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Jazzman's 1967 Ford Mustang Build: FlipTop gets a Sister!

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#1 ·
Building my Factory Five Roadster "FlipTop" was one of the best decisions I have ever made! Excluding the decision to marry my bride of 30 years and having two fantastic kids, the experience of building my MKIV brought more joy and personal growth than almost any other I have done. I began that journey to learn, to experience, to challenge myself. Regardless of the actually end product, I personally got more out of the build experience than I could have imagined. (I think the car came out OK, too!!) It challenged my creativity, my innovation, my tenacity, my patience. So when the build was done, I was . . . well, bored.

I craved the challenge, the distraction, the learning, the release. I knew early on I would want to do a second car, I just wasn’t sure what it would be. I have entertained possibilities of another FFR model, another Roadster for my wife, a Corvette, a Porsche 911, a 1956 Ford F150, a 1951 Mercury Lead Sled, a late ‘60’s Ford Bronco, etc, etc. All have their allure, all have their challenges. I spent a lot of time reading various forums, looking at available project cars, considering options. Nothing I found had the right combination of quality un-restored condition, price, locale, and that indefinable something that captures my imagination. I must admit that one of the hardest parts of this decision was deciding whether or not to do another FFR model. They are all wonderful, each with their own personality. I still eagerly await the next FFR offering. I treasure all the new friends I have made on this forum. I thank each of you for welcoming and encouraging me through my journey. The Factory Five Forum is a safe, supportive, and nurturing place. I am already aware that not all forums have these values!

When I was in High School, my best buddy’s older brother had a 1967 Ford Mustang Coupe. I thought this was the coolest car around! I loved just looking at it. I never even got to ride in it! But I never forgot that aggressive stance and the cool turn signals in the hood. I think that was the singular car that fueled my passion for cars. I am now aware that the Fastbacks are the most collectible, then the convertibles, and in a very distant third position is the humble Coupe. I seriously considered tring to find a decent fastback, but if it wasn’t already completely restored, it was a very overpriced rust bucket!! My mind kept wandering back to that White Coupe in Todd’s driveway.

About three months ago when I was in Hawaii on vacation, I came across a craigslist ad for a 1967 Ford Mustang Coupe “Project”. By the time I came home from vacation, the ad was gone. Sadly, I assumed it had been sold and I had missed that opportunity. That was ok, because I was still having the internal debate of “Fastback or Coupe.” Coupe was the first love, Fastback the new obsession. Fast forward to about two weeks ago. The same ad pops up again on Craigslist. It turns out to be only a couple of miles from my home. After a lengthy series of text messages with the owner, I was able to schedule a time to look at the car. Long story short . . . FlipTop has a baby sister!







She is in pretty good condition considering she is 51 years old and has been a project for over a decade, and not stored indoors. (He did keep a tarp over her, and she is an Arizona car. Rust is not quite the same issue that it is in snow country.) She has a 289 engine that has been “gone through” (whatever that means!!)



Based upon the dried-up bottles of engine lube and other liquids that I found in the trunk, I suspect the former owner did the “rebuild” himself. (Clearly this means that his engine work cannot be trusted! At a minimum, it means having a professional go over the entire engine to see if I runs.) She has an automatic transmission, but I have no idea if It has ever been serviced. The interior is completely shot. The exterior is all “Primer” grey, but the primer looks like parts of it were put on with a brush! There is minimal body filler, but what is there was very poorly applied. The former owner cut out all the brake lines, all the fuel lines, power steering lines, and the vast majority of the wiring. He was kind enough to leave all this newly created trash in the trunk for me! I can’t quite figure out why. It’s garbage at this point.

Bottom line: This is a complete restoration. First task: completely strip her of everything and have the entire car media blasted to get down to raw metal and see what I am working with.

Unlike the Roadster where I had spent two years planning and envisioning the car, this one does not have a fully formed build plan yet. Here is the basics that I know at this time:

Overall concept: Build a streetable RestoMod Pro-Touring car that I can drive year around. A car I will be comfortable and able to take Grand kids out it on a Saturday afternoon. (Specific Grandchildren to be added later!!) It will not be a classic “concours” type restoration with everything just as it was on the showroom floor in 1967. It will NOT be the original color (an awful light green!). Themes will be drawn from the original but will in most ways be a modern car hiding inside a classic shell. It will not be another “Eleanor” clone but may have some more modern treatments at the front and rear. It will, however, be up to my already established standards!!

