71 custom build

[71_resurrection]

Excellent attention to detail! Cant wait to see more!

 

[Wide-body71]

I find that the reward for such cool looking broad strokes is the fuel needed to push through boring but necessary details. Besides, if it was easy...... Right? Worth it.

 

[Ray]

I find that the reward for such cool looking broad strokes is the fuel needed to push through boring but necessary details. Besides, if it was easy...... Right? Worth it.

Oh ya , so worth it. At least for me ,it's pure passion, I just wasn't sure viewers would enjoy that part of it. But I guess if you've been there you can feel my joy LOL? I get into every little part of the build ,that's where the patience comes from. It's a reward to see each little aspect come together. Oddly enough, when it's finished however, I need to start something else. In other words it's the on going process that keeps my interest. I'm chomping at the bit to get working on the firewall. At my age the draw back is my energy level. Can't just work on it as much as I would like. Every part of me hurts after a while lol. I never find it easy to walk away from it. At the end of the day I sit and memorize the pictures making sure I like what's going on. I'm still tortured by the hood ha ha gotta avoid it for a while. Don't know what happened there. Lost momentum and got confused. So I took a road trip. Got back and still not getting the answers. Oh well , It'll come to me. A lot of hot rodders have different sets of wheels for there cars . I wonder if anyone has several hoods they swap out. On my 31 coupe I run hood less sometimes for a switch. Maybe I need to build a couple of hoods for this one.

 

[Wide-body71]

Funny you'd say that because I'm going to have two hoods for mine. As a matter of fact, the hood I have now is not even my first idea. I kinda got talked into it by a couple of people. Respect for both their opinions has this NASA hood on my car but my first idea was a Boss429 SHAKER set up I'm going to make with a base stock hood. I was even thinking rear lid with a fixed race spoiler and the trunk lid with just the duck tail. The pleasure of 4 bolts and POW a whole other look.


This is two years ago. Cut the hood. Drop the scoop a little lower onto a tray that sits on the carb then make it all in fibreglass as a two piece kit. Just have bigger things to conquer before I tackle that.

 

[Ray]

Funny you'd say that because I'm going to have two hoods for mine. As a matter of fact, the hood I have now is not even my first idea. I kinda got talked into it by a couple of people. Respect for both their opinions has this NASA hood on my car but my first idea was a Boss429 SHAKER set up I'm going to make with a base stock hood. I was even thinking rear lid with a fixed race spoiler and the trunk lid with just the duck tail. The pleasure of 4 bolts and POW a whole other look.


This is two years ago. Cut the hood. Drop the scoop a little lower onto a tray that sits on the carb then make it all in fibreglass as a two piece kit. Just have bigger things to conquer before I tackle that.

My vote would be for the shaker & ducktail. But both are nice.

 

[Ray]

Some firewall rough in pics








The older floor repairs made back whenever, are sloppy but solid. Maybe just clean them up a bit before I coat the floor.

 

[jbojo]

That car is going to be an eye catcher Ray. Maybe one day I can getup enough nerve to tackle a project like yours. Looking forward to the next update.

 

[Ray]

Removing the styling line on the fenders and doors . A few pics of details. First pic of door before, 2nd door with style Line cut. 3rd pic dollied flat trimmed and seam welded. Pic of the fender after done. Weld weld weld pheeeeeew

















The styling line behind the B pillar is minimal and will be easy to eliminate. With that signature mustang styling line removed and the panels now smooth, it is one more attempt at the exotic smooth look reminiscent of the pantera. I felt that the chopped door looked to cluttered with it also. On the front fender with the raised location of the wheel well opening there was really no room for it either. There was a bunch of piled up bondo on that styling line too. Notice the holes drilled towards the front drilled to help the bondo adhere to the panel. What a story this type of project tells of the life of a vehicle lol. This mustang is loving it's face lift.

 

[Wide-body71]

Ray I think you really going in the right direction. If there was one last thing i could do to my build it would be to get the front fender flare as high and as close to the top of the fender line as I could. Every wicked car, to me, has almost no realestate between the wheel flare and the top of the fender. It adds so much more importance to the nose of the car and lends itself to a nasty stance with some tire tuck. Excited for you.


if I may add this shot of one very inspiring car. Notice the relationship between the tire and top body line. What a beautiful stance this car has. With your shortened front your car will have even more presence

 

[Ray]

That is a great looking car I thing mostly just lowered so wheel well cut open. I agree and will mold the flares up some towards the top. I'm looking forward to spreading the dura glass lol customizers best friend. So much intensive welding tends to create a battle between the builder and straight panels.


