Introduction and '69 convertible build

[Happystang 10]

Hi! I hail from San Jose, California and this is my '69 convertible.

 

The car was found in a field where it had sat for 20 years. It was pulled out then on it's way to be sold to someone in Europe. I made a deal with the owners and bought it on the spot.

 

 

It's a 302 factory four speed car with a power top. It's a pretty bare bones car, but the marti report revealed it to actually be very rare because of the four speed. It's one of 245 convertibles ever to have a 302 four speed in '69!! It's a numbers matching drivetrain.

 

My original plan when I bought the car was to go with a 5.0 and T-5, but because of the rarity it decided to keep the original drive train. I ended up rebuild the motor (although I did manage to get it running and driving after having sat for so long!) and going over kill on the build.

 

Specs:

 

.030 overbore, TFS 170 heads, Edelbrock RPM intake, Lunati cam (.571/.587 lift 231/239 @.50 duration), 10:1 compression, Quick fuel 650 DP, Eagle Rods, hurst shifter, 3.55 posi.

 

 

I have all the original heads, intake and whatever came off the car sitting in a box if I ever wanted to go back to totally original. The car has the original interior although I did redo the top. The paint buffed out nicely, although needless to say it's a rust bucket. (so much that I was rushed to the ER because of potential tetanus... That sucked) Darn thing cut through my glove! The original color is lime gold, it has been repainted though sometime in the 70's.

 

Anyways, what I originally thought as, "oh the floor needs some patching..."

 

Turned into now replacing: full floor, both torque boxes, both toeboards, both seat pans, both seat reinforcement pans, trunk floor, rear torque box covers, the front frame rail where the bumper mounts and now the entire drivers side inner rocker. I'm sure there's more...

 

The goal of this car was to build a sleeper. It's unassuming, quiet and I recently acquired a set of dog dish hubcaps to top it off! :)

 

Here's my progress so far:

 

Day 1 (should have run while I could! lol)

 

 

 

Found the build sheet tucked in the seat springs! Confirming that the interior is original...

Oh I don't know if anyone noticed. I used flux core fore the torque box which turned out okay. I'm using a nice mig welder now! No more messy flux...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2014 by Happystang

[Happystang 10]

The drivers inner rocker was trashed. A four foot section of the bottom was swiss cheese. No point in trying to patch this...

 

 

Cutting it open didn't make me feel any better.

 

 

The rear torque box was in great shape though. The cover got butchered when I tried getting it out so that's getting replaced. Gives me a chance to put in some rust proofing!

 

 

Poor thing. Oh, I'm getting the steel wheels in 15x7 and 15x8. 14's don't clear the front brakes!

 

 

 

 

 

I have the drivers side torque box completely out. I have to take more pictures, of my progress... But basically at this point I just need to grind down a couple old spot welds and coat the rocker with some rust proofing. From there I can burn in the new inner rocker, then torque box, toeboard etc.... It's annoying busy work.

[Mike65 475]

Great work so far. I am rebuilding a 69 Coupe & doing the pass side torque box now. Keep up the good work & keep the pics coming.

[Guillaume69 150]

Great looking car and story.

 

Love the surf boards in the back. That's why I keep telling my wife we also need a convertible: my longboard won't fit in the Sportsroof... ;-)

Edited September 7, 2014 by Guillaume69

[1969vert 55]

Nice drop top.. aint rust fun?... you will enjoy it when done..good luck..

Welcome to the site....

Edited September 7, 2014 by 1969vert

[Happystang 10]

Great work so far. I am rebuilding a 69 Coupe & doing the pass side torque box now. Keep up the good work & keep the pics coming.

 

Thank you!! Will definitely keep everyone updated.

 

Great looking car and story.

 

Love the surf boards in the back. That's why I keep telling my wife we also need a convertible: my longboard won't fit in the Sportsroof... ;-)

 

The whole convertible thing is soooo convenient! I've fit four boards and four people in that little mustang and hit the beach. Luckily they're short boards but I'm sure a longboard would be fine ;) I'm assuming the swell has been nice in your neck of the woods?!

 

Nice drop top.. aint rust fun?... you will enjoy it when done..good luck..

Welcome to the site....

 

No. Rust is not fun. lol...

 

I was enjoying it so much even before, I've put on maybe 10k on the car since I bought it last year. It's sooo painful seeing it blown in pieces in the driveway..

 

 

 

Some more updates!

 

Inner rocker is completely out, old spot welds grinded down and painted in POR15.

