So I have mulled over the idea of sharing my 1965 mustang restomod build. Some back story. In 1997 I bought my mustang with no floors or brakes and spent the better part of my youth restoring it. She was beautiful, I got married had kids and in typical fashion she got left in the garage. Fast forward to my son turning 16. He wanted a mustang just like his pop's. Man did that make me feel so proud . We spent so much time restoring his and then one day when the engine and transmission was done we pulled my mustang out of the garage and pulled his in to put the engine in. Unfortunately that is the day we had the biggest hail storm in fountain history. No one saw it coming. It desomated the area... including my 65. I was devastated to say the least. But I had buildings to fix, car windows to replace so I had to just suck it up and pull my boot straps up. I am working on a ground up restoration and just wanted to see if anyone would be interested in my journey? Here is some of the mayhem. And a pic of my mustang in the background sorry i couldnt find anything more recent. The gold mustang is my son's with him standing in front.
Thank you everyone, I know that following a thread can be a pain. I have to say that I am part way through the build already but I want to start from the beginning. If that is ok with everyone. Here is the car right after the hail damage was repaired on all of the other cars. I started by looking the car over and decided that I could Crush it and start over with another car or I could rebuild it. Well since this car is no longer going to be original i decided why not make it a restomod. First thing is first I needed to sit down and make a plan. The first major change was going to be a Heidts Mustang 2 suspension. I spent alot of time on the forum looking at different kits and the Heidts seem to have the most options for upgrades later on.
The Plan was coming together, But if any of you know the "while I'm here" conundrum it hit me hard. Imagine this.
The car was going to be sleek 17 inch rims, Satin black out on most of the chrome. All the modern amenity's I could get. Holley sniper, wire tuck and a daily driver to boot. I started on the Heidts conversion right away. It was hard and easy at the same time. I was new to body work but I was determined. First mistake was I was trying to take everything off super nice but once I realized it was all being scrapped i pulled out the plasma cutter and made quick work of alot of it. For the parts i couldn't damage i tried spot weld drill bits(didn't work). I tried drilling through(didn't work either). What finally worked was using a center punch to mark the spot welds, then using a drill bit to eat through the top layer and then a seam buster, they are on Amazon for like 25 dollars each there are 3 types. Here are some pics of the Heidts kit going on. But I found some problems while doing this job.
Well after starting to cut the shock towers out, I found that the rear apron piece was bent , maybe a big rock got in the wheel well, not sure. I did some research and Dynacorn made a very nice one so I ordered it and got back to putting the mustang two suspension back together. Here is what I ended up cutting out. I also found the lower firewall to floor was bent and rusted GONE with thatalso "while i was there i replaced the "floor support" some times called the frame.
Time to try my hand at panel replacement. I got the apron back in and realized I needed the peice that connects it to the firewall. (Ordered). Now let's get some welding done.
I did alot of side projects for this build like 3 points seat belts in the front and back out of modern mustangs, interior out of a 2004 mustang with leather dy, push button parking brakes, a powder coating oven, easy do it yourself power locks, toyota epas with tilt, do it yourself sequential tail lights, a wire tuck, holly sniper, power widows with handle switches and auto up and auto down, sun visor garage door opener, backup camers, smart mirror with 4k front camera, touch screen 8 inch(not cutting the dash) in center console, rfid push button start, push button wiper, power brakes with hydraulic clutch. Is there a specific one you guys want to hear about first? I will continue with the standard body work. I'm excited to show my project.
Moving Forward.
I have always been one to plan thing (mostly so I don't have to do something over again or buy something twice). I want to be able to powder coat some things like my bumper, door chrome, windshield chrome and door handles. I went to my local powder coating place and asked them how much to powder coat my bumper. I have to say I was a bit surprised. They wanted $400.00 to strip, straighten(Its new and i told them I was happy with how straight it was) and Powder coat it black (also the cheapest color). Has anyone every had something like this done and does that seem high? Well I decided to build a power coating oven. What an undertaking. First design.... Well it has to be big enough to fit a 4 foot long bumper I guess. If I'm making it that big i might as well be able to do a few rims right? So the final dimensions needed 24"x24"X8' so I had my first side project to start. Time to make a Powder coating oven.
