Finally got a job done!

Well, I finally got around to finishing up a task on the mustang.

That is, I got nose cleaned up.

One of the problems I've had since I bought this car was that I could never adjust the headlights...the adjusting screws had seized. Another thing is that I've had a Shelby R-Model racing valance for years and never got around to putting it on.

I finally fixed both issues! I tore the nose of the car off. The bumper, the valance, rock guard, grill, nose, headlights, everything. I removed the rusted up pieces, and installed new adjusting kits. I replaced the headlight trim rings, and got that all buttoned up.

I mentioned in my last post that I was trying to get some fiberglass panel to fix the valance. Well, I figured that out! And my solution was either brilliant or absolutely retarded. I was looking for fiberglass panels. The glass had to be thick and strong. Then it hit me. I used to, every day, eat my lunch off the perfect thing! A cafeteria Lunch Tray! So I hit the mighty eBay and got my glass lunch tray. I cut it up with my dremmel and glued it into the place that was missing it's bracket. And it worked! I couldn't believe it!

Then I got to figure out WHY people say fiberglass is hard to work with when using it as a body panel. HOOOLY CRAP! I had to tweak and twist and cut and work. And I have no CLUE what I'm doing and am sure I did it wrong. But whatever, I was actually able to button it all up!

So I'll post a before and after picture!

Before

After

Next is to weld in the front floor pans.

Been too quiet

Work has been in the way of getting a lot of work done on the Mustang, and laziness has kept me from documenting everything, but I'll just put up a quick update post, and promise to have a picture post coming in the next few days.

OK, so Last weekend, my long time friend, Lynn, and a great guy I met on the VMF, Ryan, came over and helped me replace my rear floor-pans. It was a slow start, as I didn't really have all the tools I need (still working on that) but we were able to figure out how to cut the old pans out using a cut-off wheel chucked into an angle grinder, and and welded in the new ones with my cheap 110v flux core welder. It is hilarious to see where the welding started, and where it finished...I really got better as I went along...by the end of the day I was putting down a decent flat bead that probably won't need to be ground down...but where we started? Oy Veh. I was making mountains and leaving holes. So that will need to be ground down and re-welded. I also have to get some seam sealer, and prime it, and undercoat the bottom of the car...but I'll get around to that soon enough. One of the things is, after I grind down the welds, I'm going to shine a light through it and go back and re-weld all the holes I left...But I'm not welding another inch until I have an auto-dark helmet...MAN talk about a WORLD of difference!

In other news, I have completely removed the front of the car...not the fenders, just the headlights, bumper, apron, fender exentions, etc. Basically anything in front of the radiator support. Two of the things on my "First round" list of todo items are to fix the headlights (The adjusting system had welded solid, so you couldn't aim them, and I want to go to halogens too) and to replace the bumper and lower-valence with a Shelby-style R-Model racing apron I've had for a few years. So I stripped the front of the car off this morning, and now have to repair the apron, and work the fiberglass to get it to fit. This will for sure be a learning experience, but I'm looking forward to it.

One thing I noticed in test fitting the racing apron on, it gets in the way of the support that holds the hood latch in place, so I had to remove that support...now the hood latch isn't sturdy enough. I think I have (in my head) a good solution to that, and will basically "Box" the sides of it (woo hoo, more welding!) to strengthen the latch mount. Obviously, the apron wasn't designed to work with the stock latch, and only to work with a fiberglass hood with pins. But I'm not changing the hood in this "go round" so I'll have to engineer a fix.

OK so pictures of the welds, and the mustang with no face coming later this week...if I remember.

The first big obstacle

This weekend I finally got the interior completely gutted, and pulled back the carpet to reveal two pieces of shitty sheet metal pop riveted over the rear seat floor-pan, where the passengers put their feet. I instantly knew what that meant. There was rust, and the cheezy PO fixed it using the ostrich-head-in-the-sand method. If you can't see it, it isn't there. So tonight I drilled the rivets out and pulled the sheet-metal out.

This is one of the things I was afraid of. While the front floor pans will need a little (very little) work, the rears are in bad shape. My only problem is I don't know how bad-a shape they are. I know this will mean cutting and welding...whether it's beyond my grasp to do it is another question entirely.

And so for the record, here are my rusted-ass floor pans:

Passenger Side:



Driver's Side:

Generic Updat

I haven't posted for a while. A trip down to disney followed by a crazy work week has kept me from doing too much to the mustang, and completely kept me away from posting here. I have a huge update on the gauge cluster coming soon, but I am still waiting for some paint for my needles, and don't want to start posting pictures until the cluster is done. I know starting with the gauge cluster is backwards, but I have always loved interior work, and on my car (despite what the pictures might indicate, the interior is going to require the least work and money...so I'd rather start there and move forward. And the gauges was something I could start on before I even got the car here, so when the car showed up I wanted to stay on that train of thought.

