That’s looking awesome. Congratulations on your hard work, it shows.

 

Thank you! Almost rotisserie time. Wish I could have had the bottom done as well but I'm going to do that myself.

 

It looks great.

 

Thank you sir

 

I still have to sand my doors etc. Auto correct on my phone made it say sandblasting. Sand sand and more sanding! I'm fortunate that this car was stored away for years and just by sanding it comes out as nice clean metal for the most part.

 

It's been awhile since I posted but I'm sure you didn't want to see sanding progress pics over and over.

I got my sanding done to where I was happy with it and got it as clean as I could.

And I thought I was crazy for doing the package tray also. But I went for it. The underside was tough to reach at times but I got it pretty good.

I'll spray some rust inhibitor in there and coat the areas I could not reach. It's just surface rust I could not get to.

And finally after 10 months of sanding, wire wheeling and whatnot I got my car back from epoxy this morning. Just the shell. I still have to sandblast my doors, fenders, hood, trunk etc.

Time to get back to work!

 

I brushed on some Master Series Silver. Turned out really nice.

I could have left the floors etc alone at this point but wanted to use their AG 111 topcoat just an an extra measure. Should have chosen the satin finish because I don't like the sheen of the gloss.
Plus thus stuff brushed on pretty thick. At the end of the day though none of this will be seen once the interior goes in. Still bugs me though. Lol.
And I have to seam seal yet.

 

Nothing groundbreaking here. Just more sanding pics. Finally got the trunk area done and scraped off the old coating inside one quarter with a razor blade. Still have the other one to do tomorrow.

That piece of cardboard is just a template for the piece I have to patch in there. It's getting exciting now! Almost all of the dirty work is done. Been sanding forever but I'm almost there.

 

Jrock, great job on your Stang, and great pics on your progress, thanks for sharing. That car is in amazing condition considering where you’re located.
All the best during your build, and keep the pics coming, they’re very helpful. I’m trying to get a 66 coupe together as well, just gotta get the motivation back again, plus the energy.

 

Jrock, great job on your Stang, and great pics on your progress, thanks for sharing. That car is in amazing condition considering where you’re located.
All the best during your build, and keep the pics coming, they’re very helpful. I’m trying to get a 66 coupe together as well, just gotta get the motivation back again, plus the energy.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Considering it's shape I'm lucky that the car was stashed away out of the elements. My motivation comes and goes like anyone else. I'll work on it everyday for 2 weeks straight or so then I sometimes just don't feel like working on it and when that happens I'll stay away from it for however long it takes until I get the motivation and excitement back. It should be fun and not feel like work. Lol. But thank you again for saying that. I'll keep the pics coming.

 

When I'm not over at the place my car is at working on it I like to restore smaller items at home in the evening. Tonight I finished up my heater box I've been working on.

I bead blasted all of the metal parts inside and out. Then I used Rust Oleum self etch primer. Sanded that lightly with I think 1500, then semi gloss black and then used a satin clear. I know, why use a semi gloss paint then a satin clear? I couldn't find a semi gloss clear. Either high gloss or satin. I think the satin turned out nice.
Then I used 1500 grit on the box itself, lightly then used the same satin clear on the box inside and out. It darkened up the box like I'd hoped it because it was pretty chalky looking. And it left a nice subtle sheen on it. I replaced all of the foam seals, they were pretty thick and made getting everything in the box really snug and I nervous about it maybe cracking so I went to hobby lobby and spent 4.00 on some foam that was not as thick. Worked out well. Still snug but much more better fitting. New resistor, heater core etc.

It's not totally factory correct but I'm good with that. The little rivets if we can call them that should be silver or natural? But I just left them black. I did get my new blower motor today but it showed up damaged. The yellow wire got pretty beat up by the motor shaft but NPD is taking care of it as they always do. Love that place!

I think I'm going to tackle my console next. Looking forward to that!

 

Today I got the roof stripped down but instead of just using my sander which takes a looong time I wanted to try and scrape the paint off with razor blades. Bought a 100 count pack at Harbor Freight for 5.00 and a holder for 3.00 or so. Worked like a charm! Stripped off the paint pretty fast.

As I scraped though, the paint flew everywhere. About the size of sand it "exploded" as I went along. Easy to vacuum up though. Maybe I should have used a heat gun to soften it first so it would come off more together in pieces?
Took about half the time compared to what it took for my hood using just the sander. Much faster once that paint is off first.

 

I haven't posted in a little while so wanted to put up some progress pics. I am in the process of getting the rest of the car down to bare metal. Decided to wait to put my top cowl panel in until that is done. Get all of the nasty paint dust out of the way and cleaned up before I weld that in. But here are some before and afters. And what it currently looks like.

Getting the paint off the hood was no fun at all. I just have an electric handheld sander. Takes forever and really messy but it's done! At least the top side for now.

There she sits as of now. Still have to do some work on the inside, then get the top of the roof stripped and the driver quarter panel and door jamb area. I'm closer and closer to getting all of the dirty work done. Hopefully not too much longer!

 

I did get my welds ground down. No pics though. And I did cut off the upper corners of my top cowl piece because they were too rusted and made patch pieces.

I still have some finesse work to do but I don't think it looks too bad for my first time trying this.
And I had an area on the driver side trunk area that was pitted pretty bad. I wonder why just on that one side and not the passenger side.
But I did get it cut out. Haven't made or put the patch in yet. The rest of the piece is in good shape so that's why I am going to patch instead of replacing the whole piece.