Engine: Either a rebuilt and improved original engine that came with the car (unlikely), or a Current Coyote engine (most likely), or possibly a modified 3.5L Ford EcoBoost V-6 with twin turbos, (If I decide upon an homage to the GT-40, not very likely, but not out of the realm of possibility.)

Tranny: Must be automatic to satisfy the wife. Perhaps the stock C-4, perhaps the current tranny that comes in a 2016-17 Ford Mustang, perhaps even one of the 8-10 speed autos with paddle shifters.

Rear end: Either the stock 9” rear that came with the car (rebuilt obviously), or a new Independent rear suspension.

Front suspension: Independent Front suspension to improve ride and handling, to lower stance, to eliminate the shock towers and add room for the giant Coyote, and to clean up the overall engine bay look. Still working on which brand of IFS I will use. (Suggestions appreciated.)

Wheels: Definitely Foose Wheels, probably Impala’s.

Color: still very much up in the air. I only know it won’t be a candy job this time!!

It will have a modern interior with all the amenities. AC is an absolute must. It came with the factory “add on” type AC unit that mounts below the dash and above the tranny tunnel. It looks a bit too dated and clunky for the modern interior I want, so likely it will not be used. Seats will likely be higher back seats, not stock ones, but not racing seats either. I talked to my interior designer and told him that I wanted to start with a completely blank page on this one. No pre-conceived notions of what is every other Mustang interior. I may even try my hand at installing a backup camera. (My bride would like that!)

Last night I cleaned out the trunk. What a lot of junk.



Why do I have six hubcaps, only two of which are from a mustang, and none of which I will be reusing?! All the nuts and bolts are in paper and plastic containers that are seeming to lose their molecular integrity. Nothing is sorted or marked. This is going to be fun!! Found a couple of dents on the floor of the trunk and on the PS rear wheel tub, but nothing major. Best news of all: No significant visible rust, no soft spots. (I am not delusional enough to think I won’t find some rust to repair, but thus far it looks pretty minimal.)





Thus begins the journey my 1967 Mustang Coupe.
 
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#27 ·
7/26/2019
It's going to be 110 here this weekend. Perfect time to crank up the AC in the garage and spend the weekend working on the Mustang! I began by welding a couple of patch panels on the firewall. One small one covers the holes that would have been used for the clutch. Not necessary on my build. The second one is a filler plate for the Vintage air AC/Heating system. I cut out the old holes and welded this in. My welding is still not great, but it is getting better. I ground it down, and will fill the edges with body filler to make it all smooth.





No the real fun begins. I get to weld the firewall back in! I put it in and dry fitted it a couple of times, trimmed here and there, and now it seems to fit as well as it can.







There are some gaps on the angled portion at the outside edges, but I will fill them with small angle iron for strong support.





I got it all placed and have been double and triple checking that I haven't missed anything. I will weld it in either later tonight or tomorrow morning. Then it is on to the floor panels.
 
#28 ·
7/31/2019
In the absence of feedback or counsel, I decide to just jump into the deep end and spot weld in the firewall. To be honest, my first spot welds were a bit rough, but I got pretty good. After doing a few of them, I was able to get the full drilled out spotweld area filled with one quick stroke. It felt pretty good!



spot weld penetration looked good (to me anyway!!) If I am wrong, please let me know.



The firewall is really solidly in there now. I haven't ground down the spot welds yet, but I will. I next moved on to the PS floor. I first had to decide where to cut it and where to weld it. I decided to over lap the new floor onto the old floor under the front seat to just beyond the first access holes for the seat bolts.



I then drilled a bundle of holes for the spot welds. I drilled one set along the flange that goes along the outboard edge, two rows at the rear of the floor panel where it goes under the seat pan, and two rows at the front of the floor panel, one one the "bottom" and one on the angled front piece that goes up the firewall. I cut off this front piece so that it only went up the firewall by about 2". I then buffed off all the black primer from the areas that would be welded. It took quite a while to prepare this panel, but I really worked well.



I clamped it into place. I began by pounding and welding the flange along the outboard side. I then worked my way toward the middle of the car along the two rows of spot weld holes under the seat pan. This took a bit of encouragement with a hammer, but it really fit in nicely. I had to keep stopping to move the few clamps I have to their most optimum location for each weld. It is REALLY solidly attached! I did not yet stitch weld the back edge of the floor panel. I also did not yet weld the floor panel to the firewall panel. I don't have a clamp long/deep enough to reach where I need to in order to make the welds tight. I have an extra long clamp on order now, but it will be 7-10 days to get it. I have other things to work on!





