It Takes a Family to Sand a Car

My wife arranged to have her brothers come over and help me work on the car this afternoon to help move things along since I have been fairly busy lately. As a matter of fact I spent Saturday helping friends move and never got the opportunity to work on the car. Today felt like a day of playing catch-up, but with the extra hands on deck, it went quite well. Since my primary goal at this point is to have the car painted by the end of August, I needed all the help I could get to get the car sanded down in preparation for the first coat of primer. Here is a list of my extra hands today:

Clint: Brother-in-Law

Brad: Brother-in-Law

Calvin Sr: Dad

Calvin Jr: Brother-by-blood

They each played a role in the sanding that was done today, but there is still more sanding to be done. When I first arrived, I pushed the Mustang under the canopy since there had been thunder storms overnight and into the morning. I used the air compressor to blow off some of the residual rains that were on the car and while I was doing that, the compressor (which has been used for years to paint multiple cars) decided to go up in smoke. My dad took it apart and will take the motor into a shop to have it looked it, but it wasn't going to do us any good today. Without a compressor, we were limited to sanding the old fashioned way with some elbow grease. Fortunately there was plenty of sanding to be done so I put them all to work.

I had Brad and Clint start off with the door jams on both sides of the car. We pulled the strike plates off with an impact screwdriver that my dad picked up from Harbor Freight. My 7-year old nephew took a break from the swimming in the pool to help sand the dash inside the car. 

Brad's side: Passenger

Clint's side: Driver

Once they were finished with the jams all the way around the door, they moved to the trunk where Brad stripped off the old weatherstrip and Clint chipped away cracking filler. I didn't get a shot of the work they were doing, but I did take a shot of the rear which will still need some more sanding.

I spent the bulk of my time working on the cowl. There are so many tiny little bars that need to be sanding so many different ways! It still needs a little more work, but it's mostly done.

1966 Mustang Cowl

I spent the end of the day taking off the layer of gold paint on the passenger's side door, but neglected to take any pictures since it was the end of the day and I was tired. I hope to have my dad and brother work on the car this week. I'm hoping that my dad will strip off the paint on the hood and that my brother will get off the undercoating on the trunk and deck lid. I should have the opportunity to work on the car on the next two Saturday's and the Sunday after that...trying to get it all done.