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Flash

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Everything posted by Flash

  1. Managed to get the dash pad off in one piece which was a bonus. Turns out its a repro part that I suspect was fitted as part of the 2010 restoration undertaken in the USA. I found a sliver of the original dash bad wedged underneath the new pad.
  2. I've been putting this job off for a while but today I thought I'd put on my big boy pants and start stripping the dash out of the Mustang. There are a few reasons why I want to tackle this. First reason is that I want to re-fresh the paintwork on the metal portion. There are some bad rub marks caused by the misalignment of the glove box. I've resolved the rubbing by elongating the holes on the hinge which has moved the lid slightly to the left so now its just the paintwork to resolve. Also someone has butchered the metal around the ignition switch for some reason, so I need to fix and repaint that section too. Careless removal of the instrument cluster some time in the past has also damaged the paintwork on the steering column surround. It will be much easier to repaint things with everything dismantled Reason two is that the interior lights, factory fitted ammeter and fuel gauges are not working so I'm thinking that there might be some wiring issues under the dash. Reason three is that I want to sort out the sound system wiring as the front kick panel speakers have never worked. Reason four, the woefully inadequate factory fuse panel is really hard to get to and from a quick glance under the dash there appear to be a whole herd of aftermarket inline fuses that feed the radio, a/c system and a few other bits and bobs. I'm not a fan of these so am thinking about installing a new blade style fuse panel that I'll rewire all of the non factory items to. Reason five is that the heater and demister controls are badly seized up so I'd like to give them a birthday at the same time. Photos of the paint and metalwork issues:
  3. The couriers somehow managed to separate the two boxes of sound deadening with the result that one is still sitting in the Brisbane depot, so my installation has stalled half way. No matter I've still got heaps to keep me occupied. Woke up to another wet and cloudy day so figured I'd crack into something that I could do inside the house. So figured I'd give the carpet underlay some loving Now when I lifted the Mustang carpet a few weeks back the original factory underlay was looking sad and grubby with lots of pieces falling apart and some sections completely missing. The only piece really worth saving was the rearmost portion that covers the driveshaft tunnel as that one has a rubber backing that has kept it pretty mint. Yesterday we did a supply trip through to town and I was able to source a new piece of automotive underlay. It's pretty lush stuff but was a bit spendy for what it is, so I figured I'd take a punt at getting away with a linear meter. So this morning I started off by making some paper templates, then played a bit of Tetris to get everything to fit....... and .... whew, I just made it. Then some chalky, chalky, cutty, cutty, testy, testy, trimmy, trimmy and it's not looking bad at all. The weight of the carpet together with the bolting down of the centre console should help it to settle nicely. Thanks for reading.
  4. Today I made a start on installing the sound deadening. I'm using a product called Under Dog, which I haven't used before, but I've got to say I'm really impressed with it. Well priced and appears to be a quality product. Will definitely trade again.
  5. After a good few days of cloud cover and rain the sun has finally made an appearance here in Queensland, so whilst I'm waiting for Grant the painter to clear his backlog I thought I would give the inside rear quarter panels a birthday. They are shaped metal jobs that are painted from factory. Since my fresh front door surrounds are now a slightly different shade of blue my OCD spurred me on to colour these to match. At first glance the existing paint didn't look to bad, so I thought I'd chuck a bit of spray filler on the nicks and scrapes and then just primer the rest. Spotted with spray filler and she started to fry up. Figured it wasn't a big train smash as I could just tickle the reaction spots before laying the primer. Took to the fry with a carpet blade and that is where things started to get interesting. The factory paint started to lift in sheets. Looks almost like it has separated from the original primer. Managed to scrape down the whole panel with very little effort. No fry ups on the opposite panel but again the original paint lifted off easily. I've never seen anything like this. Anyhoo, they are all clean and shiny now and I've laid some fresh primer and a first base coat. Just waiting for that to go off so thought I would type this up in the mean time.
