65 Mustang Restoration
Busy, busy, busy,,, wow, it's been awhile,,, but we should be able to get back at it for awhile. A lot has happened over the last month,,, many new parts have arrived for the car,, including a Complete New interior for the car,, CJ Pony had another awesome sale that I couldn't pass up,,, end result, $310 in savings and another large pile of parts taking up space in the house. We also acquired a freshly rebuilt "Autolite" stamped alternator(upped to 70 amps), a bunch of door parts for the up coming door trial builds, some new GT front springs & new upper control arms(show correct), and a Traction Lok posi unit for our 8" rear end,, which will be gone through completely some time in the future.
And I sure don't want to forget the totally awesome new Chassis Bolt Kit ($223.00)(show correct),,, this is one of the coolest things I have gotten for the car,,, all of the different bolts/nuts/clips/whatever, are all in little Labeled baggies separated by where they go. I sure am glad I bought this kit,,, the decision was made much easier, since previously I had also bought the Body Bolt Kit,,, I'll easily have over 5 bills just in nuts/bolts/clips/etc,,,
As stated in the last post,, Brent & I had a seam sealing session a couple of weeks ago,,, getting nearly the entire rear section of the car completely sealed up,, including the wheelhouses. I thought it turned out quite well. Using a decent 1" wide brush dipped in "Eastwood's" "Pre"(like lacquer thinner), (once a nice bead of sealer was applied to the car), we took our time and spread out the sealer. You want the brush wet, but not too wet,,, a bit of trial and error,,, but if you do it, start out on the dry side, it's easy to get the brush wetter.
Last weekend I want to get the rear of the car pretty well wrapped up, metal-wise that is. And guess what,, more surprises. Remember,,, the back of this car was pretty well non existent when we got it, so I keep finding out as we go what small important parts I need to be able to reassemble this car. Here, it was the 2 little brackets that bolt to the rear frame support, which support the rear valance & the rear bumper guards. Luckily I had acquired a couple of sets of them amongst all of the lots of parts I've been getting on ebay.
So, after finding some nice photos of how & where these brackets actually attach to the car,,, I found the appropriate clips & bolts & proceeded to bolt the brackets on. Hmmm, somethings missing! For some reason there are no holes in the rear support,,, crap! So, I want out & grabbed the old rear section of the car, and there I found the holes I was needing,,, so, measure, measure, measure,,, mark, mark, remeasure,, and finally, make some holes! Actually, it wasn't that bad,,, just more time.
The left rear:
You can see the left side 2 bolts inside the trunk,, but the passenger side bolts are hidden.
The right rear:
The large oval hole is needed to be able to install the clip.
If you look hard, you may notice that the clips go on the sheet metal on the passenger side, with the bolts going in from the rear,, this is done because there's very limited space to get to the bolts from the other side,,, like we were able to on the driver's side,,, mainly, because the gas tank is offset. It works out very well though.
Once the brackets were installed, then I was able to install the rear valance,,, the rear bumpers guards & an old rear bumper, along with the quarter panel extensions. Most of these are all just old parts that we'll be using for the mock up only, except for the valance. This may all seem pretty simple,, but it is very time consuming making sure how everything goes together,,, and that it all fits together properly.
One of my co-workers, the body guy,,, finally stopped over to check out the car,,, the last time he saw it, was when we picked the car up & it was all loaded up on the trailer. He said he couldn't believe what we've done so far, and that he told everyone when we got it that he doubted we'd ever get anything done,,, he has now taken that last statement back, and says he can wait to get started on the bodywork. So now the main goal for this year is to get the body completely mocked up, so we can get the body work done & hopefully get the car in paint before it's put to bed for the winter,,, so if anyone is bored & want's to help,,, come on over!
See ya soon,,,
