Fabrice's 429CJ 71 project

[Fabrice]

Another mustang weekend passed.
And as the weather was fantastic, I've been busy on the 71



First started by applying a chassis paint on top of the epoxy and primer of the passenger's side fender. It was waiting for years...



Then corrected that little volume that bugged me last week. So added an extra bead of bondo and enjoyed remove most of it in the sun.
After a dry and wet sanding session, a quick primer spray I was able to consider my door restored!
Yeaaaaah!
It's now ready, all it needs now is a final fine sanding for the next step that will be to spray silver and green on it.
But as the paint is outrageously expensive these days, I'm gonna do it later on with more parts that need same colour.



After some garage changes, I was able to access the next patient: the passenger door! I knew the B pilar was in need of a massage, but how the door is in details was till Sunday a mystery...
So many things that are now restored, like hood, fenders.. were in much worse state and it looked fair compared to them back then.

On the interior parts, aside a bezel that was glued and the plastic at the handle broken, the panel is in excellent shape. Even the board is fine. None of the holes for the push clips are damaged...




I was even surprised by seeing the original protection paper still in place. the A pilar unlike the other side has no noticeable corrosion damage.
Good good good I thought...

Time to inspect it, so started by removing lots while on the car, as I've learned with past door, that PW doors are really heavy...
Glass, electrics, motor out it's when it started to look not that good after all! :O




Finally on my table, and few dry rubbers hiding the metal out of the way, it was clear:
I'm gonna have to do almost the exact same thing as for the other side: rebuild that door completely!
Even if less corroded than the other, the work remains the same. Both corners need be rebuild, bottom will need be formed and replaced..
It had a part of the lower skin patched at some point, but I'll replace that with fresh metal, as I have the required metal already folded thx to an error on the other door.. The hinges are having play too, that's ok, I have the pins already.

Short story, next weekend on the menu: drill out 45 spot welds to open this baby and do all over again!
Gotta love this hobby!

Finished the weekend by replacing a tire and a chain on my youngest bicycle...

To be continued...

 

[Kilgon]

Another mustang weekend passed.
And as the weather was fantastic, I've been busy on the 71

View attachment 63545

First started by applying a chassis paint on top of the epoxy and primer of the passenger's side fender. It was waiting for years...

View attachment 63546

Then corrected that little volume that bugged me last week. So added an extra bead of bondo and enjoyed remove most of it in the sun.
After a dry and wet sanding session, a quick primer spray I was able to consider my door restored!
Yeaaaaah!
It's now ready, all it needs now is a final fine sanding for the next step that will be to spray silver and green on it.
But as the paint is outrageously expensive these days, I'm gonna do it later on with more parts that need same colour.

View attachment 63547

After some garage changes, I was able to access the next patient: the passenger door! I knew the B pilar was in need of a massage, but how the door is in details was till Sunday a mystery...
So many things that are now restored, like hood, fenders.. were in much worse state and it looked fair compared to them back then.

On the interior parts, aside a bezel that was glued and the plastic at the handle broken, the panel is in excellent shape. Even the board is fine. None of the holes for the push clips are damaged...


View attachment 63548

I was even surprised by seeing the original protection paper still in place. the A pilar unlike the other side has no noticeable corrosion damage.
Good good good I thought...

Time to inspect it, so started by removing lots while on the car, as I've learned with past door, that PW doors are really heavy...
Glass, electrics, motor out it's when it started to look not that good after all! :O


View attachment 63549

Finally on my table, and few dry rubbers hiding the metal out of the way, it was clear:
I'm gonna have to do almost the exact same thing as for the other side: rebuild that door completely!
Even if less corroded than the other, the work remains the same. Both corners need be rebuild, bottom will need be formed and replaced..
It had a part of the lower skin patched at some point, but I'll replace that with fresh metal, as I have the required metal already folded thx to an error on the other door.. The hinges are having play too, that's ok, I have the pins already.

Short story, next weekend on the menu: drill out 45 spot welds to open this baby and do all over again!
Gotta love this hobby!

Finished the weekend by replacing a tire and a chain on my youngest bicycle...

To be continued...

Sorry to see that the other door is bad also. At least this one should go faster since you already have done one and you know how to form it and what needs to be done.

 

[midlife]

You'll be able to get a second job at a high-end hotel as a Doorman!

 

[Fabrice]

At least this one should go faster since you already have done one

There is a tad bit less work, mainly this side seams to not have been repaired in the middle of the outer skin so my neighbours will suffer less hammering noise (tho I'll know for sure only once I have the metal exposed). But that's pretty much all. For the rest more or less the same work needs to be done. The diff is that now I know what is waiting for me. Not that that is a massive source of motivation tho
At least I won't have to do this in the cold as we were having this winter. I'll fix that door one step at a time!

 

[tpj71mach]

I'm sorry to hear that the passenger door will need much of the same work as the other side, but at least you have all the tricks figured out. I am sure that door will look awesome when it is done. Keep up the good work.