 

New rocker and front frame rail patch come in tomorrow! SOOO excited to get these burned in. Please excuse the messy work area :P

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2014 by Happystang

[Pakrat 1,043]

Welcome! Fun or not you should be thankful you didn't get killed, if my car had been in that shape when I got hit there wouldn't be anything left of either of us. Better to fix it now.

 

My car is also a San Jose 302 vert originally Lime Gold as well, I bought it from the second owner who had it in storage for 20 years though so thankfully it was rust free as a Cal car should be. That was a big factor in choosing to save it.

[69RavenConv 286]

Looks like a nice resto underway. Lots of verts popping up on the forum lately, it's great. Second owner of a Dearborn 302 myself. Those grinding disks in your pics sure bring back memories :sweatdrop::scared:

[RPM 1,190]

Hey, welcome to the site! Cool car and background story (and house in the background). How many folks own a classic cool Mustang that was built in their own town? Very nice.

 

Bob

[1969vert 55]

For me it was a feeling of accomplishment when I finnished atacking all the rust >>> and it was fun buying more tools to do the job easier.. next time it wont take two years..It was cool tearing all the metal apart and seeing how the car was put together 40 years ago..keep it up..Mine was down for about seven years.. 5 years sitting waiting on a garage ... going to drive it this weekend if it dont rain down here,,,test out the new carburator..

[stangnet33 88]

Yes welcome to the forum ! Making some good progress, you really never know just how bad they are till you start to bust one up for repairs. Watch you don't catch that dash pad cover on fire while burning in your new parts lol ! Good luck and look forward to the updates.

[Happystang 10]

Thank you all for the kind words!! I'm usually the only '69 vert owner no matter what show I go to, it's nice to see that some of the other 11,000 or so still are kicking :)

 

The inner rocker came in today! I'll have another post with details/fitment. Ran out of light here to take pictures.

 

I did however go ahead and repaint the steering column in my free time while I was waiting for the evil brown truck to deliver my goods form CJ's... The inner rocker and frame rail patch came safe. I'm unimpressed with the quality of the inner rocker. More on this tomorrow... (it does fit, for the record...)

 

Anyways, here are some pictures of the rust damage in the trunk. I have the right and left trunk floor however they don't seem to produce a patch for the center of the trunk. I think I'm going to have to fabricate this piece. No idea how this is going to work. I'm tempted to just patch the area where the tank sits because that's the are with all the holes. I have the right and left pan that also comes with the trunk drop offs. Mine are in perfect shape, so I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to cut everything out or butt weld it where the drop off would meet the trunk floor.

 

What have people been doing in situations like this?

 

 

 

 

[69RavenConv 286]

Anyways, here are some pictures of the rust damage in the trunk. I have the right and left trunk floor however they don't seem to produce a patch for the center of the trunk. I think I'm going to have to fabricate this piece. No idea how this is going to work. I'm tempted to just patch the area where the tank sits because that's the are with all the holes. I have the right and left pan that also comes with the trunk drop offs. Mine are in perfect shape, so I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to cut everything out or butt weld it where the drop off would meet the trunk floor.

 

What have people been doing in situations like this?

 

They do reproduce the entire floor for a vert (but it's a bit spendy):

 

http://www.cjponyparts.com/dynacorn-complete-trunk-floor-assembly-convertible-1969-1970/p/TFC6/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=merchant&utm_campaign=shopping&gclid=CJWmnvfT1sACFQsKaQodfQkA4A

 

I seem to recall I bought a replacement floor and cut out the patch I needed, since most of my floor was in pretty good shape. I can look at the welds tonight.

[Happystang 10]

They do reproduce the entire floor for a vert (but it's a bit spendy):

 

http://www.cjponyparts.com/dynacorn-complete-trunk-floor-assembly-convertible-1969-1970/p/TFC6/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=merchant&utm_campaign=shopping&gclid=CJWmnvfT1sACFQsKaQodfQkA4A

 

I seem to recall I bought a replacement floor and cut out the patch I needed, since most of my floor was in pretty good shape. I can look at the welds tonight.

 

Yeah, not too sure what I'm going to do. I might look around and see if there's a 1969-70 coupe someone is parting out that has a the section of trunk I need... (although I do hate robbing parts off fellow mustangs, I've save plenty that were on the verge of being scrapped..)

 

Anyways, got A LOT done so far today!

