’71 Mach 1 Resto Project

[PoFoMoCo]

Outstanding!

 

[tpj71mach]

I got the decklid blocked out this week and applied the last coat of primer, it's all ready for paint. I brought it home from the body shop and bolted it on the car for safe keeping until it is time to blow everything apart and paint. For now it's time to focus on the hood and then the roof and quarters before it is painting time.



I also took the hood to the body shop to start prepping that. One or two panels at a time I will eventually get to them all.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Slow and steady, perfection.

 

[tpj71mach]

Thanks, it's good to see some progress. It's gets hard to carve out time now that summer is here, there are too many distractions.

 

[tpj71mach]

Last night I got ambitious and started working on the rear quarters a little. I started by aligning the doors to the quarters and fixed the gaps a little. I blocked the quarters out and found a few more dings and dents than I anticipated, (sadly, the sanding block doesn't lie, lol). I did some metal finishing to flatten the dings and dents as best I could and then I skimmed a first coat of filler and did some blocking. When 10:00 came around and I figured four hours is a good start and went in and showered and hit the sack. This will sit like this for a while as I am heading to Vegas today and wont be back until Monday night. The quarters have a long way to go before they are ready for paint and then comes the roof. The roof scares me a little, because it was pushed down and popped back up somewhere in it's history. The center support was bent down about an inch and a half, I already removed that and straightened and rewelded the center brace back in. The roof has quite a few smileys around the perimeter where the metal had stretched and buckled and the center of the roof is "oil canny". This is why I am putting the roof off to last, I don't want to deal with it, but I am going to have to eventually. I definitely will need to shrink that metal before I even start any body work. Meanwhile, maybe one night next week I will play some more on the quarters, we'll see.

 

[Sheriff41]

That's a lot of work but the results will be worth it. I guess the shoulder is working fine. Have fun in Sin City!

 

[tpj71mach]

That's a lot of work but the results will be worth it. I guess the shoulder is working fine. Have fun in Sin City!

Thanks, yes the shoulder is almost 100% full range of motion just working on strength now.

 

[72MustangSprint]

You do excellent work. I’m impressed and like you can’t wait to see the finished car.

 

[Hemikiller]

Thanks, yes the shoulder is almost 100% full range of motion just working on strength now.

Blocking out a car will definitely be some PT for the shoulder....

 

[mrgmhale]

I hope you get to the priming the bare panels before moisture in the air causes problems. The blocking will certainly help you get in a lot of exercise. Thank you for the photos, I love to see other projects progress...

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Looking good. Keep grinding, every little step helps along the way. I'm glad to hear the shoulder is holding up and I have no doubt you'll get back to 110%! It's the way your wired, and that is a good thing.

 

[tpj71mach]

Okay, I did start a separate thread on my oil canny roof in the Exterior, Body Chassis & Paint area, but I thought I would address it in my build thread also. The flex in the roof had me afraid that I would have to replace the roof, so I reached out for help from the community. I really did not want to replace a rust free original roof if I didn't have to. Sheriff41, Aus73Mach1, Turtle5353, Dougs73 and Road Warrior shared helpful insights, shout out for the help guys. Dougs73 informed me that the 3/4 vinyl roof cars had a second brace that supported the roof under the location where the vinyl top molding would be. My roof is very oil canny in that area and although the car did not come with a vinyl top I thought that would be a good idea to support that weaker area. I reached out to Mike at Motor City Mustang and he has a parts car with a 3/4 vinyl top and he is willing to sell me the brace, which is awesome. I have dealt with him a few times during this project and he has always been amazing. I bought all of the parts to add roll down quarter windows from him about a year ago and if I ever get this damn thing painted I look forward to installing them, lol.