Hopefully this next weekend I can get the other floor panel prepared and welded in.
 
#29 ·
9/01/2019
For the few of you that are joining me on this journey, thank you for hanging in there. Life has changed somewhat dramatically for our family in the past month. My sister was diagnosed with stage 1 pancreatic cancer. We are thankful that it is only stage 1, but it still a major gut punch! Needless to say my free time has been almost entirely taken up by more pressing issues than car restoration. I finally was able to get back to it this weekend.

I recently purchased my own Lincoln Welder. I had previously been borrowing a friends, but he needed it back and I felt bad about needing it for months on end. I finally was able to get it hooked up yesterday. It welds. . . lousy!! I couldn't figure it out. It's a 220 volt machine, it should be fantastic. I rechecked all my settings, changed them a lot because what I was using was clearly wrong. I finally went in and searched the internet to see if someone else had similar problems on a new welding rig. After 90 minutes of videos, I finally discovered the problem. The setup directions were for when you plan to use flux coated wire. I am using regular welding wire and 75/25% shielding gas. Turns out that the instruction that I read, the first page, said to set it up as negative to the welding gun, positive to the work clamp. Turns out that on the second page of instructions, it tells you the polarization must be switched to to welding gun positive, work clamp negative! Switched the polarity late last night and I haven't had time to try it out again. I have a feeling that it is going work great now!

So the question of the day is: When is it time to give up fixing sheet metal parts? Both of the front fenders have damage on the lower sides of each fender. They both were "fixed" previously by a welder who (if possible) is an even worse welder than I am! He used the wrong gauge sheet metal, left all the rusted material behind it, did nothing to paint, prime, or protect the new work, and instead of carefully fitting each patch, he slid a piece of thinner sheet metal in behind the rusted out area, welded it (sort of) through the rusted out holes, and covered it with a very thick slab of bondo. I can get the bondo out, I can cut out the front sheet damage. I can weld in correctly a new front sheet metal patch made with the correct material. What I can't do very easily is repair the vertical piece on the back of the front panel that attaches to the car. Take a look at these photos:









The structure backing up the front skin of the car is rotted, put back together badly, and now needs further rust repair because it was not done correctly the first time. I have read many times that remanufactured body panels, even the good ones that are expensive, are a poor replacement to the originals. I looked around, and I can buy the entire fender for about $140 each. I can't buy the inner support structure only, so a complete fender appears to be the the only option. So what is your opinion? Should I even attempt doing such major surgery on both front fenders, and both the front and the rear area of both right and left fenders? Or is it time to admit defeat and buy replacements? If I buy replacements, what brand should I look for and who would you trust to provide them?
 
#30 ·
10/22/2019
It took three times the 2 weeks that I was originally quoted to get my Mustang media blasted. The good news is they did a good job. The bad news is they did a good job!! Here's the body after blasting: Looks great, right?



Closer inspection revealed a surprising number of rusted out "swiss cheese" issues. Start with the doors. I knew I had minor issues. Wrong! I have major issues! Both doors have to be replaced. (If you are counting, that is both front fenders and now both doors.)







now lets look at the rear quarters. the PS isn't too bad, but has clearly had some sort of damage and is pretty rough. It was pounded out, but not well. Both sides have really bad patch jobs on the lower quarters behind the rear wheels. Not a total surprise, but certainly worse than expected. now I find that the bottom of quarters are also rotted out. More swiss cheese!







So both quarter panels need to be replaced, one outside wheel well panel is dented and doesn't fit correctly, the other is marginal. So out go the outside wheel wells. If I am already going to be that far into the wheel wells, I am going to go ahead and replace both inside wheel wells to allow for wider rear tires. There go both inside wheel wells. One good note is that the rear panel where the tail lights sit appears to be in excellent condition!
 
#31 ·
10/22/2019
To my surprise and amazment, even the hood had significant rust damage! The underside of the very front of the hood had a lot of "swiss cheese".





I am not sure if I can (or want) to fix the hood. The lights in the hood are one of my favorite features, but that's a lot of rust in a place I really did not expect. Why the underside of the hood and not the top? If you have been playing along and keeping score, you now realize that every exterior panel except the top and the trunk lid is going to have to be replaced! Thus far I haven't found any damage at all on the trunk lid. Great! that's one piece! :(

So now I am at a crossroads: do I dump this project and get out before it eats any more of my money, or do I continue and go down the rabbit hole in an even bigger way . . . more on that possibility in my next post!
 
