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Couple of questions about restoring a 73S Targa
I've taken stewardship of Warren Halls 73S Targa and am determined to make progress on the restoration in 2011. Warren had started converting "Annie" into a track car in the mid 80's. He managed to get the interior stripped out, strip some of the paint, cut out the rear quarters for turbo flairs and remove hundreds of misc parts and then became ill with CF and was unable to continue. The car sat pretty much untouched in his garage in dry west Texas from ~1986 until I picked her up a bit over a year ago. I was able to have the rear quarters repaired by a master metal guy here in Dallas and then my travel/work schedule became such that I've not touched her for months. Work has slowed somewhat and it's time to get busy.
Good news - the chassis is rust free! Alberto (metal guy) told me it was one of the most solid early cars he'd worked on. Floors, tank support, fr fender flanges, rockers, longs, rear window mount flange. metal at bottom of targa bar, and rear seat pans/deck are all solid. Doors are really the only trouble spot.
Both doors have some rust at the bottoms at the seam. One door has a prodigious amount of plastic filler - more than I want to deal with trying to strip and work the metal out. I believe I read that 73 is the first year with beams. Is it important to replace with a set of doors from a 73 or is it acceptable to use any 73 - 89 door? I ask this because I want to keep her period correct.
Did all 73S cars come with the S front bumper or was that an option? The bumper was awol when I gathered the parts.
Thanks for your help. Many more questions to come!
First pic is the barn find shot. Second is in Alberto's shop getting quarters reattached.