Post #45, 10/3/11 Installing the Deck Lid, Fenders & Hood

65 Mustang Restoration

Well, we finally got a chance to get after most of the front end sheet metal work. Whoever said this was going to be the easy part, is really goofy!  Trying to line up all of the jams is enough to make one pull out all of their hair,, maybe I'm just too picky, but I don't know of any other way.

We started on the trunk area & installed the new deck lid that we got from CJP,, a nice looking Dynacorn part, however,,, it looks to have too much of an arch front-to-back,, and I don't see any way of correcting that without really screwing it up. I was able to acquire a real nice looking factory deck lid,,, think we're going to give it a try here real soon to see if that will work any better.

You can see the arch in the bottom pic the best,,, you may notice that the front of the deck lid still needs to be adjusted upward a small bit, which will make the center of the lid(on the side) line up even worse.

Next it was finally time to tackle the front end.

 

We started with the fenders, which actually didn't fit too badly,,, just a slight amount of tweeking to get them fitting properly,,, and most of that was in the headlight area. I'm still patting myself on the back for being smart enough to buy the Body Bolt Kit,,, oh thank goodness!!
 

The fenders, the hood, & the front valance were all purchased from CJP. I am Extremely happy with how well the hood seems to fit,, and the valance didn't fit too badly either,, just a very minor bit of tweeking. Though I really like the hood,, the bottom side glue spots are a bit on the sloppy side,, (see below), but other than that,, so far, so good.

Mustangs Unlimited had a nice price on the new Headlight Bucket Kits that I bought,,, I think I'm happy with them,, I'll know more latter on. I spent around 15 minutes on each one doing a bit of de-burring and reshaping a bit to get the parts to fit a bit better,,, even then they'll still be needing some body work to make their shape match the fender a bit better.

I had bought a new lower grill support from CJP,, but I didn't like how it didn't fit very well, so I robbed the one off my other "65 in waiting",, and it fit perfectly. Some times you just have to use oem parts if you want things to line up properly. I had 3 different stone guards to chose from,,, the one off of the car was actually in pretty good condition,, and since it's a factory part,, it fit pretty well. Both the stone guard panel & the grill support will be sent out to be blasted soon.  


Yes that is just an old used bumper,, the new one will be installed after paint.
 

  

We blasted an old set of hinges & coated them all up,, and then installed a new set of springs which we pretty much instantly removed, because they were waaaay too stiff,,, I was afraid of bending the new hood. We grabbed the old set of springs which worked a lot better,, we just have to blast them and make them all pretty now. Though all of those new bolts look great,,, can you see what I mean about the glue under the hood? I'll have to check with the body guys to see what they think.

I guess the next step is to see what the body guy wants me to do next,, he should be over to see the car real soon.

So, till then,,,,