Restoration '70 Cuda

Restoration began yesterday. Worked 7 hours. Found out I'm not as strong (young) as I use to be. Removed hood, exhaust system, radiator, fan, battery tray and altn. Tomorrow sched to remove the tranny and driveshaft. The second photo is the exhaust pipe that replaced the original exhaust 37 years ago. It is 2", 1/8" thick and very heavy. Wish I knew the type of steel it is. Still in very good shape. I used stainless steel nuts and bolts on the collector and they were still very good shape and easy to remove after 37 years. Also used brass nuts to secure the headers and they came right off.

Yesterday I removed the fuel tank and found it still had about 2 gal of what use to be gas. Then came the removal of the drive shaft, shifter, shift rods, clutch linkage (Z bar) and tranny bolts. As I lay on my back contemplating pulling the tranny out and dropping it on my chest, I came to the realization maybe that's not such a good idea. 40 years ago I could bench 220lbs. Back then taking out or inserting a tranny was no problem for me. With age comes wisdom. I'll wait until my friends come to pull the engine.

Walter Phillips said:

Yesterday I removed the fuel tank and found it still had about 2 gal of what use to be gas. Then came the removal of the drive shaft, shifter, shift rods, clutch linkage (Z bar) and tranny bolts. As I lay on my back contemplating pulling the tranny out and dropping it on my chest, I came to the realization maybe that's not such a good idea. 40 years ago I could bench 220lbs. Back then taking out or inserting a tranny was no problem for me. With age comes wisdom. I'll wait until my friends come to pull the engine.

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I can relate on not being as strong (young) as we used to be but like you said, with age comes wisdom! Thanks for posting the pics.

Yesterday I removed the dash pad, glove box and door, instrument panel (found that the guy who during the last restoration reconnected and routed the wiring harness behind the dash - left it FUBAR, big headache ahead), crank pulley (very stuck), power steering pump, starter, both interior door light switches (need to replace the one that crumbled), intake bolts, front windshield trim (one bolt had to be drilled out), rear window trim. I'll wait until the day my friends come to help pull the engine and tranny to remove the windows which is scheduled for next Wed "cool" early morning.

Yesterday we removed the engine and tranny. I removed all the bolts from the tranny, scatter shield, and engine mounts before pulling everything to make it easier to handle. As it goes there is always one hidden bolt that causes angst. This time it was found between the engine and scatter shield. Other than that all went well except my friends had other commitments and we did not have time to remove the front and rear glass. That will be another day. Up next will be the removal and tagging of all wiring.