My new 1970 M-Code Mach 1 Project

[Rich Ackermann 174]

Making good progress. Done with welding sheetmetal and finished fitting panels. Painted undercarriage with a red Epoxy primer. Going to spray Lizard skin sound deadener on the floor pans then start block sanding.

 

[Grabber70Mach 107]

That's coming along nicely. 

[Mike65 475]

Nice work, looks good.

[Machspeed 219]

Looks great, Rick. Tinnman Subframe connectors look real familiar. You going to spray that Lizard Skin on the inside floor pans or underneath? 

[Rich Ackermann 174]

I like the tinman subs. They look  somewhat stock. Also they were easy to weld a tab to them and bolt (2 bolts on each side) it thru the floor and the one piece floor pan to add some more rigidity to the chassis.

I used raptor bedliner on the inside of the floors, wheel wells, quarters, and cowl and on the outside of the wheel wells and fender aprons. I painted the undercarriage with SPI epoxy red primer. Next I am going to spray the inside the doors and front part of the quarters and wheel wells, as well as, selected undercarriage areas and with the lizard skin sound deadner.

[Rich Ackermann 174]

Going to paint on Monday! Well the time is finally arrived! Applied the Lizard Skin and painted the engine compartment Eastwood Chassis Black. Can't wait to see it get a nice coat of Calypso Coral. I still need to touch up the red oxide just a bit underneath.

 

[Rich Ackermann 174]

More pics. 

[Mike65 475]

Looking good Rich.

[Rich Ackermann 174]

Thanks Much! More to come...

[Grabber70Mach 107]

Looking forward to seeing the color on it.

[Machspeed 219]

You like that Eastwood Classic Black for your engine bay? I have read many have sprayed their engine bay with SPI epoxy black, as it is impervious to brake fluid. I am considering it for my engine bay.  

[Rich Ackermann 174]

2 hours ago, Machspeed said:

You like that Eastwood Classic Black for your engine bay? I have read many have sprayed their engine bay with SPI epoxy black, as it is impervious to brake fluid. I am considering it for my engine bay.  

I like SPI Epoxy, its good stuff. I don't think you will be disappointed with it. As a matter of fact, if you look at some of the pictures in my post you can see I sprayed the entire undercarriage and the engine bay with SPI Epoxy Red. My only complaint about the red is it is a bit shinier than what Ford originally used on our cars. I bought a gallon of it and it went a long way. So I can imagine the black epoxy would be great as well.  I like the finish the Eastwood Chassis black has and it hold ups real well. I sprayed it over the SPI Epoxy Red on the engine bay. Not sure anything is totally impermeable to brake fluid.

I also used SPI's 2K gray primer, it was very easy to apply and sand.

 

[Machspeed 219]

Yeah, my car is already primed with SPI epoxy primer and with the exception of the basecoat, everything else will be SPI. Just curious if you thought about using the black SPI epoxy for your engine bay. I do like the sheen of your Eastwood product, looks OEM. Wondering what the SPI epoxy looks like. 

[Rich Ackermann 174]

12 hours ago, Machspeed said:

Yeah, my car is already primed with SPI epoxy primer and with the exception of the basecoat, everything else will be SPI. Just curious if you thought about using the black SPI epoxy for your engine bay. I do like the sheen of your Eastwood product, looks OEM. Wondering what the SPI epoxy looks like. 

I am guessing it will have a similar sheen like the Red epoxy, since its the same product just a different color. If so, I think it may be a bit shinier than the Eastwood/factory black, but I am only extrapolating from what I see with the Red epoxy. For this reason, I decided to just use the rest of my Red epoxy on the engine bay and then Eastwood chassis black over it. Using the rattle cans makes it easy to touch up later if need be. I also lightly sprayed a rattle can red oxide primer over some of the undercarriage where the red would remain visible to cut down the sheen from the red epoxy. Just knowing that I have the impermeable epoxy protecting it underneath gives me comfort. 

[Machspeed 219]

Thanks Rich. Keep posting on your build, I'm enjoying it.  

[Rich Ackermann 174]

I transition from the engine bay black to the Lizard Skin and red epoxy right below the firewall where the vertical section of the firewall turns back towards the floor pan (the section called the foot board). In other words there is no Lizard Skin on the vertical section of the firewall.

[Rich Ackermann 174]

Well, I drop the car off at the painter on Monday. They are going to do a few spray outs. Going threw a little separation anxiety :-)  Can't wait to see her all dressed up in Calypso Coral. When I get her back, I'll start on the steering and suspension.

[Rich Ackermann 174]

Looked at the Calypso Coral spray-out today. The color looks great and matches a section of the original paint I preserved. ! Should be painted by Tuesday.

[Rich Ackermann 174]

Okay. I am really getting excited! The paint is on and it looks fantastic! Still needs color sanding. Need to paint a few more parts and paint the black Shaker hood stripe. Cant wait to get her home and install the steering and suspension and put her down on wheels.

 

[Mike65 475]

Rich, your Mustang looks awesome, love the color.

[Rich Ackermann 174]

22 minutes ago, Mike65 said:

Rich, you Mustang looks awesome, love the color.

Thanks. Cant wait to get it home and start put it together. 

[Grabber70Mach 107]

That looks great, looking forward to your updates as you start the reassembly.

[Hux 45]

RICH.  Have you converted to a 69 front?

 

your lower valance has indicator holes

front guards look like they no longer have the front indicator hole

[Rich Ackermann 174]

1 hour ago, Hux said:

RICH.  Have you converted to a 69 front?

 

your lower valance has indicator holes

front guards look like they no longer have the front indicator hole

Good catch! Nobody else has questioned it so far. Not entirely... I never liked the 70 side-markers in the fenders, so we welded them shut and I bought a 69 valence, 69 side-marker lights, and 69 Front Bumper mounted three wire parking lights. My other reason is in my opinion Ford engineers screwed up when they switched the 70s over to a two wire configuration for the side-markers, and front and rear parking lights. 1969s had a straight forward three wire setup. These lights on a 70 have no third wire for ground and therefore seek ground somewhere else thru the wire harness (i.e. the dash or the hood turn signal grounds, etc). I guess Ford engineers were being creative with two wire setup by creating an alternating on-off blinking between the side-markers and parking lights for the turn signals, which I find annoying anyway.  What's worse because of the setup the wiring is prone to malfunction where all these lights stop working or dim-out because of one burned out bulb or a ground issue somewhere in the system, making it hard to isolate since the bulbs essentially run in series,  

So for all these reasons I mentioned above, I converted the mess to a to three wire setup like the 1969s have using my 70 harness, three wire light sockets, and a third wire for ground on the side-markers, front and back parking lights. There really wasn't much modification to the original harness and I was spending my time re-wrapping it anyway. This also will enable me to use LEDs without a hassle in the future.

Sorry about the long winded explanation. Here is a forum post on the topic on the 70 light issue as well as Leds kits.

 

[Hux 45]

BTW after seeing your paint in colour I have flipped on whether I stay with the original white.

I have always had a soft spot for the oranges...and as I am not staying true to the build sheet - adding shaker, tach dash and sport deck seat and converting to toploader (because that is what I want) I dont think the colour change will make much difference to the value.