Ash

Yet again it's been a while, I've been pretty distracted. I've built the wife another car which is now done. What started a simple engine swap in an Audi that I picked up with a dead motor, turned into a complete body swap that was a wiring nightmare but it is now done, thankfully. I now know more about Audi wiring than ever will be required. With that job done, it's Mustang time. And with it being school holidays, I've found myself with a new sidekick. My 9 year old daughter has been swinging spanners with me all week and more curious and excited about what is next than ever. It's been fantastic. She's been so enthusiastic that each night before bed she's asked me for a run down on what we will be up to the next day, in what order, what reason and how. We've mostly been working on other cars but yesterday we started on the stang. A while ago I had fabbed up this repair panel for the drivers A-pillar. We sanded the back side, mixed up some 2k epoxy and brushed on 3 coats to it and the mating surface. This morning Lily got straight into it and spent some time vacuuming out the blasting material and dust from the inside. Then we got into welding on the new panel. Tacked in. Welded in with the MIG

That is a very nice photo, your friend has done well. As have you with the build. The underneath is looking great!

Great to see you both back at it. Well done guys!

Good to see you're still at it, Mal. Keep it up.

Tidy job, Bob. It looks good.

All good Mac, hijack away. I've never worried about that, clearly by the many pages of dribble in this thread. Make sure you post some pics of the '56 when you get it home. And that Galaxie too, another one of those all time sexy cars. Hope you and the family enjoy yourselves! Ha fun

I wish we could get those here, Ridge. I looked into getting one shipped over when I was trying to decide what to do with this truck. As like you said, it looks so straight forward. I ended up with a different donor car by chance, an 04 Audi RS6, and plan to use all of its driveline, suspension, steering and brakes. The thing is amazing to drive, all wheel drive twin turbo V8 with 8 piston Brembo's up front. I watched that episode a little while ago, Bob. I really like what they did. I've been watching a bunch of their other shows too and I like how they go into a lot of detail. If I could pick any truck from car show's I'd have either Rick's black truck from Rick's Restorations or KC's green 68 F100 they originally did on Fast N Loud.

The cab is dated 1950 and was a 6cyl 1/2 ton truck. '48-'52 share the same cab. The front is a '52. All of it is original. Ooh, you need to snaggle up that '56. Embrace the rust...ha. I think that's one reason why this one excites me, it's not pretty but it took nearly 70 years to look like this. And it'll be one hell of a sleeper.

That looks great. That red sure has some gloss and the 5.0 looks perfectly at home.

Wow, it's been a few months. I still haven't achieved much of anything except getting all the pistons back out and adding the complete set of spiro locks to the gudgeons. Of course by the end of that I had it down to a pretty quick repetition. I have been getting lots of car stuff done, just nothing done for myself. Have also been doing the odd TIG job for people here and there which has been lots of fun and useful. You learn something new every time you pick up the torch. Last week I scored some more parts for my other distraction(dust collector). I got a bargain. It's not pretty and has some rust but it'll stay looking like that, I have no intention on changing. Plus it matches the colouring on my cab that I picked up some time ago. and this is the cab

Gorgeous!!!

That's a cool addition. To the unknown you would not even pick it once complete.

Here's a pretty good example of what is on offer here http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Cheap-1965-ford-mustang-convertible-coupe-/132182458254?hash=item1ec6b03f8e:g:kJMAAOSwax5Yrq7Y

If only I could get my wife to drive a stang as well. Maybe I should surprise her with her own, she'd love that I think. No..not really. haha

Gees I wish my wife got that excited about buying cars. All I get told is that I have too many! ha

You may not reach the goal you had wished to in this time but I can tell you that you've achieved more than many of us have in years.

New bits going in instead of cutting old out is always a great feeling. Making progress now!

From memory there were 3 spot welds on each fold.

Yes, that's what it is, Mal. There are two vertical folds on both sides, left and right, where the gearbox cross member is spot welded internally to the frame rail. Not easy at all.

Mine did that too when I removed the bar. But I've read that it is pretty common and some do it a lot more. A mates XP was repaired the same way and he's having all kinds of fun cleaning it out.

Digging right in, great work! Love the old outboards. They look great. Now that it is all pulled down, any more surprises? Is the lower cowl good?

The outdoor photos look great! You've made fantastic progress.

While you're in the office, check out this site. It is brilliant. Jody is great at explaining, well just about everything, in an easy to understand way. There is so much info, it'll make your head spin. http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/ Get yourself some acetone and a stainless wire brush and keep it just for cleaning the aluminium. Clean everything as much as you can before sparking the TIG. Impurities are your enemy with alloy. Even down to cutting wheel particles or paint off a saw blade. Nailing a sexy alloy weld sure is rewarding. My wife loves it when I bring some hot freshly welding metal inside to show her a nice weld.....not really. haha Nice. My A-pillars were pretty average. Around my rear glass was worse. But I suspect mostly it was due to people screwing around with the moulding so much trying to stop window leaks.

Cut that sucker up, Mal. Upset the purists. hehe Hope you get the job done. It's amazing just how much you can achieve in a full day with no other distractions. You'll get so much done in a month. Plus, any chance to spark up the TIG is thoroughly enjoyable. Out of curiosity, how were the inside of the A-pillars when you removed the glass? Was there much rust around the little knobs that support the stainless moulding?

Usually shed lighting and cameras don't do paint any true justice compared to in person. But that colour is just stunning. I can only imagine how much better it is again in person, must be mind blowing. That second last photo of the front, wow!