Two Hours of Body Work

I had about two hours to work on the Mustang between getting home, taking care of some business around the house and getting to mens group.Of course the primary thing I'm still focusing on is body work so that I can get this car painted before it gets too cold. Being in southern California, it never really gets too cold, but I'd rather paint the car in decently warm weather. I did some work on the passenger's side fender which had a few areas that still needed some fixing.

Passenger's Side Fender

My primary goal today was to work on the running board area that usually sits out of view underneath the rocker panel on the passenger's side. I had previously knocked out the rivets and welded over the holes, but hadn't gotten much further than that. Today I used a grinding wheel to grind down the welds to be slightly recessed before skinning them with a coat of metal etching body filler. The brand is Evercoat and it is called Z-Grip. It mixed very smooth and had a blue/green shade unlike Bondo which has a pinkish tint.

Evercoat Z-Grip Body Filler on Running Board

After using the filler I used some 180 grit sandpaper and a thick square piece of rubber to block the area. The rubber is firm enough to stay flat, but flexible enough to sand areas like running board which isn't exactly flat. Once it was smooth I put a light coat of metal etching primer along the bottom.

Running Board with Metal Etching Primer

That was about all I had time for today. When my dad got home he started working more on the roof except this time he was sanding the driver's side which is also in need of some work. He is the real body man on this job since he comes with the experience and knowledge to get the job done right. I've been relying on him to steer me in the right direction throughout this entire project.

He dropped off the front windshield molding at the chrome/stainless steel shop the other day so that they can straighten out the dents and polish it to a mirror like finish. If it turns out as great as the stainless steel they polished around the wing window, it'll look great. I should also be getting my tires in the next week or so and I'll be tempted to mount them on the car although that time might be better spent wrapping up the body work.

Body Work Day ?

Since its Monday I had the opportunity to work on the Mustang while Lauren had her women's bible study. Since I'm still doing body work before we paint it, I feel like I'm making little to no progress. It seems like it takes forever or that I'm re-doing the same old sections over again because they didn't turn out right the first time. Its definitely the slowest and most painful part of this restoration.

I only took two pictures the entire time I was there and of course they were at night so there's not a lot to see. I sanded down the dash and sprayed it with a thin-medium coat of metal etching primer to get it ready for a coat of regular primer.

 I did a lot of body work on the passenger's side door and fender. I also used the metal etching primer on bare spots around the car as well as underneath the hood since the primer flaked off in big sections again. All metal parts of the car are now primered. My dad helped me out with the roof of the car since it was still wavy and I couldn't seem to get a good skim coat. He sanded it down a lot to see where it was and there are still a couple of high spots that will probably require some more stern "persuasion" to correct.

My dad brought home the wing windows and quarter windows from the chrome shop and they look great except for the stainless steel strip that goes around the wing window glass which has a little tiny piece of chrome on it that the shop only stripped down to brass. They said that they couldn't chrome it since it is surrounded with stainless steel. I'm going to have to either shoot a coat of clear on it or paint it chrome since it will tarnish if I don't do anything.

Part of the Wing Window

I'm excited to get the car painted so that I can start putting together all of the new shiny parts back on it. I also purchased a 1" front sway bar and am going to order the front tires this week. Our updated goal is to have it painted by the end of October. Keep your fingers crossed.

Shackles & Stuff

I didn't feel like today was a very productive day working on the Mustang, but I guess I'm bound to have days like that. I was only there from about 10:15-4:15 while I'm usually there much longer on a weekend. Lauren was supposed to be working today, but then at the last minute plans changed and she was home so I stayed with her longer in the morning and wanted to get back to her earlier.

I started off by removing the old homemade leaf spring shackles that were installed in the car when I bought it and instead replaced them with stock shackles with rubber bushings. I used a lithium based grease to lubricate the inside of the leaf spring as well as the outside of the rubber to hopefully keep it from squeaking.

I also wanted to put on the new wingnut that I bought for the air cleaner even though it was something small. It's the little things that make a difference to me. It has the Mustang horse logo on it and it is flat black to match the air cleaner.

I did a lot of sanding and small body work projects where there were noticeable dents after primering it the last time. I also pulled off the driver's side door hinges in order to replace the pin and bushing in at least the top hinge since it had a lot of play. I marked where the hinges lined up before I pulled them off.

