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71TorinoRagtop
New Member Joined: 26-May-2020 Location: Atco, NJ Status: Offline Points: 5 |
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Posted: 26-May-2020 at 9:43AM |
Hi, longtime Torino owner here. It was given to me by my father when I got my drivers license in 1988 but had been sitting for many years before I got the keys. It was in pretty rough shape but I put it back on the road and kept it there for a few years, putting many miles on it driving all over South Jersey, before I took it off of the road.
I was five years old when my dad bought it off of a used car lot in 1976. He actually let me choose between this car and another convertible next to it. My future 1971 Torino GT convertible was resale red with a black interior and top. The original color is light/ medium green metallic. 302 2V, column shift auto with a bench seat, ps, pdb and no air. I took it off of the road to begin a restoration in 1991. Bought a 1970 Mustang fastback to drive because the Torino was just simply worn out and needed lots of work including repairing lots of rust. Had tried restoring and driving the Torino at the same time but that’s just not a good idea. Learned that even as I previously painted it grabber blue in body shop school while driving it back and forth to school every day. The car was barely underway when I lost the cheap garage that I was renting to restore it in. It was on a home made jig that I made to hold it while I cut out the passenger side inner rocker panel. Was barely able to shore it back up before it began its 25+ year journey from storage to storage location. It’s currently in my home garage under a mountain of parts and other stuff. Present day has me deciding to change my wicked ways of having too much stuff and not enough room to work on any of it. Going to sell off or part out my Mustang, thin down and focus on restoring my Torino. Starting and having a family definitely made it easy to let the cars sit. Whether either of my sons is interested in helping is up to them, I won’t pressure but I hope that somebody joins me out in the garage. My plans for the car is to restore it mostly original but with a few convenience upgrades like air and power windows. A manual transmission conversion is also in the plan. Already have the pedal rack, transmission and other assorted stuff for that. Unfortunately, over the years I lost my original convertible top frame, also the very nice top frame that I had located in a junk yard 30 years ago, the original bench seat and a bunch of other small parts. By this upcoming winter I hope to have located a top frame and be underway with the metal work. Have been just longing to enjoy this car again. Hope this wasn’t too long winded.
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72FordGTS
Admin Group GTS.org Admin Joined: 06-September-2005 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 5802 |
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Your introduction was not too long at all. It was a great read and what a cool car to own. Not only are these Torino convertibles rare, but having the long history with it makes it a family heirloom.
We'd love to follow the restoration project, so feel free to start a project thread. I upgraded you to a full member so you have full forum privileges and can upload photos.
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Vince
1972 Ford GTS Sportsroof - Survivor, One Family car GTS.org Admin |
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californiajohnny
Moderator Group Joined: 05-October-2013 Location: winlock, wa Status: Offline Points: 14606 |
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nope not too long at all, welcome! yes any pics you got would be cool start a project thread...
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JOHN
74 GRAN TORINO S&H CLONE 74 VETTE CUSTOM 90 S10 BLAZER 4X4 LIFTED 77 CELICA CUSTOM 75 V8 MONZA SUPERCHARGED 79 COURIER VERT. SLAMMED 75 VEGA V6 5 SPD 70 CHEV C10 P/U 68 MUSTANG FB CONVERSION |
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71TorinoRagtop
New Member Joined: 26-May-2020 Location: Atco, NJ Status: Offline Points: 5 |
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I’ll start a thread on the project soon, before I get started. It’s going to take a month at least just to clean out and organize the garage. Started on the cleanout yesterday. Lots of spiders. Lots of junk that i’ll never use.
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1971 Torino GT ragtop
1970 Mustang fastback |
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handsofstone
Senior Member Joined: 13-April-2018 Location: Northeast Status: Offline Points: 3941 |
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Sounds like a sweet project. Looking forward to following your progress.
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