#32 ·
10/23/2019
Comment from another forum: "This is a perfect example of why we went to new bodies. Every time we get them back from being media blasted, this is what they look like. The cost of the new body is cheaper than replacing all the body panels."

Yep. I am discovering that. So what say you: Dump the project, or jump down the rabbit hole? At the end of the project, it is crystal clear that I will have a car in perfect condition and exactly as I want it, but it will also have less than half the value of what I put into it in new parts. This is a reality of this hobby and I accept that. I can go out and buy a brand new "whatever" and still spend less than I will spend to rebuild this pile of parts. I can likely go buy a completed car at Barrett Jackson for less than I will pay to rebuild this thing. If I really want a 67 mustang, would I still be better off at this point to dump the whole thing and buy a brand new fully assembled dynacorn body? A new body is almost certainly cheaper if I were to pay someone like MTF to rebuild all the panels on this car. If I am doing the work myself, I will put enormous amounts of "sweat equity" into the car, but cost will be somewhat cheaper. Is the work the real prize? Is the build process the real reward? I know that at the end of the day only I can make these decisions, but I would welcome your input. What do you think?
 
#33 · (Edited)
12/4/2019
Some time ago I came across some videos on YouTube by a guy name Bruce at JoDaddy's Garage. He has quite an amazing group of build progress videos on many different cars. The one that caught my attention was "Brooklyn Pony". I found his videos both intriguing and astounding. I encourage you to watch them, but if you don't have time, heres the short version. He keeps the A pillar, windshield, and all the unique pieces that are only in a convertible, and dumps everything else! I do mean "EVERYTHING". He then starts rebuilding from a brand new Dynacorn frame with all new parts. It will take you a couple of days of solid watching to see it all, but it is truly fascinating. I had to wonder why anyone would waste any time on such a rusted out pile of junk. However, watching his videos really inspired me regarding my own project. I really saw how each part went together, and more importantly learned some of the things that might go wrong as you build up from virtually nothing using new parts.

I have spent a lot of time evaluating my current car. At the end of the day, virtually every exterior panel except the roof, and a good number of interior panels, are rusted to the point that they must be replaced. I had to seriously examine if saving this pile of steel made any sense. Short answer: it doesn’t. Financially, it is going to cost a fortune to put her back together. But this decision is not made based upon “return on investment”. It is based upon the love of learning. The desire to create, the joy of the challenge. I have decided that despite all the reasons dump it, I am going to proceed with the project.

Now when I say “proceed”, I don’t me just rebuild her. To paraphrase a very dated TV Show, “we can rebuild her, make her better than she was. Better, Stronger, Faster” (cue “The Six Million Dollar Man” theme music). Everyone else wants an “Eleanor” Fastback. I don’t. I want a CONVERTIBLE! Yep, I am going to cut everything away and rebuild this coupe as a Convertible. No, it doesn’t make any sense. No you can’t even buy some of the parts. No, it won’t be titled as a convertible. No it won’t be original, or numbers matching, or any of the things that collectors want. But it will have what I want! At the end of the day, this Is being built purely for the joy of building.

So here we go . . .
 
#34 · (Edited)
12/4/2019
A few weeks ago I made my first ever journey to a "salvage" yard. It was quite an experience. It turns out that this particular salvage yard in north Phoenix was featured on one of the many reality television programs. The show didn't make it, but the yard has survived for many, many years. They have dozens of acres of parts for hundreds of different makes and models of cars. This yard has cars from 1960 to 1985, they have another yard that features cars before 1960. (Haven't been there yet, but plan to just for the experience.) I found another car to buy . . . or at least part of one!





I purchased the "rear clip" from a very rusted 1967 Mustang convertible. Why? because there are a couple of parts for a convertible that simply are not made anymore. I looked everywhere I knew, and asked a lot of people that know far more than I, and none of the leads paid off. So I bought the rear clip to pull out the parts I could not buy anywhere else. As it turned out, I was able to get quite a few other parts which are available, but when you add up all their costs, I effectively got the unavailable parts for free. It took a lot of time to cut away all the stuff I would not be using and to carefully extract the parts I wanted. I took them in to the media blaster. Most of the parts came back in surprisingly good shape. The one part that was not available in any other way was in the roughest shape. It is going to take some time to graft on some additional support pieces and remake some of the water transport features. More on that later.

