My Mustang Story SO FAR...

Well... im opening this post to tell you guy, in detail, my 72 Sportsroof story, hoping it will be as enjoyable (bad spelling!!) for you, as it is for me...

First of all.. as i'm a spanish language guy, forgive me for my gramatical error!! and if you want, correct me to help me improve

Well... the story starts something like this... I´m was always a big fan of mustangs, since i was a kid... But in my country, there are no more than 40 or 50 mustangs here and there.. Uruguay is a small and quite poor country and Mustangs wasn´t for sale in any dealerships, so the cars we find are always cars with long trip stories behind...

My first mustang was a rolled over and destroyed 1970 hardtop... HORRIBLE but very loved by me when i actually purchased it... je! Then i had a couple 1966 coupes.. one with a mercedes bens diesel engine and the other one, with an argentinian Falcon engine (actually, better engine than any 6 cylider original ones.. 221 cubic inches, 2V carburator and almost 200 HP)

But my dream was to get a fastback... here you simply don´t see a fastback at all... there are some here and there but in hands of old guys rich collectors... not buyable for a 30 y/o working guy... UNTILL.... i realise that a couple of block from my parents house there was a red shell sitting under a "roof" in the backyard of a house...

My mother told me it was "Dieguitos Mustang"... As the past owner was Diego, a chilhood friend of my mother...

As the matter of fact, it was a totally dissambled 70+ mustang that wasn´t for sale at first... To make a long story short... monthes later Diego decided to sell the car to me, cause of his friendship with my mom...

The car had almost 10 years sitting cause it was robbed and most of the interior was stolen, along with the original wheels, and some mechanical parts to.. Front suspension mainly...

Hood, doors and fenders... glass etc was also in the backyard, but outside the roof!!... Buying the car was like getting a black box...

First pics re taken the first days i had the car...


Well... as soon as i got the car, i put some pieces together to see how was its condition... to see him "like a car" and not a bunch of dusty parts... For me, the car was really lined up... no crushes shown and in its 10 year-sit, most of the rust was repaired in a not show, but good work so.. i was happy to see a mustang in my garagge!!

As i am a "do it myself" kinda guy... i bought a MIG welder and started to fix the rest of the rust... that was not too much so it came ok ...

Then i putted everything in the car... Grille, lights etc and when i saw everything right, i started to prepair the body to paint...

note: the guy shown is not Brad Pitt... it´s me!! jeje


And now, i´m gonna show you guys what i did with the engine compartment... I have to tell you that i didnt take the engine off... maybe was a mistake... and a lot of extra work for sure... But as i had almost no money, i knew if i take it off i surely had to do or fix a lot of things and the car was gonna be sitting extra time... So... as the car was running, i just paint it arround and does it!


Well... after the engine compartment job... that i was very proud of... jeje... I started to get serious about the body prepair for painting... I used a 2K primer (the best of PPG series) and the process was done with no major issues... i kept my eye in all the usual details i always see in repainted cars like the usual, not so good shine when you move across the body... When the surface is not perfect, the car shines weird and i hate it!!..

Another usual prepair mistakes is leave the lower parts in a second plane... as people always look at the roof, hood but the rails and valance panels are invisible??....

Well... almost a week working with my head down solve that issues...


Well... Primer is in the car and then... a lot of buffing (is that buff the correct word?.. we´ll never know ) The car was ready for paiting... starting with the interior and using the Ivy glow colour in Deltron PPG polyester base and D800 PPG clear coat... almost the best you can get over here...

I had that colour and clear from before as i wanted to paint my Mercedes 350 SLC in that ford colour

At that time, i didnt know for sure the correct colour for this mustang and the VIN number was all i had... a marti report sounded inesesary for a 6 cylinder 3 gear mustang...

I think i dont have pics from this particular stage in this computer, as i am now at work... I´ll look for them anyway....

-well... didn´t find pics so i uploaded the ones with the car painted and almost all put together... This is how it it today... with no rear bumper

well... For those who didn´t red the VIN post... recently a friend of mine and myself, just for fun tried to get info about the car using the dash VIN and looking it up in the internet....

We couldnt find anything because the VIN looked incorrect as the Engine letter code was actually a number...

And you guys helped me with that... It seems to be a pretty peculiar code as some export car came with a different engine than the regular ones... and that engines was coded with a number...

That opened another world for the future of this car.. not only is the only 71-73 fastback in Uruguay (i told you fastbacks was rear here ) but it could be unique itself too... so i decided to find it out officially (Marti report) and if it is unique, restore the car properly as factory original, in orther to keep a possible unique car in the condition it supposed to be...

All this info is brand new for me so.... you should help me with info and opinions about the step by step process... as i'm far far away for any original mustang part and have no money!! jeje

I'm sure we have A LOT of things that are going to be appearing in this post that we have to take serious... As i said before, i´m a do it myself kinda guy and as the time goes by, i´m getting the right tools to do every job i dare to do

Your paint job is so good I didn't even notice it didn't have a bumper till i reread your post!

jeje!! my paint job is another do it myself thing... in the same garagge you see the car in every step I really like to paint, even when some mosquito get stick in the expensive clear coat

Actually happened in one of the rear quarters... in fact, some legs of the poor insect are still there

Looks great! I love the coupe style hood! The NASA hoods are nice but the coupe hood should also be appreciated!