 

Here's the inner rocker. As you can see, it came with the flat piece of sheet metal that gets sandwiched in between in the inner and outer rocker already spot welded. This poses a few problems for me:

 

There's no rust proofing inside the panels, the sheet metal itself isn't stamped correctly. It's missing holes, dimples, and is cut wrong. Not to mention that mine was already in good condition. I ended up drilling the million spot welds and separate the panel.

 

Next, I didn't like how there was only two little tack welds on each side of the seat belt anchor points. Not okay.

 

I also don't like how the inner rocker is made of many different pieces welded together. The welds are ugly.

 

The rocker itself wasn't even welded straight. This annoyed me.

 

The rocker was also a few inches too long! I think this is due to the rocker also being used for 71-73 mustangs. Which makes it too long anyways. The '69-70 mustang has a 108" wheel base and the '71-73 mustangs have 109" wheel base.

 

The ends of the inner rocker were missing the flanges that weld to the wheel house. I'm going to build some gussets to make this area stronger.

 

Interesting to note the build quality kinda sucked on these cars to begin with. None of the layers of the panels lined up to begin with lol...

 

I ended up laying down a bead of weld on the back side of the inner rocker where it was pieced together. Thought it doesn't hurt to have some extra strength on something like this...

 

The seat belt anchor nut got a nice bead as well.

 

The inside of the rocker all painted!

Edited September 10, 2014 by Happystang

[Happystang 10]

While I waited for the paint to dry I thought I'd make the cut outs in the upper torque box cover for parking brake.

 

Same for the bottom. Came out alright!

 

Also, I decided to leave my mark!

 

Started plug welding welding the inner rocker...

 

Used self tapping screws to hold things in place where I couldn't fit the clamps. I replicated the bead welds that the factory did in this area. All the holes left by the screws were filled in.

 

 

Test fit the entire torque box as well to see if everything still lined up... We're in business!

Edited September 10, 2014 by Happystang

[Happystang 10]

Didn't do too much today, got the rear torque box cover welded in and the toeboard/front torque box fitted. Going to burn those in tomorrow. I temporarily tacked the top half of the torque box in so I could align the parking brake holes.

 

 

Still debating on what order to put those in because of the whole parking brake deal. We'll see!

 

It's been waaaay to hot to work on the car outside. I can only work on it early morning or towards the evening, which poses a few problems...

 

I have class Tues/Thurs mornings, so I have to wait till it cools down in the evenings. While poses the next problem, the neighbors get home and don't enjoy all the noise I make. Not to mention that it gets dark as well. We'll see!

 

 

 

[Happystang 10]

Big steps today! Went ahead a used my death wheel (angle grinder with a cut off wheel) and sawzall to take out most of the floor. I drilled out the spot welds for the passenger side seat reinforcement pan and simply kicked it out. Simple and effective lol.

 

The bolts holding the center reinforcement plate had to be cut out, they were either seized or the capture nuts on the back had broken free.

 

Anyways, I managed to cut everything out without destroying anything too important! :) Also, I saved the shifter opening in case anyone wants it. I know some peoples' transmission tunnels get all hacked up from previous owners... If anyone is interested let me know!

 

(I may have added an extra cut to the exhaust, but no one will notice once I weld it back up lol)

 

I still need to weld in the toe board patch. I might order a new one, I kinda butchered this one a little too much... It's usable, but I'm a perfectionist. Who cares if no one is ever going to see it or the fact that it's going to get covered with seam sealer, sound deadening, epoxy primer and carpet ;)

 

It still needs to look good! Anyways, I'll figure it out tomorrow. I'm done working on the car for now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Happystang 10]

Started the day by being woken up from the UPS guy ringing my doorbell early morning. Yay for paint!

 

I ordered two quarts of Rust Bullet in metallic silver. Apparently it sticks better to paint or anything else for that matter, than POR15. We'll find out I guess! You're probably wondering why I didn't just spray epoxy primer. Well, since you all asked...

 

California has stupid laws and wouldn't let me order the Summit Brand epoxy primer because it wasn't water born based or whatever. I'm not really trying to pay close to $400-500 in paint materials because of some stupid law here. The Summit brand stuff is $100 for a gallon of the paint and catalyst.

 

 

Anyways, I scuffed up the the whole floor, cleaned it and painted on the Rust bullet. Nothing to exciting lol. I noticed it seems a little more thicker than the POR15 and shows the brush marks more. I'm going to let it dry and paint on some more layers to see how it looks. I'm digging the color though, looks cool. I painted the front torquebox with it as well. I'm getting closer to fitting the new floor! I death wheeled the rest of the old floor out, there's a couple small pieces over the rear frame rail/torquebox that I need to buzz out as well.

