O.K. here we go, the much awaited report on the inspection of the Cdn Sprint.
First of I'd like to say the owner of the shop is a great guy and spent most of the day talking with me about the car, how I would like it done. His techniques and methods and why he does what he does. We also discussed materials, suppliers for parts etc. He has a Cdn source for body panels which are of a superior quaility than all the rest of the available foreign made panels (Politically Correct term).
Props to John Nizman from Last Chance Autorestore.com for taking the time to discuss everything with me.
http://www.lastchanceautorestore.com/
Now on to the car itself. It is extremely rough. Every single body panel needs rust repair. Front valance,hood,fenders,inner fender skirts,shock towers,front frame rails,floorpans,torque boxes,doors,rocker panels,rear frame rails,inner wheel wells, quarter panels, trunk pan, trunk extensions, rear panel,rear valance and trunk lid all have severe rust issues. By far the worst is the floorpans, trunk pans and rear quarters but everything else will need work to solve the rot associated from Canadian salt used on our winter roads. It goes without saying that the car needs paint but I said it anyway.
Next the interior is shot. The headliner is torn up and hanging down in several spots. Both front seats are torn and very badly stained. The back seat is not torn but badly stained and faded. The carpet is almost non existant. Both door panels are damaged and stained. The dash pad is very badly cracked in several places. The dash itself is not too bad, the speedo and warning light pods look fair but will need to be cleaned up. all of the control bezels are cracked. The turn signal arm is rusted.
There is an incorrect console installed when the 3 speed to auto conversion was done. It has one crack in it on the lower edge driver's side. I have to do some research into what the correct console or shifter cover was in the car originally as I will be changing it back to the 3 speed.
Mechanically everything needs redoing. One look at the motor tells me it needs to come out and be rebuilt. The C6 trans will be ousted for the correct 3 speed and so will the 9" axle that was swapped in too. I will be looking for the correct axle for the car. Brakes, suspension, steering, fuel delivery system and all electrical all need to be redone.
Basically every inch of the car needs a lot of work to get it on the road again. I wouldn't even consider this car at all lest for the fact that it is a Cdn Sprint. According to our friend Marti, Fomoco only made 495 of these cars and currently there are on 6 listed on the registry.
http://www.lovingcreek.com/sprint/CD/Index.htm
This car is 1 of 4 coupes listed in Canada, 1 of 3 with the 302 V8 1 of 2 in Ontario. The Marti report lists this car as 1 of 5 with the 302 V8 and 3 speed manual trans.So if it's back to the 3 speed trans it will be 1 of 1 known to exist. Yeah I know it's not a 429 Super CJ or a rare Mach 1, Cobra or Shelby etc., it's stiil a neat claim to fame.
Anyway to sum it up I'm still on the fence as to whether I should pull the trigger on it. the deal on the car is that in order to purchase it, you as the buyer must agree to hire John to restore it. His estimate on cost of the job and timeframe to completion date would work for me.Opinions requested please! I have too many projects on the go here myself to consider another rotisserie restoration at this point. I'm on the look out for a 73 vert to feed my addiction for these cars in the mean time. I have a specific color/interior color and option level in mind for the vert so it might take some time to find the right car. maybe I need to find a nice driver quality 71 mach 1 to complete the set of 71-73 stangs.
If anyone is interested I can post some pictures of the car, John's shop and his work. I took 106 pictures yesterday to document the car in it's current condition. Let me know if you want to see and I'll post some of them here.