 

[Kilgon]

There is a tad bit less work, mainly this side seams to not have been repaired in the middle of the outer skin so my neighbours will suffer less hammering noise (tho I'll know for sure only once I have the metal exposed). But that's pretty much all. For the rest more or less the same work needs to be done. The diff is that now I know what is waiting for me. Not that that is a massive source of motivation tho
At least I won't have to do this in the cold as we were having this winter. I'll fix that door one step at a time!

Just a little fyi since you are working on the doors. I had to replace my exterior door handles and the reproductions did not sit flush like the originals. I had to bend the door bracket in some to get them to fit flush. I was not aware of this until after the car was painted and my butthole was pucker to no end when I was pounding on the sheet metal. If you are replacing your originals ones with new ones, you might want to make sure they fit ok before you spray the car.

 

[Fabrice]

This was expected to be a dirty weekend
well, IT WAS!!
So get ready for ugly dirty picts!!



Saturday afternoon was all about trying to open the poor thing.
Strangely, with 5 less spot welds to drill out than on the driver side it turned out more of a job to find a few of them. Hidden behind ancient glue it's only late in the afternoon that the last one popped the inner skin free!



Finally loose, I could enjoy the sight of this open hamburger. But there too, another difference with the driver side. The lower lip, was simply refusing to let go, no matter the plastic hammering. As I will use the lower front skin as a template to replace it with new metal, I had to cut it it 3 mm from the bottom. That revealed 3 hidden extra spot welds and tons of sandwiched rust that went away in the form of projectiles while cutting. Pure joy



[SAD MUSIC WITH VIOLIN PLAYING, CAMERA PANS SLOWLY OVER THE BROWN LUNAR LANDSCAPE]




Nuff looking at misery, time to burn/remove ancient bitumes, open my skin and bleed for trying reach places too tight for my fingers, breath rust powder and other fun things!!

Hours passed till I reached a point where I could think about the next step: playing with acid in the sun!




Here concentrated on one pict, it's actually my entire Sunday! While the acid was doing its acidic things, revealing ancient primer that nobody would have thought still be there under the thick rust, I've enjoyed removing the layers of paint on both sides. At least 4 layers, and of course with that $%^^&* European paint remover doing little, had to redo all 3 times to finally expose the metal on both sides. Good news is that underneath, I found nothing that could add to the already long todo to fix that door.



After a good rince, air blow and heat gun drying. I ended up with a rust & paint free shell. (the lower skin will be replaced so did not bother remove rust there)
I'm not fully done with dirty work tho, the front side needs some massage with a disc to remove some of the scars left by the corrosion
and I was simply too exhausted to finish the inner skin that I also acid treated...

As expected, like the driver side, I'll need to rebuild the 2 corners or the shell, replace/make pretty much the same things on the inner skin. bottom, rubber channel...

My Phone refusing to let me in without finger prints was a good indication to call it a day!
From now on, this door should get better. Pffew! :O

To be continued...

 

[tpj71mach]

Wow great job! You got a lot done this weekend.

 

[Fabrice]

Wow great job! You got a lot done this weekend.

thx, yeah I feel it today :O

@Kilgon
I heard mixed things about door handles repop's. Bought for $22 by NPD, 1/10th of the nos ones, despite the many warnings I was hearing the diff in costs once at my door was too great to not try. Expecting to have to massage them, to my surprise they were after measuring exactly the same dimension, side to side, I couldn't find a difference in shape. The only thing that I did on them was to cut the rubber stop by 1/2 as the handle was not flush. The quality and finish is superior to my originals. Perfect fit and seal on the door skin recess.
May be they were a first of a serie made with extra care? I don't know. But I didn't wait and I've ordered right away another pair back then for my 71 and got same high quality for cheap. Refreshing for once

 

[Fabrice]

Time for a little update!

Before do any weldings/repairs, I've been busy doing dirty things on my poor door!
To know exactly what needs to be replaced/fixed and to ensure I can later on work with clean stuff...




Finished to remove paint on both sides of the shell, both now waiting in a layer of zinc primer.
And returned to that poor inner skin. Using the strongest I've tested so far yet practically ineffective legal paint remover, Which basically means doing 3 times more efforts than with the english one I was using and not even getting the same results. I got it to a state, where it was pretty descent and as I needed do the other side with loads of corrosion, I did right away make the hole for the European sized speakers as on the other door.




In between outside activities, I had a bunch of parts that were corroded which stayed the week bathing in acid, and for some like the door plates and glass guide, it was time to receive a new zinc plated layer. They ended up looking pretty ok.




Same punition for the door hinges, corroded, with tons of ancient paint layers that were a real pita to remove in the inside. Lost also a bunch of time to restore to some acceptable finish the S spring of the lower hinge as it was really badly pitted as the plan was, like for the other side, to plate and clear coat it to obtain pretty looking hinges
After a visite to my bubble bath, all these babies started to look much better! :O




Because the weather has been alternating nice and terrible for weeks, as it was dry and warm for a few hours, I've jumped on the occasion this weekend and painted the hinges. I'll put them together next rainy weekend day if I can't weld outside.
For these I have already the (longer) pins in house. Strangely for a passenger door, they were having much more play than on the driver side.



