Machspeed
Member
I've been posting on this forum since 2013, all in an effort to gain knowledge in the restoration of my Mustang! Too much time has gone by and I've got to get this car finished! My goal is to have it in paint this year! I thought posting it up here would help me to maintain focus and better push through the project with some accountability and encouragement from my friends here! I'm OCD or something and won't move on until I feel confident I can do what I plan to do, which means asking lots of questions and spending hundreds of hours on YouTube watching videos on auto resto, much of which leads me down rabbit holes and even more questions. Sometimes you just have to dive in, and I need to do that!
A little history on this. I bought this car from the original owner back in 1977. Car had 51K miles on it and I paid $1100 for it. That's a lot of money when you're sacking groceries for a whole $1.25/hour. It was my first car and it's pretty special to me.....a base package 69 Mach 1 with a 351W 2V and FMX trans. Back in those days, the rich kids in my school were driving new Z/28's and Trans AM Firebirds. Even back then, I wouldn't swap them even. And, that little 2V 351W would shut them smog motor Z's and TA's down! I rather enjoyed that too!
The car sat in storage from around 1986 to 2015.....6 years in the AF, marriage, education, a business, raising two kids.....LIFE! In 2015 I pulled her out of storage and brought her home to begin the restoration.
I built a rotisserie and body cart for it and began stripping it down. Replaced both front inner fender aprons and the radiator support bracket, as they were damaged in an accident years ago and the repair shop I hired did a poor job in the repair. I welded in some subframe connectors and reinforced the shock towers, as they did on the big block cars. Then took the car in for media blasting and finally a couple coats of SPI epoxy. Son helped me out in the undercoating. Man that sucked but love the picture!
For a southern Texas car and me knowing where it had been, I was surprised to find rust. Media blasting revealed much. Had to patch rear lower qtrs, both sides, right behind the rear wheels. Also had to fab and patch areas in both doors.
In regards to rust, there were a few other areas that I had to address as well.
As of late, I've been addressing some small dings and dents and subsequently honing my hammer and dolly skills with much input from my friends here. I'm so grateful for the time and knowledge given to me here and I can't thank you all enough for that. As I move forward in the paint process, I have many more questions but will leave them for later. I look forward to further input and sharing this project with you all to fruition.
A little history on this. I bought this car from the original owner back in 1977. Car had 51K miles on it and I paid $1100 for it. That's a lot of money when you're sacking groceries for a whole $1.25/hour. It was my first car and it's pretty special to me.....a base package 69 Mach 1 with a 351W 2V and FMX trans. Back in those days, the rich kids in my school were driving new Z/28's and Trans AM Firebirds. Even back then, I wouldn't swap them even. And, that little 2V 351W would shut them smog motor Z's and TA's down! I rather enjoyed that too!
The car sat in storage from around 1986 to 2015.....6 years in the AF, marriage, education, a business, raising two kids.....LIFE! In 2015 I pulled her out of storage and brought her home to begin the restoration.
I built a rotisserie and body cart for it and began stripping it down. Replaced both front inner fender aprons and the radiator support bracket, as they were damaged in an accident years ago and the repair shop I hired did a poor job in the repair. I welded in some subframe connectors and reinforced the shock towers, as they did on the big block cars. Then took the car in for media blasting and finally a couple coats of SPI epoxy. Son helped me out in the undercoating. Man that sucked but love the picture!
For a southern Texas car and me knowing where it had been, I was surprised to find rust. Media blasting revealed much. Had to patch rear lower qtrs, both sides, right behind the rear wheels. Also had to fab and patch areas in both doors.
In regards to rust, there were a few other areas that I had to address as well.
As of late, I've been addressing some small dings and dents and subsequently honing my hammer and dolly skills with much input from my friends here. I'm so grateful for the time and knowledge given to me here and I can't thank you all enough for that. As I move forward in the paint process, I have many more questions but will leave them for later. I look forward to further input and sharing this project with you all to fruition.
