Ringing In the New Year (With Some Blue Parts)

Mike prepped the hood, trunk lid, front and rear valances, and even the stone deflector that goes behind the front bumper in preparation for trimming them out. He also seam sealed around the seams of the hood and trunk lid.





After they cured for a couple days, I took the following photo. This photo shows the hood next to the rear seat, carpet, and interior panel.





The Ford truck next to the hood is actually a dark blue with a purple tint, that even looks black in some lighting conditions. I was trying to avoid such a blue on the Mustang.

Now for Something Completely Different...

Before I bought this Mustang I had owned a '89 944 Turbo S for about four years, which I sold in 2004.


I bought it from the original owner in Florida and fixed it up. It was the first time I sent a car out to get the engine completely rebuilt, which came out nice.



My garage at the time actually matched the color combo of the car. :)




Check out my photo album (17 pix).

And the Winner Is...

I selected Bright Island Blue for the exterior of the car after seeing a picture of a 66 fastback online in this color. Definitely a lively metallic blue (perhaps with a hint of silver flakes) in sunlight, but a medium solid-looking blue in normal light. No black or purple or green hues at all. I flopped around on many different blues, but this one was the most visually appealing and interesting to me. Mike is using a Nason sealer, Dupont Chromabase base with Basemaker mid-temp, and Dupont clear with activator--three coats of color and three of clear. It's also a Ford color with the Ford color code being "LZ".

Final Primer Time!

Mike put down four coats of final primer last night on the shell and the doors.

Before the primer went down, the yellowish epoxy sealer is visible around all the seams to keep moisture (rust) out.







When the primer is glossy before it dries, you can see how straight the panels are looking. Nice!







The extra pieces and doors and trunk and hood will get primed today.







Then everything gets wet sanded before the color coat begins.

The last photo shows Mike spraying the all-important cowl area in the new paint booth.

Adding Some Bling

There was a box of miscellaneous items that were removed from the car and they'd look better in a shiny finish. The parts were a mix of reproduction with a black finish such as the hood hinges, and original Ford with 40+ years of crud on them (see first photo of door latch as an example). They were bead blasted and then zinc plated with clear chromate at Surtronics in Raleigh. (Need to bead blast them before dropping them off at Surtronics.)





The finished parts came out great overall. But I'm going to ask them to refinish the gas tank filler neck. It was the only part that wasn't up to par. [Update: I brought the part back and they stripped it down for me and showed me the beadblasting wasn't smooth enough -- so I took the part home and wet sanded it and brought it back for a free refinish...] I think a silver cadmium would have been as good of a finished product, even smoother and longer-lasting (but more expensive). My box of parts getting refinished cost $110.

One batch would have been $55, for instance a big box of nuts and bolts, but I had some large/long pieces. I liked that the rubber and plastic pieces are not affected by the zinc plating, so complex parts don't need to be completely disassembled first...
http://www.surtronics.com/

Sneak Peek: Underside

The scope of this project crept a bit this summer. I decided to do the underside of the car so it would look nice too. Here are some "before" pix:






The underside was what appeared to be the original red oxide primer that was thoroughly cleaned and then sprayed with a 3M undercoating product. Of course the underside items were disassembled first, which meant removing the rear axle and leaf springs. The rear axle was taken apart and as these things go, I decided to install Baer rear disc brakes rather than bolting the old drums back on. The front brakes already consisted of a Baer disc brake Sport kit. (I added Speed Bleeders all around for faster fluid bleeding.)

Anyway new hardware was added wherever needed and the rear axle was painted with a black base coat/clear coat. The finish is pretty fragile compared to a powdercoat, but it sure looks great with tons of gloss. This photo is very early before the entire job was done. (The brake lines aren't even done, and of course no exhaust yet...)






BTW, the car had 3.55 gears, an Auburn differential, and a new world-class T5Z transmission. Also you can see the Global West subframes in the photo. I added the (kinda wimpy-looking) driveshaft loop to keep from dragging the driveshaft on the pavement if I broke a u-joint. Hey the ad said it was a Shelby item! :)

Epoxy Primed After Metal Work

The back half was epoxy primed after the metal work and body work were complete. The painters are using a Dupont paint system with Rage filler to lightly smooth where needed.

The green wheelwells are actually etch primed after getting them down to bare metal with a high-speed wire wheel (not the one in the photo). A thick coat of 3M rubberized undercoating will be sprayed in them to deaden sound and protect the metal.

I took the various exterior bits and pieces down to bare metal myself. This includes the front and rear valances, the rear trunk extensions, the front headlight extensions and bezels, gravel guard, and stone deflector. It felt good to save these original Ford pieces with some work.

Junk in the Trunk

Unfortunately the only junk in the trunk was rust, but not too much at all... This meant replacing three of the trunk floor panels -- two drop-offs, and the rearmost connecting piece between them. We elected to replace the tail light panel too (and that means the two brackets holding it to the floor, and the filler neck pass through to make it easier). The cost of all these panels, including the improved repros and one Ford tooling panel was a few hundred dollars. Some people would patch (or cover) these rusty areas, but we figured it best to replace them...





The rust did not affect the rear frame rails at all, and was primarily localized to the ledge on which the gas tank sits. It was caused by water in the trunk, partially from a rear tail light bezel with a missing gasket. And also using the wrong gasket around the trunk ledge that holds the gas tank (the gasket held water between the ledge and the tank.) This area is one of a few that commonly rust on these cars.

