So I just got the heater core out. Good friggin lord, did they bury that thing in there. Literally the single last piece to come off the entire car. Jesus.
Started grinding away paint on that LR fender to see how far the rust spread. I got all the way up the rocker to the FL fender, then I stopped. Rust all the way. I was debating trying to repair this chassis, but that was quite disheartening. I dunno about all that, now.
Edit:
-----
Got a little more work done today. Pulled out the engine harness from the white chassis. It's pretty rough. I tossed it in a bag, and plan on re-building it at work with fresh wire and loom. If anyone needs a new engine harness made up, I'm going to measure stuff and make myself a nice little diagram. I should be able to make brand new, factory quality harnesses for anyone who needs them in the future. The only thing I'll need is the connectors. I don't know where to buy new ones, except possibly from Ford (if they even still make them). My plan was to just clean them up, re-pin them, and re-use them all.
As far as the white chassis....it's destined for the scrap yard. I ground off a bunch of paint in a few spots to inspect it. The car is far more rust than steel at this point. So, dead end there. Also, whomever told me there isn't any insulation in these things....that's untrue. I'm not sure what the hell it's made of, but it's definitely there. Makes a HUGE mess when you hit it with the angle grinder.
So now the plan is to rebuild the engine harness, and get that plus the computer installed in the new chassis. Swap over the front suspension, whichever side (or both, I don't recall) is bad. Get new strut mounts for the rear, and install those. Toss the transmission back together. Get my engine back, reassemble the bottom end. Bolt the cylinder head to it (it's ready to rock). Install the transmission to the engine (probably with a new clutch and flywheel). Install the drivetrain into the car. Replace both front axles (they've both got ripped boots). Break in the engine on the factory ecu for a couple of weeks. Then, drive on down to Pennsylvania and have Mr. Rocketman chip the thing. At that point, I'll probably be happy with it and leave it alone (mechanically) for a while. Use it as a daily. It does need a date with the body and paint shop, but that can wait until I know all of the other stuff will work out.
It doesn't sound like a ton of work left, but I really only get a few hours a week to work on the thing. I've got two days a week off of work, both of which I need to watch my son. Which means, I get his nap time, two days a week, during which to work on the car. I bring what I can with me to work to play around with, but that's not much either. Not a ton of down time there. Hopefully it'll be driving again in a couple months, but we'll have to see how it all goes.