  6. Thanks heaps for the suggestion. Chur.
  7. Took to the particle board shelf with a 10mm drill bit to allow the sounds to leak through. Then slapped a bit more paint about the place. I've ordered some of that textured kitchen drawer liner stuff as per my sample to cover the panel. Should hide the holes and mounting bolts nicely. Hopefully that will arrive sometime soon. I'm not going to win any audio awards with this setup but at least it will look pretty subtle and the sound should be an improvement over my existing single dashboard speaker. Thanks for looking.
  8. Bolted the speakers onto the ply using bolts with countersunk heads then used similar bolts to attach the ply underneath the metal shelf. The raised speakers now sit well below the parcel shelf.
  9. Next step was to carve up a piece of plywood and chuck a bit of paint on it. Clamped it in place underneath the metal shelf and marked out the fixing positions based on the factory speaker mounting holes already punched into the metal shelf. I can also make use of the holes that were previously used for the baby seat anchors as I no longer need those.
  10. So after sussing out the speakers I moseyed on over to the Mustang for a better look at the parcel shelf. The cover plate is actually a purchased repro part, but it has been slightly butchered in order to fit modern 3 point rear seat belts as well as dual baby seat anchors that the previous owner Tom fitted for his twin boys. I reckon I can still use it though. Lifting it out and looking at the metal structure underneath it is an almost unmolested factory panel so I definitely don't want to be cutting that up. The metal panel has a total of 5 factory cutouts presumably for speakers and the like. The centre hole is perfect for a single 6 x 9 but that helps sweet fanny adams. The holes on either side of the centre hole are a reasonable size so I'm picking I can do something with them. Started off by making a few cardboard templates, the middle one is modeled on the factory holes and the lower one on the 6 x 9s.
  11. The head unit currently plays through a central mounted dashboard speaker. It's not ideal so I figured a set of 6 x 9's in the rear parcel shelf would be the go. Now it just so happens that I have a set of 3 ways sitting on the shelf, so I dusted them off for a closer look. The smaller speakers sit well proud of the tops and the covers look like like something you would find in Liberace's boudoir, so they will definitely look out of place in the Mustang. But fear not as I have a cunning plan.
  12. In between working on the floors I've started to clean up the front bumper inner. The bumper and brackets have been replaced with Taiwanese repro parts. From the over spray on the brackets I can tell that the bumper was test fitted before the colour change back in 2010 and the lazy bastards then left the brackets in place. The outer chrome has held up really well, but the inner surface is looking a bit sad. Got rid of the loose stuff with some 80 grit then chucked some rust converter on the rest and followed that with a coat of epoxy primer this morning. Before pics:
  13. Still waiting for the weather to dry out so we can paint the doors, so I'm chipping away at multiple small jobs to keep the momentum going. I've cleaned all the crust off the interior floor pans and chucked some rust converter on to the surface rust . Followed that with a brush coat of epoxy primer. Not the prettiest looking thing, but hopefully it will keep the floors nice and solid for years to come. I've ordered 4sqm of butyl based sound deadening which should arrive late next week so that should neaten things up considerably.
  14. Thought I'd see what I could do about the nasty scratches in the stainless steel window surround so gave it a tickle with some 240 grit and then moved through with some 600 and 800 grit before a final go with some 1200 grit. Slapped a bit of Autosol about the place and it looks heaps better. There are still signs of the two deepest scratches, but I didn't want to push my luck any further, so I'll live with those. Luckily they are on the inside of the frame so wont be that noticeable. Luckily the passenger surround is undamaged.
  15. This morning I repeated the same exercise on the vertical window guide for the opposite side. Being the passenger one the felt was less stuffed but still looked well past it. Not that easy to photograph with my shitty phone, but you get the idea. I'm looking forward to tackling something different tomorrow. Ta for looking.
