Post #37, 6/27/11 LR Quarter Install

65 Mustang Restoration

Well, the LR Quarter panel is finally all welded into place. It takes quite a bit of time to get all of the seams to sit flat against each other so all of the welds come out properly,,, overall, it was about a 6 hour process. The wife say's it's finally starting to look like a car again!

It took a bit of teamwork for Brent & myself to get the roof area all welded back to the quarter. This is a bit of a process since the quarter first has to be welded to the roof's inner structure,, then the welds have to be ground down,,, then the roof's outer skin can be attached to the quarter. If you noticed in previous pictures,, the outer roof skin was in pretty ruff condition, due to all that had to be done to remove the original quarter(which had been done before we received the car). But, with Brent holding the skin in place & with me tacking away, it actually wasn't too bad of a job. Once we had it tacked in place, I'd weld up an inch & then Brent would hit the area with a cold wet rag,,, which helps to keep the metal from warping,,,, actually, wetting it down, helped to shrink the metal back into place.
 

Another area that takes a bit of time to line up properly, is the door jam. I was surprised at how easily & well everything lined up,,, and I am very happy with how it turned out. Once the final adjustment of the door is done, it should be great,,, way better than expectations!

Here you can see that we also got the rear panel also half welded in(welded along the bottom up the the gas cap area). The LR lower drip rail corner was also completely welded into place. It's amazing how all of those wobbly sheet metal parts are now so stout.

 You can see that we still have to weld in the rear bumper-to-floor support brackets, but they'll have to wait until the other quarter in installed. 

Now we have to spend a bit of time to get all of the spot welds ground down & blended in. Once that's done, we'll put some very heavy coats on Rust Encapsulator in all of the freshly welded seamed areas to keep the rust away,,, followed by some more seam sealer, and eventually, more of the sound deadner. 

FYI  TIP:

Regaurdless how big of a pain in the rear or time consuming it is,,,, whenever you get in a shipment of any type of sheet metal(no matter what type of a truck it shows up on,, UPS, Fed Ex, USPS, and especially truck freight), always, always, always check it out and make sure it has arrived in good condition, AND, that it's actually the right part(the one you ordered). 

Why,,, well when we were about to get started in on the RR quarter this weekend,,, I way unpleasently surprised the find a huge dent/crease( and I do mean Huge) in the quarter once we removed the shipping box. Crap, wasn't quite the word that I used,,,, . My heart just sank,,, I was totally bummed out and all I could think was,,, crap, there's another 3 bills down the drain. 

But Then,,,, I think I may have lucked out(I guess I'll find out on Monday when I call LM), Once I figured out there wasn't much I could do about it right then, I figured I'd still try to see how well the quarter might line up with everything. But something wasn't right, it just seemed a bit off, especially where the quarter should line up with the roof,,, so to confirm my suspicions I grabbed the box it came in & checked the label & in big bold letters it said,, "RH Convertible",,, they sent me the wrong part,,, actually they sent me a very dented wrong part. So since the messed up the order,,, I assume they should be willing to fix it,, I hope!

So instead of sitting around,, we decided to go through all of the boxes of spare & small parts,,, figuring out what all needed to be replaced, what we still needed, what items can be sand blasted or cleaned up,,, might as well get some other items prepped for repair or paint.

Oh yeah,, we also just ordered ALL of the new Wiring for the car. All new harnesses, parking, backup, and tail light kits, radio,,, etc,,, just about every electrical item we'll be needing,,, that should be in this week.

Till next time,,,,