Gee's 68 Mustang

[Gee]

More repair photos from the tin basher

No more crud or 'bullet holes in the side panel. Welded up the extra trim mounting holes as well.

 

 

 

Same at the back

Rear window crud removed 

And treated

I'm guessing it will be ready sometime next week, then I'll have to pay the bill.

[Gee]

Some more photos of skin repairs:

Rear of back right wheel arch

 

[Gee]

Front of right rear wheel arch

[Gee]

Car is now in the paint booth. the main problem with the car in the first place was poor prep before using filler or paint on lead. It doesn't look like he's used any filler yet but has done some really nice steel repairs.

Etch primer? Gold member.

and epoxy primer

Hopefully some nice blue paint next. I asked for a factory finish not show quality so hopefully he doesn't spend a bunch of time getting every imperfection out otherwise she'll have a really nice bum butter face...

The colour apparently came out closest to a volvo blue. Not sure which and I think it needed more white to match the car so is likely some odd concoction they mixed up last time it was painted.

[Gee]

Still waiting on the panel beater but had a bit of a play with some other bits.

Gave the rear window regulators a clean and replaced a couple of rollers. There was a ton of gunk to clean off. 55 years of grease and dust. I'll still have to ensure there is room for the inertial reels but otherwise they work nicely.

Also removed the pink batts from the rear seat base and inserted some packing foam instead. Still a bit agricultural but actually works to firm up the seat.

 

I'll probably have dynamat under the seat and an MDF cargo divider with underlay behind it so should cut a small amount of noise from the back of the car. I'll see how this turns out in the car once I get it back. Best give the panel guy a call and see how he's getting on.

[Gee]

Got some more photos from the Panel beater. Final prime for the main body:

Colour in the jams:

More areas painted than I thought. The boot gutter and rear valance along with the boot lid are being done. there were a few cracks in the door jams as well that I was ignoring but now they are sorted.

[Gee]

Some extra boring bits getting painted.

Boot lid

other random bits, side 'vents', rear side markers, and the tail 'cones'.

[Gee]

Side project while waiting on the Mustang to be returned. Pretending I'm on the repair shop restoring my Father in law's old tool box. He worked for South Auckland Motors till he retired and this was his. It is from Chicago and must be ancient with probably 60 years of oil and grime to remove. Some cool tools I didn't know existed but wish I did like stubby sockets with a built in uni.

[Gee]

Final paint done, just needs smoothing and polishing then reassembly

Also did some research on the Old School tools, they are made by SK tools (Sherman and Klove) Chicago. My Father in Law went through and engraved all of the tools. Don't want those thieving apprentices helping themselves.

[Gee]

Job done, hopefully I pick it up tomorrow and then can start the rest of my little jobs.

[Gee]

Got it home the other day, looks shiny and I kind of like it without the C-stripes. The front looks really high due to the slope in my driveway but it does sit high anyway on 'stock' (dobi sport I think) springs. I did measure the rockers at one point and it is actually slightly nose down so it is likely a wheel arch lip height thing. The whole car has been polished to match a bit better but you can still tell the difference between old and new paint. It also has a slight pearl which make it look like a fade in this photo as the front is in shade. Ended up being $15k so hopefully it lasts better than the previous job. I am now spotting more issues with the unrestored portion and seeing the lack of prep in the last paint job I know why so I'll ignore it till it cracks or I have money and am bored.

I am slowly getting into the refits too. The panel beater treated and cavity sealed my sail panels which I was going to do so I just sprayed in a bit of sound deadner but it looked like there was already some in there. I also sprayed some on the interior sail panel trim which is steel. Hope this works better than the pink batts.

 I also  started into the windows. The rear windows foul on the inertial reels so I played around with the spacing but the lock went off and now I can't extent the belt. The same happened on the other side but after 30-45min of swearing at it I freed it up. The drivers one though is still playing up so I removed it completely so I can work on the windows and fix the belt on the bench. Any tips for resetting the inertial reel would be appreciated. I'll leave it till last so if I fix it I can fit it and leave it the hell alone.

Track fitted

Fitted the window and adjusted

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Chucked some ally tape on the panel, didn't want to scratch my new paint.

I need to do some googling as I now can't remember where the other track goes and the two bolts don't line up with anything but should be easy to find. Is a prick to get the winder in and slotted into the track.

 

[Gee]

Bent, fuckit. I think someone might have been trying to make room for the belts or they might have just bent when being wound while stuck on the belts. I'd persuade it back into shape but it is bent in so many planes that it is not really worth it.

 

[Gee]

I ordered some new regulators and decided to work on the trunk divider and parcel tray while I waited.

Cut some shape out of 9mm (I think) MDF. Some trial and error was required.

Covered the parcel tray in vinyl, Ados F3 and staples to hold it. Not my best work but not terrible.

The bracking and area behind the rear seat is not flat in so a flat piece of MDF would not work but slotted a rectangular part in with some glue, screws and ally tape. Cut the edges into smaller patches which are just taped in to place. Work on an aircraft skin at 400kts so should work here.

Lots of tape.

Another issue with the larger divider was it stuck out too far and the seat would not slot back in but this works.

