restoring a 1965 Mustang
In search of a change of pace, I decided to tackle removing the cowl. Looking back it probably would have been a good idea to wait to do this, but what’s a good project if not a series of new mistakes. In addition to the clear rust damage on the sides, I knew that water […]
I didn’t get a great picture of it, but the reproduction passenger side door wasn’t aligning well with the rocker panel at the front of the door. Namely, the door was protruding out too far, even when adjusted in as far as possible. I initially thought that it could be an issue with the hinge, […]
The first thing to do when you’re going to cut out the entire floor of a car is to take every measurement you can think of. The last thing to do is kick yourself after the fact for not taking one specific measurement that seems totally obvious in hindsight. It was a good floorpan. Shame […]
With the wheelhouses welded in I was able to move on to improving the fitment of the quarter panels. The first stop was moving the top rear flange of the passenger side forward so that the quarter panel extension would sit flush. I cut along the scribed line with a cut-off wheel, then used the […]
The first order of business was getting the outer flanges of the wheelhouses to better conform to the shape of the corresponding flanges on the quarter panels. I had split the driver side outer wheelhouse a while back, so I was able to use reversed clamps to force the outer flange of the wheelhouse out […]
I was pretty conflicted about what to do with the B pillars. While they appeared largely solid, each side showed rust pitting and damage on the outside flange where they met the quarter panel. Since the damage was isolated I didn’t want to replace the entire assembly and have to deal with making sure to […]
While I was working on replacing the filler panel I noticed that there was some rust damage along the passenger side of the rear window channel. I’m telling myself I hadn’t noticed it because the rust hole was a dead ringer for the size and shape of the screw-in trim clips. I started the surgery […]
During the work I had been doing on the back half of the car I got to spend a lot of time looking at the rust damage lining the bottom of the rear window channel. Unfortunately it spread almost the entire length of the channel and was severe enough to result in occasional pin holes. […]
The top edge of the quarter panels on these cars slid up and under the exterior of the sail panels and the resulting seam was filled in with lead. Lead has gotten a bad rap recently but it’s actually quite delicious. In order to remove the last vestiges of the old quarter panels I needed […]
After getting the old quarter panels and wheel houses removed the first order of business was getting the new wheel houses to fit properly. I was able to get the wheel houses up and into the car without too much trouble, but despite being produced by the same manufacturer that made the new trunk floor […]