[myfirstcar66]

THAT'S more like it !!

I can't wait til we have new leafs, shackles and shocks under it with some shiny exhaust winding its way over a detailed axle...but that can wait. I still have to do the other side and behind the valance as it won't be so easily accessible once the car is painted. Yeah, I coated the drum, too.

What did you use to take that off? Serious labor hours.
I suppose the undercoat was done mostly at the plants?

As bad as it sounds, a LOT of this was done with a scraper by hand as space is limited, there are compound curves and a lot of seams where rust can hide and be trapped by old undercoat. I did use an oscillating tool for some flat places, a wire wheel chucked in a cordless drill (largely ineffective on the undercoating), and it did take me a couple of hours to remove the greatest part of it. Then more hand work to get rid of the small stuff and clean it up.
I recognize the factory undercoating as being much like my 66, the 65 and 69 I owned years ago, a yellow 66 I had, and my older son's 66 I restored. But this hard-as-a-rock, heavy layered stuff just piled up in places had to have been sprayed after the factory because some of it was on the bottom edge of the rocker moldings, on unusual places, and waaaaay too thick to be cost-effective for Ford. Coatings like Ziebart (sp?) were reportedly sold by dealerships and by other companies as an up-sell or something to offer additional protection from road salt and the elements. This car was originally sold new and driven in Florida, so maybe the salt air and sand played havoc on cars there at the time.
Whoever ordered this car, for stock or for customer, checked some nice boxes (289, auto, AC, quick steering, and Deluxe Interior) but we both would have been better off if they had just covered the cowl and maybe not let the bottoms of the doors fill with leaves or whatever.

 

[Caveman49]

Looking good David! Be thankful for the solid sheet metal that is there for sure. Frame rails look real good in the rear from what the pictures show. Hey, you still wanting the set of 4 lug wheels I have?

 

[Hipojoe1]

Love the forward progress you are making on your kids car. There are many I's and not many We's in its progress. As a parent I went thru some of this with my kids over the years, but a realization was that Dad was doing all the heavy lifting..... Scraping, grinding, drilling, fabbing, ordering, parts chasing etc. All mine wanted to do was Drive, Race , show off to their friends... so I said more effort needed to be initiated on their part or Dad would be less involved. Final straw was in their late teens one of them took out a beloved K code we were building when wifey and I were out for the weekend. I had stashed the keys so there would not be any temptations to go for a joy ride but they went digging and to my surprise the garage smelled like battery acid and the hood was still warm when we got home! Batttery jumped into the fan blade... ruined the Battery, Radiator, Belts, Hoses, and under hood paint... Dad was pissed and they did things on their own from that day forward.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Looking good David! Be thankful for the solid sheet metal that is there for sure. Frame rails look real good in the rear from what the pictures show. Hey, you still wanting the set of 4 lug wheels I have?

I may still need them. I still haven't gone to move that 6 cyljnder car because I have limited space, trying like hell to get this one done before I start trying to repair the other one. Thank you!

Love the forward progress you are making on your kids car. There are many I's and not many We's in its progress. As a parent I went thru some of this with my kids over the years, but a realization was that Dad was doing all the heavy lifting..... Scraping, grinding, drilling, fabbing, ordering, parts chasing etc. All mine wanted to do was Drive, Race , show off to their friends... so I said more effort needed to be initiated on their part or Dad would be less involved. Final straw was in their late teens one of them took out a beloved K code we were building when wifey and I were out for the weekend. I had stashed the keys so there would not be any temptations to go for a joy ride but they went digging and to my surprise the garage smelled like battery acid and the hood was still warm when we got home! Batttery jumped into the fan blade... ruined the Battery, Radiator, Belts, Hoses, and under hood paint... Dad was pissed and they did things on their own from that day forward.

I have this discussion with my sons now and then, and with my wife. I sometimes get a little aggravated but have to be understanding that they both have school, one is playing sports and the other is in a band, they both work, date, and still have to do chores - and yes, they help with the cars when they can / I need. I'm retired now so I can get some things done to a high standard in a hurry without having to "supervise"!

 

[bigred1971]

66' Nightmist blue conv.for sale on Barn Finds,folks complaining about the paint.

 

[Hipojoe1]

I may still need them. I still haven't gone to move that 6 cyljnder car because I have limited space, trying like hell to get this one done before I start trying to repair the other one. Thank you!


I have this discussion with my sons now and then, and with my wife. I sometimes get a little aggravated but have to be understanding that they both have school, one is playing sports and the other is in a band, they both work, date, and still have to do chores - and yes, they help with the cars when they can / I need. I'm retired now so I can get some things done to a high standard in a hurry without having to "supervise"!

