'74 Colt Galant sedan restomod

[BradD]

So I found this car over on the Classic Colt forums and it was offered up for scrap prices or it was to be crushed. I thought that despite its appearance in the photos if it truly had the less than 11k miles claimed and was really stuffed in a garage for years, there was no way I could see it be crushed! So even though it was about 1500 miles away....I decided to buy it. Took a gamble, but so far. I am a happy man! Found a shipper willing to transport a non running car (no small feat that!), sent them some money, crossed my fingers and waited.

From day one when the car arrived, about one week ago.


On the truck out front...

20140920_074749 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Dirty as can be...but Solid!

20140920_074910 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140920_074639 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Down on the ground, lower quarters, rockers....all mint.

20140920_080447 by braddesantis, on Flickr

The interior needs help, but a set of carpets and seat covers will do wonders.

20140920_080501 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Nice solid strut towers, thats just mud and muck, no rust...

20140920_080542 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140920_080536 by braddesantis, on Flickr

No rust on the bottom of the hood....

20140920_080715 by braddesantis, on Flickr

and a quick Colt family shot....

IMG_20140920_080810 by braddesantis, on Flickr

[BradD]

After a long weekend at a friends wedding, Monday night came and I finally got to dig into it.

Started with the drivers side...

20140923_064825 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Then the next night onto the top surfaces. Not quite as easy as the sides and there are a few spots where the combination of sun and tree crap have eaten away the paint down to the grey primer. Tons more cleaning to do. I think I may have to pop the fenders and cowl panel off to clean the grime out of those areas so it wont rust in the future from the trapped moisture.

The chrome cleaned up nice though!
20140924_065428 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Roof surface, you can see through the paint here...
20140924_065454 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140924_065437 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Ran out of sunlight and only got this much done on the trunk and roof.

20140924_065504 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140924_065336 by braddesantis, on Flickr

[BradD]

Got some more done on the car this Saturday....

Interior before shots...

20140927_163110 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140927_163116 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140927_163133 by braddesantis, on Flickr

and after.... (seats and dash still need a good scrubbing!!)

20140927_181404 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140927_181354 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Pulled the rear seat...

20140927_181657 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Cleaned up all the years of mouse and rodent damage.

20140927_182401 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Worst rust on the floor....just scaly surface stuff will wire wheel and POR15 over this once I pull the whole interior out.

20140927_182409 by braddesantis, on Flickr

[BradD]

Finally finished cleaning up the outside this weekend as well.

Clearly at some point, something happened to this door, definitely a repaint!

20140928_104850 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140928_105241 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140928_105229 by braddesantis, on Flickr

This qaurter has damage on the inner jamb along the trunk lid. Actually cant get the trunk open. Not sure if the latch is broken or what yet. The key turns in the cylinder no problem and you can hear it working.

20140928_104836 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Def the worst ruest on the car...the dreaded battery tray. The second pic is just in front of the tray where the radiator support meets the frame rail.

20140927_181317 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140927_181324 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Last inspected....

20140928_105257 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20140928_105313 by braddesantis, on Flickr

[75wagon]

Nice find
Good on you for saving it.

Dave...

[BradD]

Finally got some time to clean up under the hood. .....holy crap, I am VERY happy so far. Still needs some scrubbing with a smaller brush in the crevices, but I will take this for now.


20141006_183948 by braddesantis, on Flickr



20141006_183954 by braddesantis, on Flickr

[BradD]

Spent about two hours with some Castrol Super Clean and an old tooth brush on the passengers side fenderwell and fire wall area. Tedious, but seems to be worth it!

Behind where the washer bottle goes..
20141012_165846 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Pulled the charcoal canister for more access around the firewall and back of the strut tower.
20141012_171238 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Cleaned the first 1/4 of the underside of the hood.
20141012_171229 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Basically any thing I can scrub without pulling the motor will be scrubbed. I can't believe how nice this car really is under all the crap. Once I have it scrubbed down I will move it into the new rental garage and go to town on the running part!

