A Not-So-Instant Replay: Part III

I got the doors fixed up this weekend, adjusting the door-to-quarter gap for width and flatness, as well as the door-to-rocker gap for consistency and flatness. When the hinges were moved (pretty considerably), I then put a steady bead of permanently flexible, clear silicone along the top and leading edge of the hinges for waterproofing. (Originally, this area was covered in factory "goop" brushed on to seal it before paint.)

The worked gaps are much better now, and the doors open and shut just great, particularly the passenger door. On the passenger door I also was able to close that gap by the handle pretty well. Since the door was too far in at the upper left corner, I loosened the hinge bolts on the door and pushed in the lower right corner. The lower right corner was a little too far out anyway, and this popped out the opposite offending edge.












The funny thing is that the side windows are perfect now. They fit just great without any modifications. They were a bit sloppy before, but moving the doors tightened the window gaps just right.

And a photo of the rest of the parts (not including the bumper).

A Not-So-Instant Replay: Part II

It actually didn't take long to get to this point. In addition to the removal of what you see in the pix, the interior door panels and kick panels are removed.











I tried to remove pieces in big "chunks"—such as the bumper with brackets attached, and the grill with the surround and headlight buckets attached. Hopefully, I can get it reinstalled like that too. :-)











 If there are no surprises I hope to have tighter gaps and a re-reassembled car here in the next couple weeks.

A Not-So-Instant Replay: Part I

Since I reassembled the car there's been something bugging me. Well, a few things actually. The gaps around the doors weren't particularly tight and this caused the fender gaps to be too loose. In fact, besides looking lousy to someone who knows classic Mustangs, the panel misalignment caused the front windshield trim to fit poorly (and the original piece of lower trim does not fit at all.)

I was reading a classic car magazine the other day and in the classic car auction recap pages, the author mentioned a car at auction with "panel gaps so big a squirrel could fit through." So, that was the last straw! :-)

The passenger door is twisted a bit too—too far in at the handle area and too far out at the front lower corner. The passenger fender is too far forward so the headlight trim doesn't line up. The fenders are also too far out, needing to be brought closer to the hood. Speaking of the hood, it can be brought back towards the cowl when the fenders are right.





When I reassembled the car I used the pilot holes the body/paint guys drilled. Frankly, I didn't know any better at the time and was probably anxious to get the car done. :-) Now, I will be closing as many gaps to 1/8" as I can (except for the front door gaps—maybe 3/16" on those.) Right now all the gaps are at least 3/16" and one is 1/4".





I've been finding plenty of old photos online of original Mustangs and they really had good gaps from the factory. I don't know where these old cars got the reputation for poor panel gaps from the factory, but I haven't been seeing it.