Rear end removal

The rear was really easy to remove.  Basically a few bolts holding it in, remove the driveshaft, and drop it out.  The only issue I had was getting the upper shock nuts off.  Since they were going to be way too much work for something that wasn't being reused anyway, I just took my sawzall and cut the nuts and stems off.  This ended up taking about a minute instead of potentially lots more time if I had worked to remove the nuts with a wrench.

Now the car is essentially completely stripped.  There are a handful of small items I still need to remove because they either wouldn't come off or didn't get in the way of removing everything else.  I'll use my welder to remove the things that are stuck and the other items should only take a few minutes.

Rear bumper removal

Bad pic, but you can see me dropping the rear axle assembly out the bottom

Front end removal

Made some nice progress today.  Was able to take out the front engine cradle and suspension assembly along with the front bumper.  The front of the car is now stripped.

Dropping the assembly

Bumper resting on the car after removal

Removing remaining trim

This post should catch us up to where I'm currently at with the car.  The only thing remaining is to remove the suspension.  The plan is to roll the car out of the garage so I can clean my garage bay really well one last time.  Then I'll roll the car back in, put it up on jack stands, and remove the front and rear suspension as well as the bumpers.  At that point, it will be completely disassembled and will be ready for the cutting wheel.

I looked through my pics and found that I didn't really take any pictures for the majority of the trim removal.  Much of it has studs and nuts on the backside.  This includes things like the rear fin trim, license plate trim, and turn signals.  The drip rail molding was removed very carefully with the rounded side of a bottle opener.  The quarter window trim is held in with four screws on each side.

Quarter window lower and vertical trim

The vertical quarter window trim can be gently pried off.  Expect many of the retainers to break when you do this, but the trim won't be distorted.  The side trim that runs from the fender to the rear quarter can also be gently pried off, as well as the front badge.  The rear badges have clips holding the studs tightly in the trunk compartment.  I used some needle nose pliers and a small flat blade screwdriver to get them off, but they can be very stubborn.

Getting the glass out pt. 2

The next task at hand was to remove the rear glass and windshield.  They're both done the same way. First, you'll need to remove the trim work which isn't difficult.  For both the windshield and rear glass, you'll find a union piece at the top and bottom middle of the glass.  Pry one of them off.  The large trim pieces that go half way around each window are simply held in place using a rubber lip on the top of the weatherstripping.  Both the weatherstripping and and trim work have a groove that slip into one another to hold it in place.  Take your fingers and gently start pushing the end of the trim work towards the center of the window.  This should push it out of its groove.  Now just work your way around the window until its removed.  You'll be able to slide it out of the other union without having to remove it.  Repeat for the other side and you're done.

I removed these pieces of glass the same way as the quarter window glass.  In other words, I used a box cutter to cut the weatherstripping and then just popped the glass out.

The car looks considerably different without glass in it.

Peeling away the weatherstripping after cutting. 

Easier than it looks. 

Getting the glass out

Fortunately for us, the glass in our cars in installed using gaskets.  This makes it a bit easier to remove.  I started with the quarter window glass.  It was pretty easy to remove using a box cutter.  I pushed the cutter between the glass and the lip of the weatherstrip and starting cutting at a slight angle.  Essentially, you're trying to cut off the outer lip of the seal.

Cutting the seal at roughly a 45 degree angle.  

After cutting off the out lip, the window should pop outward fairly easily.

Remove the glass and then pull out the rest of the weatherstrip by hand.  

The vent windows were next.  Remove the five screws at the top (three large and two small) and the two bolts at the bottom inside the door.  Now roll the window down and you should be able to pull the vent window assembly out the top.

The vent window provides the front channel for the door glass, so you're already part of the way towards getting it out.  Remove the locating bracket in the top middle of the door (two screws) and any screws holding the window regulator in the door.  You should be able to slightly angle the glass and pull it out now.  Then, you can pull the regulator through the large hole in the door.  Sorry, I guess I didn't take pics of these steps.

Windshield wipers

Now that I had the dash out, it was time to remove the windshield wiper components.  Actually, I had a little difficulty trying to figure out how to get the wiper arms off, but the rest was straight forward.  The trick with the wiper arms is a small locking tab located on the bottom of the arm that locks the arm to the splined drive pinion.  Its virtually impossible to see without a mirror.  If you pull the tab back, the arms should come off with some persuasion.  Once off, you can remove the large nuts that hold the drive pinion covers on and remove the wiper motor from the interior side.

Removing the drive pinion nuts will allow you to pull the wiper drive shafts through the bottom. 

Once the drive pinion nuts are removed, the wiper motor and linkage assembly is only held in by two bolts directly behind the motor.

Fuel tank

The fuel tank on my car is completely shot.  Its one of the worst ones I've ever seen.  The bottom was swollen so bad that it looked like it was going to explode.  Also, the bottom of the tank had more rust than I thought possible.  To top it off, the nipple broke off just trying to disconnect one of the hoses that attaches to the top.

Disconnect the lines, unscrew the phillips head screws around the outside, and break the seal around the perimeter.  Once done, it can be removed from the trunk.  

Tank and sending unit... both junk.  Two more parts to add to the parts list.