1966 Mustang Coupe, a DIY story

[Raymond_B]

First off, thanks for everyone's input, seriously thank you. Secondly I hope this post isn't too long.

I thought you guys might like a total DIY (and very noobish) restoration. Really it's a restomod, but you get the idea.

Here's a couple of pics when I first picked up the car. I really thought I was getting a clean little 6 cyl Texas car. Now all the little telltale signs (hey Ray look, the door doesn't align and the paint is different) of what lies beneath jump out at me, I missed every one of them in my hurry to buy the car.

So I got it inspected and started driving it. It made me happy

Even made my kid's Chaweiner happy!

I knew I was going to do some serious drive train changes. The plan was to sandblast the front undercarriage while swapping out for V-8 steering, Shelby drop, and a Mustang Steve Cobra brake swap. After buying a sandblaster I decided to check out some small pin holes around the rear fender lips. That's when I was like "oh man"

The little "ant trails" are me trying to see how far the Bondo goes....... It goes very far.

This is after scraping off something like 10lbs of Bondo.

After that I was like screw it I am gonna strip it down to decide what to do next.

I find bondo/filler everywhere...

Left door.

Right door, hard to tell, but guess what. More Bondo!

Along with a terrible rear quarter repair.

But then I was like "hey, the left rear is OK.

Well, except for that pushed in part.

Which ended up being the motivation for me heading to this site.

And I've made progress! Although very slowly.

So I ended up trying to fix it all, mainly because I am stubborn, refuse to sell the car for a loss, and honestly have no desire to do to someone else what the guy did to me on the sale. I believe in Kharma

I am still working on the left rear quarter, but decided to start getting my "shop" set up to paint using great advice from this site.

I borrowed an idea from Garage Journal posted here and made a DIY desiccant "pipe bomb" to keep my air lines dry.

It's 2/3rds filled with bulk silica gel from Veritemp.com. 5lbs was 17.50+ shipping. I also picked up a new 25ft air line and coiled it in a Home Depot bucket. The desiccant pipe is right after a HF "industrial" filter that is connected to the compressor by an 8' line. I only plan to run the desiccant and new line when I paint.

Tonight I decided to test my (dare I say it) Harbor Freight purple gun after reading all the gun setup posts.

I see some blobs in there, I must not have cleaned it out all the way when I painted that cardboard test panel Plus a bit too much air pressure?

The moment of truth, I decided to practice on some fenders I do not plan on using. They were half stripped and really not sanded down all the way. There was a bunch of bondo so I bought repop fenders. But I figured they'd make good practice for both spraying and prep work. Things like mixing the paint, inducing it, measuring, cleaning the part to be painted, etc, etc.

Hard to see at night, I'll post more pics once the sun comes up. But I was pretty happy with the results. This was really the first time I had sprayed anything other than Krylon.

More to come....

 

[Joe's Notchback]

Looks like a car rusty427 would start with it. Better check the frame and floor pans too.

 

[Rustbuster77]

I'm in the same boat. Just working on some projects on the side for fun and the satisfaction of doing it myself. I was trained in a vocational school right out of high school, but that was about 23 years ago! Sometimes you have to work with the best you can afford at the time and that means getting creative.

I will be hoping the home made dessicant filter works well, I was thinking of trying that and or getting the motor guard tp filter. Looking like the more you dig into the car, the more you'll see that's goofy. Bondo in itself isn't so bad unless its too thick, I would guess that anything more than 1/8th inch is getting to be excessive?

Will be a fun project to follow here. Thanks for posting.

 

[Raymond_B]

Looks like a car rusty427 would start with it. Better check the frame and floor pans too.

For sure, best I can tell the cowls and frame look good. I found a couple of soft spots in the floor pans, but honestly those seem like cake compared to that right rear quarter. I think the reason there's and rust in that rear quarter is because of the terrible repairs that were done.

 

[Raymond_B]

I'm in the same boat. Just working on some projects on the side for fun and the satisfaction of doing it myself. I was trained in a vocational school right out of high school, but that was about 23 years ago! Sometimes you have to work with the best you can afford at the time and that means getting creative.

I will be hoping the home made dessicant filter works well, I was thinking of trying that and or getting the motor guard tp filter. Looking like the more you dig into the car, the more you'll see that's goofy. Bondo in itself isn't so bad unless its too thick, I would guess that anything more than 1/8th inch is getting to be excessive?

Will be a fun project to follow here. Thanks for posting.

I hear ya!

