Taking care of my bottom

When I bought my Mach 1 last summer I was fortunate to have great advice from a work colleague of mine at Ford, Mike Berardi who is something of a Mustang guru and he helped me find a car with all original steel in great condition.

My car had had a repaint at some stage and looked good from above but I knew that work would be needed to keep it in its all original steel on the underside at some stage.

So having done quite a bit of mechanical work over the winter (brake pistons, flexible lines, bearings, suspension rubbers, shocks replacement), this week I turned it over to Scott Cupp who runs an excellent bodyshop south of Detroit to do the following:

- replace the (incorrect) chrome trim on the front hood and fenders with a painted item to match the car

- on the underside of the car, where the 43 year old factory underseal (and subsequent 'top ups') was degrading in several areas and rust starting to appear, to remove it, paint with POR and make good with new underseal.

Well as luck would have it, the day I delivered the car to him, the heater core started to leak so that became the first additional job I asked him to sort while he had the car....

I called in tonight to check on progress and was really pleased to see the underside of the car that had been prepared for the paint. Using a high pressure washer, once they started getting the 43 year old underseal off, it became clear that it should all come off and teh base metal underneath was in really good shape all round including in the wheel arches. I took photos all round - a few are attached. Tomorrow they will start applying the POR paint and then will follow with the underseal the next day once the POR has dried. They will also inject wax into the cavities.

I don't know how long I'll keep my Mach 1 for but I know we are already "emotionally attached" so I think it will be for some years. Now I have no plans to drive it all year round or extensively in the rain but when all this work on my bottom side is done I will be less concerned about the deterioration that I noted was already starting to happen when I bought the car.

Now just got to get the new carpet set installed, my almost refurbished console fitted, my clock restored, my track rod ends replaced...... All good fun and should keep me busy in the coming weeks.

I spent 3 weeks wire wheeling the underside of the car until it looked like polished steel!

Found a rust hole the size of a pin head.

I should've given it the por15 treatment but I ended up using the 4 litres of chassis black I had lying around.

If it isn't such a bastard to get off, I would've done it properly.

You are extremely fortunate to have a floor pan and chassis in that kind of condition. Keep up the good work.

I agree with Bill, you are fortunate to have a car with almost no rust.

Mike B. is sharp and did good - hooking you up with such a solid car.

Ray

Ray I found the car all on my own - but it was Mike that trained me on what to look at when I was out there searching and he's been a gold mine of advice since I bought it. So you can imagine how I felt when the only time he drove my car over the winter was to drive it 20 yards onto a lift in HIS garage and the high pressure power steering pump hose blew with spectacular results as the fluid went all over the engine bay (including the hot manifold), and very soon after his pristine workshop floor...

I do feel so very lucky that having decided to get the underside cleaned back to prepare for the future that I find the base metal underneath so very good. That's why I took so many photos now so that any future buyer (if I ever sell....) can see what lies behind the new looking underseal.

Nigel,

I grew up in Clinton township in the 70' and cars were usually rusted pretty bad within a few years so if that's a Michigan car it's in unbelievable shape.

Enjoy!

Nigel,

I grew up in Clinton township in the 70' and cars were usually rusted pretty bad within a few years so if that's a Michigan car it's in unbelievable shape.

Enjoy!

Click to expand...

i DON'T THINK mICHIGAN CARS WOULD SURVIVE QUITE THIS WAY. mY CAR CAME FROM cALIFORNIA AND THEN aRKENSAS

Apologies for the capitals!!