I upgraded to a 22 gallon tank for a 1970 model (which I painted silver with a can of ceramic paint and a can of clear) from the original 16 gallon design. I also used a new sending unit, larger 3/8" stainless fuel line with rubber line, filter, and fuel pump fitting.

Stripping the Car Down to Bare Metal

The car was disassembled and stripped at the paintshop to see what was under the paint. All the panels on the car were either original to the car or original Ford panels, no reproductions.






The passenger quarter panel needs to be replaced due to a crunch probably 20 years ago at least.





To save money I'm going to replace the two front fenders with Ford tooling fenders. The old fenders have holes that were drilled to fix some small dents many years ago and holes for emblems that I'm not going to use. Cheaper to replace them than remove all the old paint and filler, then fill the holes and straighten.

The doors don't *need* to be replaced, but there's rust along the bottom seams and on the metal grain pattern, so I am replacing them.

Overall, the exterior wasn't too bad at all. This last photo shows the cowl area when I was about 85% done stripping it (months after the previous photos were taken...) The cowl had no rust at all, so I put a nice coat of POR-15 into it to keep it that way. I poured it in the vents with a funnel and small rubber hose and then used a 2-3 foot extension wand with a sponge on the end through the access holes to wipe smooth. The shop air was able to push it into the seams really well.

Getting Ready to Go to the Painter

I disassembled most of the car for the paint job. The painters would later take out the glass and the seats and carpet.

For months I've had car parts sitting around the garage and guest room. Fortunately, the paint shop has a spare room for me to leave lots of parts and supplies...

Frankly, the car was ok to use as it was, but I figured I'd enjoy it more in a medium/dark blue. And when the engine and interior came out so nice... The car also had a solid/original foundation.

The paintshop I selected was AutoArts in Raleigh.

Front Fenderwell Cleanup

This car had spent many years in CA, so rust was not bad at all. In fact there was very little on the car, with the worst being in the trunk (more on that later). The front fenderwells were in fine shape and cleaned up great. I found the original wax pencil markings on the front outer frame rails.





I'd later take all this down to the red oxide primer and bare metal to clean it up right. You can see the wheels in the last photo after I had painted them dark charcoal with Eastwood wheel paint. They are Vintage Wheel Works V45 in 16"x8" and come unfinished from the factory. The tires are Dunlops in 225/50 on the front and 245/45 on the rear.

I like the look of the car like this. I'd drive it around like this if I could. :-)

You can see the front Baer disc brake caliper peeking out from behind the front wheel...

Interior Redo

The stock interior was a combination of light blue and medium blue and had been restored to some degree probably 15 years ago. It was showing its age, so I decided to redo it next.





I pulled everything out of the interior leaving just some spaghetti wires hanging out of the dash. (And the steering shaft which would scrape up my bald head twice. Gotta remember to put a tennis ball on the end of that thing next time.) I refinished the dash in Medium Blue Metallic and used all new switches, bezels, original tooling dash pad (66 Blue), instrument surround, LeCarra steering wheel, carpet (Ford Blue), and much more. The original glovebox door cleaned up fine. I redid the steering column with a new turn signal switch (buy the original Ford one for $75 -- not the repro!) and painted it blue too. I also refinished the gauges with fresh orange pointers. I drove it around the block to make sure it worked when I put it all back together. No problems at all.

I later stripped down the nice metal quarter panels and refinished them in Medium Blue Metallic, showing the cool grain pattern. (There was 40 years of paint on them previously, and they were smooth.)





Here's the (semi-) finished product. I'd take most of this apart when I sent the car out to be painted...

Engine Bay Overhaul

Taking a look at the engine bay, it was clear it could use some general cleaning and painting and sorting, which didn't bother me. (I enjoy detailing anyway.) I also replaced some various pieces such as the starter solenoid, regulator, windshield pump, and some hoses and hardware. I also removed some old stereo wiring for a stereo that wasn't there anymore. (The stock stereo was still there and worked when I hooked it up.)

Here's the (semi-) finished product. I'd do a few more bits in the next couple months (i.e., nickel plated header bolts, all engine wiring) before sending the car out to be painted. Funny that this photo was taken about 18 days after I received the car.... LOL, I was busy!





The engine already had Edelbrock aluminum heads and Air Gap intake with a Crower cam and roller rockers. Also an Edelbrock water pump, MSD ignition, Holley 4-barrel 670cfm carb, and JBA mid-length headers. And it's a 331 stroker with forged internals instead of the previous 289... I'll get it dynoed in 2008.

So I Decided to Buy a Classic Mustang...

I just decided to create a blog about my classic Mustang restoration that I started about one year ago, so I will be spending the next couple weeks catching up to where the project is today...






I bought this car for myself back in November 2006. It was going to be a project that I could complete in my "spare" time. The previous owner had started modifying it in ways I would have done anyway (stroker engine, Baer front discs, Global West suspension, etc.) so I was happy to pick it up where he had left off. Here are a few of the photos I was emailed by the seller back in 2006. (As a photo credit, many of the "before" photos are actually his.)

The car was shipped to me by DeMoise Trk-ing. They carried the car from San Diego, CA to Raleigh, NC without any issues. Frankly, the shipper was much higher end than the car probably deserved at that point, but I didn't want any shipping hassles. DeMoise is based out of SC and regularly travels from CA to SC and points in between. Their price was less than other outfits you might have heard of, but I can't imagine improving on their service. Very highly recommended. http://www.demoise.com/

The tall photo shows the car being unloaded here in Raleigh. Check out the ACR Viper on the top rack...