With the chassis up on the rotisserie the next step was stripping it bare, starting with the front suspension.
I started out by disconnecting the steering linkage and brake lines, then breaking the spindles free from the upper and lower control arm ball joints.
With the spindles out of the way everything else came apart with the removal of a handful of bolts. Apparently this went pretty quickly because I neglected to take any further pictures of the process.
After the front suspension was out I started removing the remaining hard brake lines, speedometer cable, e-brake components, etc.
With all of that removed the undercarriage was finally bare.
A picture looking up from the passenger side rear frame rail underneath the worst of the damage in the trunk. It still looks like the frame rail is completely solid despite the damage to the trunk pan, a happy surprise.
Me and my sideways car. It continued to make a mess of the floor every time it was rolled over.
I waffled on whether I wanted to remove the doors before sending the chassis off for blasting and ultimately decided it would be a good idea. The first order of business was to remove the handles, latch, and lock assembly.
A view of the latch hardware from the inside of the door looking out. The rod wrapped in canvas coming back towards the camera runs up to the interior handle near the front of the door while the three rods running upwards go to the lock indicator, the the exterior handle, and exterior lock cylinder, respectively.
Looking at the exterior handle and lock cylinder from the inside of the door.
The “data plate” on 65 Mustangs is attached to the outer jam of the driver’s side door, after drilling out the rivets it was free.
With the last of the door hardware removed my wife helped support the door while I removed the last of the hinge bolts, allowing the door to come free of the car.
After a rinse-and-repeat on the passenger side the chassis was finally bare.
To finish off this post here’s a collection of photos of the completely bare chassis, there’s nothing left on it that wasn’t welded in place.
Next stop will be a local paint shop for media blasting and a coast of primer to seal everything before I start in on the metal work.