Sept. 2, 2010, Braces and more rust

I started by removing parts in the engine compartment. Found the battery tray to be rusted to the fender apron. We got that removed and realized it would need replacement. I moved down the apron and started cleaning and sanding.
Mark was busy building the door braces. (Thanks Alex! , the design worked great.) Then we started cutting away the bad floor. Mark removed the front fenders to expose the front of the torque boxes.

We decided to do one side at a time. Passenger first. We cut away the floors on both sides but not the rockers or the torque boxes.
There was a bit of adventure while cutting out the driver side floor...RECOMENDATION...remove the gas line from below the driver floor area before you start to cut away the floor. Mark found that there was enough gas in the line to start a small fire under the floor pan. He and Lisa did a great job of minimizing the issue and kept the signs of any issue to a crispy driver door panel.






We had to remove the brace by the door latch area. That allowed us to get to the top of the inner rocker panel. We also cut the brace that connects to the back of the rear seat area. This made getting to and working on the rear of the inner rocker possible. We did not have to remove the convertible top piston. I guess we could have but that is one of the million luxuries that we had because we were working on the car in a shop with a lift.

The rust and the Facts

Well here we go...
The car was being used and it was great fun for the ride on Sunday afternoon and Ice cream runs.
The Girls are now ready for the first prom and Dani asked to take the car. I wanted to get the brakes replaced so I would feel better about the big night out.
While the brakes were being replaced, it was realized that the rust that was eating away the car has reached a point were it needed to be dealt with before it would consume the car like a cancer.
One of the cars previous owners had made a decision to cover the floor pans with diamond plate aluminum. This must have seemed like the right thing to do but it was, in fact, the worst.
The plates only covered the rust and did not ad the stability that was needed for the stresses of being a convertible.

Very little happened to the car between Danielle's prom and the rainy prom night for Becca.
We still would take the car out from time to time but with the college expenses starting, the Mustang could not get the love it needed until a wonderful friend and great technician got involved.

2010...the infamous "tune-up"
See...it was Mark Blair who had been encouraging me to bring the car to him for "a look"!
A LOOK!!!, it would end up being so much more.
You see; Mark is a dreamer. He built "The World's Quickest Jeep" and has a heart for a project.
Mark and I went to school together and he was always into cars.
I trusted he would be honest with what he found and I would not hesitate leaving him a blank check for he or Lisa (Mark's better half) to fill out when he is done. He possesses the kind of honestly that has been long gone. I am blessed to know him.
When I took the car to him, it was intended to be evaluated and I hoped he would be able to wave some magic wand or something over the car to make everything better. I was not expecting free magic. I was going to get the repairs done for Dee as another surprise. Her birthday is in November, the end of November so there would be plenty of time.

I had put aside 500.00 because I knew this was not going to be cheap. I was willing to go to 700.00 if we really needed to because, after all, it was for Denise.

This is where the fun begins
Mark got to poking and looking and decided that the car was in need of a lot of love.
The first thing he did was remove the Engine and Transmission to get to work on them.
Mark is a Transmission guy from way back. He rebuilt them for a living before getting his own shop.
That only exposed the real problems that the car had. Mark was stuck with substandard help. ME! I planned to be there for the 5-10 hours needed to clean the engine compartment and get it ready for paint. Remember...the engine compartment was the sore spot I mentioned before. I was ready to make everything better by cleaning and painting it. I would also replace those ugly blue hoses too. I had plenty in the budget to do those hoses. Remember I was willing to spend the extra 200.00 on the surprises that we might uncover because Mark is "good" and "good" ain't cheap.

I was doing my part and went to Blair's and started cleaning the compartment and we came to the realization that the floor pans were in desperate need of replacement. They were not that expensive. I purchased them from Dad's Mustang and was ready to have them installed too. This is where the bad got worse.

I would need to come to the conclusion that the car really needed to be repaired properly. This would include the Inner Rocker panels and and who knows what else. We pulled up all the diamond plate and it exposed some terrible facts. The repairs would be much greater then once thought.

Fall 2004 Mechanical Stuff

It was only a matter of time before we needed to address some of the mechanical issues.
The first was the control arm and ball joints.
We found the Power Steering Control Valve and Control Valve leaking. We also found a very small hole that had been rubbed into the Control Valve Hoses. Always check your clearance!
Then we moved to the motor. It was a mess. Lots of leaks, dirt, wrong hoses, and plain out ugly.

This was the first of the engine repairs.
There was a lot to take my time and resources.
I decided to try and clean as we repaired.

We had a few over-heating issues so I pulled the Radiator and put in a four row.
I also replaced the heater core at the same time. The clips around the interior heater box were very fragile and I ended up replacing them all. I kept the wrong hoses for now. They will be a part of future efforts.

The water pump was leaking so when I removed it, I decided to do the Timing Chain too. While in the midst of this "clean-up" I decided to replace the stock 2 barrel carb with an original Autolite 4100 4 barrel carburetor. I purchased a stock Ford 4 barrel intake and spacer. The conversion went well. I picked Pony Carburetors for the purchase place of the 4100. They did a great job on a great restoration. The carb looked and ran great. ( so we thought...more when we get to Aug. 2010) Here is the new Intake and Carb, a bit of paint and a lot of cleaning. To my surprise the change of carb and intake did not have the effect I was hoping for. I was looking for a big performance improvement but that will not happen...for now. The compression was really poor in two of the cylinders. No way to go after that now.

The engine compartment was still a sore spot to me but the budget for the car was blown after these changes. I wanted to pull the engine and do the compartment properly. That will not happen for a few years. The project will take a back seat for a bit.

Spring 2003 and 2004

At this point we wanted to start the restorations. We decided to do small jobs that would allow us to see some progress. We started with the dash and the interior. The body was in O.K. shape ( so we thought , more on that in Aug 2010) so this was a good starting point. My daughters and I spent a bunch of time cleaning, replacing, and repainting. Becca was in charge of replacing the Dash lenses.

After that we moved to the painting of the doors and the dash area.

Now the doors

Along with dozens of little items like the knobs and door handles, we also had to replace the window regulators and bushings, (front and back windows) the convertible top piston and I really needed a radio. I did not want to cut the dash so we added a MP3/Receiver below the radio and two speakers into a new set of Kick panels.

In the begining December 2002

Well, it was a rainy night when my daughter Dani and I were on our way home from visiting my Mom in the hospital. It was Dec. 10, 2002 and I had no plans of buying a car. My daughter is the one that suggested we stop and get the phone number off the 1968 Black Mustang convertible. It was not in bad shape...so I thought. My brother Gary and I took the car for a short test drive and we had to do it. I decided to purchase the car as a surprise Christmas present for my wife Denise.

She loves classic cars and always dreamed of having her own classic Mustang.

We drove it to Plaza Ford http://www.plazaford.com/ and Tom gave it a "once over" and made it safe for the road.

When it was being inspected we were made aware of some of the rust on the undercarriage.

We hid the car there and at a friends home till Christmas morning.

These pictures are of the car before we did anything to it.