The Butchering (Step One)

Photo: Keli Dougherty

The first step in butchering this car was to remove everything from the chest cavity (under the hood). Before the body could be cut in half, the engine had to come out. Before that could happen, everything in the engine compartment that was in the way would also have to come out.

The fluid reservoirs, fans, radiator, wires, hoses and belts all had to come off. The work was fairly easy to do considering my limited experience with the medium. The hood came off, bolts were removed, hoses and wires disconnected, and the parts were pulled out clearing space for access to the engine.

After it was clear, it was just a matter of cutting the hoses and wires that ran to the engine, removing the bolts where the engine was mounted to the frame and moving the gantry with the block and tackle into place to hoist the engine out. I received a lot of help with this from my friend Chris Kellners. Without his help, I would have never been able to do this project. Thank you Chris.

we started to pull the engine out and before long the car started coming with it. when we saw the front end coming up off the blocks, we knew that something was wrong so we set the car back down, and looked around to see what it was. Stupid me forgot to disconnect the exhaust pipe from the engine...duh...5 minutes and one saw-z-all blade later the engine was free (for real this time) and we started again. This time it came right out.

Jack it up and Drain the Fluids...Dirty Job

Okay, Okay...I know that was a really dirty title...but in all seriousness, it is a very dirty job...however you interpret it.

Putting the car up on jack stands with only a scissor jack is somewhat challenging...especially if you had never done it before...which i hadn't. the whole process took a couple of days. the ground was fairly loose dirt with large gravel. these rocks gave me little support for the jack stands and i had to put plywood under them and level them before i could let the car down on them....one side at a time. first the driver side, because it was closer to the wall of the storage container it was next to...then the passenger side, then slight adjustments. i had it up about a foot at first, then put each side up more and put in the cinder blocks. after i was done, you could push on it, and it didn't move an inch. I felt safe....which was the most important thing to me considering my earlier mishap.

After that, i cut the gas line and siphoned about 5 gallons of gas out of the tank...it was over a year old, but it didn't look too bad (i later used the gas in my truck when i was desperate...i probably shouldn't have, but it really helped at the time). next, out came the oil and transmission fluid, the engine coolant too. i ended up with a lot of bottles of fluid, all of which were disposed of responsibly. I like to think of this step as hanging up the carcass and bleeding it. this is most certainly necessary before you can butcher the beast.