After all the work to put in the new front floor panels, it now is clear that I am going to have to replace the entire floor. In order to add all the structural bracing for a convertible, the floor has to go. So I discovered several pieces of good news. My skills with my plasma cutter are getting better. The floor came right out with very little work. Even better, I discovered that my spot welds are excellent! It took a lot of hard drilling to break loose all the spot welds that I had done around the perimeter of the front floor pans. While it was a lot of work, it was very good to know that the welds I am doing are really holding tightly.





I placed an very large order at CJ Pony parts to get all the necessary parts to do the rear end of the car. I took advantage of their Cyber Monday sales and saved quite a bit of money. Now I am waiting for all the parts to arrive. The first pieces arrived today. It was especially nice that the first box received was the next pieces that must be installed before anything else can be done: the Inner Rockers. I likely won't get time to play with them until the weekend, but it is good to have them on hand. Perhaps even better was the second box: among other things it included the Weld/Sealant Assembly manual from Jim Osborn Reproductions. Since I don't have an actual build manual for this kind of a crazy project, having this assembly manual is great. I really can see what I am seeing on the car. There are still a couple of parts that I just can't figure out where they go, but I hope I will come across them as I proceed. I don't know when all the other parts will be here. Some are having to come "truck freight", which ain't cheap or quick. That's OK, I have more than enough to keep me busy with the inner rockers.
 
#35 ·
Knowing you are planning on a Coyote and AT, once the new floor is in here is a suggestion on modifying the trans tunnel. Don't do what a friend did for me, start cutting with the plasma a little at a time until the trans fit, ask me how I know? I have since seen a number of builders take and make a horizontal cut along the length of the trans tunnel from the firewall to the area of the shifter. Then cut along the firewall up and over. Finally cut at the area around the shifter. This way you can "lift the trans tunnel cap to make room for the transmission. You then just add metal along the horizontal cut and that is pretty much it. Now this is a bit over simplified description, but you get the idea. The route that was taken with my build forces me to make an entirely new tunnel cap. Our first attempt at doing this out of one piece of sheet metal did not go well, once you start bending and forming you get to a point where things don't move anymore. Our second attempt will be to make the tunnel cap from three pieces, that should make forming the tunnel much easier.
The 2nd Gen Coyote has the CMCVs on the back of the intake. Some remove them and lock the runners. Ford incorporated them for a reason and I am keeping them. That said, not much room if the stock firewall is used. We moved a section of the firewall back 1 3/4" providing plenty of room for the CMCVs, the heater bypass valve, vacuum solenoid, and the fuel pressure regulator. That extra room will fill up quick. Even with the extra space, the last time the engine goes in, we will remove the intake and reinstall after the engine is in.
Another thought, I made my radiator core support fully removable using rivnuts. We have had the engine and trans in and out 14 times now. I cannot imagine trying to install the engine and trans together with the core support in place.
Keep up the good work, that hind end of the convertible should make your conversion much easier.
 
#36 ·
In order to turn the coupe into a convertible, I have to install all the reinforcements into the coupe frame to turn it into a convertible frame. This begins (I hope!!) with the installation of the inner rockers. These major girders run all the way from the front of the frame to the back of the back of the cabin area in the original convertibles. After they are installed, the rear torque boxes are attached to the inside rockers. However, in a coupe that already has rear torque boxes installed, it is a bit more complicated. I considered just removing the existing torque boxes and installing new ones after the rockers were in place. However, the coupe frame is already factory welded in exactly where it should be. I really didn't want to mess with it. Because I will be using the MTF front frame that actually attaches to these rear torque box locations, I really did not want to take a chance on getting them in even a slightly different place. So I decided to leave the rear torque boxes where they are and make the inner rocker fit around them. This required cutting and fitting the inner rockers around the rear torque boxes. This was not easy feat!! I started with the easy part: the small section aft of the torque box.



I cut off the rear section of the inner rocker after measuring three times and sleeping on it overnight! (I didn't want to screw this up!!) The basic cut was just a 90 degree cut off, but that's where the simplicity ended. I had to grind the top and bottoms to slightly different lengths, and then had to cut a slot for one piece of the rear torque box.



It took quite a bit of fitting and grinding to get it to fit just right, but I got it.



After drilling eight holes for spot welds, I welded this piece into place. The photo doesn't show it, but I went back and welded the inner rocker rear piece to the torque box whereever I could reach. The inner rocker is a fully attached member of the torque box.



