Mav1970's Insane 69.5 Street Project

Thanks Dave - I had a good day today

 

It was almost 60 degrees today in North East PA and the garage doors were flung wide open - I got to work on the driver's side rear rocker area which includes rust through in the rocker, quarter panel, inner wheelhouse and the door frame -last year I bought 2 complete Texas rockers from Rick Brooks and they have been a Godsend for Pennsylvania repairs - most of the rot through has been cut out in the rocker and the front lower area of the quarter panel is now gone - I contacted Rick once again to order a nice lower piece of door frame and will wait until I get it in hand to decide where to put the final cut to the rocker panel

The rust still seen is just surface rust



Piece I have coming from Rick Brooks

 

Not much to report except I have had a chance to remove all of the old Bondo from the driver side quarter panel and have a look at why it was applied there in the first place. There was previous damage repaired with standard body tools and then the filler applied. I've had the car since 1989 and I never knew it had damage so I'm leaving it go and it can be repaired again the same way with a coat of more modern filler. I did locate and lay out cut off points for the lower panel repairs to my both quarters due to rust through. I cleaned up my good cut offs I bought from a member in Rochester, New York and laid a coat of self etching primer on them for now. Maybe tomorrow I will get a chance to begin removing all of the bad metal on both lower quarters

 

Bob, I just tried to call you but you're not home

Where did you get your Cowl Vent rings? I'm only finding ABS Plastic. Which I don't care for, Id like the real deal steel.

 

I bought them from CJ Pony Parts in PA but I'm sure any Mustang reproduction parts supplier will have them. I bought left and right Mustang cowl repair panels that already had the rings welded in because I needed to replaced more metal in my cowl besides just the rings. I trimmed the patch panels down to fit and welded them in.

 

A little more progress

I sanded down the inside radius of my adjustable rear coil over brackets and fit all 4 of them to the axle tubes - I clamped them to the outsides of the 4 link brackets which are only tack welded in place at this time so I was able to mark out where they will need to be welded - I'm going to take the rear to a certified welder and have him fully weld in the 4 link brackets first and then re-clamp the coil brackets and weld everything up solid - I also got to fit up the top coil over brackets and tack in place to the overhead tube. The Watts Linkage frame, to mount the pivot, will be built off of the upper tube next.

 

Bob, I admire all of your work. Inspires me to work on mine, but one thing I would like to say with no pun intended... is WOW i am thankful I have a solid car!!! My car is extremely rust free. Almost perfect. I dont know if I would be able to continue the project if it had nearly as much as yours

But car is looking good my friend. Did you ever see how much a thumb drive cost? I can buy one and have you pick it up at bestbuy.

 

It's been a learning experience for sure Levi - need to finish up quarter panel bottoms, a lower piece of drivers side door frame, finish up the rockers and rebuild the left front torque box yet - not a problem

I still need to get you that measurement out to the bends on the front cage bars for you and I do take full credit for completely forgeting about the thumb drive. If you want to do that with Best Buy, I can pick it up this weekend - my closest Best Buy is in Wilkes-Barre, Pa at the Arena Hub - just let me know what info I need to pick it up - maybe you could leve a note stating that Bob Hatcher will be picking it up for you

 

A long day playing with metal

I made good use of a rainy day to get all of the bad stuff removed from my left rear rocker area and lower rear door jamb - these cars are built like an insane jigsaw puzzle where, to remove something, you have to remove 4 other things first - piece by piece it all came apart - I had to dig deep and cut wide to get all of the Pennsylvania rust out of there - tools are really hard to fit into these tight areas as I had to use a grinder with a cutting wheel, sawzall, hand held hacksaw blade and a pair of needle nose vise grips - I also got my rust free replacement parts cut apart and cleaned up to bare metal - tomorrow I will try to get all of the cut lines sanded down until they match for welding and get some rust inhibitor coating the parts I will not see when everything is welded back into place

 

Go Bob Go!

That insane jigsaw puzzle is what make unibody cars strong.... keep telling yourself that.

 

Always try my best to keep that in mind - notice my replacement rocker piece is not a straight cut but another "puzzle piece"

 

Is it Orange Enough?

Well it only took 24 years to come to a point where some color has been officially applied to my Maverick - Jean Doll sent me these photos today after Dale shot some of my parts 1969 Camaro Hugger Orange - Dale did a great job considering the fact that he is recovering from carpal tunnel surgery on his right wrist - I know it has to be hurting him still - I originally only wanted the inside of the trunk painted orange so I could see what it looked like but Dale said it was OK to paint everything else so I said "have at it" - Dale knows best LOL! - the spoiler set, front gravel shield and the inside of the trunk will get clear coated tomorrow but we are leaving the cowl just in base coat for now - I still need to get it glued back into place and the spot weld holes filled in. Can't wait to pick up the parts on Thursday

 

Awesome, as usual from them.

 

I would have to agree 100%, Dave :bananaman

 

Yes, that's orange!

Very nice. Looking forward to more.