 

I also need to cut away the lip on the end of the new floor since it's for a coupe/fastback.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Happystang 10]

"Yeah I'll drop by and help you out"

 

 

Ha. My buddy bailed on me so I shoehorned the floor in myself. No idea how, but I did.

 

 

The day started off with welding the toeboard in for good then opening up the passenger rear torque box. All is well here too! Coated everything with rust bullet. Will burn in the new cover tomorrow...

 

Anyways, the floor fits! Test fit it today and figured out where else I need to trim, since the floor is made for a coupe and not a convertible. I still need to remove a bit of the old floor where it meets the firewall. I have no idea how I'm going to get a spot weld cutter under there. I'm not really in the mood to remove the whole dash. :skullnbones:

 

Oh and the factory packed in A LOT of seam sealer. SHEESH.

 

 

 

 

 

[bryonbush 85]

dang man, looks like a lot of work but coming along!

[Happystang 10]

236. That is the number of holes I drilled into the floor. I don't think there were that many to begin with from the factory, but there are now.

 

This floor will not come out. Ever. LOL I'm almost done welding in the floor itself and I must say, I'm excited.

 

It's coming out better than I though it would! I HAVE A FLOOR! I will no longer accidentally drop my phone through the hole in the floor while in traffic. :)

 

 

 

[Bossed 10]

Great job!!!

[Happystang 10]

I'm actually surprised there was any floor left to cut out, seeing as that most of it was bare metal exposed to the elements!!

 

Thank you so much for the kind words, definitely appreciated :)

 

Floor is 95% welded in, there are a couple of plug welds I still need to address towards the wheel housing. I'm starting to grind down the welds as well!! I'm VERY happy how the floor came out so far.

 

It needed a little persuasion via hammer around the shifter area and transmission tunnel, but that's okay.

 

 

I also cut the seat pans and fit them to the car. Because they're for a coupe, the edges needed to be clearanced to fit around the inner rocker. Next I'm going to to paint the whole floor in zero rust. I'm going to go underneath the car and paint the frame rails as well as anywhere I welded. From here I'll put seam sealer and more zero rust atop that.

 

I gotta still make some cuts in the reinforcement pans for the parking brake and drill more holes for to plug weld them in. Joy! Oh and I still need to address the front frame rail where the bumper mounts... Gahh more work lol...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Happystang 10]

Lot's of progress today, should be done soon with the floors!! I've had to make sooo many trips to get my shielding gas tank filled... I made all the holes for the parking brake cables to run through and welded in the reinforcement pans. I did clean up the cuts for the parking brake, they look kinda ugly in the pictures. They kinda fit... Took a lot of massaging from a BFH. The holes for the seat don't line up at all. There's just enough clearance to access the seat bolts.

 

Oh, no one would notice unless I told them but... The passenger side pan is about a quarter inch further up than the drivers side. Guess I better sell the car, it's defective! :skullnbones: Who wants a '69 convertible?

 

Anyways, painted the floor as well... I hate waiting for paint to dry.

 

Tomorrow the seat pans go in along with misc grinding of welds. Going to stop by NAPA and pick up some seam sealer. Heard they have good stuff? We'll see!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2014 by Happystang

[Happystang 10]

I DIDN'T MESS UP!!!

 

 

Put the car on all fours, cut out the bracing and put the door back on. Everything opens and closes still!!! YAYYY. I'm so happy!

 

 

So much relief, a huge weight off my shoulders. I was freaking out about my door not closing at first. Aligning those things is ridiculously difficult.. Luckily I drilled a located hole in the top hinge which helped things out a lot. The door was still giving me some trouble and I started panicking. Then I remembered something I did with my falcon. The door on that car had the same symptoms I was having. I sprayed some PB blaster into the latch then tried again.

 

Perfect! Opens and closes fine now. Guess it dried out from the lack of use? All the door gaps are perfect.

 

I seam sealed everything up and painted the underside of the car semi gloss black. I still need to take some more pictures and grind a couple welds under the car.. But the hard stuff is done for the most part. I also put all the metal I pulled out of the car into one bin. Whole lot of ugly!

 

 

Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the front frame where the bumper mounts and install the fuel system. I want to hear this beast run again! Oh and that bolt that's holding on the seat belt is seized so it's going to disappear via death wheel. I ordered new seat belt bolts, steering column seal, steering column seal bolts and brake line/fuel line fasteners. Probably going to place some more orders....

 

Depending on how much I get done tomorrow, I might start installing the interior. We'll see!