’71 Mach 1 Resto Project

[Sheriff41]

Had a '71 F100 Ranger. Good old truck. I've seen some nice restomods using Crown Vic frames and some others retrofitting Tbird IRS. It would be a cool project.

 

[revsitup]

I got over to the body shop for a few hours this weekend and started installing the body panels and getting them aligned.
It is finally starting to look like a car again, woo-hoo!
The passenger fender still needs a little attention but I am overall very happy with the alignment and gaps.
My friend Mike feels we need to install and align the doors and fenders before painting the lower black accent. I would have preferred to paint the black accents on each panel separately and then assemble. I understand his plan is in the hope of making sure the paint break line is even from panel to panel. I just felt if we measured carefully off the lower body line it should be straight once we assembled and aligned. At least straight enough for a 3/4" stripe to cover up any difference. I decided to go with his plan because he is the professional painter and I am a paint novice at best. I am trusting his experience and knowledge base, he has not led me wrong yet. Besides, it is his shop and booth after all, so as they say - it's his bat and ball, so I am going to have to play by his rules, haha.
Once we were done installing the panels, I also reinstalled the inner and outer door handles so you can get in and out of the car without having to reach into the door to release the latch. It's all about the creature comforts for me, and I always loved the look of the outside handles on these cars, LOL.

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Damn, I love the body lines of this car!
Those curves were not my favorite thing while I was block sanding in and out of each and every roll and style line. Now that's it is painted I love all of those beautiful curves again that I was cursing for months of prep work.

I debated on doing my lower accent color before I hung the doors and fenders but decided to do it once all back together. I’m glad I did it that way imo? I left the strikers off the quarters so I could tape it all up and have the doors open and close so I could get complete coverage inside the jambs. Used plastic masking and bagged the whole car then cut out all the openings I needed to open doors while painting. Took some time doing it but I was happy with the end result.
It might not be exactly taped off like the factory did (I assume they used a stencil?) but I tried to do it as close as I could and still have it look decent with nice tape lines.
Good luck with yours I’m sure it will look as great as all the other work that’s been done to this point
That white is really going to pop once you get that black on it imo!!

 

[tpj71mach]

Yours looks great, I am starting to get a good feeling about doing it this way. Thanks

 

[tpj71mach]

I debated on doing my lower accent color before I hung the doors and fenders but decided to do it once all back together. I’m glad I did it that way imo? I left the strikers off the quarters so I could tape it all up and have the doors open and close so I could get complete coverage inside the jambs. Used plastic masking and bagged the whole car then cut out all the openings I needed to open doors while painting. Took some time doing it but I was happy with the end result.
It might not be exactly taped off like the factory did (I assume they used a stencil?) but I tried to do it as close as I could and still have it look decent with nice tape lines.
Good luck with yours I’m sure it will look as great as all the other work that’s been done to this point
That white is really going to pop once you get that black on it imo!!

I agree, I can't wait to see the white with the black accents completed. I think it will really look great,

 

[Bill Perkins]

Very Nice Mustang

 

[Vern Cook]

Wonderful work with the panel match-ups. And I'm not belittling the rest of the work either.

 

[tpj71mach]

Wonderful work with the panel match-ups. And I'm not belittling the rest of the work either.

Thanks, I am really happy with the alignment, but I have to say the car had really good alignment and nice gaps already when I purchased it. I was surprised to see that the gaps were so even for a 50 year old car. It seems to me that none of the manufacturers were all that focused on that back then. Originally, I was concerned that, once I blew it apart to strip and refinish the panels that it would not go back together as well as it was from the start. Thankfully it seems to be lining up as it should, hopefully next week when I install the hood there are no surprises, haha,

 

[Vern Cook]

Comparing the before and after's I think there is a massive improvement. I'm hoping I can do half as well. Or maybe you would like a holiday in Auss.

 

[tpj71mach]

LOL, thanks. Your car looks nice and solid I am sure it will turn out great when you are done with it. TBH a holiday spent spinning wrenches on a Mustang sounds pretty tempting, IMO better than hanging out on the beach like my wife loves to do, but that is a pretty long air plane ride from Chicago, haha.

 

[Stanglover]

It's looking awesome.
When you do the hood blackout, PLEASE get it right before spraying.
There has been many posts on this as I'm sure you know. So many of us, including me, have it wrong. In my case, it was my fault. I used the Graphics Express stencil as a guide only. My painter thought there could be bleed through at the joints so set the blackout with striping tape. The mistake was I told him 2" from the front, forgetting the 1" trim was not yet on. the result of course is the blackout is too far back from the front.
Borrowing this link, hope the poster, David, doesn't mind.

https://7173mustangs.com/topic/3290...-black-out/?do=findComment&comment=338133

 

[tpj71mach]

I finally jumped in to the deep end and got around to straightening my front urethane bumper. I was putting it off, looking for the best idea to straighten it. At the same time, I was afraid to do more damage to it as they are hard to replace. I have had many good suggestions ranging from applying moderate heat to the bumper all the way to skinning the urethane off of the steel and straightening it and then re-adhering the urethane, yikes!
I came up with an off the wall idea of pressing it back in shape. I got some heavy angle iron and a hand full of Jeds (as in Clampett, haha). I sandwiched the areas of the bumper, that are supposed to be flat but weren't, between the angle iron and tightened the Jeds down and it flattened the dents out pretty well. I had to tighten them with pipe wrenches to press the angle iron together tight enough. After that, I braced one end of the bar and twisted the other end to take the tweak out it, sometimes brute force is the correct answer, haha. I then finished it with body hammers and dollies, it looks pretty straight to me. Now just need to body work it and paint it white, along with the mirror head I screwed up when I painted everything else, and I will be done with painting the white parts.
You can see in this picture the top of the passenger side is dented down and the bumper was slightly twisted. You can't see in this picture but the bottom was dented on both sides also.