A few pics of the battle. Grinding off all the past body repairs reveals all sorts of issues. The following pics show some of these issues. The fist pic shows a lot of damage around the door handle opening , what happened here? Odd place for rust holes and dents. I'm prob gonna have to find a door section to replace it with or just eliminate the door handles. Hmmmm











Pics show the relief cut in styling line before I dollied it flat , trim them and seam weld. I'm thinking of smoothing the door handles and doing electric poppers but I hate those things when they fail lol. Looks great but can cause aggravation. I could change the door handle and graft a door section from whatever I choose to use. Any ideas ?:huh:


I've been looking at my posted pics and realize that these old worn out eyes and shaky hands can't weld like they used to ha ha ha. I see some of the welding you other guys do and miss my youth lol. Oh well gotta work with what I have left, can't give it up

 

[Ray]

Decided to smooth out the door handles. Gonna use poppers and incorporate the old trick of mechanically hooking the door lock to operate the latch so it can be opened by either method.

 

[71_resurrection]

I always thought that these doors would look so clean without the handles and keyholes in them. Excellent idea in my opinion! I can't wait until all this welding is done and we can see the car as a whole in primer (I know you can't either)!

 

[Ray]

Thanks, I smoothed out the front and rear side marker lights too. I have another several hours of seam welding to do, from behind the doors to tail panel both sides, and around the rear window frame, then I'm gonna work on the front air bag suspension before I rehang the doors and nose. I'm also rebuilding the door hinges now. Got a great repair kit on line that includes a grease able hinge pin. Working out real nice will show pics tomorrow of that. I am looking forward to getting some urethane primer on these panels. I'm struggling with flash rust with all the bare metal . Humidity and even finger prints causing a problem . Getting close to reassembly point. a lot of customizing on the door window hardware to be done also. Wow it never ends lol.

 

[Qcode351mach]

I am looking forward to getting some urethane primer on these panels. I'm struggling with flash rust with all the bare metal . Humidity and even finger prints causing a problem .

Flash rust can be an issue especially when your spending lots of time doing metal work...My procedure has been to media blast strip to bare metal--Then epoxy prime the entire part--Once in epoxy it can stay forever with out rusting and you can do your work as you want only removing the epoxy where your working. A side benefit is that the epoxy actually works better as a weld through primer then actual weld through..I have spot welds that were ground down sitting in bare metal (on lap joints that we epoxied the parts before assembly welding) over a year ago & still no rust. Urethane primer offers no protection to the metal at all its porous and will absorb moisture over time

 

[Ray]

I am looking forward to getting some urethane primer on these panels. I'm struggling with flash rust with all the bare metal . Humidity and even finger prints causing a problem .

Flash rust can be an issue especially when your spending lots of time doing metal work...My procedure has been to media blast strip to bare metal--Then epoxy prime the entire part--Once in epoxy it can stay forever with out rusting and you can do your work as you want only removing the epoxy where your working. A side benefit is that the epoxy actually works better as a weld through primer then actual weld through..I have spot welds that were ground down sitting in bare metal (on lap joints that we epoxied the parts before assembly welding) over a year ago & still no rust. Urethane primer offers no protection to the metal at all its porous and will absorb moisture over time

Thanks for the tip. To clarify a bit, I shot the car with epoxy primer over raw metal after etching, and after I made many rust repairs patches and panel replacement, before I began cutting it up. I was referring to after all the mods are complete, I plan to shoot it again with high build 2k urethane to begin the blocking. Would you continue to use epoxy through the entire process up till sealer. I find 2k urethane fills great and is easy to block out. Having not used epoxy through an entire project I'm not familiar with how well it will work in between block coats. Please advise ,Again thanks for the info.


Before I began the chop job








WOW, that car was looking pretty good before I cut the crap out of it ,LOL :chin:





Note, these last few pics are of the project before I began cutting and sectioning, didn't want anyone to think it was progress , LOL

 

[rcadd1ct]

My doors have the handles filled. Interested on how you do the poppers.

 

[Ray]

My doors have the handles filled. Interested on how you do the poppers.

I will post pics when I get around to doing them, I haven't thought that through yet. I will also be using the key lock mechanism to release the latch as a back up because it can be frustrating when the poppers fail for whatever reason. I left the key hole open that'll be all that's there. I've done this on many mini truck projects before but not on a mustang so I'll have to figure it out as I go along. As a preliminary thought sitting here. The latch mechanism is lowered to engage so I'm thinking the popper will be mounted at the bottom of the door under the latch so it can pull down. It will take a strong solenoid too, there's a lot of cheapies out there that prob wouldn't perform the job well. Heavy duty needed.

 

[Qcode351mach]

Ray,

I pretty much follow the perfect paint job finish guide by SPI http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com/#!perfect-paint-job/c1go8

Since I'm a user of their products. There are a few differences since my car sat in epoxy for a long time..But once all the filler work is finished then it's followed to the -T.

I noticed your using self etching primer UNDER the epoxy ?

If so you MUST check the tech sheet of the epoxy you used are using. Most epoxy's cannot be sprayed over anything acid based unless the tech sheet tells you it can..It's the kiss of death-delamination loss of adhesion down the road

 

[Ray]

Hinge rebuild kit from mustang Steve installed. Before and after pics

 

[Ray]

Had a lazy day , just rebuilt the corner of a door


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