 

And don't ask why I put weld thru primer on the panel flanges when I have to grind the welds off anyway. That was pretty dumb of me. Lol. Got carried away I guess. I'm sure I'll get over wasting a coat or two of spray can primer.

 

Not much to report today but I got my lower cowl welded in. I know I should have welded and grind the welds first, then paint the top side but my brother can only weld on the weekends, so during the week I just wanted to get it painted and have some progress. We protected it well. No spatter on the painted area. Turned out nice. Grinding all of those is next. Oh lucky me...

 

Also for the 67 lower panel besides cutting off the extra brackets and modifying your wiper motor bracket you have to trim the front and sides and drill a couple extra holes in your driver side fresh air vent assembly because the 67 panel has more studs than a 66 does.

 

I did brush on the master series products. Spraying would have given a smoother looking finish but it's in the cowl and not really seen. It doesn't look too bad though.

 

Then I topcoated the panel itself and used weld thru primer on the flanges. The flanges on the car that were rusty I used ospho a few times over a few days just to make sure I got it the best I could after wire wheeling.

I wish I would have flattened out my seam sealer around the cowl hats better. It's kinda chunky and might keep water from getting out as good but I don't plan on much water getting in there and if it does want to rust it will have to get through the topcoat, seam sealer, master series silver primer then eat through the metal. Nah, not concerned at all. Lol.

 

It's been a few weeks since I posted. Ended up going with a 67 full lower cowl instead of just the ends. Had to cut off extra brackets and modify the wiper motor bracket. Not a big deal.
Sanded off the e coat as I always do and put 2 coats of master series silver on then seam sealed.

I did the same to my firewall as well.

I will seam sealer further down also. Just wanted to get the hard to reach areas out of the way.

I cleaned and scuffed the back of my dash and used aerosol rust encapsulator from eastwood and their internal frame coating in the door jamb areas. Best to get it now for the easy access.

 

You’re doing the Lord’s work sir. Keep it up.

 

Lol. Thanks man. Things are going too smooth with this repair I'm waiting for something to rear its ugly head. Hope not.
Still deciding if I should leave the original driver side wiper mounting holes or drill new ones in. Just a little more tricky with the cuts and getting those to mate up nicely. Leaning towards leaving them. We'll see. Onward and upward!

 

Worked on the cowl after work tonight. Got it lined up where it needs to be and just screwed it together for now. I'm not concerned about filling a few small holes I made with weld. I still have some trimming to do before I weld together.
Brought it home so I can stare at it and think of a few different options I can do with this. That's how my brain works. Lol

 

And as a point of reference for my new end pieces I took a measurement off my old cowl and measured from the outside most inner part of each "hat" and measured over to the embossed ridge that is that is about in the center and it was 14 3/4 for both sides so I knew to move my new pieces away or over to hold that same measurement.

And the main reason I went with end pieces instead of getting a 67 lower cowl and modifying it was that I could line up my old middle section spot weld holes that I cut out and get it exactly where it was before.

 

Tonight I started test fitting my cowl repair pieces. Decided to just use the ends that are available. The passenger side is looking good so far. Did a little trimming at the top corner to get it to lay down and a little slit and some hammering and it's looking pretty good. Still have to trim the sides and front. I cut around the driver side wiper mounting point but still deciding if I want to end up cutting that off and just using the whole piece and drill new holes for the wiper.

Decided to just put the driver side in just to see how it roughly lines up. It will need a little bit of trimming but I'm feeling pretty good about this repair.

Once I get the bottom where I want it and tacked or screwed together I will put the top on and hopefully everything lines up good there as well. I'll know in a day or two. Hoping for the best!!!

 

Had to cut out a bad section of the side cowl/flange and replace. Got it trimmed up pretty close but still have to elongate the hole. Not really needed but want it to look right.

And got my flanges cleaned up. Nice shiny metal. The parts where I thought I'd have to sandblast cleaned up well with aggressive wire wheeling. I was shocked by that.

 

Not much going on yet in the way of welding but getting things cleaned up, blasted, prepped etc.
Got my dash area all cleared out mostly.

Started to sand the firewall and toe board area and wire wheel it. I'm going to paint down to this point with rust encapsulator while the cowl is out and the back if the dash as well when that is cleaned up.

And I blasted my upper and lower cowl then took a wire wheel to it. I'm going to go ahead and replace both ends of the lower section that's why they're not cleaned up as nice. The drivers side definitely needs it and the passenger side could stay but I was like might as well to give me peace of mind that there will be nice new and strong metal in there. Ill post those pics as I get done with that job.

That paint in the grill section is a beast to get off. It took too many of my sanding cones to do that first section and blasting barely touched it. I'm going to use paint stripper.

 

The drivers side has some rot through on the collar and by the outer flange. I'm going to buy a partial cowl piece and replace that side. The passenger side looks pretty good but there is a hole up on the panel. I'm going to make a patch for that. It came off pretty good except the upper drivers side. It had the most rust and the metal was pretty thin and I ended up losing the very end of it. I'm going to make a piece for that.

 

Today I got the top of my cowl off. I actually started yesterday and my goal was to not beat up and bend the flanges too bad taking it off and try not to drill all the way through. I drilled through 4. Not bad considering I drilled out probably around 100 or so.