Anyway, I also threw away about 1500 pounds of shit that was floating around in the interior (Otto the garbage man will be pleased on tuesday) and pulled the seats, to start rehabbing them. The front seats are actually from a 71-73 Mach 1, which has a pattern I adore, but they severely need a new set of covers. When i installed them a hundred years ago, I was very unhappy with my mounting system on the passenger side. It just didn't seem right. I was pretty ignorant then, and when I pulled them out I realized the problem...the seat is WAY out of "true" and was so twisted it was impossible to install correctly. So I tore the skin off to reveal some of the crappiest welding I've ever seen (and I am GOOD at crappy damn welding) so I've decided the passenger seat bottom frame is pretty much unusable. So I get to start looking for a replacement. This has me nervous because I had only planned on recovering the seats, and this could severely reset my budget. We'll have to see if ebay or the internet elsewhere has the right part at the right price to keep me on track.

I also had another couple of blunders. One was simple...when installing the white face on the speedo, I tore it and had to throw it out. Fortunately, I had scanned the face patterns before I started so I printed another speedo cover out at home, and it worked fine.

The other problem, I had ordered a later model transmission shifter cover, and got an amazing deal on ebay, getting an 80 dollar shifter cover for 11 bucks, shipping included. Well, I wanted to change the colors on the dial indicator, so I tried using nail polish mover to remove the paint, and softened the plastic indicator so much that it got marred up. So I am going to try to duplicate my amazing find, because just replacing the plastic dial indicator would cost more than I paid for the entire cover! I also got a little nail polish remover on the shifter cover, and messed up a little of the paint. I was going to just spray over that to fix it, but now that I'm going to buy a whole new unit, I'll just pitch the one I boogered up.

anyway, that's all for now. Look for some gauge picture soon!

My Mustang Arrives Home!

She's Finally HERE!
After months of trying to figure out how to get the mustang transported to my house, I finally hired a delivery service to just bring it. And this morning, I raced home to meet him and get my mustang into my garage.

There's a LOT of work to do, but overall I'm happy with how it looks! This is a car I haven't touched in years, and it looks surprisingly well. The only thing I am really worried about is pulling up the carpet to see how much rust there is...and looking under the cowl. But, you know, it is what it is and I'll take it as it comes.

So here are some pictures of the delivery:

Gauges...Part 1

Ok, so exciting news! I have booked shipping for the mustang. A company is going to pick it up from my parents' house this weekend, and it will show up at my house on Monday! I'm SUPER stoked!

OK now with that out of the way, let's move along to a little tech info. I've been keeping myself busy by doing whatever I could. One thing I'm going to be working on is the gauge setup. My preference would be to get some AutoMeter gauges, or something like that, but that was cost prohibitive, and this is all about bang for the buck. So I've decided to modernize my old gauges, by applying a white-face kit. I ordered a kit off eBay from this store.

The kit from eBay seller irish.swede was very cheap, and came quickly, with a lot of neat customization options. However, I wish I'd known, and I think everyone interested in this kit should know, that it was just a half-letter sheet of sticker paper with the new gauge faces printed on it with what I assume was a color laser printer. I paid about 10 bucks for it, so I cannot complain, but in the end, this is a lot skimpier than I guessed. I would have loved to order a really sweet electroluminescent package...but, again, 100 dollars for that kit, and 10 dollars for the one I bought.

Another thing I'm working on fixing is replacing the Amps gauge that I pulled out of the car years ago. Amps gauges are crappy compared to a good Voltmeter, but to give the gauge cluster a nice uniform look, I'm going to replace the amp-gauge I removed. So I put up a post on the Vintage Mustang Forums, saying I was looking for one, and a guy emailed me to tell me he had one to sell. I bought it and a few days later received it. The other night I decided to go ahead and apply the white face kit to it...and here are the results:
I think it looks pretty good! the instructions just said to cut out the sticker and apply it, but I actually took the face and put on a two coats of silver paint, followed by a coat of white. I thought the silver would completely black out the existing gauge markings, AND would give the white a more reflective quality. I'm probably full of shit, but that was the theory. Then I carefully trimmed up the sticker and applied it.

BUT I still believe a car needs a volt-meter, so I found an equus unit on amazon for 9 bucks!
Now Equus is notorious for being the "gauges they sell at wal-mart." True, but 9 bucks! Serious bang for the buck! I got the gauge tonight and am throwing a picture up here. I think it looks great. My plan ist to buy a mounting cup for this gauge, and mount it next to the tach on the steering column. I think it's going to work out nicely!

Hopefully the next post will be the arrival of the mustang to my driveway!!

Shipping

Wow, I have a lead on a guy who will ship the Mustang to me from Columbus to Atlanta for $145. I could barely beat that if I just rented a hauler from UHaul and had my own Truck (which I don't)

Looks like the Mustang might be here soon!!!

Update:Well, it's final, I have put down a deposit to have the mustang trailed to my front door! I couldn't believe the price! I used this website called uShip where you put in the item you want shipped, the originating and destination addresses, and a bunch of shippers bid against one another to get the deal. I put my car up expecting the offer to sit out there for 2 weeks with no offers, OR for the offers to be in the 500+ range. But within an hour the guy was offering to do it for 145! I did a little vetting of his company and so-forth, and went ahead and approved the bid (approving the bid costs a deposit + uShip's fees) Now I just have to schedule pickup and delivery times with the guy, and my mustang will be here! Very exciting...also scary, because then I'll start finding out what all is wrong with her.