[75wagon]

That's awesome.
The more I see this car the more I love it

Dave...

[tandanus]

Very nice indeed
An inspiration
T.

[BradD]

ok, so kind of a good/bad weekend for the '74. Jacked it up to pull the wheels off and throw my other set on.. A. so I could see if they fit...and B.. because the tires on it were nothing short of magic in the fact that they still held air....

For example....
20141026_160512 by braddesantis, on Flickr

The wheels, the 13 inch Fortran Drag 1's I imported from Japan earlier this year for the '80 fit and look pretty good. Might need some more tire if I plan on driving very far, these are pretty small.

20141026_151236 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20141026_161433 by braddesantis, on Flickr

And now for the bad..... I still have not gotten the trunk open. Blame my laziness and lack of motivation I guess. But when I jacked up one of the corners to put the tires on....this happened.

20141026_154453 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Not too big a deal...but it does mean the trunk is full of water, probably due to the dent on the other quarter. But, it did lead me to give the car a little harder of a hit on the lower qtrs.... turns out, they are pretty thin and this happened when I put some pressure on it....

20141026_154514 by braddesantis, on Flickr

This is a little more of a problem. I guess I will be doing a bit more work to the car then anticipated. Armed with this knowledge of the lower quarters I went after the whole bottom of the car with a pick. Thankfully everything else is just as nice as originally thought!

Bonus pics of the wheel wells. Stupid clean....

20141026_145819 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20141026_150732 by braddesantis, on Flickr

[skap]

[BradD]

Finally got the trunk open. I will need a new latch if anyone has one available!.

My dreams of treasure in the stuck trunk were short lived, haha!

20141214_114002 by braddesantis, on Flickr

On a bad note..its all wet, on a good note it looks pretty solid overall.....

20141214_114036 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Vacuumed out all the water, mud and mouse droppings and I am left with a pretty solid floor pan.

20141214_115140 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Just a little surface rust to treat.

20141214_115336 by braddesantis, on Flickr

20141214_115159 by braddesantis, on Flickr

Brand new 1974 spare tire, never used, still had 30lbs of air in it!

20141214_115318 by braddesantis, on Flickr

And a jack still wrapped in plastic! (and some more of that surface rust...)

20141214_115213 by braddesantis, on Flickr

So, Just the main passengers compartment floor pan remains to be discovered, and the only rust damage that needs attention is the bottom of the left quarter. No complaints from me!

[BradD]

Admittedly I am not a carb expert. But...I decided early on I wanted this car on a nice set of dual side drafts. After some searching, and some dumb luck I came up with this....

20150112_111444 by braddesantis, on Flickr


Now that it is in my possesion, the questions begin.
1. the kit looks pretty complete to me, does anything stand out as missing?
2. what carbs should I be searching for?

So I have this, the quarter emblems, factory tach, mighty max 5speed and the replacement tail lamp, I am pretty much done buying parts. I just need to find a parts car so I can get the clutch cable fittings sorted.

All thats really left is minor body work, sorting the brakes and interior. If all goes according to plan, this should be on the road early this season, albeit possibly still auto/single carb.

[C_Fernance]

I'd really love to know what carbs/throttle bodies suit this manifold as well. I have one here thats almost identical, but it's been modified with a custom inlet plenum to suit Magna injection onto the Astron I head.

[75wagon]

I like this.
What am I looking at?
A brand or some kind of description on what it might be?
To suit Saturn motor yes?

[simon]

Hi, is it for a Saturn? Or is it for a astron non balance cam

[BradD]

I do not know much about it other than what I was told buy the guy I got it from. It came off of a 2.0 Astron 4G52/G52B so I am reasonably certain it will fit my car. The car it came from had a pair of webbers on it, but not sure of the size. Like I said, I do not know much about this, but the set came up for a decent deal and I jumped on it. Any advice is always appreciated.