I like this hood to... and it is the original hood in this car as far as i know... this car didn´t have any accidents at all so again, in Uruguay, if you dont destroy a body panel, you simply dont change it...

Besides, i´m the third owner... First one was the US Embassy that imported the car, the second one was "dieguito" from 1975 to last year when he sold it to me... He didn´t have any accident what so ever so as far as i know this car has all original parts, including the front and tail light, both bumpers and so on... everything is properly dated...

Now i´m waiting for the Marti report.,. i dont know if it specify something about the original equipement... But the combination of Mach 1 grille, painted extensions etc with the standard hood is not common... i think i saw this combination on the Sprint edition... But this is not a sprint car, because the interior is black and standard too... dont know... it seems to be a factoy frankenstain mustang

Yes, if it had an I6 engine, the mach1 NASA hood would have not been needed so I can see why the coupe hood was used.

YES, it certainly appears that you may have a UNIQUE part of Mustang history. The Marti report should provide your "official" documentation.

Again, if I were you, I would try to get as much documentation on the car as possible to include the names of previous owners.

THANKS for sharing.

BT

Well BT... if this car is a unique one, i really dont know what documentation is available to get... Remember.. Uruguay is a very small country with none knowledge of this type of toppics such as colectionist condition cars... here it isn´t important thing like "numbers matching" cars and so on... Nobody knows about details and what i can say to you is that i have the full documentation Uruguay gives you with a car.. The hole history of the car in Uruguay, as an uruguayan car is there... Theres no registry of the embassy time because embassys don´t belong to Uruguay itself... But the rest is there...

After Marti sends me the report, I will have a step to start, dont you think? But how i continue the search? what else i can get in documentation issue... Later me and everyone who wants to help are going to start step by step, a really process of getting the information to really restore this car as it should be...

As a non professional restorer, i know some things... i can make from an old rusty car, a beautiful car... but here´s is my roof... mine and the most of uruguayan "restorers"... we simply dont know how to make from a car like this, a piece of history...

But if my car is really a piece of history which should be kept or make it goes back to his original stage.. well... i´m not afraid of the challenge and with help like yours i.... we can acomplish a trully good job...

The car is in good condition, really... not because of what i did to it but because of good luck... It didn´t have accidents (Besides the robbery in which it lost part of the interior...) and... i don´t know... no modifications were ever made...

Well... i know im new here in this page but i really find this group of people interesting... i think that when there is passion, good things comes so, if my car is a restorable car i will take it as the project of my life... not planning on make money with it so... i´m possitive in asking for help and i know everyone who became part of my projects will enjoy them as much as me...

Thanks BT!

Ford did make 49 USA Sprint sportroofs. You have the right grille and hood and perhaps in a prior life it was red, white and blue. Is there any evidence the car was white?

I have to say no... The evidence suggests it was red... Not candy red, something like a dark red... But the previous owner told me it always been red, besides, the ibterior trim doesnt match a sprint one...

Unique or not, it appears to be a standard frankestain! Je!

Hey... Is there any way for me to know the exact equipement it used to have? Like wheels, cups... Rocker molding yes or no, etc?

Your best bet is to order a "Marti" report and perhaps the invoice copy. It will tell you everything the car came with or not. Some 73 sprint fastback Mach1's were made in Mexico that were red. My guess is they are pretty rare too but I'm guessing they had a 302 V8. Not sure if they made any 71 or 72's.

See www.martiauto.com

http://forums.themustangsource.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=336

Rex

I have to say no... The evidence suggests it was red... Not candy red, something like a dark red... But the previous owner told me it always been red, besides, the ibterior trim doesnt match a sprint one...

Unique or not, it appears to be a standard frankestain! Je!

Hey... Is there any way for me to know the exact equipement it used to have? Like wheels, cups... Rocker molding yes or no, etc?

Click to expand...

Marti report is on its way so we only have to wait and then we can evaluate if mire documents are justified... Not even in Marti people are familiar to a vin like mine... I had to send them a pic of the vin in order to make them believe it was real. Kevin Marti call me the other day to tell me i stay quiet the vin was right... So nothing if an easy guess here...

Do you say the invoice is gonna give me more clues about how my car is supposed to be?

Is the elite report usefull or it is just a fraude fancy show piece?

Nice job. Mike

Thanks!! and the process just began! je!

Very impressive work. I hope mine turns out half as nice as yours.

btw - Your English is fine...better than many American's English so be proud.

When you said you were buffing the primer, I think you meant perhaps block-sanding? You asked the question so I thought I'd answer.

Anyway - Enjoy your masterpiece. She is beautiful.

by the way - You looked like Brad Pitt to me. Between that and the car you should be attracting lots of girls.

Jeje! First of all, thanks for your good words about my car! I'm proud of her... I redone the car by myself and that males it special to me, besides, she was in a very good ágape after all...

What i ment with the primer thing, in spanish is "lijar"... It is the process you make just before painting... Like polish the primer... What's the word!!?? Je!

Finally, dont worry... Good car, blonde fut. Atracts girls who leaves when they notice you spend more time and money in the car than in her "things" je!

Thanks men!!

lijar means sand in english so yes to the blocking tx