Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 Haven't been on this forum long, but I really like looking at other peoples project builds. So I figured I would put together a thread about the Mustang I've been working on. Purchased the 1970 Mustang off of ebay in Dec 07, basically got a shell with a bunch of extra parts (although not everything by any means). It came with the following: 302/auto car originally, includes non original motor/trans that run/drive new 1/4 panels (inner and outer wheel houses also) new doors new front fenders new trunk lid new inner and outer wheel wells installed new front and rear spoilers new front and rear valences most of the interior is not included with the car Couple of pictures of the car when I first got it in the garage: I started tearing it down, all of the suspension, rear end etc was removed from the car. When I had it down to the shell of the car I started into the metal work a little bit further, the floors had panels pop riveted in place to cover rust problems. Once removed and I started poking around/cleaning I found quite a bit more rust then I originally expected to find. You can see the holes in the floor here: Rust around the trunk/tail light panel: Small little rust spot around the trunk area to fix Someone welded in some nice plates on the rear frame rails to strengthen things I guess... This is the passenger side at the base of the windshield where it meets up to the body, wasn't fun to find this. Hard to see in this picture, but both shock towers on the front have cracks in them, plus they have the normal torched holes to grease the upper control arms. This is the inside of one of the shock towers, you can see the rust holes at the base where it meets up with the frame. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 Inside of the trunk itself some rust problems that showed up At this point I decided to media blast a portion of the car, did it at home in the garage. To try to keep the mess to a minimum I made a blasting blanket around the car. Basically just used plastic sheeting from Menards to cover the car, then held it down to the floor with semi heavy objects. It worked really well for what I was doing. Found some more spots that needed work once that was done. The first is the base of the 1/4 panel where it meets the door. Nice that someone didn't fix the rust when the 1/4 was being replaced, now I have to go back in and fix it without messing up the new 1/4. This picture is of the firewall on the car, hard to really see well in the pictures, but the black dots toward the bottom are actually holes in the firewall and tons of them. Then the passenger side rear frame rail had a large crack in it right over the axle. Not sure what caused this, but it had to be fixed. At this point I decided I was going to replace the rear trunk panels, the back 2ft of the the frame on both sides of the car, the tail light panel, and trunk/quarter extension pieces. This is where it starts to look ugly. Original drivers side rear frame rail section New section being placed Basically the same thing happened on the passenger side, then fitted the trunk panels. Tail light panel and quarter extensions being fitted. Fixed the crack in the passenger side frame rail. This is about the time that I stopped working on for about 6 months. Got a little bit discouraged, needed some time to get motivated again. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 Started working on it again in the middle of Oct. First I repaired the rust hole around the trunk opening. New trunk panels being welded in Tail light panel and everything all welded in. Outer wheel well welding required, you'll notice that the new outers has to be modified, either the reproduction parts weren't made right or the person who installed them didn't put them in quite right, both sides had to be cut slightly to get them to line up with the trunk floor panels. Tail light panel, trunk panels, rear interior panels, rear wheel wells, etc all primered. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 (edited) Update 1/6/09 Patch panel welded into the area just in front of the drivers door. Similar panel on the passenger side Stripped down driver side door jam, with new patch panel in the lower corner. Passenger side is done as well, looks basically the same. Picture looking up at the under side of the cowl on the car. As you can see it has some rust problems. I have a new cowl that will be going on, so no big deal. Only metal at this point. ;) Picture of the drivers side floor panel/part of the firewall removed. This shows the front frame, floor supports, and torque box (what is left of it) Close up picture of the torque box on the drivers side. There is supposed to be a piece of metal covering the large cavity, that was completely rusted out. Rust issues on the bracket between the frame and front of the torque box on the drivers side Drivers side floor support removed from the car Lower and side shot of the drivers side front frame rail. Transmission tunnel crossmember that mounts to the front floor support. Tunnel side of front frame rail Edited January 14, 2009 by Chappy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 (edited) Few pictures from the past week.... New metal welded into the bottom of the frame rail... Fun with clamps!! That is the floor extension ready for welding... Floor extension welded in to the frame, transmission crossmember: Torque box cut out of the car New lower half of the torque box installed with a couple of coats of ZeroRust on them. Exterior of the torque box looking from the wheel well. New upper torque box installed above the lower Bottom view from the transmission tunnel of the frame rail, floor extension, and torque box welded in. Edited January 14, 2009 by Chappy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 (edited) That's where I'm at right now on things, I'm going to start tearing in to the passenger side floor support/torque box probably early next week. Don't think I've mentioned things up above, but the final plan for the car is ever changing to some degree. Right now the firm things are: Supercharged 4.6L DOHC out of an 03 Cobra T-56 transmission AJE Racing Front Coil Over Suspenion/K-member kit (cut shock towers to fit the DOHC 4.6) 13" Cobra Front Brakes Still undecided on a lot of the other parts of the car. For a rear end, I'm either going to go with a 9" or an 8.8" Obviously the 9" would be more 'bolt in', but I'm not sure if that is what I want to go with. Edited January 14, 2009 by Chappy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
