Setting up and Getting Started

It's time to get started on the car, but first we want to do a little planning. The engine needs to be rebuilt, or at least taken completely apart and cleaned. While we're at it we'll replace the gaskets and seals.

Here's the short term plan

1. Workshop Prep
2. Lighting
3. Pictures and Video
4. Drain Oil
5. Remove Oil Filter
6. Remove Oil Pan
7. Remove Air filter
8. Remove Carburetor
9. Remove Exhaust Manifold
10. Remove Valve Covers
11. Remove Valves
12. Remove Headers

We can do the Workshop prep, lighting, and Pictures/Video and set up a good environment to work in. We need to make a stopper for the end of the garage to keep the car from rolling out of the garage if someone leans on it. A sheet of plywood, and a 4x4 post is the current plan. I am thinking a set of caster wheels and a scrap of mdf would make a good parts table that we can store under the car while we are not working on it. 

I will look for some cheap workshop lights, halogens on a stand or similar so that we'll be able to work after dark, and still get some decent pictures and video. We'll need to get the video camera on a tripod, and take some still pictures as well, there's a little setup time here, but it's not too bad. We'll also need some sort of notebook for taking notes about what we saw, conditions of parts, fluids, and the order of disassembly. Since shop manuals for cars are based upon "tear downs" we could attempt to make our own shop manual in this process. 

Draining the oil will be the first real step towards the rebuild. I have the drain pan so we will be ready to go as soon as the shop prep work is completed. Remove Drain plug, wait for oil to drain out, check condition of oil, make notes. Remove oil filter. Remove oil pan and seals, take notes.