Time to get to work...
The easist part of any project is disassembly. That's why so many projects come to a halt after this stage. However this can get out of control in a hurry if you don't take the time to catalog all parts and bag all fasteners, bolts, screws as they come off the car. I use Rubbermaid plastic storage tubs to hold all the small parts and put an inventory of the contents box on the outside to make things easier to find in the future. In the past I've searched through every box of parts I have to find the one piece you are looking for in the bottom of the only box left. I also separate the parts that have been beadblasted and are ready for paint in a container that has never held oily parts. I don't need to tell you what happens when you try to paint something that has oil on it. The larger parts find their way in to every available corner in the basement. Anyone who has ever wondered how many parts there are in a car really should take one completely apart and then try to hide everything somewhere in their house. But then again isn't that why dining rooms were made?
At first I bought two new front fenders and some new door hinges. The existing door hinges will just about always be worn out allowing the door to sag and not fit properly with the fender and quarter panel. With new door hinges and fenders we can see how straight everything is and check door gaps etc. In this picture we are removing the grill, front bumper and valance.
There is a bolt that secures the fender to the cowl that accessible from under the dash. However with the amount of corrosion on this car the bolt on both sides was seized. Here is yours truly cutting a hole in the fender to get access to the other side of the bolt to try to cut it out.
Alright! Now we are making progress.
Once the fenders were removed the rust damage on the outer rocker became visible. The debris on the floor fell out by itself.
After replacing the door hinges and installing new fenders we can now check the gap and alignment of the quarter panels, doors, fenders and hood.
Roll the car outside one last time to clean the garage before the drivetrain and suspension comes out.
The carpet didn't even hit the garage floor...it went straight into the garbage can.
More rust shows itself in the rocker panel on the left side.
One of the things I like about restorations is finding the secrets a car hides until you take it apart. The piece of plywood in the right rear floorpan was hiding under the carpet. Needless to say there wasn't much solid floor below the plywood.
Out comes the powerplant. I still dream of rowing through four gears with the top down on a country road.
No the trunk didn't do any better than the rest of the car.
A sneak peek at the grill parts from my 1966 Silver Blue coupe. I plan to get pics of its restoration on the net someday.
Now that the interior is gutted we can now see the total result of this
car sitting outside with no rear window. I knew this car was rusty
when I bought it but remember... you should never let fear and common sense
get in the way of quality time in the garage. The nice thing about
Mustangs is just about everything is available in reproduction. As
anyone who has done restorations or bodywork knows that things are ALWAYS
worse than they look. That little bubble on the quarter panel ends
up being a fist sized glob of bondo someone "fixed" the rust with last
time. Bet you know of someone who removed a chunk of bondo from a
wheel well repair only to find a rag stuffed in the hold to hold the bondo
till it cured. So what needs to be replaced here? Well, pretty
much everything: full length floors on both sides, inner and outer
rockers, front torque boxes, and repairs to rear torque boxes.
Next comes the really fun part...fixing all this rust. Can't wait!