1969 Mach 1

8

82firebird

A few months ago we brought a new pony into the stable. We've been looking for some time for a project that required no rust repair and would serve as a good candidate for our first paint job. A local mustang enthusiast put his project up for sale, and after following his build thread for the last couple years we knew it was the one. From the factory she wore Acapulco Blue with white clarion knit vinyl, and that is what she will be. Lucky for us, the car came with all the paint and clear, and a whole bunch of other beautiful interior parts. It also came with a rebuilt 351w and we will use a t5 that we have had in storage. We will restore as many as the parts as possible with an aim to restore the car to stock, with a slight restomod twist.

We got it home and started playing with her right away. Our plans are to first get the car running and drive it for a little while in primer. We can take our time and eventually get to paint later on.

On to the pictures. We got the car home and lined up the sheet metal as well as we could. The previous owner had the car blasted and epoxied, and the black that you see now is Evercoat featherfill. Once we block it down, we'll spray more epoxy and finalize gaps and body lines.





We pulled the rear suspension and put the car on the rotisserie to strip and re-spray the bottom of the car.



We stripped the paint off bottom and sprayed some SPI epoxy.





Then the next day we sprayed SPI bedliner. I had a hard time capturing what it looks like but we are very pleased with how it turned out.



We then stripped the inside and sprayed SPI Red Oxide. This was our favorite so far, we just love the red epoxy.





 
We liked the finish of the paint that he had put in the engine bay but we had to weld up a few things and had a hard time blending the finish back in. We went ahead and stripped it and sprayed with reduced SPI epoxy. Now she's ready to rock.







We repainted the engine block and the valve covers...





We blocked the body with 80 and when it was ready for epoxy we taped off the openings and sprayed two coats of SPI epoxy.











 
We've been working hard to get the engine ready to be dropped in but still have a few things left to do. One being installing the hood hinges for good. We used black SPI epoxy mixed with a little white epoxy to get a dark gray. We're not completely sure, but we might just leave them in this finish.



We also blasted and sprayed SPI black epoxy on the door hinges and then got the fenders in epoxy as well.





We blasted the door hinges and epoxied them a few days ago. Then we looked at each other and wondered why we did since the primer only has a 7 day window for base, unless later down the road we'd have to sand/scuff and reprime. We've had one heck of a week in the joys of being a homeowner world, so we thought we'd put some color down to brighten our day. Now they will be able to sit and dry for a long while till we're ready to put the doors back on.



 
This weekend we tackled installing the engine and transmission. We had planned to have a friend come down last weekend to help with the install but at the end of the day it just wasn't ready to be put in. This weekend we had no help so it was just us. Engine was a breeze but transmission gave us a run! But, we made it, and are still married.





 
We mounted the starter relay and voltage regulator. I replaced the distributor with a new unit and am going to install the Pertronix conversion kit. I also scored a non-a/c heater box that is in great shape. Tonight we installed a new blower motor and gaskets and in she went. We are trying to finish up details on the engine as we work on everything else at the same time.



 
Nice project, I had one of these back years ago with a 390 in it. keep pics coming. have fun. Joe
 
Glad you brought this project over here. Looking great, which I had that kind of progress on mine. What trans did you put in - TKO 600 ?
 
82firebird,

So is this car for your wife? "68 Fastback - My wife's dream machine"

Always loved them fastbacks myself.

Thanks for sharing with us
 
packin31;29525 said:
82firebird,

So is this car for your wife? "68 Fastback - My wife's dream machine"

Always loved them fastbacks myself.

Thanks for sharing with us
Click to expand...

Yes the car I'm referring to in my sig is an Eleanor which is her dream car. Somehow she got me into these Fords, long ago I was once a GM guy!
 
Thanks Keith!

We've been block sanding the last few days working on getting the car into epoxy to protect it from the weather. This way we can get the car running before bodywork and paint.

We laid out the hood scoop template to drill the holes for the scoop. I forgot to take a picture of the scoop on..





Blocked w/ 80



2 coats epoxy



Doors blocked and now in epoxy



 
So had to drag this thread back out and see if you have any updates, being a '69 Mach owner need my fix :). Have you been on the '69 stang site lately ? Also forgot to ask, how much did you reduce for the engine bay ? Thx
 
Looks great - nice progress! I've been working on my 86GT - but after putting two through college and grad school dads funds are a bit scarce - it's all good though.

Love the color your going with.
 
stangnet33;34740 said:
So had to drag this thread back out and see if you have any updates, being a '69 Mach owner need my fix :). Have you been on the '69 stang site lately ? Also forgot to ask, how much did you reduce for the engine bay ? Thx
Click to expand...

Thank you, no we have not been working on her at all since we moved. We basically moved in, finally got Eleanor back home and have been working on getting her finished up. We very much miss working on this car though. I need to get a divider curtain so we are able to do some block sanding without dirtying up the garage. I have not been on the 69 site lately either. How is yours coming along? We reduced the engine bay 10%.

6686mustang;34755 said:
Looks great - nice progress! I've been working on my 86GT - but after putting two through college and grad school dads funds are a bit scarce - it's all good though.

Love the color your going with.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Yes these projects are expensive. But don't lose sight. It is actually the smaller projects that we look back on and remember the best. For us the journey or the build is the most fun. :)
 
Only 10% looks like the right amount of flat. Started tear down a month ago and finding all kinds of surprises. I new the last job I had done was bad, but finding even more than what I knew about :disgust: I'll start a thread soon, but you need to give me a little more motivation ;) JK
 
I too have started up again on mine, Stangnet. Only took a couple of years but the wife's projects are now finished and it's my turn for the 69. Be great to see everyone else's come along at the same time. :encouragement:
 
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