Lesson next: this one is about "weld through" primer. I had picked up a couple of cans from Napa to touch up those areas that I had to cut and grind. The inner rocker itself is already coated with "weld thru" primer material. So apparently weld thru primer has zinc or copper to conduct the weld arc. Long story short, you can weld thru this stuff, but it makes and awful sound and splatters all over the place. I don't know if napa's paint is low quality for this purpose, but I gave up on it and ended up wire brushing off all the "weld thru" primer on and around all the welds after the first dozen or so. What a mess!!
 
#37 ·
Next I moved on to the front section of the inner rockers. This was considerably more complex. I had to cut a sweeping compound curve around the rear end of the inner rocker to fit tightly to the front and top of the rear torque boxes.



Then I had to cut a rectangular hole through the firewall to allow the inner rocker to pass through the firewall on it's way to the front of the car. To make this process a bit more fun, I had to leave some flanges to weld to the cabin side of the inner rockers to firmly attach the firewall to the inner rocker.



In addition, since I do not currently have a front frame on the car, I had welded a 2" square tube in place to allow me to attach the front of the car to the rotisserie. You guessed it: the square tube was exactly where the inner rocker had to be! So in order to get the rocker through, I had to cut the square tube and reattach it to the inside of the inner rocker. Lots of moving parts all at once!!



After cutting, grinding, and fitting more times than I can count, I finally got it all to fit correctly. I put a boatload of spotweld holes all along the attaching flange. This inner rocker is not going anywhere!



After spot welding the entire inner rocker in place, I went back and welded the rear of the rocker into the torque box. My spot welding is getting pretty good, but my line welding still leaves something to be desired. Forgive me, I'm learning!!



On the drivers side front I also had to remove and replace the outside rocker, but just the front section. Thankfully, this must be a common problem, as you can buy just the front section that needs to be replaced. I had to cut away the old one, which took a bit of doing. The old piece fits under the outer rocker, but the new replacement piece fits on top of the outer rocker. I suspect that is because you would have to tear most of the A pillar area apart to get the replacement piece under the outer rocker. I got the old rotted piece cut out and back to good metal, and with a bit of encouragement got the new piece to fit into place. I did not install it yet because I had to get the inner rocker in place before i do the outer.



I plan to try to install that outer rocker front piece tomorrow. It feels good to have those inner rockers in place. Now I will move on trying to fit the new MTF Rear Tubs until the floor pan arrives. I am avoiding cutting off too much structural material at this point until I know I have the entire frame back together and squared up. The rear tubs should not be a problem, as I will only be cutting out the inner wheel wells, leaving the outer half and all the quarter panels in place for now.
 
#38 ·
While I wait for the full floor pan to arrive, I am trying to stay busy by taking small steps. I am tempted to begin cutting away everything that will be replaced. I decided not to do that until i get the new floor pan welded in. I want to make sure to keep the frame unit square. If I get it off square a bit, it could be a real pain to get it all straightened out. I am not sure how likely it is that this would happen, but since I don't know for sure, I am erring on the side of caution.

I received a box from Mustangs to Fear late last week containing a pair of their "Mini-Tubs". These tubs provide as much room for larger rear tires as you can get without completely changing the interior structure. They seem very well made. The metal seem a bit thicker than the stock sheet metal and the welds are all sharp. I watched their video on YouTube on how they suggest that these tubs get installed. The first task is to cut out the old inner wheel well and square up the opening. Once again, I learned to love my plasma cutter!







I cut around the perimeter of the old inner tub, leaving all of the outer tub for now. It will come out later, but I want to make sure I have the inner tubs in a solid location before I cut out the outer tub. (And the outter tubs have not arrived yet.) I discovered a bit of a change that I should have anticipated, but did not. As i cut the inner tub out, the weight of the upper half of the car compressed the opening that I had just cut. The tub came out, but I am absolutely sure that there is maybe 1/16"-1/8" of compression. I am not worried about it because everything that sagged will be coming off anyway.

Per MTF's instructions I then ground the edge back to create a straight line from front to back. I also measured the new tub to be sure it would fit and have enough overlap to attach it to the outer tub. Also per their instuctions, I left plenty of metal to be able to grind it back to fit correctly.





Turns out I still needed to cut about 5/8" further back to make it fit. I wasn't going to grind that much off, so I hit it again with the plasma cutter, then ground it back again. Now the rear corner is flush with the frame rail side, and the front edge is 2.5" away from the frame rail, just like MTF suggested. (What a surprise!!) This did, however make a couple of other removals obvious. The rubber bumper attached to the frame rail had to go, and the plate that is welded to the floor to attach the outboard end of the rear seatbelts also had to go.





