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,,,, 

Post #36, 6/14/11 Trunk Mods & Install

65 Mustang Restoration

Now that the quarters are pretty well prepped, it was time to concentrate on the trunk floor pans. And even though they've already been fitted into place,, there was still much work to be done.

Before we removed the pans, from below,,, we traced along the outside edge of the new frame rails so when the pans were removed, we'd know exactly where to drill our spot weld holes,, and once they were drilled, we then were able to remove a minimal amount of the black coating on the pans & the coating that remained, was prepped for the final coatings that'll be applied once everything is welded in place. 

Once the pans were removed, we realized that we hadn't completely weld in the rear cross member, so we did that first,,, then we cleaned everything up good,,, but we still had a bit of work to do.

 Once all of the spot weld holes were drilled, we set the pans back into place and noticed that the lips on the frame rails weren't completely level with the bottom of the pans, so we removed the pans once again & grabbed a straight edge/level and place it across all four of the frame rail lips. As you can see, they weren't all level and flat, so we took a few minutes & got them all positioned so that they were. But guess what,, just a couple more things to do first before their final install. 

So,,, what do we see in this picture? A couples of things actually. First, you may notice that the RR pre-assembled wheelhouse didn't come with the proper dent on the inside lower corner/curve. This dent is only important to have if you're planning on hauling a spare tire in the proper location, which we are planning to do. Luckily, one of the 4 separate wheelhouse pieces, previously bought, did come with the proper dent in it,,, now we just had to figure out how to transfer a dent. Yippeeeee!

Secondly,,, if you look at the inside of the frame rail towards the top, you'll notice a yellow-green color,,, that's because, before we planned on sealing up the top of the frame rail, we wanted to make sure that we coated the entire inside of the rails, all of the way down to the back seat area. We were able to do this with Eastwood's, Internal Frame Coating. It's designed to coat the inside of frames & other areas that you can't normally get to. These cans come with a special hose attached to them with a Spray Nozzle that sprays in several different directions all at once.  You just spray a BUNCH of the coating, til it starts running out of all of the holes on the bottom. Not only did we spray the rear frame rails, but we also did both of the front frame rails & both of the rocker panels. We had previously cleaned them up as much as we could & then just before coating, we blew them out for the last time.

Getting back to the dent, you can see here that we've cut out the dent from the extra panel. When lining up where cut out a hole in the good wheelhouse, it's best to do this from the underside of the wheelhouse. I was actually surprised at how well it lined up. We traced around it & cut out the hole(smaller than the lines we drew, you can always make the hole bigger). 
 

And here's the new dent installed,,, it actually wasn't to hard of a job, just time consuming,,, I was glad that we did it before installing the floor pan though. Here we've also set the pan back into place,,, you can see the spot weld holes. Now we're finally ready to install them.

The trunk pans are finally installed. Once all of the welds were ground down, we once again used Eastwood's Satin Black Rust Encapsulator to cover up all of the metal(except where more welding is to be done). Once it dried, we sealed up all of the edges with Eastwood's Seam Sealer. 
 

 We used Eastwood's Silver Rust Encapsulator in this area for a couple of reasons,,, but mainly because it makes it a lot easier to see in this area when installing the window & messing with the wiring, that'll have to be done down the road a bit.
 

We also welded in the tabs that help to mount the back seat side panels. This was simple & it lines up perfectly with the panel.
 

Once all of the coatings were dry, we then added the Fat Mat to the outer portion of the wheelhouse.
 

Remember that new steering wheel, well I ordered a Super Nice Black Leather Wrap called a "Wheel Skin" that I bought on ebay,, and the other night while watching TV, I spent about an hour & hand sewed the cover onto the wheel. What a Nice item! I have big hands and the factory wheel is pretty small in diameter making it harder to grip,,, this leather wrap made a big difference, the wrap is very secure feeling, it's added some thickness to the wheel, and it looks extremely nice! I also bought a new horn spring & installed the extremely nice factory horn cover that I also bought on ebay. I actually bought several of them, until this nice one arrived,,, I'd rate it a 9-9 1/2 out of 10,,, it's really nice.

I think that's all for this week,,, next step is to hopefully install the quarter panel for good,,, hopefully.

Till then,,,,  

Post #35, 6/14/11 LR Quarter Install & Wheelhouse Mods

65 Mustang Restoration

The game plan for this last weekend was to concentrate on getting the LR Quarter to fit properly & to get it prepped for mounting,,, which also included a bunch of other steps,,, mainly, the trunk floor pans.

For the um-teenth time we installed, removed, and re-installed the quarter tweeking a little here & there as we went. Once we thought we had it where we wanted it, we grabbed the end cap & the deck lid to once again make sure everything looked square. Overall it looked pretty good, but the back area where the end cap bolts onto was off a bit, requiring a bit of fixing.

