’71 Mach 1 Resto Project

[PoFoMoCo]

It’s going to look so good! I can’t wait to see it painted! What did you decide on the end caps… on or off?

 

[tpj71mach]

It’s going to look so good! I can’t wait to see it painted! What did you decide on the end caps… on or off?

Mike removed the extensions after the second block sanding was done and going forward the extensions and fenders will be prepped and painted separately. He just wanted to do the rough body work with them on to smooth the transition from the extension to the fender. Mike told me that he feels we should do the same with the rear quarter extensions when we body work the rear quarters to insure that the transition is smooth.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Sounds like a great plan. All those little extra steps and tricks, plus his expertise will definitely payoff in the end. The car is going to look amazing when it’s finished.

 

[tpj71mach]

Sounds like a great plan. All those little extra steps and tricks, plus his expertise will definitely payoff in the end. The car is going to look amazing when it’s finished.

I hope so, on my other three cars we followed pretty much the same process and I have received a lot of compliments on the paint on those cars. The '72 Chevelle has actually won awards for best paint at a few shows and the '69 Camaro won once for paint at a show. Unfortunately, the red '80 Z28 never won any awards for paint, but I have received a lot of compliments. I will keep my fingers crossed that the Mustang body & paint turns out as well.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Those are all incredible, and while I’m a true Ford Blue Mustang fan I am also a car guy at heart. I’m a huge fan of the 2nd Gen Camaro, Firebird, & TAs. I had a bone stock loaded silver metallic 1979 Z28 in HS, it’s long gone…. Y’all see a color trend?? LOL. I don’t have a picture of it on my phone but this is what it looked like.

 

[tpj71mach]

Those are all incredible, and while I’m a true Ford Blue Mustang fan I am also a car guy at heart. I’m a huge fan of the 2nd Gen Camaro, Firebird, & TAs. I had a bone stock loaded silver metallic 1979 Z28 in HS, it’s long gone…. Y’all see a color trend?? LOL. I don’t have a picture of it on my phone but this is what it looked like.

I am a car guy at heart too, I like cars from many different manufacturers. I have had multiple Fords, Jeeps (a lot of CJ5's, CJ7's, Wranglers), Dodges, one Plymouth (Barracuda), Chevy's, many Pontiacs (really fell down a T/A / GTO rabbit hole for about a decade in my 20s-early 30s), got heavy into Porsche for a while, back to Chevy's, back to Jeeps, and now back to Fords. I try to appreciate the strengths of each manufacturer. I have friends that are extremely loyal to one brand and I respect that, I just love the variety. A couple of my Chevy friends (not close friends in the first place) have distanced themselves since I bought my Mustang saying all kinds of terrible things about Ford products, I don't understand the need for that but they have that right, if that is how they feel.
I would agree that you are a true blue Ford Mustang fan, having six of them.
Anyway, that Z28 was a nice car to have as a high school car. I appreciate the color trend you are following, I see why you like silver/gray spectrum cars, they show off the body lines very nicely.

 

[James Bond]

Cheers to a successful start-up, sounds great too.

 

[tpj71mach]

I got a little done over the weekend, I started to work on the decklid bodywork on Saturday but only had an hour or so of free time. I metal worked the dings and dents out and put skim coat of bondo over the worked areas. I D/A'd that down and tapped down a couple high spots and placed another skim coat over the area and that's about it for bodywork. It's a little tricky one handed, I did use the left hand a little (don't tell my Doc or PT guy) but tried to do as much as possible with only the right.

Sunday, I had another small patch of time between other stuff that we planned so I got the timing set and topped off the transmission fluid and rechecked and adjusted all of the fluid levels.

I tested the transmission for the first time to make sure it works and I do have forward and reverse gears. I put the license plate on it , hoping to take it's maiden test drive. Unfortunately, I didn't like the brake pedal feel and am going to re-bleed the brakes and the shifter needs adjustment. I didn't have time yesterday to do those things so no test drive yet. Hopefully, I will bleed the brakes and adjust the shifter before next weekend and will be able to test drive it then.

View attachment Video (22).mov

I did determine that the stock radio that I will be using for now is loud enough to hear over the exhaust so that is good.

View attachment Video (23).mov

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Nice!

 

[tpj71mach]

I hope so, on my other three cars we followed pretty much the same process and I have received a lot of compliments on the paint on those cars. The '72 Chevelle has actually won awards for best paint at a few shows and the '69 Camaro won once for paint at a show. Unfortunately, the red '80 Z28 never won any awards for paint, but I have received a lot of compliments. I will keep my fingers crossed that the Mustang body & paint turns out as well.

