71 Panel Express for my Dad

[Vegafordad]

My brother and I are trying to restore (loose term) my dads 1971 Vega panel express for him as a surprise gift. He bought the car in 1973 and then went off to Vietnam. After he returned from the war, he was stationed in Colorado and had my brother and I (twins). When we were fresh out of the hospital, we actually made the trip from Colorado Springs to Springfield OR in a laundry basket since the panel express was a two seater! Long story short, he blew the 4 banger up and the car sat. In 1980, a local shop/mechanic told him that he would put in a 283 in the car for 1000.00. He spent a year saving his money and then finally he took the car to his shop for the engine swap. After a year and a half of calling and anticipation, he realized the guy hadn't touched the car except to strip out the 4 speed transmission and sell it off. It took a small claims court ruling to get his car back. So there it sat in the drive way with no motor and no tranny. Someone came along in April of 1984 and offered him $400.00 cash for it. Having young kids and no money to fix the car, he reluctantly sold it. He has regretted it ever since. He has always said that he knew while he was signing the title that he would regret it, but he felt he had no choice. $400.00 went a long ways back in those days, especially when you have hungry mouths to feed. Last fall, my brother was driving around trying to find an address and ran across a Vega panel. Upon further investigation, he found out that it was dad's actual car! The car still had no motor or tranny and actually still had 1986 stickers on the plates! After some phone calls and some scrounging, my brother and I bought the car back. The cool part is that when we paid the guy and he came out with the title, my parent's original signatures were in the sign off section of the title, but no one had put the title in the buyer's name! So the car was actually still in my dad's name. So now we are wanting to get this car into a decent, presentable condition to surprise our dad with it 30 years later. I am asking for your guy's help with questions and advice about how to get this done. God knows we need all the help we can get with this thing. We have recently bought a 1974 wagon that is in decent shape for the donor car. It has a 231 v6 in it and has decent glass and interior. The donor car is actually a really nice car so we feel we have a decent start, but we have a list of questions and would appreciate any help we can get! I will list the questions below and thank you in advanced for helping us get this car back to my dad! He will be dumb founded!

1. Has anyone attempted to do a body swap? The donor car has good brakes, rear end, motor, suspension etc. We would like to see if it is possible to unbolt the body and switch bodies. Is this possible?
2. Is there any major differences for the two? 1971 Vega panel express and a 1974 Vega wagon
3. Does anyone has any advice before we dig into this project?

[megavega]

no, its not possible to just switch the bodies, its a unibody car and the floorpan is the frame which is connected to the body. You can swap out the doors,and fenders,hood but the 71 is a differnt fender and front end all together, the bumpers are differnt as well.

the panel wagon will have no back seat just 2 tool boxs inside it, where as the 74 will have a flip down rear seat with passenger footwell area.

the front fenders from any 71-73 vega will fit as will the front nose panel above the grille, same grille also.

the 74 is a differnt body style front end,so thefenders,grille,bumpers,rear hatch are all differnt,and they mount up differnt.


Thats a cool story, I hope you guys get it restored, that would be a great suprise for him.

[Vegafordad]

Thanks for the reply! Thankfully, the only body panel I need is the drivers door. The donor car has a good windshield I would like to use too if possible. Do you know if the windshield out of a '74 will work in the '71? Lots of great info, thank you! I will post pics of both cars as soon as I figure out how!
Thanks again!

[RamIt]

Whats your budget for the car and do you have pictures?
Lots of people here with parts and good advice.

[Vegafordad]

I do have pictures, but I cant seem to figure out how to get them on here. I will keep trying. We don't really have a budget right now. Its just my brother and I trying to scrap up funds as we go. The project sort of fell into our laps and we weren't looking for this project when it did. So basically, we are trying to do this car the most cost effective way possible.

[megavega]

doors will bolt right on, windshield will interchange, the brakes will interchange, rear end, engine swap,etc.

parts specific to the 71 will be: fenders,grille,rear hatch,bumpers/brackets.