This is the underside of the quarter,, though it's a bit hard to see, the silver marker line indicated where I needed to trim the metal so I could lower the corner a bit,, just a couple of spot welds & a quick trimming,,, or something like that.

This is the modified/corrected corner,, not to difficult, just time consuming,, like everything else,, but the end result will be much better fitting body lines,,, and that is the goal,, right? Next!

With that, it was finally time to get the wheelhouse lip corrected, something I've been stalling on and not looking forward to doing, but I guess it's time to suck it up and get after it.

Well that was quick. So,, the problem was that the curvature of the wheelhouse wasn't like the curvature of the quarter panel lip. Both of the lips, at the bottoms, were actually right on the money,, but at the top, there was approx. a 1" gap between the 2 lips, and there was no way they were ever going to be squeezed together. 

Solution:  I had also previously bought a "set of 4" individual wheelhouse panels, 2 inners & 2 outers. With the quarter installed, I started by seeing where the 2 lips fit together properly on the front side & made a mark(on both panels) where they were just starting to not fit properly. Then we removed the quarter. Once removed & on the bench, I was able to see how well the lip of the extra wheelhouse panel fit against the lip of the quarter. It fit very well, so I cut the entire lip off of the extra wheelhouse, approx. 2" up the side, and then I attached it to the quarter with several self-tappers to hold into place, I then marked the new lip 1/2" past the mark I had previously made on the quarter in the front, then I removed it & cut the excess off of the new lip, and then re-screwed it back on.

Before I installed the quarter, I had to cut off the lip of the wheelhouse on the car, approx. 1/2" up, on the side so that the old lip wouldn't be in the way,,  then we re-installed the quarter panel, clamping it into place so that both wheelhouse lips/ledges were in a relaxed position. I was then easily able to mark along where the 2 panels touched each other at the edge,,, once marked, I removed the quarter, then removed the new lip, and trimmed off the access metal approx. 1/4" above the mark I just made. Once done trimming, I sanded off any paint on ALL(inside & out) of the surfaces that would interfere with welding the lip onto the car. Sanding completed,, re attach the lip to the quarter,, reinstall the quarter.

Now tack the new lip in place from the bottom side all the way around & then remove the quarter panel. Now finish welding the entire bottom side of the lips, an inch at a time, skipping around, to keep from warping the panels. Once that is done, now it's time to weld the entire outside of the lips,, using a hammer & dolly as you go,,, then grind off any access weld.

See, now wasn't that easy? Now we have a proper lip that matches up perfectly to the quarter like it should. And you wonder why it's taking us so long and why the price tag will be over 25K once completed.

NEXT,,,, since the quarter was already off,, again,,, we deiced to finish prep it for final install. The entire inside was sanded/scuffed and then all of the edges, where it'll be weld to the car, were taped off,, and then sprayed with Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator.  

Don't let the different shades worry you,,, we just gave the edges that won't get covered with Fat Mat, a couple of extra coats of Encapsulator. 

Side Note,,, here's one of those silly little things you don't want to over look and forget to do,,, If you plan on running quarter panel ornament, it's a whole lot easier to get them drilled with the quarter off of the car. I sure would I would have kept the old one for a template,,, who knew????

Wow, what a difference this made to the sound of the quarter. I love the quality of this sound barrier. This is the 70 mil. Extreme Rattle Trap Fat Mat. This stuff goes on really well, the only draw back is, that if you have to remove a piece,, hope it's a small piece, cause it doesn't like to be removed,, Good Stuff,,, and about 1/3rd of the price of Dynamat.

That's all for tonight,, I should have more for you possibly tomorrow night.

Till then,,,

 

Post #34, 6/3/11 Fitting the Left Door, Quarter Panel & Tail

65 Mustang Restoration

So on Labor Day Weekend we were finally able to get back to work on the Mustang. Here's a recap of some of that work,,,

 1st on the list, after combing the garage for the hinges, was to mount the driver's door so we could see if it was going to fit worth a hoot, and also to help with the alignment of the rear quarter panel. I was pretty happy with how the door fit.

 

 Here you can see the lip that the quarter panel gets welded to. When we picked this car up, the quarter was already completely taken off, which definitely has it's pros & cons. By having the door installed, it made it much easier to straighten the lip(not done yet when the pic was taken).

 Since a good Pack Rat never gets rid of anything, we were able to compare the new "Ford Tooling" rear panel against the original,,, keeping the old parts is probably one of the brightest things I've done. It sure made it nice for measuring everything,,, I was very happy with all of the dimensions,, it really looked close to the factory piece(less all of the rust).

