Friday, June 12, 2009

I finally remembered to bring my camera with me so I could document more work. I work on it most every night, but at this point, there's not a lot to say. Basically every surface must be prepped for painting starting from the inside and working out. The interior is sanded down and any rust has been removed (fortunately there was not a lot of it). The driver's side front floorpan is a little too rotted apparently and there are a few small rust pinholes. The toeboard immediately ahead of that (area right under the pedals) also has a few small holes. I bought a replacement floorpan that will have to be welded into place. This is prone to rusting on mustangs as the cowl tends to leak there. I'll have to make sure I get the cowl sealed up very well (it drains inside the fender where it can run down to the floor).

The only rust I've found on the body that's broken through is on one of the tail lights, where I found several small holes that can hopefully be patched up easy enough. They're covered by the tail light bezels when installed. I've pulled off the front clip and both fenders to begin preparation on the underbody so I can paint/coat it all. Also on the way are new graphite-impregnated polyurethane bushings for a front end suspension rebuild. As I dig farther into the car it exposes the poor and shoddy first restoration attempt.

Most body panels seem to be held on with only half the amount of bolts they're actually supposed to be. The passenger side fender was only held on with three bolts at the top. It took me less than three minutes to remove the fender. For now I'll close with some pics until I have more worthwhile updates (the juicy stuff is right around the corner)

All caulking and seam sealer, whether interior or exterior, is removed to be replaced with new. Here I'm scraping off the cowl, where protection from water infiltration is critical.


The area just below the cowl drain is all sanded and cleaned up. I need to move ahead and continue with the fender skirt.



Small holes rusted through the driver's floorboard. The biggest ones are near the upper right.


Also found a small hole near the driver's side tail light.