65 Mustang Restoration
Yea Haw,,, tonight we finally started to prep the car for the most complicated part(I hope) of the whole restoration,,, doing the whole rear section of sheet metal & frame sections on the car. I have been very worried about tackling this portion of the build,, mainly because there are so many things that have to be perfect in order for everything to line up properly.
We started by removing the rear wheel sections of the jig we built and setting the car on 4 nice heavy duty jack stands, trying to keep it as level as possible. And since the bottom of the car is already done, we placed some nice pieces of 2x6's between the stands & the frame rails. We then use a couple of scissor jacks to help hold the rear jig in place,, with very light pressure.
Next I took a bit of old scrap 1/2" square tubing and fabbed up a temporary rear support & tacked it in place,, this is to help support and keep everything in place while we cut some of the main supports for the roof.
We then proceeded to cut a large section of the rear of the car off in one large piece. This will be used for measuring purposes in the near future,, and you never know if there's a small bracket you might need still on it somewhere. Never throw anything away until you're absolutely sure there is absolutely nothing else left on it that you might need!
This is a picture of how the aluminum spacer fits into the rear of the frame rail,, very important when it comes to lining up the new rear frame rail section that has to be installed. It just slips into the bushing sleeve and is held in place by two supports arms that are welded to the jig.
Here's what the jig looks like without the sheet metal on it. It's very solid and seemed to work perfectly(so far), because when I cut through the frame rail,, it barely moved & stayed right in place. The next step is to start prepping all of the metal surfaces and cleaning out the rear frame sections so we can get the insides of the frame rails coated so help prevent any further rusting.
Brent has already been busy glass beading parts. Though the new rear aftermarket frame sections are nice,,, I still plan on doing a bit more welding on them to make everything stronger.
This is going to be a huge project,,, I sure hope we're up to it!
Till next time,,,,
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