First off: what is going on with the windscreen? I'm not used to windscreens that aren't secured using a rubber seal and locking strip.
There have been a couple of variations on fixing the windscreen over the years. They have used a conventional rubber strip with chrome filler to lock it into place and also a bonded screen with a (expensive) chrome surround strip. The latter also needs 4 aluminium corner pieces to complete the deal. IIRC you can still get these, but they are expensive and that's why some folks move towards bonding the screen in place as for modern cars, and then finishing with 1" (or whatever) wide stick-on chrome strip. I've attached a photo showing both types of seal so you can see the differences.
Secondly, this wooden dash looks a discard from a school's woodwork class. Isn't there supposed to be a binacle for the speedo and tach?
Yep, looks like someone's attempt to improve the interior, and the same goes for the seat and door trim. The correct dash should be as you say. Again you can get new ones and some folks make up their own, I think there are templates available and if not I have my old dash on the workshop wall so can easily make one if you're stuck. If you're lucky you might find that the corduroy is just laid over the original vinyl and pulled tight, which means you'll have templates should you need to re-trim.
On to more serious matters: there is some oil weaping around this driveshaft - a bad sign? (On the plus side, the shocks look quite spiffy.)
Personally I don't take that as a sign of impending doom, the most likely cause is the oil seal has failed. I had to replace mine last year, cheap seals and easily available. I didn't even bother undoing the large nut (or whatever it's called), I just disconnected the driveshaft, prised out the old seal and inserted a new one. It's still working 18months later. The original seal on my 352 gearbox was marked as 54x36x11 (OD, ID, Width) but the most common (read cheap
) one over here is 54x36x10 which fits & seals perfectly.
Finally (for now), here is some of the bodywork damage to the driver's side. I'm a little shocked at the thickness of what appears to be bondo on the fibreglass. What would be the correct approach to rebuild this area?
Yep, too much filler there and really it should be just plain fibre glass. Maybe the door is misaligned and it's an attempt to straighten things up, or perhaps the fibreglass was split and the filler used to stick everything back together, I can't tell. The only way you'll know is to strip off the paint & filler and then see what you've got. I can't see it being a big problem, just time and patience, that's all.
Brian
ps - not a bad project, it might look daunting at the moment but really it's a decent start. The chassis looks excellent and it looks like all the hard-to-find bits are present & correct, the ashtray, switches, side windows, etc.