  16. The next step is also a bit tricky as you need to peel the back off the adhesive and at the same time get the new felt perfectly stuck to all three sides inside the channel. Any lumps will be fatal as they will prevent the channel from sliding smoothly. I started by peeling one end, but it soon became apparent that this was going to end in tears so I ended up asking Uncle Google how best to do this and he suggested cutting the adhesive backing into three strips and then pulling the backing off the centre strip first. Used a carpet knife to carefully cut through the backing without injuring the felt. Got Mrs Flash to give me a hand and between the two of us we got it spot on. One down and one to go.
  17. So I proceeded to scrape out the old felt and adhesive using a few chisels. What a shitty job it is, but it needs to be spotless so the new stuff will stick properly. Ended up with this :
  18. Sure enough looking at the channel felt it is well shagged.
  19. This morning I cracked into the window track refurbishment. The Mustang door windows are a frame less design with a stainless steel glass surround fitted to the side glass. The stainless steel trim runs in a window track that is factory fitted with a felt like material to protect the trim. When the felt fails the exposed metal channel then does nasty things to the window trim as seen in this photo :
  20. By the look of things the driver's window regulator has had a bit of recent loving. The rear scissor is a repro part and the rollers are fairly fresh. Gave everything a good clean and some fresh grease and that's one more thing ready to go back on once the doors are painted.
  21. Driver's side vent window seals were the more knackered of the two, but now that I know what I am doing this one went a lot quicker. The stainless bits cleaned up nicely, but the plated frames are sporting quite a bit of patina. Cleaned them up as best as I could. So that's another small job ticked off the list.
  22. Another small job ticked off the list today. This time it was the passenger side vent window that had a birthday. The housing was covered in gunk and patches of over spray and the 56 year old factory originally seals were well knackered. Now because Mustangs are as common as dingleberries (very second arsehole has one), there are a number of 'how to" videos on the interweb that you can follow along to at home ... just as long as you are able to tolerate some of the world's most irritating "YouTubers". Mrs Flash allowed me to commandeer her kitchen island bench for the morning so I cracked straight into it. Stripped it down easily enough and after a good clean up the assembly commenced. Apart from the main window seal there are two other small mouldings that need replacing, both held on with original factory rivets. Luckily the window kit came with replacement rivets and a nifty little purpose made rivet punch so even a Simpleton like me couldn't cock it up. So that's the one vent window done. I'll tackle the opposite side tomorrow. Thanks for looking.
  23. One thing I had previously noticed was the lack of a shift indicator light. I had assumed that the whole fitting was AWOL. A replacement fitting goes for $130 ... gulp. Luckily with the shifter surround removed I was able to pull on the electrical wires that were disappearing into the bowels of the shifter and managed to fish out the light ... winner. The earth wire had broken somewhere along the line and some muppet had had a go at fixing it ... fail .... and hadn't even bothered to tape up the joints ... bigger fail. Anyhoo I soldered the wire properly and chucked a bit of heat shrink on to neaten it up. Test showed still no light, but it was just a blown globe, so that is now sorted.
  24. Another lazy old day on the Mustang. The T handle on the auto shifter was preventing me from removing the shifter surround in order to get the front carpet out. Turns out someone had butchered the little grub screw so I ended up having to drill the bugger out. I was able to cut a bigger metric thread and have temporarily fitted a little button head bolt. I'll source a replacement grub screw on my next trip into town. With the T handle off I was able to unbolt the shifter surround and lift the carpet. Drivers foot well has had the same half arsed treatment and looks crusty as.
  25. In other news Tom the previous owner of our Mustang was up our way on a caravan trip with his family and stopped in for a visit. When we bought the Mustang the deal was all done remotely so we had only ever talked over the phone. It was great finally meeting him and his family. Great people and we shared a good few Mustang related yarns. He shared some photos of the Mustang provided by the owner before him. These were taken either just before it left the USA or shortly after it arrived here in Straya. I would love to know whether the Nevada license plate is the real deal or one of those novelty plates that you can buy in the US. Nice to see it sporting its original wheels and hubcaps. Wish I had them. The paint colour looks so different out in the sunlight compared to all of my photos which have been taken under the shade of our carport.
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