Post #2, 4/14/10 Window & Headliner Removal

 65 Mustang Restoration

Didn't have a whole lot of time today, but we did manage to remove the front windshield. It was actually a pretty easy & simple process. Since we'll be replacing the rubber seals anyway,, I bought a knife that you can really extend the blade on, and simply made 3 or 4 passes with it in each area of the seal and was able to remove the top half of the rubber. Since it was still a bit on the stuck side, I just ran the blade Carefully along the edge along the top & 1 side and slowly pushed on it & presto, it came out. We had previously already removed the rear window in the same fashion. It really helped having a knife with a somewhat flexible blade on it. 

We're planing on getting this car Completely bead blasted once everything is off of it,, so to make things waaaay easier for the blasting company to do a good job,,, we tried to clean up as much of the old rubber/glue as much as possible with a putty knife & a wire wheel in the drill. That helped a bunch. 

The lower lip, where the rear window rests upon, actually looks pretty good,, hardly any rust at all. I've debated on whether or not to replace this section,, and I'm still not sure,,, I guess we'll see what it looks like after we get it back from being blasted. 

At the same time we were cleaning the window sills,,, we were also removing the old headliner material that was glued onto those top window ledges. I had my son(Brent) remove all of the items attached to the headliner(hooks, visors, etc) and remove the headliner while I was running an errand. NOTE TO SELF,,, even though he placed all of the small parts in a zip-lock bag & marked it(as instructed),,, I forgot to mention to him to pay attention in which holes he removed the headliner bows,,, and in what order they came out of the headliner. Three of them look the same, but that 4th one is definitely longer. When I took the pic where the headliner was,,, I noticed tiny little arrows pointing at some of the holes up top,, I'm assuming that the bows go in them,, but you know what they say about assuming. 

When we started to first remove the headliner,,, I was a bit puzzled by it, because it's white,,, and according to the date plate, the car came with a standard black interior. I know all of the other old interior pieces that came with the car were black,, just seemed a bit odd that the headliner wasn't also black. I guess I was planning on installing a new black one when the time arrives,, unless someone comes up with a Great reason I should go back with a white one. I was also a bit bummed out that this car didn't come factory with a dome light up in the middle of the roof. I sure wish it would have. I've debated on installing one,,, but don't have any idea how to route the wiring,,, and will there be an appropriate place to plug it into the new wiring harnesses that I'll be buying. 

Here's one thing I do ask of any of you that may be reading this blog,,, if you have info we can use,, or good constructive criticism,, by all means, feel free to share it with us,,, I'm always willing to learn & open to suggestions. 

Thanks in advance. 
Doug/Brent