"The Red Sled"



     1970 Ford Torino 4-door hardtop

1970 Ford Torino Brougham 4-door hardtop (body style 57E)
351-2V  (Cleveland) Code H
C4 Auto Transmission
3.00:1  9" rear end, open diff
Other than some upgrades, the drivetrain is mostly original.

Click here to see the list of drivetrain upgrades

Want to see a "then & now" picture?
Here's what it sounds like today 

Want to sell me some Torino parts?  Click here 

This car was purchased from its original owner in 1978. After a long and tough life as a high school and college car for two of us, and then a daily driver, in 1996 it came to be in my possession again. How it got to North Carolina is another story.

Too Ugly to Drive?

A friend of mine told me about how he painted his Corvette, so I decided to give it a try. I mean, how hard could it be, right?  After a lot of work, the result, while definitely not a show car, is not too bad for an amateur like me.  I was not interested in getting to a 100 point restoration, so you purists out there can have fun picking out all of the add-ons that are not factory original. I just wanted something that looks halfway decent and is fun to drive.   Some pictures of the progress of this car are below. You can click on the pictures to get a bigger version.
 
 

  Original Condition - photo taken about 1980. Still has original wheel covers (wish I knew where they are now)

 

1996 - In North Carolina - lower body paint has faded significantly.  White paint on top still pretty good.

Paint stripped from lower body. Practicing my painting techniques on door jambs, and the inside of the hood & trunk lid. I scuffed the white on the top with some 600 grit paper.

Just about ready for some primer.  Overall the body was in pretty fair shape, with very little rust...only a few minor spots which I cut out and patched.  However, after stripping off the paint, I could see some evidence of a previously unknown "hit" on the passenger-side front door...from original owner, I guess.
Stupidly, I don't have any pictures of the car in it's "gray primer" suit. However, it's there.  Even though it's not as durable as enamel or basecoat/clearcoat, I chose PPG acrylic lacquer for the topcoat... on the premise that it's easier for someone who doesn't really know what he's doing to spray it and get a reasonably good finish.  Since the car is garaged all of the time, it should last a while.

Topcoats are done.  (Upper body/top had been previously done and masked off).  I ended up with 6 coats of lacquer.

View from the other side.  If you look closely at the lower right corner you can see the paint in the grass.
Buffed, waxed, rechromed bumpers & trim.  What you don't see is the hours of wet sanding and buffing...a disadvantage of lacquer paint. Also at this point, all of the door rubber (weatherstrips, window beltlines, etc.). has been replaced. 
Interior has been stripped.  I installed some heat shield padding after cleaning the floor pan and painting over some some surface rust spots with POR-15 ( that's great stuff, isn't it?). 
The interior color scheme was changed to a gray theme... much easier to mix & match colors.  Original was a faded gold.  Kick panels and other plastic trim have been dyed a darker shade of gray.  Here I have installed a new molded carpet.
New gray headliner.  I also installed this myself from a pre-sewn kit.   It really was not difficult...by going slow and making damn sure you measured right before you cut anything, you have a better chance of success.  This was my first try, and it came out with almost no wrinkles...the few that were left, I flattened with water mist and a hair dryer.
Next, the seats.  This is the front seat frame stripped.  The foam was pretty squishy but, surprisingly, there were no broken springs.  Living in the furniture capital of the world (High Point, NC) it's pretty easy to get upholstery supplies such as foam, cotton batting, etc. from local distributors.   The back seat was similar but in a little better shape.
New seat covers ready to go on.  Again, using pre-sewn kits really makes it pretty easy.  On the front (shown above) the foam was a molded piece, not just a flat slab.  I chose to reuse it, but bolstered it with a flat slab on top to stiffen up the old piece. 
There we go...not too bad for someone who doesn't know what he's doing, huh?

Installed & ready to go.  If you've ever removed and replaced a bench seat from a car, you know what a pain it is.  Especially if you're doing it by yourself!

Here's a picture of one of the original door panels.  The bottom part was mousy brown carpet.  The top part (shown here folded back) was attached to a metal insert that forms the top contour of the door panel.  The metal insert has been removed from the flat fiberboard portion of the panel (and reattached to a new piece of 1/8" masonite).

Just an interesting fact:  door panels were dated October 6, 1969.

My intent was not to create a real fancy set of door panels, just something quick & easy, and halfway decent looking.  I picked up, from a local fabric distributor, 4 yards of grey Naugahyde vinyl with a non-woven backing (right) and a few yards of very thin (1/8") foam (left).  The foam is the same type that is used in making quilts, &  such. Total cost, about $25.

After gluing the foam onto the masonite and metal top piece, I covered the whole panel with the vinyl.  You can't see it in this picture, but I also riveted new window beltline weatherstrip on the panel (the other side of the beltline was previously fastened to the door).

Rear door.  The most expensive part of this phase of the work was the new reproduction armrests ($30 each).  The window cranks and lock buttons were picked up at the local Auto Zone.  The door handles were in pretty good shape, just needed a little metal polish.

A new set of pedal pads, and a coat of paint on the brake & accelerator pedal arms.  Of course, getting the brake pedal & arm out of the car was not quite as easy as I thought it would be..lots of bad words and working upside down.  I took out the parking brake mechanism and cleaned & painted it also.

I recently bought and installed some new speakers for the front and rear.  After debating on whether to cut the dashboard to install a decent ISO-DIN chassis head unit, I ended up getting a Kenwood KRC-2007 shaft-style cassette deck for $100.  It plays pretty well.

What else?  There's always something.
So, after some work, it's in pretty good shape.  Still running pretty good... the next challenge will be to tear into the engine.
 

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