Sounds like our kids were on similar paths. One of mine was an aspiring rock star, even cut a couple of cd s. The other was going to be a pro Football player, tight end, big guy 6' 6 250lbs first two steps out the blocks were a little slow for NFL but 4 of his friends went to the NFL and did great. Have fun with your build and kids involvement. Soon enough they will fly from the nest and make their own nest in life, fun to watch.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Before...

And after.

Ton of work in one day. I might take tomorrow off.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Today I started sanding the top, going through various layers of crappy primer on top of some skimmed filler in places, over a reddish-brown primer, over a white primer, on top of the original blue, over original primer...on metal.
I plan to finish that sanding tomorrow, do a little thin filler where needed, and shoot a little primer and see where we are. So far, NO RUST.

The original hood has a ton of rust in the leading edge and a good dent in almost front center, so we'll be using an OE hood we sourced from another member.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Well, at least I got the top far enough along that someone that actually knows WTH they're doing won't have such a hard time...
Areas circled in red had huge clumps of old body filler and the whole thing had multiple layers of primer and paint...

A Mustang roof is curved more or less in every direction and has some high and low spots that correspond with the framework and where headliner bows had pressed on them for years...

It's nowhere near perfect but at least it's workable and NO RUST.

 

[myfirstcar66]

The original back glass still has some kind of mineral stain that won't come off.
Good thing I've been stashing Mustang parts the last 30-something years!
I have an original one that cleaned up perfectly after taking the Anniston High School 1970-71 parking decal off with a razor blade.

Got the replacement doors out. I am thinking we won't completely disassemble them, just loosen the window stops so they can roll down past the belt line for good paint there and rust-prevent/treat the inside. The wimdows roll down so smoothly, and the chrome and stainless, even the weatherstrip on the vent windows is nearly perfect. I hate to mess with the adjustment.
One of the doors will need a repair made to the front corner skin, but they are nowhere nearly as moth-eaten as the doors that are coming off!

 

[myfirstcar66]

Took off the 1976 license plate, bumper brackets, rear valance, tail light bodies and quarter extensions to do some clean up and prep. Gonna get rid of the rest of the undercoating that made its way back here. The trunk lid is too rusty to save. Still has nice chrome on the gas cap, and a "Warren Wooten Ford, Cocoa, FL" dealer decal.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Been busy under the tail of the pony, cleaning up the rest of the car outboard of the frame rail and areas that would be difficult or impossible to get to after paint.

I'm thinking of adding a splash guard of sorts behind the rear wheel at the inner wheel house to help keep the aft area clean...

It took about 2 hours EACH side to get all the black and chocolate brown undercoating crap holding sand and dirt off the metal...

And get it "clean" enough to neutralize any surface rust...

And here's some of that pretty blue hiding under all the dirt and crappy primer.

Once the dirt and rust are gone, and things are kind of smooth again, my little primer gun will fire again.

 

[myfirstcar66]

And once it's all clean and primed...

We'll be able to get to the areas impeded by the leaf springs when we drop those, and detail the axle.
For now, we're getting closer to paint.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Today we visited my friend Carl...We came away with a NICE original trunk lid, and 30-year take-off front AND rear bumpers with no scratches or dings for my son's car. Very happy to get to cleaning them up, strip, sand, and prime the lid for the car's paint.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Dirty ol' deck lid...

First, a bath.

Then I called in a stripper.

It only takes 15 minutes... then all day details.

She had a friend named Sandy.

I believe this thing has been red, orange, then red again, but it's straight as an arrow and solid - so it's gonna be Nightmist Blue.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Of course, the underside was more difficult and time-consuming to remove the flakey red paint.

Even though stamped 11-22-C2, I believe this was not a factory-installed trunk lid, but an early dealer part.
There was no paint under the trunk latch, the hinge attachment points, where the jack instruction decal was, under the rubber stops, nor where the lock cylinder pad would have been.
There was orange paint on both sides, and red paint over it, with grey primer over orange only on the outside.
I got the outside very smooth except for a couple of small scratches near the square corners, and laid down the first coat of primer. Tomorrow I plan to work on it while supervising a roofing crew, finishing dressing the underside seams and roughing for primer. I'll fill, sand and prime til I get it right. We're on the way.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Again, the underside was more work but I had to do something while a crew was putting a new roof on my out-laws' house today, so I took my stuff with me and worked on the trunk lid on my tail gate. Turned out pretty well.

 

[MidnightExpress]

Love the progress!

 

[myfirstcar66]

Today we started stripping the pot metal parts - headlight buckets and doors, quarter extensions - and we'll prep the lower grille surround while we're at it.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Forgot the picture! Look, Mom! No paint!

Honestly, these were a PITA because the stripper barely softens the original paint and you have to be careful with a scraper, coarse wheel or paper not to gouge the metal or remove too much and not have crisp lines.