Steph,
First, buy an extra fridge and put it in your garage. Fill
it with beer. Now, where's that crow bar?
No, really, I (and many others) would recommend taking a ton
'o pictures. Buy several rolls of film and shoot everything before
and during the strip down. Maybe even video cam the car at various
stages. Have a camera out in the shop to snap quickie shots of
disassembled components.
Steam clean or power wash as much as you can reach before you
disassemble anything. You'll be glad you did this when it comes time
to disassemble.
Get ahold of all of the exploded diagrams of the car you can.
You'll need these for the reassembly--the Factory service manual (or
whatever its called) and the big 3 catalogs are the best for my
TR3--don't know about the TR6.
Stock up on zip lock bags and nice, bold, permanent felt tip
markers. LABEL EVERYTHING, be as organized as possible. You'll be
glad you did this when it comes time to reassemble. In this same
vein, find space to store all of your (labelled) boxes of parts. Get
some good heavy-duty shelving units to hold parts.
Buy tools, lots of tools. An air compressor is a must. How
about a sand blasting cabinet? A parts washing stand (<--really nice
to have, see if you can rent one at least for the disassembly stage).
Now, go buy more tools.
Decide how much you want to restore. Are you going to
rebuild or simply clean up and reinstall the carbs, head, block,
starter, alternator, fuel pump, drive shaft, tranny, overdrive, all
instruments, gas tank sending unit, horns, wiring harness, brake
master cylinder, clutch master cylinder, clutch slave cylinder, brake
wheel cylinders, brake pads and shoes, clutch, clutch throwout
bearing, steering (ball joints and tie rod ends), front suspension
(springs and wish bone bushings), rear springs, upholstery, all
rubber grommets and seals, etc, etc, etc.
If you do rebuild the engine how far are you going to go?
Balance the crank and pistons? Lighten the crank and fly wheel?
Hotter cam? Port the manifolds? Match the combustion chambers?
Increase the compression? Performance exhaust manifold and pipes?
Use hardened valve seats? Put in bigger valves? Etc, etc, etc.
Are you going to upgrade your wheels or tires to higher
performance items? What about shocks and front and rear anti-sway
bars?
Who's going to do your body work and paint job? If it's you,
then buy the proper tools. Unless you are really good at this, find
someone who is and learn on THEIR car first. Body work is very easy
to do poorly and very hard to do well. Maybe find a shop that is
willing to work with you and provide advice along the way.
And remember, the job will take at least twice as much money
and 10 times longer than you can even imagine. But it's a blast.
Bob
Carpe cervasium
|