The project mav AKA The misstress...

I guess I am gonna jump on the project thread bandwagon. There will be pics of what has progressed over the last 8 years as well as the necessary verbiage soo here goes. Purchased the car from the second owner in july of 86, while in the Navy and stationed at China lake California. Its' a 6 digit Dso car with no paint code on the door tag, 72 mav W/ original 302 and 303 3 spd stick. Original black interrior, bucket seat car with delux door panels and heavy duty suspension. I have owned this car for 28 years. Painted it in 96...Midnight Shadow blue metallic... (The color looked better on new mustangs back in 88) In o6 I decided to put subframe connectors in this car since it likes to bend traction bars and needed the stiffening anyways. That simple proceedure started the whole on going project. Thanks Dad...( it was his idea to "freshen up" the car)
Heres how the misstress looked when I started . The paint was allready 10 yrs old. The body of the old girl was starting to show its age as well. The connectors came in the mail the day after I took these pics. Threw a dealer plate on it, put the sub frame connectors in the trunk and drove it to mom and dads house in Angola.
Snack time now soo...More to come.

 

That looks like a pretty solid car!! Probably a pretty rare combo with the options that are on the car and it not being a Grabber. Would be interesting to see a deluxe Marti Report on it.

 

Any idea on the original color of the car?

 

It almost looks "Orange" around the door sticker and passenger side weatherstripping.

 

With the 6-digit DSO and no paint code....it would be a special order paint.....so it would be neat to find out what it was and why.

 

Agreed! I wasn't sure if you saw the bit of original paint peeking out, or not. Wasn't there a minimum # of cars that they painted special order colours? A Marti Report would be neat to see on this one.

 

I havent' done the Marti report thing yet. (Eventually I will) Dont want to find out I changed up a one of one car or something like that, till the project is done. I dont want to go back and un-do things... That way once its done...Its' done and will be what it will be. The original color was a bronze metallic...Used to know what the name of it was. You will get to see the original color in some of the upcoming pics so sit tight gang. I did do some legwork regarding the odd nature of the car when I first purchased it...The guy I bought the car from purchased it at a state fleet vehicle auction in Seattle Washington in 1979. He paid 700 bucks for it, Got a job in palmdale ca. shortly there after with Northrup/Grumman and drove the car till I purchased it in 86. It does have a Seattle WA sales district code (72) on the door tag. I also managed to track down the dealership it was originally sold through (Kelleher Ford) In Seattle. Turns out they did alot of fleet sales with the Wa state police as well as dot and public works departments in Wa state. Either way this car was built for abuse... Original Mexican block 302...11 inch clutch, 303 three speed stick. (These trannies were put behind 390s' in fairlanes and such) Heavy duty springs...I replaced the 4 leaf rears shortly after coming home with it (My traction bars killed em) Had a 3 leaf spring pack made for it in 94...I have since killed those too as well as the lakewood traction bars (They are quite bent now)...LOL...Man did this car hook though! 7/8" front sway bar as well. (Still have it) but its not on the car. I replaced it with a new addco 7/8 bar when I rebuilt the front suspension in 92.
OK! Time for a few pics... Alston subframe connectors installed. I pulled the carpet and seats out of the car to do this. I didnt want to set the carpet on fire with the welding going on. Glad I did too. This is what I found under the carpet... No, the cowl is fine...Believe me, I checked it. I drove this car rain or shine for many years in the summer...Never in winter though. Plenty of wet shoes/work boots and sneakers found their way into this car. Mine included... This discovery made me decide to really go through this car. Time to get the party started...Till next time.

 

Almost looks like the color of my project car.

 

Looking forward to following your progress

 

Interesting history! Looking forward to the progress.

 

Ok...Todays installment....The dreaded floor pan rot. Found this after pulling up the carpet. Went ahead and welded in the subframe connectors first, so the car would be a bit more rigid once I cut the rot out. Did some banging on the pans with a pick hammer to determine where the bad stopped and the good metal started. Ordered up the 65/66 mustang half front pans which included the kick up (toe board) in the front, since I knew I would be going up fairly high on the driver side. Note, in all but the 3 last pics, instrument panel and pedals are still in place. I still had'nt decided to tear down the whole car, This is where my dad and my friend Dan start with the " ya know" You can do this at this point, you can do that...Gonna have to do that over there...So on and so on...So the fun began, it was time for a total re-do... Got a passenger side door form a fella here on the forum. Of course I needed one...The original got caved in by a drunk...Get this...THE DAY BEFORE I started prepping the car for a PAINT JOB. Go figure right?? So the heck with it...Bang out the caved in door...Load it with filler....Sand...Fill...Air board...Prime it and go right??? This was in 94....Looked good for a long time but, now its 06...The doors been showing its uglies for about 2 yrs now...Yeah, theres a reason it should only be 1/16th to 1/8" thick. Hence the bright blue door in 2 pics. Mustang pans worked quite well. I had to trim 2" off the rocker side of the pans to make the flat frame rail area line up over the rails for the plug welds. The curved inboard portion lined up with the trans tunnel like they were meant for a Mav. I did cut the toe boards off the pans and section them in as needed before installing the pans (2nd last pic) Drivers side was a bit more work (last pic) I also cut 18 inches off the back end of the pans where the seats mount since it wasn't needed and did not match the mav pan in any way shape or form.
Tune in next time for...Finished/painted floor pan and the dreaded body panel rot mitigation...

 

You did a great job blending the Mustang floorboards in

 

You should get this moved to the "project" section.

 

Factory bucket seat car as well (according to the floor brackets I see)

 

Welcome to the club!

Great work on the floor pans! I will be watching this build!!