New Battery

When I went over to my parents house on Father's Day, my dad showed me that he picked up a battery for the Mustang. There's no way I was going to turn down a battery that I didn't have to buy myeslf so I mounted it in the Mustang and will get all the cables hooked up later.

I'm not sure what the brand is, but free is good for me! I should be starting up the car sometime in the near future so this battery will prove very useful. When that day comes, I'm sure I'll have a video to upload.

Body Work (day 2)

For the second day in a row (on a weekend) Lauren had to work which left me to work on the Mustang. After speaking at Pipeline, I headed over to my parents house, changed and got back to work on the front fenders. As the day before, most of my work was concentrated on the passenger fender since it had the most damage and required the most attention. After making another pass with Bondo on the fender and doing some sanding, I used a can of spray primer to get a good look at the fender. I loosely hung it on the car to get a good look at it and I mist say that it is looking pretty good. There are a couple of spots that I want to spend a little more time on, but overall it is ready for a coat of epoxy primer and block sanding.

Passenger Fender on Mustang

The rear Passenger's side extension had a small dimple dent in it and I attempted to hammer it back out, but I wasn't able to get it entirely out. I used a skim coat of Bondo to bring it flush. I stripped down the paint on the rest of it using a scour pad on an air tool and put a coat of primer on it to check it and it passed the test.

Passenger's Side Rear Quarter Extension

My dad graciously helped me out again today and spent his time working on the roof and the driver's side door area. After sanding down the roof, he used another coat of Bondo for a few low spots.

Roof with Second Coat of Bondo

I have decided to buy a gallon of epoxy primer in order to get a more even finish and a better paint job. Epoxy primer will fill small scratches and level the surface. I haven't decided which brand to go with yet, but that will be my next purchase as we get ready for paint in the upcoming couple of months.

Body Work

Lauren had work today so I went over to my parents house to do some more body work on the Mustang. The last time I worked on the Mustang I only had a chance to start body work on the front fenders. Today I continued to work on the same fenders. The driver's side fender doesn't appear to have too much damage whereas the passenger's side fender does have more body damage. I spent most of my time today working on the more heavily damaged fender since I want to see it done.

Passenger Front Fender

As you can see from the picture above, I've had to use a few coats of Bondo in order to obtain a smooth finish. I did my best to hammer out the portion of the fender that was crushed in by some previous owner, but wasn't able to get the fender flat. I used a coat of paint to see how close the fender was since it would help reveal low spots or ripples. I found a couple of low spots which is why you see a second coat of Bondo on top of the first coat. The third small coat on the top front of the fender was because there were some low spots that I didn't see before applying the second coat.

Bottom of Front Passenger Fender

If you remember from my previous post about the fenders, there was some rust in the bottom of the panel which I treated and filled with the mig welder. The fender still required a skim coat of Bondo in that area as well as the area where I filled the holes for the mustang emblem. I haven't finished working these areas yet, but will resume that possible tomorrow.

Mustang Roof with Bondo

If you also recall from my previous post regarding body work, the roof had multiple dents from the previous owner (or his ex-wife) that had to be addressed. While I worked on the fenders, my dad took the liberty to help me out. Using a body hammer, he did his best to pull out the dents, but they still required a flush coat of Bondo. The picture above shows the Bondo before it was sanded. We still have a long way to go before paint...

Rear Quarter Windows & Pass. Fender

While I was working on the passenger side fender last Saturday, my brother and dad worked together to get the rear quarter windows out of the car. The passenger side fender had a couple of areas that were rusted through and other areas that had holes drilled, there were the holes for the emblems, not to mention the antenna hole all which I wanted to fill. 

Driver's Side Fender with Emblem Holes

Passenger side Fender with Flap Holes

Passenger side Fender with Antenna Hole

Using the mig welder I filled all the holes above and used an air grinder to smooth them over to prep them for a skim coat of Bondo. 

I took pictures of only one quarter window before and after to get a sense of how bad the glass was. It was pretty fogged, but with a little elbow grease and some polishing compound I was able to work out the haze and get a crystal clear finish.

Passenger Side Quarter Window Before

Passenger Side Quarter Window After

Unfortunately the chrome still isn't in great shape, but it'll have to do for now. It did polish and looks shiny, but the bad parts are still bad...all the polishing in the world wouldn't put chrome back where chrome is gone.

Passenger Side Quarter Window Before

Passenger Side Quarter Window After