By this point, I was tired, didn't want to screw it up by trying to go too far in one day, and my son had arrived to watch Star Wars movies in preparation for the new moving coming out Thursday. The first mini-tub is not quite ready for installation, but it's close enough for Jazz. I called it a good day.
 
#39 ·
The time has come to remove everything that will not be used in the newly rebuilt convertible. This means removal of the top, the rear quarters, the rear panel, and the outer wheel houses. I began with the roof. I cut along the edge of the windshield frame. (this frame will be replaced later, but I wanted to leave enough metal to work with.



A few more cuts, and the roof came off completely.





Both my wife and I agree, it looks much better already! I cut out the window rear panel, and the right quarter and outer wheelhouse.



In short order it was all gone:



I continue to find more good reasons to replace everything. Here is a hole the size of a nickel that is simply because the original installer did not fit the panels correctly.

 
#40 ·
Happy New Year! Last weekend I got the replacement floor pan installed. That thing took forever! It doesn't hurt that I am putting welds every two inches, and ever one of them has to be drilled and then buffed on both sides to clean away the excess metal shavings and the "weld thru" paint that you really can't weld through! I have long since lost count as to how many welds I have done, but I know that I have used 3/4 of my bottle of welding gas, so it's quite a few! I had to do a few adjustments to make it fit properly. I had to reshape two of the flanges at the back corners because they were too narrow to fill the space. Other than that, It went in pretty much as expected. Slow and tedious, but not particularly difficult.





I put in the seat throne pan. This is a very heavy piece! IT forms are very strong "H" to join and reinforce the frame. This also took dozens of weld, all drilled, marked, buffed, and only then welded. I had to put a couple of bolts through the rear holes right at the top of the transmission tunnel to pull the floor pan and the seat throne pan together tightly. It worked great! That floor is very strong! after welding the plug holes, I polished down the weld flush with the pan. I had to do this because at a much later date there will be another reinforcement pan on the under side of the floor pan, directly opposite the seat throne pan. The two panels sandwich the floor pan for even more rigidity.





While I had the car upside down and the front of the outside rocker was easily accessible, I went ahead and welded the replacement outside rocker front into place. I did all the hard work on this one a few weeks ago, so tonight was pretty simple. I just slid the piece in, clamped it, and welded it on.



I started trying to bold the rear light panel into place to see if the rear quarter panels were going to fit correctly. I discovered why the original panel didn't quite fit right: It was forced to fit. The new panel, when installed on the existing trunk bumper supports, actually sits about 3/8" away from the flange to which it is supposed to be joined! The existing trunk bumper supports will have to be removed and repositioned to allow the rear light panel to be installed correctly. I haven't decided if I will just buy new trunk bumper supports, or try to reuse the ones I've got.

 
#42 ·
You are correct. I have already contacted the moderators, but they have not yet found the problem. The photos linked work on two other forums, but are not working here. They were working previously, then just stopped. No idea why. Sorry for the lack of "transparancy". Thanks for following along. Please come back in a couple of days to see if the moderators have discovered the problem.
 
#43 ·
I am finally getting a some time to make some progress. (And having a lot of fun too!) After doing a bit of shaving and fitting, i finally got both the outer wheel well (Dynacorn) and the inner wheel well (Mustangs to Fear) mated together and welded in place.







These MTF inner tubs are quite nice. Very well made, and really open up the space for wider tires. My one minor suggestion is that they should extend the front panel where the tub meets the inner rocker end. It definately fits, but is not long enough to cover the full rocker. I will go back later and add an additional piece of sheet metal to fully cover the inner rocker end.

I am still formulating what to do about the gap at the top of the MTF inner well where it does not match up with the outer well. I don't want to just "beat it into place" because it will look lousy. I am either going to section it to fit, or completely cut out that area of the outer well and lay in new panel to match the flat top area of the MTF well. That is another days task.



In order to place and fit the left wheel well pieces, I had to fit both the quarter panels and the rear tail light panel into place to make sure they all line up an fit perfectly. I am using practically every clamp I own, but was able to get all the panels in place to begin fitting and marking.





It is pretty exciting to see the shape coming into view!!

 
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#44 ·
This is where the fitment issues began. On the right side, everything seemed to pretty much slide in to place. Just a few minor adjustments, and viola! But when I went to fit the left side, i had to fight the fitment where the front bottom of the quarter panel meets the top of the outer rocker panel.