Here is my angle iron press in action, lol.



It looks straight to me, now just need to recheck and finesse a little more if necessary, and then body work and paint and bolt it on.

 

[tpj71mach]

I got to the body shop for only two hours today but at least I was able to fit some Mustang time in. I was able to install the hood and do the final alignment on the hood, fenders, and doors, the alignment turned out great. The gaps aren't perfect, but I would be willing to bet that they are better than they were back in '71, haha.
I also wet sanded and buffed the driver's front fender, just to get a feel of what I have in store for me. I have decided to wet sand and buff the whole car before I spray the matte black lower body and hood blackout. I remember how hard it was to get product out of that matte black on my 73 and don't want to splatter with compound or polish, and have to clean that out. I was planning on doing like I did on my Camaro and mask the matte black areas, but a few friends, and I think even some members here, recommended buffing first and it does make sense.





The fender buffed out real nice for just a first cut and buff. TBH, there wasn't much texture in the first place, but it is nice and flat now. I did have a little runner on the front edge but that sanded down and buffed nicely.

 

[tpj71mach]

Only had a couple of hours for the Mustang again this weekend, so I masked the rear tail lamp panel and painted the matte black on the inside edges of the tail lamp openings. I then installed the tail lamps and the honeycomb panel and reinstalled the fuel filler neck and cap. It turned out fairly well, and man, it is starting to look pretty damn good. All in time to get home shower and get ready on time to go out. As I sit here waiting for my wife to get ready, hey as long as I am not the reason we are going to be late I'm good, haha.



I can't wait until the black stripes and lower valence and spoiler are on it!

 

[revsitup]

Only had a couple of hours again this week, so I masked the rear tails lamp panel and painted the matte black on the inside edges of the tail lamp openings. I then installed the tail lamps and the applique and reinstalled the fuel filler neck and cap. It turned out pretty nice, and man it is starting to look good. All in time to get home shower and sit here waiting for my wife to get ready to go out, haha.

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I can't wait until the black stripes and lower valence and spiler are on it!

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It’s amazing the little details and something so simple as installing the honeycomb panel and taillights can be so gratifying on a project like this ! I always loved this stage of a resto to see all your efforts start to come together. It’s also great motivation to me to keep pushing on to finish.
Keep up the great work it’s looking really nice!!

 

[tpj71mach]

It’s amazing the little details and something so simple as installing the honeycomb panel and taillights can be so gratifying on a project like this ! I always loved this stage of a resto to see all your efforts start to come together. It’s also great motivation to me to keep pushing on to finish.
Keep up the great work it’s looking really nice!!

Thank you, I agree that it is highly motivating to see stuff come back together, especially after trial fitting and removing so often, to have something installed for "good" feels awesome!

Initially, I just wanted to have the fuel filler neck back on the car to be able to easily add fuel when needed. I decided if I put a little more effort into it and sprayed the black at the edge of the taillights, I could reassemble the tail lamp area permanently and be able to start seeing something in it's final finished state. I love the look of the blacked out accessories and stripes against the white. It is like an ebony and ivory vibe, opposites attract thing, haha.

 

[tpj71mach]

Got to the body shop to work on the Mustang this morning for a few hours. I decided to install the headliner, considering I can't do any painting without "parental supervision" and my friend Mike couldn't come this week to baby-sit me. It is a LOT easier to stretch out a headliner with the glass out of the car. I have done it both ways in the past, so I know I need to get the headliner finished before the windshield and rear glass installation. Once the car has a windshield it will be pretty much "street legal" and I will be able to actually drive it. I got the headliner lined up nice and held down with like thirty Jed's. It was then that I realized I did not bring my upholstery shears to trim the fabric down. I guess next week will be headliner install 2.0, LOL.



As long as I unexpectedly had a little extra time to kill, I decide to get the front fender extensions installed and to re-install the grille.
I also removed the taillamps that I just installed a week or two ago. I bought new taillamp housings and led boards from a member here, dirt_thief and those part should be here this week. I removed them so I can tear them down and reassemble with the new parts and reinstall them next weekend when I am back at the body shop. I really wanted to add these led tail lamp boards from Vintage LEDs as I assembled the car. I tried to think responsibly that maybe an upgrade like that could wait for the second wave of upgrades. After the car is "done" and I get to drive it around a bit, and I save up some more back-pocket cash.
He was offering them up at a good price and I couldn't resist, so I will be re-installing the taillamps with the LEDs and new housing next week.

BTW, doesn't the picture with the hood open really show just how fricking huge the hoods on our cars really are. They don't appear that large when they are closed but open they look like they are ten feet long, haha.



It's really starting to look like an actual, someone could drive this without injuring themselves, car again, LOL!

 

[Sheriff41]

Looks good! Slow and steady wins the race... I guess. At this rate you'll need snow tires to get it home!

Just kiddin'! We're all looking forward to seeing you get it done.

 

[tpj71mach]

Haha, it would be funnier if it wasn't looking like it might end up being true.

 

[Bill Perkins]

Very Nice Looking Ride
Keep us updated with your progress

 

[tpj71mach]

Very Nice Looking Ride
Keep us updated with your progress

Thank you! I am getting excited to getting it at least road ready this summer, if not completely done.