70-DropTop

Progress is being made again! The new front suspension, steering, and subframe connectors are in! This includes adjustable coilovers, tubular control arms, rack and pinion with bump-steer kit, and brake calipers. The subframe connectors were run through the floor pan a little to not lose ground clearance. In all, it looks good! I'll post some pics later this weekend...and provide some details, like my 18x9.5" wheels fit up front, wrapped with 275x35R18 rubber. Here's a preview:

Ooooh man! That has to be it. Thats one of my favorite rides and was a guide, in some respects, in developing my current build.

Looking really awesome!

Here are photos from the past weekend.

Well, it's been a little bit and I wanted to post an update. The hang up lately has been the decision on whether to replace the fenders and hood or repair them. After grinding down the paint on these parts, the top hood skin is fine, but the underside has a fair amount of rust, including up into the structure. Similar story with the fenders...found previous repair work at the bottom and rust underside in the structure. Plus, the passenger fender was crumpled at one point and filled in. So, the cost to fix it and get it right was going to be more than new metal...dynacorn to the rescue! Pieces should arrive this week. The major sheetmetal repairs are pretty much done, back half of the car is mostly in primer, and they've started working the body. Here's all the pieces repaired or replaced: Driver quarter panel Passenger quarter panel Taillight panel Driver trunk floor and drop off Passenger trunk drop off Driver door patched Passenger door patched Passenger front inner fender apron Passenger rear inner fender apron Driver fender (on order) Passenger fender (on order) Hood (on order) Rear valence (want the dual exhaust cutout) (on order) Rear deck lid***new addition*** (on order) Side sport mirrors***new addition*** (on order) Wow...not sure what to think after I made that list. Damn was my first thought. No more rust was the next :). Car should be pretty good after all this.

The passenger side front and rear inner fender aprons have now been tacked in place. I'll have to get some more pics and post them. It's moving. :thumbup1:

Yeah, I had a guy identified in the Columbus Ohio area when I still lived there. The shop here doing my ride is a small operation, about 4 guys who pretty much just do muscle cars/hot rods. It's a passion, and it shows in the work I've seen them do.

That's in the ballpark for what I'm paying, and what you've mentioned sounds similar to the scope of what's being done to my car. Body stripped the rest of the way from where I started it, paint stripped, engine bay repaired, rear quarters and trunk floor repaired, minor door rust repaired, body work, base coat/clear coat paint and sanded.

Little more progress since earlier this week...and yes, it is starting to look like a car again! Passenger rear quarter needs patched, along with the trunk floor drop off and wheel housing. The engine bay still needs finished. They're moving along and I'm pretty happy. Trunk floor repairs More trunk floor repairs New quarter panel put on and repaired door is hung Tail panel is installed A very happy guy on the side looking at his car coming together :) Oh, and that's the wheel housing for the other side laying on the floor

Little more progress today:

Nope...I meant the rear quarter panel on the driver side, just above the rear wheel. Looks like a child grabbed daddy's hammer and just started beating on the quarter...these dings all over that were filled and covered. Since the bottoms of the quarter panel needed a cut and a patch panel welded in, to avoid the labor time to fix each one of those dings, and since the wheel housing needed accessed and replaced, the quarter was just cut off and replaced with new metal.

Hard at work...major sheet metal repair should be done today/tomorrow. I can't wait!

Yep, the rust spots are pretty typical, but aren't as severe as originally thought. Oh, and after looking at your build, it a lot of the repairs you've been through are the same that mine is dealing with. I'll keep the updates coming.

Work came to a stop while waiting on new metal to arrive...it is now here, so things are moving again. The doors and a few rusted spots on top of the fender aprons were fixed. The major metal work will start on Tuesday. I can't wait! Paint is about a month off! One door is fixed and is basically ready for primer. Work underway repairing the other door. Little patch work on a rusted fender apron top. Panel needing replaced. Same panel, different angle. Car as it looks right now.

Man, I can't wait to be able to say something like this next year when my '70 convertible is done. Except, the chances are that I won't have the "starting to rain" part living where I do :biggrin: Congrats and post some of those progress pics! Thanks!

Here are some pics, walking around the car from passenger side, around the rear, and then the driver side. I know there's a lot of them here...but it tells the story.