 The new rear panel didn't come with the holes where the lower valance attaches to (the rear frame brace that the back panel attaches to is pre-drilled), so we used the original holes as a template and before we drilled the holes, we double checked the markings with BOTH the new valance & the rear brace,,, looked good. This also helps to make sure you don't put a lump of super hard weld in one of those areas.

 Then we started fitting the quarter that we got from Laurel Mountain,, which is a ton closer to fitting properly than the one we originally got from CJP. We then did a quick test fit of the corner brace,,, needs a bit of tweeking, but it shouldn't take much. As you can also see,,, I don't think it's possible to ever have enough pairs of vise grips,,, and it takes a Bunch of different sizes to get the job done. We have also found that when fitting panels together that you'll be taking on & off a lot, it's really nice to use some #8 small self tappers to actually screw the panels together,, this really helps lining everything back up in the same spot each time you install the panel,, and it's an easy hole to spot weld shut when you're doing final assembly.

 This area fits sooo much nicer than the other panel did,,, though not perfect, it'll be much easier to repair/modify. The overall fit of this area is really nice.

 For an initial test fit, I thought the door gap area looked pretty good,, we can easily slide the door back a bit,, remember, we just guessed where it should be when we first installed it.

For the most part,,, the general fit of this quarter panel was pretty good. One thing that is kind of a pain though, is all of the grinding it takes to remove the black coating where everything will be welded together,,, this is very time consuming,,, but it needs to be done. 

At this point, the main thing we need to finish, is the redesign of the wheelhouse lip so it attaches to the quarter properly,,, I have a pretty good start on that, but it'll have wait until next time.

Till then,,,,

Post #33 6/2/11 Steering Gear & New Parts Arrival

65 Mustang Restoration

We're Finally Back!  After a long winter of cold & Ebay'n,,, it's finally time to get back to work.

As we left off last season,, we were extremely disappointed with the CJ's quarters that we had just tried to fit, which were absolutely worthless,,, since then, we ordered in another set of quarters from Laurel Mountain Mustang, along with a new front tinted windshield. Here's a big tip,,, if you have to order something that has to be truck freighted into you,,, buy everything big that you can think of,,, it'll save you a fortune in later shipping costs. For example,,, the truck freight for the quarters was approx. $142.00,,,, which is approx. what it would have also cost to get my windshield sent to me later on down the road, but by buying it at the same time, it only cost me an additional $4.00,,, BIG SAVINGS!

Before we start with what we did last weekend,,,, Lets look at some of the new goodies that showed up on the truck today. The first couple of boxes we got came from our friends over at Chockostang, out of Illinois. They do extremely nice work, and Dan, the owner loves to talk Mustang! 

Dan & his crew took care of just about everything I needed for my steering needs.
 

 Here the freshly rebuilt, large neck power steering pump that they did all up for us. They massaged the tank portion and made it look like new,,, it really looks nice.

 They also supplied all of the new hoses that we'll be needing. Gosh I love new parts! They're like all nice & clean!

 These are the two rebuild kits that are for the control valve & the power assist cylinder.

And last but not least,,, here's the nice 4-turn box that I had them go through(and a new idler arm). I sent along a can of Eastwood's Brake Grey Paint so they could coat the entire assembly when they were done with it to help keep it looking nice for a long time. I chose the Brake Grey for the Cast Metal finish,, the large amount of Stainless Steel that it contains, it's also brake fluid resistant,, and it withstands heat up to 400 degrees. This will be the coating that we'll be using on just about everything that's suppose to look like cast.

Chockostang

1624 Chock Rd.

Murrayville, IL 62668

(217) 882-2083

And then there was the large pile from Laurel Mountain, I talked with Lou who was very helpful making sure I got everything I needed,, and even some things I didn't know I needed,,, It's great to have someone like that to talk to when you're not 100% sure on everything.

 Starting the list,, is a new set of bumpers & the bolt kit,,, the chrome actually looks very nice,, much better than I was expecting,,, just packed with a bit of oil residue.

 We also got the window felts along with the new felt lined, window guide tracks/channels.

 Here's the new pre-bent fuel line,,, they have to bend it with a big arc so it'll fit into the box.

 Here's the new steering wheel & the dash bezel & knob kit.

 We also ordered their weatherstripping kit, which contains just about every piece that you'll need for your car,,, I bought the other vent window strips & the above tracks,,, so we should now have everything.

And lastly,,, here's the new speedo cable & the nice little Brake & Fuel Line CLIP Kit. The only item that was back ordered was the brake line kit,,, but it'll be here long before I'll be ready for it.

Laurel Mountain

113 Mustang Lane

Ruffsdale, PA 15679

1-888-925-PONY

Well that took to long,,, I guess we'll try to post what we actually did to the car tomorrow. 

Till next time,,,,