After moving the Elco to its new spot within the fenced in section of yard and looking at it for so long I decided it was time to start getting the car ready for me to start doing some work on it. Like many of the projects around here, I can actually do a lot of work with the parts I have available, until I reach a point where I need to buy new stuff. Maybe by adopting this concept I can actually get farther ahead on all of the different projects, not just the cars. But first things first, I had to clean things off and more or less inventory the larger parts that I would be working with in getting the body put together. We managed to get a replacement rear bumper, one of the hardest parts to find for this year Elco, since it has the integrated taillights. We also got a replacement transmission crossmember, another hard part to find. Along with the front bumper that we already had and the tailgate, I could get most of the body put back together, leaving the interior parts that are scattered about the cab of the car. Another thing that had to be done was cleaning out the bed of the car. I had all the large body parts in the bed along with some other crap, one of which was a winch I got for our car trailer but never installed it yet. Also there was a bunch of mulch from the pine trees that dropped pine needles into the bed over the years that had accumulated and had to be cleaned out. After pulling the body parts out I removed the winch and the couple of garbage items then swept out the pine mulch to get the bed nice and clean. To a degree this wasn't really necessary but it has that effect of accomplishment that one gets when they take time to clean something up prior to working on it. The next thing I wanted to do was look at the engine and verify that the thing still turns over and hadn't frozen up somehow over the years. The hood isn't mounted on hinges, its just laying on the top so all I had to do was lift it up, but I had to prop the thing with a 2x4. After opening it I found a huge amount of rat shit in and around the intake manifold. Luckily the intake wasn't bolted down so I was able to remove the thing to get the larger amount from out of the inside of the intake. Before removing it I did take time to vacuum the external shit from around the intake so nothing would fall into the intake valley. After getting the external shit out I pulled the intake and shook it out real good to make sure all shit was gone before putting the intake back on the engine. I then took the crank pulley and attempted to turn the engine over by hand, being successful, making me happy that the engine was still good since I did see this engine run before I bought it. With that I managed to get things where I wanted them to be. The next move will be to start installing the rear bumper and tailgate on since those would be the easiest, all things considered. The front bumper won't get put on until I get the headlight frames secured to the front fenders since those parts are loosely in place. Once that's done I can get the front bumper on, along with the grille and the headlight bucket trim and other associated moldings that I spotted in the cab. Putting all that stuff on will go a long ways as well as it would clear the cab of loose parts. Once the cab's clear then I can really start moving forward doing things like rewiring the car. I will also have to prop the car up so I can remove the homemade crossmember in order to install the factory crossmember. I will have to get some replacement bolts in order to put the right ones in place as I just threw whatever bolts in that I had laying around. I want to have the right bolts in there from the start so I don't have to worry about taking care of that little detail later on. At the same time I can cut out the old exhaust system to get it out of the way. I can also survey whatever other things under there that might need to come out such as the fuel and brake lines or wiring or if I need to do any welding underneath. Just like with the Dodge, little by little I'll get this car back together and hopefully up and running and on the road more sooner than later, even if it doesn't look pretty.
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