Here's an update. The car is off to paint and body. They started stripping it down last week to see just how bad things are..turns out, not nearly as bad as everyone thought! :thumbup1: So, even though there's rust to be repaired, it isn't as bad as anticipated. Probably the oddest thing found is the area around the driver side rear wheel. It looks as though someone with a hammer putt a beatin' to it. It was fill in with bondo, and we thought it was going to be rust. Nope...lots of good original metal to keep. Rockers are good. The taillight panel will be replaced, the trunk floor drop offs, lower rear quarters, some patch work in the bottom of the doors are the main areas.

Here's an update. I made the decision on the quarters and decided to not put the fastback rear on it. I have a pretty good projet budget, but it still is a budget. The $$ not spent doing that will pay for the air conditioning system that one needs living in the Sonoran Desert (aka Phoenix area). I've also settled on Performance Red as a color. My last car was that color and I got compliments all the time. Another potential opportunity presented itself to me...I was offered a complete engine/EFI setup (including fuel system). The engine was originally out of an '89 Mustang that someone was running in their vintage Mustang. So, the mods to make it work in my car have already been done. There have been a few minor mods done to it (cam, intake, MAF sensor)...and the price seems very reasonable. Decisions decisions, decsisions...Carb vs. EFI. I plan to drive this car a lot, not as a daily driver, but as often as I can and think the EFI might be really nice to have.

Yep, this is what I'm considering for my '70 vert. The shop doing my car has '69 quarter panels we've been talking about putting on my ride, then custom fabbing a trunk lid mod to make it work with the fastback quarters.

Also we tore apart the original engine. Everything was in good shape inside, and it was the original bore. I have a 5.0 roller engine out of a 90/91 with about 40-50k miles on it that I was planning on using. It also has a Trick Flow stage 1 cam in it, and I also have the front accessories for a serpentine setup. I was thinking of converting it to a carb vs. digging up the rest of the efi parts. Do you think there's any value in keeping the original engine with the car (bag it on a stand), or just sell it? It's just a base 302 2V.

Metal work is about to begin and here's a question I wanted to ask the crew here. Since the lower rear quarters need replaced on my car, I was asked if I wanted the Overhaulin' treatment where the fastback rear quarters and extension are put on, and then the trunk modified. The funny thing about this is I've always like the rear quarters on the fastback, and that was my only real complaint about the convertibles not looking that way. I've grown to like (accept) the look of the rear quarters on my vert, so it isn't that big of a deal anymore. I used to contemplate doing this (before Overhaulin did it). So, I'm now in a position to do something about it on my ride, and I'm not sure I want to do that. The shop has original '69 quarters (with the vent) that I could get for just under half the price of new repops. Keep in mind, I have a '70. If it matters or not to the look, I still haven't settled on a car color. I've been toying with painting it black, performance red (same as my old 2000 GT), or some shade of yellow (it was originally yellow). 18" chrome wheels, with a black convertible top. Sorry to ramble...just wanted to see some opinions. Thanks! Here's what I'm talking about:

Nope, but it looks a lot like it.

The wheels were actually a concern of mine, on if they'd fit. It's the primary reason why I'm going with a strut-coilover setup out of a SN95 mustang. Im using Cobra spindles with custom tubular lower control arms. The shop has a 67 hardtop they race with the same front suspension. We mounted the wheel on their '67 and it fits perfectly. The frame rail will have the flange clearanced (bent) to max out the turning radius, and then there'll be a set screw that'll provide insurance from the wheel getting into the frame rail. The interesting thing about these wheels is that they stick out further than normal wheels for SN95 mustangs. If you ever see Ford made set (not replicas) on the late model car, you'll see it stick out a tad up front. It wasn't as obvious on the Cobra R because of the camber they were set at. It was a bit wide on the SN95 Stangs, but works great on my '70! Here's a mock-up of the setup I'm planning to run:

It arrived at the shop: And a few weeks later, they get going on it. Somethings missing here: And here too: The frame is in very good shape, however, it still has some of the usual cancer spots that'll need cut out and replaced. There are some very odd holes, welds, and other things I'll share the next time I post.

Here's the basic plan: Fix body and paint Front tubular control arm coilover suspension Power rack and pinion conversion Power brake conversion Four-wheel Cobra disc brakes 2000 Cobra R Wheels (18"x9.5") on all four corners 302 roller engine w/ serpentine belt setup C4 to T5 swap AC kit (needed in PHX!) Refresh interior There are a lot of details that'll be figured out as the build goes on.