On the right hand side where the rear end of the quarter panel meets the trunk fall off panel, the bottom of the trunk side lined up perfectly with the seam on the inside of the lower rear quarter panel.



However, in order to get the front lower seam on the quarter panel to be straight and tight, the lower rear of the quarter panel ends up about 3/8" too high.



To make matters even more confusing, the rear light panel had to be adjusted 3/8"+ too LOW in order to make the previous items line up well. (to recap, the rear panel is 3/8" too LOW and the rear of the Left quarter panel appear to be 3/8" too HIGH. How can they both be true? You see my problem!!





The right side of the rear light panel also had to be moved down just a about 3/8" to make the left side fit. The right quarter still seems to fit fine, perhaps a bit better. The curves of the very tip of the quarter fit even more nicely into the edge of the rear light panel. The center point of the rear light panel matches up perfectly.



So now I need your help. It appears that I can weld the rear light panel to the frame at the 3/8" low point that it seems to be at. Somehow this doesn't seem right. Literally as I write this, I have a thought as to why the rear panel doesn't line up. The entire car is still on the rotisserie, attached only at the very front of the firewall area directly to the inner rocker panel (which isn't going to bend!) and at only six inches forward of the very back of the frame. Is is possible that the frame is flexing 3/8" from the rear torque boxes to the back of the frame? Do I need to take the frame off the rotisserie and support it with jack stands only at either end of the inner/outer rockers, allowing the rear frame aft of the rear torque boxes to return to it's standard (lower) position? Is there another issue that I might be missing?
 
#45 · (Edited)
Final question. The outer wheel well that I received for the right side is definitely a Dynacorn item, said so right on the sticker. It was clearly a well made piece, well formed, sharp edges and smooth curves, a nice coat of "can't really weld-thru" primer on it. For whatever reason, the outer wheel well that I received for the left side is clearly a lesser quality piece. It is primered black instead of weld-thru silver, the corners were not as sharp, the edges were more ragged, and one flange wasn't even in the right place. In order to fit correctly, the flange had to be re-bent to line up correctly. All this is manageable i guess, but i noticed that while the Dynacorn piece is a nice round shape, the black piece has a flat spot in the curve near the rear end.





Does it make any difference? Should I get a Dynacorn part for the left to match the right? Once I get it all welded to the inner tub, will it even show up or matter?
 
#47 ·
I have sent multiple requests for assistance, but thus far they have not found the problem. Photos came back briefly, but are once again MIA. I have no idea what to do or what is going on. Thanks for hanging in with me.
 
#48 ·
OK, at the moment, I am seeing photos in this thread. Would you please reply to this particular post to let me know that you can see photos in my previous posts?
Thanks for the help.
 
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#51 ·
A very trusted adviser on the MTF forum was concerned that I not get everything welded into place before I confirm that the doors were going to fit. Since I had not moved either the A or B pillars, I hoped that the doors would fit, but I had not ordered them yet. I didn't want to store them. But based upon his concern, I decided to order the doors. First impression, wow, I really got them quickly! I ordered them Monday, received them today! Second impression: I was impressed with the nice black protective coating on the outside, and quite disappointed that there was almost no coating at all on the inside of the door. The very reason I had to replace the doors was because the originals had no rust protection on the inside of the door! I had hoped that we had evolved a bit in the past 50 years. Apparently not in this particular area. I have been vacillating about whether to spend the money to have the entire car powder coated inside and out. I am pretty sure the poor protection for the doors pushes me back toward powder coating.

This evening I searched around and found the hinges and the bolts for the doors. It is still going to take some adjustment of the bolts to get the door to gap correctly, but I am pleased to say that my plan of leaving the A & B pillars in placed worked like a charm! The doors fit perfectly right out of the box.





Inside the car between the two rear wheel houses is the rear seat mount panel. It is set in place and held with a couple of clamps, but not welded in. Now that the doors appear to fit, and the since the rear quarters already fit, i believe that I will go ahead and weld in this large piece. (It will be great to get it out of the way!!) Over the weekend I had to change the flanges that previously were attached to the sides of the wheel wells. Since my rear inner tubs are wider than stock, there was no room for the traditional piece that went between the rear seat panel and the wheel well. I bent the flanges flat, then trimmed them to fit snugly between the wheel wells. I then used some 3/4" angle irons to add new points to weld to the wheel wells. I thought I had taken photos of this process, but apparently I didn't. Sorry I didn't document this step. I plan to take the seat mount panel out once more to check everything, and I will try to take some shots of the adjustments at that point.
 
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