Other than body work and sanding the only other thing I did today was pull out the windshield wiper arms since I want to make sure that the paint on the cowl looks good around them. I've found that its not easy to sand and paint in this area when they are installed. I simply had to remove one clip per arm and take out three bolts per arm.

Second Coat of Primer

Yesterday afternoon I had an opportunity to work on the Mustang until about 8:00pm so I took it. The car has been in need of a second coat of primer and my dad just bought a new spray gun so it worked out great. I did a little body work on the driver's side fender and the area around the rocker panel on the driver's side as well as brake light panel. My dad mixed the primer a little heavier than the first batch and I think it turned out pretty good. The pictures aren't very good because I was using my Droid and it was getting dark:

I did get in a few more parts such as the sound deadener, heat shield, headliner, front/rear glass weatherstripping, glove box liner, door lock/key set, air cleaner wing nut, Hurst shifter and ball. The shifter I bought is a little tall, but it rests right near the steering wheel which makes for easy shifting, but depending on how it all looks once I have the console installed, I may buy a shorter one. Here is what it looks like with nothing else in the car:

Hood Fill & New Rear Shocks

I leave tomorrow for Florida for the rest of the week and in an effort to reduce some of the overtime  I will be receiving, my work sent me home early today.  This gave me a narrow window of opportunity to work on the Mustang. 

I started out on the hood. I wanted to fill  in the holes for the F-O-R-D letters that attached to the front of it. I flipped it over on the horses and using the arc welder, I spot filled the holes from the back. I gave them a chance to cool off and then ground down any bit that was sticking out past the hood itself.

Now that the holes were primarily filled, I mixed up a batch of Bondo and skimmed over the top to allow for a smooth finish.

I took certain  parts of the car down to metal and unfortunately the primer we bought isn't a self-etching primer and therefore wasn't sticking to the car. This was especially true under the hood. My  dad was nice enough to pick up some self-etching primer so I took  down  the paint that was barely sticking to the hood and sprayed some of this new primer. It seemed to stick very well.

I've been reading a lot of negative things about having rear air shocks mounted in a Mustang primarily because they don't give much and the point at which the shock mounts isn't very strong. Most people that have air shocks ultimately crack their mounts so I decided to get a different set. I bought these brand new from a member on vintage-mustang.com for $50 shipped. They are KYB gas-a-just are provide a little bit of a firmer ride, but since I have regular 4-leaf springs I should be fine.

Sound Deadner Measurements

I spent a few hours doing some body work on the Mustang and thought I would take a moment to take some rough measurements for where I planned to put my recently purchased Second Skin sound deadener. I also bought a heat shield that will line the roof as well as the firewall. These are the rough numbers I came up with if everything is completely covered:

• Roof- 28 Sq/ft
• Doors- 23 Sq/ft
• Floor- 41 Sq/ft

I don't plan on completely covering everything since it won't make much of a difference. From what I've read, the sound deadener is only dampening the rattle of the sheet metal so some strategically placed strips should do the job. I won't install the sound deadener until the car has been painted so it might be another month or so before it's in.

Second Skin Damplifier

Second Skin Heatwave Pro

Sanding the 1st Coat of Primer

Today was spent wet sanding the entire car with 220 grit sandpaper  in order to find out what additional body work needed to be done and to get ready for the second coat of primer. The first coat was an attempt to fill some of the sanding scratches that were left from the 40 grit paper used to take down much of the existing paint. it worked great for the intended purpose, but also left many scratches in the remaining paint.

The roof looks pretty good, but had a lot of deep scratches from the low-grit sandpaper that I decided to use. The primer filled most of them on the first pass.

I even found a two dents on the inside of the passenger door that needed to be filled. I will be painting the inside of the car the same color as the outside so I'm not concerned with keeping the "wrinkle" look that was standard inside all Mustangs.

The passenger fender still had a low spot on it that needed to be filled. It'll receive another coat of primer to see it it needs another pass.

The next coat of primer that I'll be using is by Evercoat and is called Feather Fill. I was going to use Slick Sand, but apparently the paint store my dad went to didn't carry that particular one. Feather Fill is a high build primer that should fill a lot of the remaining scratches (although most are completely filled.) There still needs to be a little more body work that will be done on the rear panel and a couple of other places and then we'll shoot coat number two which will be wet sanded with a higher grit and then followed up with a third and final coat before paint.