAT is impressive!
This being said, for full disclosure, we haven’t installed the replacement piece yet. So I may have to eat my words. But so far so good.

 

[Bmachine]

Here at last are some before and after pics of the replacement of the tail panel. What we ended up doing is use the upper half of a straight panel from a parted out car with a brand new lower half from W&N.