So, I changed my avatar picture back to the white caricature of a 71 Mach 1 because I have finally decided that I am going with white as the body color. I have flip-flopped back and forth on the Grabber Blue vs. Wimbledon White because I wanted white originally because I had the white 73 in high school and college and I already have a blue old car and don't yet have a white old car. Besides, I think White with the black stripes and accents really looks great to me.

I then strayed away from white because my wife seemed bothered by my wanting to replace my high school car. She made a few comments about me going and finding my high school girlfriend ( she supposedly knows where she works now, interesting) once its done to go cruising around with. At that point, I was too far down the resto road to get rid of the car, so I thought if I changed colors she hopefully wouldn't feel threatened, if that's the right word? All of my sons and friends kept telling me that I should just go with the white, but I didn't want to start a thing. Finally, my wife and I finally hashed out her feelings on the car and she says she is okay with the car and whatever color I want, hopefully this won't bite me in the ass later, but time will tell.

Maybe, there might be a freshly restored 71 Mach for sale if it becomes an issue after it is completed, LOL.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I love both colors, Grabber Blue has it's points, Wimbledon White as well. But, based on your build thread I always felt you'd be MOST happy with Wimbledon White. It is going to be a show stopper!

 

[tpj71mach]

I love both colors, Grabber Blue has it's points, Wimbledon White as well. But, based on your build thread I always felt you'd be MOST happy with Wimbledon White. It is going to be a show stopper!

Thanks, I absolutely do prefer the white, if there were no outside factors in the decision it would have been a no-brainer, but as we know there are usually outside factors affecting our decisions.

I am thinking of going with the white upholstery to change it up from my 73 that had a black interior, and I think the white looks cool with the white paint. I have not yet purchased, but I do need to replace the upholstery, headliner and door panels yet so I can go either way.

I have not painted the rear quarter trim pieces yet either, so there would be no extra expense or work if I decide switch to white interior. I also like the black interior too so that will be the new thing I can flip-flop on for the next few months. LOL

 

[bishoppeak]

Maybe, there might be a freshly restored 71 Mach for sale if it becomes an issue after it is completed, LOL.

Or an unrestored wife

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I love the mocked-up pic of the white interior! Black or white, both could look amazing in your Mach 1, but IMO the white is a next-level upgrade.

 

[Marks1]

Love the white on white combo, I’ve never seen a Mach that way before, it would be gorgeous I think!

 

[tpj71mach]

So, I haven't really touched the Mustang for about a month or probably more and was feeling kind of guilty about it. I have been too busy and it just got pushed to the back burner for a while, Now that the weather finally broke in Chicago, it's more fun to go to car shows and race around in cars that are completed than it is to work on one that runs but not exactly road worthy yet.
This morning I had a few hours, so I headed over to the body shop and got the fenders block sanded and ready for the last coats of primer to be sprayed on them. I also got the deck lid prepped for the first layer of epoxy primer inside and out and then a couple coats of slick sand on the outside that I will block down sometime in the future. This eases my guilt a little and now the fenders and doors are done and ready for a final block sand for paint.

The left fender;



The right fender (aka: the fender from hell, LOL) that fender was rougher than it looked originally, it seemed to have a ding or a dent or a wave in the metal almost every square inch. Nothing major, just a little something everywhere, a lot of metal working and some filler and a whole lot of block sanding was involved in this one. If it wasn't completely rust free desert sheet metal, I would have passed on it and got another one that needed less work. But in the end, it turned out nice and will look good in color on the car.



And then there is the trunk lid, hopefully this shouldn't be bad. I will block down the slick sand and then primer and block again before it's final coats of primer before paint.

 

[tpj71mach]

Oh, I almost forgot, I also sprayed the last coats of primer on the front fender extensions today. Getting those bad boys done really fills a guy with a sense of accomplishment, LOL.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Nice, nice, nice! Okay, just checking… still Wimbledon white with white interior??

Asking for a friend

 

[tpj71mach]

Nice, nice, nice! Okay, just checking… still Wimbledon white with white interior??

Asking for a friend

Haha. well tell your "friend" that Wimbledon White is definitely going to be the paint color, but I am still flip-flopping on the interior but I am suspecting I am going to end up with a black interior. My signature line sadly is a little more realism than humor sometimes, I can tend to over think things from time to time.

 

[tpj71mach]

I brought the fenders home from the body shop this morning, I am hoping they will be safer at home bolted on the car than leaning against a wall at the body shop. I just hung them on and threw a couple bolts in each to hold them from falling to the ground. I haven't really aligned the doors yet so there's no point in trying to align the fenders. Eventually I will line all of the panels up nice to block sand everything together before I blow it back apart for paint.

It is starting to look like an actual car instead of just a pile of parts.