I think I am good for now on moisture control, I found some trash in the paint gun's cup, but the previous night I was playing around and didn't clean the gun. Pretty sure my only trash so far is from me being lazy. The primer went on good with no signs of moisture. Well at least that I can tell 1/8th! Man that stuff was seriously at least 1/4-1/2 in some areas. The drivers door had a ton, and really for no reason. There was a dent, but why not just pop it out? So weird.

 

[Raymond_B]

Spent the day (OMG hot) DA'ng the good sheet metal in preparation for some Epoxy. I had to go back and get rid of the surface rust that had formed while I did research that should have been done before I stripped the car!

1/2 the roof and a small part of the quarter panel are done.

Of course I forgot to take a pic of the car when I was done. I was mad at my stupid sandblaster for dying on me I had really wanted to blast down my drip rails and get all the old sealer out. I did most of the driver's side, but couldn't do the pass. side. I sprayed over it anyway for now, once I warranty this POS sandblaster hopefully I'll get one that works and finish the job.

Anyway, got everything DA'd down and then rolled the car in the garage to cool the metal off. Once it was not so hot I cleaned all the panels to be shot with some 710 W&G remover and waited a bit. Then I power cleaned everything with 700-1 W&G remover until my towels came back clean. My reasoning for using both was that the car had sat in the garage in bare metal and all sorts of stuff was set on it including a buddy's Starbucks when he came over this morning to see what I was doing. Things almost got ugly

Here's a few pics, obviously I have dust issues, but I am ok with that since this is just primer to protect the metal until I figure out a proper painting environment or take it to Rusty

Go easy on the noob!

Phone makes it look flat.

Man that dent didn't look as bad when it was bare metal.

Stupid phone makes this look grainy I don't know why. It looks really good in person.

 

[facn8me]

On your way. Looking good

 

[shine]

you are going to regret the hf pos sooner or later .

 

[Raymond_B]

Thanks facn8me!

Shine, when I am able to get some proper tools this HF sandblaster and I are going for a walk in the woods. Only one of us is coming back

 

[shine]

i thought you were talking about the hf purple pos. i bought on just out of curiosity . sadly that pos had a terrible hunting accident out back.
for the record all cheaper blasters are about the same.

 

[Raymond_B]

Ended up having to strip the car back down due to my poor choice of desiccant and it finding it's way in to the paint. This time I picked up a Motorguard filter and mounted it just before my paint gun. Still using the 5gal bucket full of ice water between the compressor and the filter. I only shot one coat to check even though I got rid of the desiccant and replaced my lines I wanted to be sure. Going to shoot the 2nd coat tomorrow or Thursday.

This shot shows I still have a bit to go, but of course I forgot to take a pic when I was done. This is one while I was letting the compressor rest

This is just the back, really nothing else to see until I hang the new doors and fenders. Forgot to get a good pic of the roof, but it came out solid. Yes my masking skills need work! In my defense when I rolled the car out it was windy and the paper came loose. Honestly!

 

[Bob Hollinshead]

One step at a time, progress is looking good!

 

[Senile Old Fart]

Hint: I normaly put the tail lights inside the trunk if they will fit thru the hole, otherwise I unplug the wiring and remove them. I learned all to long ago it takes a lot longer to clean them up them take care of them beforehand.

 

[Raymond_B]

Thanks guys. SOF they are going to come off and get sandblasted and new wiring, that's why I have not been very nice to them.

 

[Senile Old Fart]

Thanks guys. SOF they are going to come off and get sandblasted and new wiring, that's why I have not been very nice to them.

great, just hoped to save you the extra work I have made for myself over the years, LOL.

 

[Raymond_B]

With the start of the school year, work, etc, etc I haven't had much time to mess with the car. Finally had a few hours and some motivation to tinker with it.

I was going to have the rear end housing powder coated, but I saw where Rusty used Epoxy on the Dynacorn project's FAB9 so I figured I would too! I really love this stuff.

Sorry for all the pics, but I am really having fun painting

Also I had it suspended by a small chain when I painted it, I just got it to balance for the pics

 

[crashtech]

Wow, that's a stout pumpkin! You must be planning on going pretty fast!

 

[Raymond_B]

Wow, that's a stout pumpkin! You must be planning on going pretty fast!

I hope! It's getting a ProCharged 410W and T-56.

 

[Barry]

WOW, this will be one nice ride when done and get out of its own way, also!!!

 

[Raymond_B]

Not paint related, but I was finally able to pick up the shortblock and cyl. heads. Better pics to come, right now I have it all wrapped back up in a safe dry spot