cagedbunny
New member
- Joined
- May 24, 2021
Figure I'll go ahead and introduce a long-term project here. Stumbled into this '82 242 GLT while rummaging around a long-shuttered shop here in NC. Paid too much for it, but felt really excited to give it a new lease on life, after it had sat for 16 years in the same spot. The car had covered 360k miles, when it failed an emissions test and was subsequently parked. The owner refused to let the car go for years, while woods grew up around the poor thing..let alone the 50+ other cars on the property. Right place/right time with a bit of persistence got it shuffled to my driveway. Non-turbo, M46 car.
Got it home and pressure washed the hell out of it, then got to really survey the damage. Both buttcheeks are pretty wasted, driver's floorboard has the typical under-seat rot. Trunk floor; ruined. Rust bubbling along the lower seams of each quarter panel, small bumps on the doors, one rust hole on a fender, a bit in the passenger door sill, and the battery tray decimated. But with a new battery, the car ran on starting fluid (aka brake clean.)
For now, I have a '92 parts sedan to drag home which will donate.. a lot. Sheetmetal, interior trim, likely the engine. This will be my first time welding sheetmetal, and I'll get plenty of practice it seems. End goal is TBD. If I can find a replacement 242T for one I recently lost (burned), this car will get mechanically sorted, become cosmetically acceptable, and just be a driver. If I can't find the right 242T.. this thing may see a more thorough going-over. Not restoration-grade, but likely better than it deserves.
Oh, and the car phone is absolutely staying.