Post #14, 5/26/10 Back from the Blaster

 65 Mustang Restoration

Finally!  We went and picked up the Mustang from Advanced Blasting, and boy did it come out nice! Those guys did an Awesome Job! The majority of the car was shot with sand,,, while the more sensitive areas (top & underside of the roof, deck lid, dash, and rear window panel) were shot with glass to keep those areas from warping. The surface looks to be perfect for all of the repair work that we will be doing,,, followed by the special coatings that will be applied to most of the surfaces that tend to rust so easily. Here are a couple of pics of how she looks.

Isn't that sweet looking? I don't think we'll have any problems getting primer, or coatings to stick to those surfaces. I love the engine bay,,, that should come out great once it's coated.

Now that you've seen the positive side to having your vehicle blasted,,, let's now take a look at the "Bummer" side. The sad & bad part about removing all of that rust is,,, once it's gone, so is the metal that it use to be. It was amazing how thin the metal actually was in a couple of areas, and now that the rust is gone, several new areas that will need to be repaired, have revealed themselves. 

When I 1st saw the bad floor pan replacement job, I had decided then & there that I was going to replace them again,, but only because they were poorly installed. But after they were barely blasted, now I have even more of an excuse to replace them.

This is the passenger side front floor pan(top of the picture is the tranny tunnel),,, as you can see, not to good any more,, good thing I have new ones,,, but it's going to be a lot of work to replace them.

 And here's the rear window panel, bottom side. I thought it looked pretty decent,,, but that was before. Luckily they're available aftermarket,, and for only around $38. I haven't decided yet whether to fix the two spots,, or spend several hours cutting the old one out & praying that the new one will actually fit.

Also, the rear floor extensions will be needing some repair,, I'll know more of their condition once the wheelhouses are removed. The driver's side isn't nearly as bad looking as the passenger side, which looks like it'll need replacing.

Look how sad the wheelhouse looks after hardly even being touched with the blaster,,, it sure didn't look that bad before! 

One nice thing about putting all of the new pieces on,,,, we'll be able to coat each one separately as we assemble the car,, and will probably apply a 2nd sealing coat to the joints(as best we can) once the panels are welded back together. 

The new spot welder should be arriving soon,,, and according to what I've seen, on how & how well it works,,, a lot of the panels will look like they were done at the factory,,, or at least that's what we're shooting for. 

It may be a while before I can get hard at it,, several graduations to deal with over the next couple of weeks,,, after that, it'll be time to rock. At least in the mean time it'll give me a chance to get a couple more items put on order,, yippee!