I started by gathering material which included some old military desk that where free, they where pretty heavy gauge steel. I bolted, and riveted those together and made the outside shell. I was unsure on how to get things put together but I made it work. I had an old oven from my house that my wife wanted to throw away, I knew one set of oven elements was not going to get the unit hot enough so I went on Craigslist and found another oven this one with a digital face. I had to make sure when it was at 450 degree's it didn't burn things next to it so I used the Insulation from the ovens on all of the walls. I took the ovens apart and salvaged any parts i thought i might use including the digital controller, the heating elements, wiring, door handle glass and so on.
Where do you live? That is a really high quote for powder coating, can get 4 rims done in Dallas for $400 or less
Please post pictures of your powder coating oven when you get a chance. I admire your initiative and want to see the finished product (under construction photos would be awesome as well).
Here is me building the door, I needed tempered glass but after calling glass companies and looking online I wasn't willing to pay their price(way to expensive). I did go to ikea and get shelfs because they where super cheap.
I have been hard at work using my powder coating over. I took my traction bars off and sand blasted them, then powdercoat them red. I don't have pics of the before but just imagin I bought them back in 1998 they where a very rusty chrome.
I also found out I was allergic to nickel which is a main part of chrome playing so all my tools where causing my hands to bleed. Here is my solution to this.
Well now that the oven is done I can start with the engine.
I have decided to do roller rockers sniper fuel injection, and cvf pulleys. I am leaning towards a gloss black, satin black and charcoal gray color pallet with sprinkles of red.
With the Heidts mustang II suspension I had to change my oil pan and pickup tube.
Powdercoat my intake manifold, what a pain, the Faraday effect was kicking my butt on this one.
My wife bought me some valve covers for my birthday, man they looked good. The bad thing is the Allen's bolts ended up being fake plastic caps and if you look at the front of the picture you'll see one missing. Well I'm not about to throw out a present my wife bought me.
I powder coated them black and sanded the tops to match the air filter housing I bought and now for some more work.
I ordered some allen bolts and started drilling the spots where the plastic "bolts" where. I then tapped them and test fitting the bolts.
After I got them all done I put a nut on each bolt and cut them and chased them with the nut. I put a dab or ultra black on each bolt to seel them in.
Great job on them spanners, you could have maybe done the MM and AF different colors? The finished valve cover looks better now matching the air cleaner.
Thanks for the comment, I thought of doing different color but really just wanted the really bright color so I didn't loose them in a black engine bay. I'm doing my ratchet wrenches next and was thinking of two different colors.
I have had a few people ask how much I charge and honestly I have no idea. I would be aginst it though. I saw a guy online who had a pricing sheet that calculated everything from oven time to cleaning and how many colors.
Well I started stripping the paint off the engine and learned something new. If you guys didn't know the EPA has made it so they don't make paint stripper the same anymore, they no longer has methylene chloride. That's the chemical that does all the work.
I decided on a charcoal gray block color.
My CVF Racing pulleys came in! Sadly the crankshaft pulley was damages. The guys at CVF boast about their customer service and I have to say rightfully so. When this came in I called and sent a picture and the new pulley came in in a few days. No what did you do to it, no well can you just file it down, It was refreshing to just be taken care of.
I powder coated the alternator to match. Here it is.
And yes I went with the 3g as I am adding alot of electronics in.
The engine is coming together I had to order a few parts for my pulley kit as the 289 heads have two different bolt hole sizes on the front and back. Here it is with everything on.
Make sure you check the line up of your pulley's with a good straight edge. The CVF stuff is good starting point. My machinist say's, "they give you something to work with". I have never had one fit without shimming.
Thanks for letting me know I will check it when I get some free time.
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