In the mean time, I purchased a shrinking disc and attempted to shrink the metal. My roof was extremely oil canny and one of my friends that is a body man originally recommended that I replace the roof, so that was not inspiring. I worked on it for a couple hours Tuesday night and it was better but the shrinking disc wasn't really helping in the dead center where the metal seemed the most stretched. I decided to go old school on it and broke out the torch and heated up and water cooled a few spots and the metal shrank up nicely. The combination of shrinking disc, body hammering and good old fashioned fire seemed to be the answer. I still need to remove the bondo / tiger hair "cocktail" toward the front of the roof that another body man friend of mine attempted to use to fill a low spot that he thought might stiffen the roof. (I didn't think it would at the time and, spoiler alert, it didn't, but I bowed to his experience and gave it a shot) Once that is removed, I am going to attempt to shrink that area using the same process. I think the roof is much firmer and will be strong enough to be a lasting repair. I will add sound deadener pads to the bottom which will stiffen it some more and then weld in the extra support in place (and I thought the welding was done) and then I think it will be ready for body working.

Here are two videos of me pushing harder than you normally would on the rear of the roof which absolutely was the worst area prior to shrinking. I wish I had taken videos of it before to show how stretched it was.

View attachment IMG_7604.MOV

View attachment IMG_7606.MOV

 

[tpj71mach]

I feel like I got something productive done today. I ground out the bondo / tiger hair "cocktail" that my body man friend tried to apply to a low area in the front section of the roof thinking it would stiffen it ( it didn't). I metal shrunk and straightened that area and it came out pretty well, much stiffer than it was before. Mike from Motor City Mustang is working on cutting out the supports I need from a 3/4 vinyl roof parts car he has. Whenever I get those, I will weld them in and then I can start the body work. I am happy with the stiffness of the roof, but would rather wait until I weld in the extra support before I start applying and block sanding filler. I am not too concerned about when the supports will arrive, I am not all that anxious to start the mud work anyway, LOL. I plan to skim coat the whole roof and block it out using a long block to get it nice and straight. I'm not really looking forward to doing all that work, but it will be worth it in the end, I hope.

Before



After grinding out filler and metal finishing and shrinking the metal.




Then, I epoxy primered the roof until I get around to body working it. It was really too hot to spray today (over 90) so it came out dry. At least it will protect it until I am ready to get back to it and it will get sanded back off when I go to body work it anyway.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

You got real skills my friend!

 

[tpj71mach]

You got real skills my friend!

Thank you, I really do not enjoy body work, I try to do anything else first. Unfortunately, I have run out of other things to do, and I need to get this painted so I can finish assembly and hopefully drive it some day. I am hoping if I can carve out enough time, and if the body work goes smoothly, I will be painting in a couple months. That would be good to be painting in the fall when the temperatures are a little cooler anyway. It's hard in the summer time to find the time, like this weekend is all booked with Fourth of July events so nothing much will be done. Little by little it will get done.

 

[351c1971]

Yes, life often gets in the way of Mustang projects. My 71 Mach1 took 20 years to complete.

 

[tpj71mach]

Yes, life often gets in the way of Mustang projects. My 71 Mach1 took 20 years to complete.

It sure does, I am still hoping to get this one done in about two years if possible, but that deadline is quickly coming up. This November around Thanksgiving will be the two year mark. It should be painted by then and glass installed, maybe not interior done by then. It would be drivable with a windshield and bumpers installed though.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Holy Smokes… It’s definitely come a long way since November 2021.

 

[tpj71mach]

Yesterday, I received the extra roof supports that I purchased from Motor City Mustang. I cleaned them up and prepped them for primer and sprayed them with an epoxy primer last night. This morning, I welded them in and re-sprayed the ends with epoxy primer. I know adding them was probably overkill, but I feel more confident adding support under all of the worst oil canning areas that I repaired. After shrinking and metal finishing the metal, it felt strong enough to proceed to body working, but I wanted to make sure. Now with these extra supports, the roof is probably stiffer than it was 52 years ago. Next, I can move on to body working the roof now that I know its not moving around under my repairs.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

That’s a solid repair and now you have the confidence and motivation to push thru the bodywork on the roof. Great job! I can’t wait to see it ready for paint, then the big push to get it back together. It’s going to be epic!