Finished the parcel tray with some holes for the speakers and speaker cloth.

The corners look a bit average but I'll leave it till it annoys me too much and I'll just make another one.

Looks good with the seat fitted.

 

[Gee]

Got the new regulator for the rear windows and I initially thought the originals were not too bad  until I sat them side by side. One of these things is not like the other one. The regulator on the other side was missing its rollers so easy to see why they didn't work.

Fitted the new regulators and gave them a test.

Windows go up, windows go down.

Annoyingly but hand is that they don't interfere with the inertia reels at all.

Tons of room. Handy as I can have windows and belts. Annoying as I pissed about for ages trying to gain more room for them and now have a locked LH (drivers side) inertia reel that is unusable when I could have left it alone, done nothing but fit new regulators and no problem bro. Fuckit.

[Gee]

Next step is the underlay and sound deadening. I took out the rear underlay and it has what looks like the factory sound deadening. Sort of a rubbery mat with hessian type insulation.

The underlay felt a bit damp from being there a while so is airing. I ripped out the sound deadener as I have new dynamat to use and the old stuff is degraded. I also wanted to check on the condition of the floor so up it came.

Peeled out really easy so it would have been doing something but not as effective as it should have been. The floors though are mint

Bit of brown in the seams but for what is probably 55 year old paint and no real rust in the floor. Sweet. Ideally I need the seats out to fully remove the carpet but I may just work around them as there is actually a double floor in that area, I assume that is the seam you can see left of the above pic. The nuts are in the upper skin through a small hole in the main shell but with long bolts so I need a really long reach socket to get over the bolt and get the nut off. A standard short socket like mine will never get them off.

[Gee]

Finished up on the sound deadening in the rear. Just worked with the carpet pulled back. Dynamat is much easier to use than I thought. Got it all laid nicely and then put the underlay back on top.

I then had a go at refitting the chrome trim around the drip rail. I used a bit of Dow Corning 4 silicon grease on the rail and it slipped on reasonably easily. 

The right hand side did not play the game nicely though. I could get it on in places but not all the way and didn't want to smash it on. I think the thickness of the paint makes a bit of a difference I may try again later or just get my panel guy to give me a hand for 5 min. (or 30s probably)

Side with no chrome:

I also jacked up the car and measured the driveshaft. It is about 35-40mm between the spider and the diff yoke once disconnected and pushed fully forward (at ride height) which I think is about right. I just need to check if the driveshaft guy can make a new one minus the extra welds and dodgyness. With it up in the air it is less than 5min to get it out so easy job.

[Gee]

Whipped the tailshaft out and got it to the drive shaft shop.

Below is the front yoke (with dodgy extra section welded in) I can't remember whether this is drooped or ride height.

The drive shaft is probably second hand and was probably fitted and possibly lengthened after the the car was un-lowered. It is a 3" tube with a 2 1/4" section at the rear yoke connected in via a rubber joint. I hadn't noticed it so didn't take a photo but the driveshaft guy pointed it out.

Chucked in a bung to stop loosing the fluid, thanks whoever made that suggestion.

Not sure what I'll end up with. It will need to be MASSIVE to take all the TORQUE from the 289 though. It will likely depend on what yokes and tubes the driveshaft shop can get. It was also suggested that we lengthen it by 15-20mm as he likes to only have 25mm extra gap at ride height. Hopefully I can drop down to 2.75" tube to save a bit of weight since I don't need 3" tube which is a bit chunky.

[Gee]

Finished the sound deadening. 

There was a bit of red stuff under the drivers feet, and no original sound insulation. I'm picking there was a bit of a leak so they removed the insulation but didn't treat anything.

I gave this a wire brush and sprayed some rust converter. I didn't have any POR or Brunox so I just sprayed some primer and flat black. Didn't take a photo.

The passenger side still had the original sound insulation

Ripped it out again and this side was much cleaner than the drivers side

A couple of mats and tape and it is now all covered except under the front seats.

 

[Gee]

Post sound insulation I reinstalled the underlay and carpet. Looks like new... or just like it did before I mucked with it.

Seats and trim panels back in.

I also got a guy in to replace the drivers seatbelt so once the driveshaft is back in it is good to go.

Then I tried the rear windows again as they are a bit tight. The passenger side went up then slightly down before binding and going bang. The new regulator is now bent along with the vertical guide. Obviously it was not properly aligned and bound up. Fuckit. I'll deal with that later. Running out of cash to spend and fucks to give on windows for a while. I'll get it running, warranted, maybe do the shocks and bushes and then bother with windows again.

 

 

[Gee]

Decided to use some spare time to replace the shocks. Should be easy I thought.

Car was on axle stands anyway and I had front spring perches and top bushes so I thought I'd remove the springs and do them at the same time.

Spent ages trying to compress the spring to get it out. Tried jacking the car to compress it so I could just hold it with the compressors but that just jacked the whole car. One hour of swearing and frustration and I was knackered, so I gave up on the springs and just did the shocks.

30min later both were done.

I then went to try the rear but I need a 1/2" long reach socket which I don't have so I gave up on that too. All the rear bushes need doing so I'll just get a pro for that.