[Smiley]

Vega's are unibody cars so there is no body and frame to unbolt. The suspension brackets are welded to the sheetmetal floor.
Except for the gas tank most parts will swap from the 74 to the 71.

[bugdewde]

OUTSTANDING!!!! Get to work, boys! That's an awesome story......

'71-'73 are early cars and mostly identical... plastic, flat center grille with round blinkers in the lower valance panel and smaller steel bumpers. ( '71s don't have glove boxes.)
'74-'77 are later cars and they have some degrees of differences between the early cars and themselves. Typically larger aluminum bumpers and sloped metal grilles with blinkers in the grilles.

Differences as mentioned:
-Front nose (upper and lower valance panels/radiator core support/grilles... includes bumper)
-Fenders
-Rear hatch
-Gas tank/filler neck
-Rear bumper/valance panels

I'm not sure about the rear cargo compartment interior plastic panels between early and late cars.... may be slight differences. (early vs late hatchbacks are different).
Do '74s have retractable seat belts in the roof? '71-'73 don't.

Pretty much everything else is mostly interchangeable.

[vegastre]

3. Does anyone has any advice before we dig into this project?

That is a great story, actually an inspiring story if you get the job done without your father knowing. This is a tall order because you have a pretty good project on your hands. My best advice is to read up on the 71-73 Vega as well as the H-Body platform. Better yet buy a repair manual and familiarize yourself with the project ahead and forge ahead for Dad. We will be glad to help but remember a picture is worth a 1000 words.

[Vegafordad]

Thanks to everyone with all of the advice! Our first plan of action is to make a list of all the things we will need from the donor car and cross reference to make sure the parts will interchange. Then we are going to try to find a place to disassemble the two cars. I know its a daunting task, but we are both pretty excited about it...Hopefully dad likes it. The donor car has a Buick 231 V-6 that we plan to use for the 71. Does anyone know if there will need to be any modification to the engine compartment for the engine to fit? ie: firewall modification, or cutting of inner fender wells etc? Im still trying to post pictures on this site, does anyone know the process for that? Thanks everyone, I will keep you posted on any progress made!

[bugdewde]

See this thread on how to post pics.... there's 2 basic methods. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28612
If you look at my posts on that thread, I have pictures with red arrows and boxes showing you exactly how "I" post them. You probably will have to move my instructional pictures around(using the scroll down/over sliders) to view all the notes in red that I added to the step by step picture instructions.

I'm not 100 percent sure, but think the 4-cylinder frame plates need to be removed (simple tack weld grinding) so the V6-V8 motor mounts will bolt to the body. Should be in the FAQ section.

[CaptainPainn]

The Buick frame plates bolt right in to the vega. The 4 cylinder frame plates have to be removed. I got mine out with a wedge, a crowbar, and a BFH. If you do it that way just be sure not to tear the metal behind the plates beyond the holes the spot weld leaves. I was actually surprised that it wasn't harder to get em' off.. Im not sure if there's any firewall modification, but shouldn't need any fender modification. I used V6 Buick mounts in my Vega for a sbc, and the firewall did need cut. However, i don't think you should have that problem. Just look at the 74 and see how they did it.

[Vega45]

This a great story I wish I had my dad here to see my wagon as he helped me build my first wagon .But I have a set of Delete Panel I would like to donate to your build if you need them All i'm asking is you pay the shipping .Keep up the good work .

Vega45

[Vegafordad]

Thanks for all the great advice! We just got the wagon running and we are getting ready to pull the motor. After looking at the two cars side by side, I started a list of parts I will need. I will list some of the parts below to see if anyone out there have them laying around.
1. Wiring from the firewall forward.
2. Head light buckets
3. Head light trim rings
4. Dash pad

I will update the list as we go. If anyone has any of these parts and would like to part with them, please let me know!! Thanks again to everyone!

[Vegafordad]

1971-Vega 2.JPG