simplyj 26 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 jeeez... that's an ambitious project. It sucks to find out post purchase that you didn't get what you thought you were getting. But happy to see you are pushing on. Also, nice to see someone else is doing a 69 with a 4.6 dohc. I have slightly different plans but they also include notching the shock towers to fit the engine. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bswor 71 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 Wow great work and excellent documentation and excellent photo's of the progress thusfar. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 14, 2009 jeeez... that's an ambitious project. It sucks to find out post purchase that you didn't get what you thought you were getting. But happy to see you are pushing on. Also, nice to see someone else is doing a 69 with a 4.6 dohc. I have slightly different plans but they also include notching the shock towers to fit the engine. I knew it needed some of the work when purchased, but the more I dug/poked on the car, the more I found. I didn't think I was going to need to do the cowl, or firewall until after blasting. The trunk stuff wasn't planned either. I'm just plugging ahead on things. I know most people probably would have just put the car back together and tried to sell it, or scrap it when they found what I did. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cphsonic 11 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 Respect! Thats a major rust revival, thanks for posting and motivating the rest of us! Good choice on the AJE, makes a ton of room for the modular and saves quite a bit of weight as well. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stangme428 33 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 Cool, so on the AJE kit you can still flatten out the shock towers? or just trim back a bit? i would love to find a 69 shell (i think) and go the modular route... i loved the mod motor in my 96 cobra, can only imagine a modular motor with a SC and 6 gears... is anybody actually using the epoxy methods instead of welding? i had a body guy tell me a year or so ago that he only used the "epoxy ready" panels when he did early mustangs. keep up the great work! :tongue_smilie: That's where I'm at right now on things, I'm going to start tearing in to the passenger side floor support/torque box probably early next week. Don't think I've mentioned things up above, but the final plan for the car is ever changing to some degree. Right now the firm things are: Supercharged 4.6L DOHC out of an 03 Cobra T-56 transmission AJE Racing Front Coil Over Suspenion/K-member kit (cut shock towers to fit the DOHC 4.6) 13" Cobra Front Brakes Still undecided on a lot of the other parts of the car. For a rear end, I'm either going to go with a 9" or an 8.8" Obviously the 9" would be more 'bolt in', but I'm not sure if that is what I want to go with. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 With the AJE setup you are getting rid of the upper control arm, you still do need to keep the top of the shock tower though, but everything below that can be cut out. You can see some pictures of the AJE stuff on cphsonic's car here. http://www.1969stang.com/mustang/forum/showthread.php?t=5022&page=4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stangme428 33 Report post Posted January 15, 2009 Ah i see ... nice! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 23, 2009 Update 1-23-09 Had to take a week off of working on the car… started working on it again on Monday of this week. Didn’t take any pictures during the disassembly of the passenger side, but it basically looked the same as the drivers side did. The torque box was quite a bit more solid… but still rusty and needing replacement. Picture of the new passenger side floor support welded in. Also had to put a 3” tall replacement panel on the bottom of the frame rail itself. New stuff from the trans tunnel side. At this point I’m waiting on a new torque box to come in for the passenger side. Order it on 12/31, was on backorder. Called them earlier this week and I’ll hopefully have that either today or tomorrow (FedEX Saturday delivery is nice sometimes). I removed the stock motor mount brackets, and a portion of the shock towers. The final cutting on the towers is still to come once I get the front suspension parts, and drop the motor in for the first time. The engine cradle and front a-arms are shipping out today, the rest of the suspension pieces will ship early next week. So I MIGHT start working on that early next week, we’ll see. Once the towers were cut I was able to clean up the frame rails a little bit looking for rust. Found on spot on the passenger side rail that will need some work. A little picture of more fun to come here soon… this is the bottom corner of the passenger side of the windshield (looking from inside). Some of the metal will be replaced with the new cowl panel… some won’t. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 26, 2009 Update 1/25/08 Just a couple of pictures from the past few days... Got the passenger side torque box installed. Put a patch on the rust spot on the passenger side frame where the shock tower base used to be. Was waiting around for the AJE stuff to come in, so I figured I might as well not completely waste a day and cut out the firewall. Test fitting the new firewall, still haven't done a final fitment/prep for welding, but getting close. Might be tomorrow or Tuesday. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
