65 Mustang Restoration
Though a lot of work was done, there's not a ton of progress to report on. First we installed the RR wheelhouse, which actually wasn't too bad,, more time consuming than difficult. Since the wheelhouses are such an important structural feature on the car, you definitely want to make sure things are going to line up properly. We grabbed the rr trunk floor sheet metal just to double check the fit,, and to go one step further,, we cut the bottom half of an old gas tank off and then screwed the upper half onto the existing panels that are still factory pieces,,, which then helped to line up the new rr trunk floor(which was then clamped into place),,,, which in turn helped to properly line up the wheelhouse. Seems like a lot of extra work, but it'll sure help with the alignment of all of the other parts of the rear section of the car.
It's amazing how much strength the wheelhouses have,, so even though they're a super pain in the rear to do,,, if you have a questionable wheelhouse(very rusty or super thin feeling),, don't dink around,,, just replace it,, it's just to important of a part, not to.
Next it was time to move over the the LR frame rail & wheelhouse. Wheelhouses are really a pain to remove,,, but we must be getting better at it, because this one only took us half the time remove. It helps a bunch when you're able to remove most of the frame rail during the process,, big time saver.
Luckily, there seems to be a lot Less rust on the left side,,, so repairing the sheet metal shouldn't take quite as long. Most of the prep work to the metal has already been done, with just a little bit left to go before we're able to install this new wheelhouse. We also have the new LR frame rail all fitted into place with only a couple of things to do to it before it's final installation.
I guess it was lucky that we decide to see how well the rear cross member fit up to the back of the frame rails,,, because it doesn't fit very well at all,,, unusable as far as I'm concerned. The main & overall shape of the rail was fine,, the problem is, that it's not tall enough,, approximately 1/4"-3/8" from lining up with the top of the frame rails,, not good! I'm sure I could butcher it up and make it fit, like many others have done in the past,, but that won't happen on this car. Sounds like some extra Phone Time come Monday morning.
Hopefully we can get a good one by next weekend,,, may be hard though, with turkey day this week. If nothing else,, Happy Thanksgiving!
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