69RestoRod 10 Report post Posted January 26, 2009 While you have a free floating firewall weld up the holes you don't need. It's way easier off the car. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 26, 2009 My only problem is I don't know what holes I do and don't need. ;) Otherwise I would. I'm guessing I'll be welding on it later for sure. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted January 28, 2009 A little update from the past couple of days. Finished fitting up the firewall and welded it in place. Still have some more welding to do on it once I replace a few more parts that attach to it. That will come here soon... So I'm still waiting on my suspension stuff to come in (even though it was supposed to have shipped from just North of Louisville on Friday!), so I decided that I would keep working on things. I tore out the floor of the car today. I have a one piece floor to replace it with. Surprising to me, but the rear torque boxes are in really good shape. Only issue is with a reinforcement plate at the back that will require some patch work. I have a few patch panels I'm going to need to install before I put the new floor in... All in all, things are going better than expected on these two parts. It's amazing that some of the easier jobs for me can make the biggest differences in appearance of the car. More to come later on this week, if the suspension stuff comes in tomorrow, I'll probably start working on that before I finish up the floor. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted February 4, 2009 Haven't posted any pictures up for a week or so, but progress is being made. Things are probably going to slow down here as some of this stuff takes a little more time to get worked out. The one piece floor is installed in the car except for right around the trans tunnel in front (wanted to make sure I have enough room for the T56 before welding). So I got my front suspension stuff Friday of last week, started installing it on Sunday when Roxann was doing some welding on the floor pan (yes she was actually welding). Crossmember installed for first bolt up. The rack is a 03 Cobra rack. Bolted the engine mounts onto the Cobra motor, ran into a clearance issue between the oil filter adaptor and the motor mount. Last night I started dropping the motor into the car. Initial drop in didn't have clearance with the shock towers and the alternator/valve covers. So I pulled it back out, cut the towers back more (angled) and then reinstalled the motor. This time things cleared with room to spare (although it's still tight in there!). Good news is that the oil filter location wasn't going to work with the frame rail either, so it wasn't only an issue with the motor mounts. The alternator fits with the stock frame rail/front aprons with some room to spare. Last thing yesterday I bolted the T56 on to the motor (to check for trans tunnel clearance/shifter location). Lines up great! I did a quick check to see if the stock hood would fit, and it doesn't quite clear right now, I've got some extra room under the motor so I'm going to talk to AJE today to see if they would be willing to make up a set of motor mounts to drop the motor another 3/8". If they won't, I'll make a set. I think this will get the room for the hood, and also help out with driveline angle, transmission tunnel clearance. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trinitys 134 Report post Posted February 9, 2009 Some times I look at some of the posts on this forum and say....”Self....you could do that”.....then there are other times like this when I sit in total amazement and say...."self,.... you could never in a million years be a quarter as talented as this guy!, don’t even think about trying”….. You are the man! Looks awesome! Like my sister always says when I’m washing my car………”I’ll go get my keys….you gonna do mine next right” LOL Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted February 9, 2009 Thanks for the kind words, honestly I was at a point about a year ago on it, where I was about to sell it and look for another one. But I decided to go ahead with things, I've had a few hiccups along the way, but once you get over those, things really aren't too bad. Just need to keep telling yourself that you can do the work. When I'm done with this, I'm going to know how the car was built, and the condition of everything on it. No questions as to if the frame rails are solid, or if the floors will have problems, etc. It's just time... and money... ;) Don't really have any good pictures right now, but I installed the front suspension stuff early last week, just to check fitment. Got that done, installed the 13" brakes and stuff. Then I pulled it all apart. Motor and trans are out again. Started capping off the shock towers this weekend, basically done, just have a few finishing details left. I'll take some pictures here later on this week. AJE is making a set of 1/2" drop motor mounts for me this week (hope to clear the stock hood with these). So I've got a little time before I need to put the motor back in, so I'm going to move on to replacing the rear fender aprons, and cowl. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
unfrozen1969 11 Report post Posted February 11, 2009 I have to agree with the previous poster, sometimes I ask my self, what the hell am I trying to accomplish, it is much easier to buy a complete car and work extra Overtime to pay for it. But then there is that part of me that is longing for the satisfaction of rebuilding a classic. Your car looks great, and thanks for the photos....maybe its just the long Winter's in Canada..... Bill from Ottawa Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Armond 10 Report post Posted February 12, 2009 Just keep pecking away at it and you'll get it done. You have done a hell of a lot of work. The car is looking great! Of course keep us posted as you move along with it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
69Heretic 10 Report post Posted February 13, 2009 Nice build man, you have come a long ways! I hate replacing body panels, my first stang I had to replace a lot of metal. Its a lot of work to get it all reinstalled. I had thought about a 4.6 but damn I did not know it would be that tight. Can't wait to see some more updates. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chappy 18 Report post Posted February 16, 2009 Little update from the past week or so... Started working on the rear fender aprons in the engine bay. I removed the old aprons, installed patch panels at the tops of the shock towers where there were some rust issues, then installed the new aprons... Passenger side apron removed... Passenger side rusty section cut out, didn't take a picture of the new metal installed before putting the new apron on Driver side apron removed... Driver side patch panel installed (old rusted section next to it) Couple of pictures showing the new metal welded into the shock towers. New rear aprons installed (still have to cut the holes for the fender bolts once I get the cowl installed) Cut the stock rusty cowl out of the car Rust on the base of the front a pillar on the passenger side where it meets the cowl and all of the other metal pieces... What it should look like (driver side) Welded in a patch panel in place of the rust spot, then coated the lower cowl cavities with Zero Rust. That's where I'm at right now. I'll probably install the new cowl panel either tomorrow or Tuesday. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