Also done past weekend, gave some acid love to the inside of the inner skin and got it to an acceptable state. The sides, corners will be soon replaced with new metal.

I already have the metal in house to shape the new bottom and I will soon start cut and replace.
IF the summer finally plans to arrive that is!

Also gave some shine back to the rods that were all corroded on their extremities. The main rail was okish and could have gone back in with a simple clean, but while at it, handled that baby too!

To be continued...

 

[tpj71mach]

Looking good! That acid really cleans everything up.

 

[Fabrice]

@tpj71mach
its not acid, its pure magic! For years looked and tested for something that actually did something. Waste of money for 99,9% of the cases.
Tho, when not completely submerged for hours or days like I do for smaller parts like the hinges where you only need to clean/brush rinse the parts before plate them/paint them. You need for big stuff like these a significant addition of elbow oil, as you need to keep it wet, metal brush to help on the places with thick rust as it was on certain locations as otherwise it would need much more time. Let rest wet a few minutes and redo till you have the result you want.
Best part is the price and quantity. I'm now at 2,5 liters/quarts used of this magic concentrated liquid since beginning of the restoration, at 13 euros a quart/liter and still have my permanent bath with 1/2 of it constantly cleaning up parts while I sleep.

Big thing now for me is to find a way to get that English paint remover over here that I was using or find a good alternative. As for now, I'm back to useless solutions that are barely doing what they promised...

 

[Fabrice]

Time for a little update!



Did not much last weekend on the 71, because I've again removed/welded my exhaust causing my Sniper to go wild thanks to o2 leaks at the flanges and then got the unexpected visit of a mustang guy and his 66 living less than a miles of me. Sooo between testing my 73 and mustang talks, not much been done!!
While testing been to the station put some fresh gas..
No that's not dollars and that's not gallons either! Pure madness! :O




This past weekend, i've returned to my door and started by putting back together the second set of hinges that I've plated and painted in past weekends. I can now mark these as done!

From bling-bling back to misery: Next patient was the front corner of the inner structure where the inner skin is welded on...




Somehow the corrosion has been very strong there. Not sure why as it's higher than other part and next to other that were much less corroded where you'd expect it would be worse being lower. Electrolysis secrets I guess..

Anyway, not planning to weld anything back on this as is, so here in 3 picts, for those who one day will have/choose to do the same.

First made a 3D template and 2D projected it on some fine new 1mm thick Zincor metal. Once cut, I've focussed on the lower lip that acts as a guide for the outer skin. A 120 degrees fold to be precise but with a bit of a radius in it, so used a rod in the vide to do this. It cost a good amount of test fits, but it's fairly easy as the metal is folded but stays on one plane.




Then comes the second step, a bit more complicated. Planning to reuse "Fitzee's" tricks (because not everybody has a 50 tons press to stamp metal at home), the top part required some bending at an angle. Despite the many remarks that I've received over the years for not throwing away stuffs, a piece of a perfectly fine exhaust tubing found back some purpose and acted as a perfect guide to match the curve.
Then with just a few welds on the front, I've removed the excess of overlapping metal and welded first from the back. Plenty beads to act as "grinding meat"!




Once the back is done, next is to add "grinding meat" as well on the front ( the intended ugly welds you see to end up with a more "pressed" look as the original). Satisfied with the overall shape and fit (some dolly/hammering is necessary as the top is again on another plane and needs to flow with the rest of the structure)
It was then time to weld the new corner and grind all the extra.
Thanks to "Fitzee's" excellent tricks learned on his youtube channel, my front corner is now solid again and fairly respecting the original shape.



Next patient: the rear corner, which was more or less gone needed to undergo similar treatment. More tricky than it looks to shape it. Let's just say that my neighbours are knowing by now that it takes quite a fair amount of hammering ticks to give what looks straight that little curved shape

All with all these two bits of metal kept me busy for a big deal of the weekend, so next weekend, I'll be on the outer skin that needs to be replaced over the entire length.

To be continued...

 

[Fabrice]

Been busy on many non mustang related things in past weeks,
but been busy on my 71's door..
Time for a little update!




So as my shell corners are now done, next step was to attack the outer skin...
Because my beloved paint remover isn't avail anymore and because mechanically removing the paint creates way too much mess, I've carefully used heat to remove everything. Took forever but I won

While the top part was in perfect condition, the mid part of the skin had some surprises for me.
Found places with significant amount of bondo to hide large dents
Once the top been carefully stripped and hammered on a few places, I got it to a pristine state and applied zinc.




Here a quick sum of the damage, not perse obvious on the pict how deep some dents were, but lets just say its was way to deep for my eyes!!
Even corners where it was easy to hammer had been covered in bondo.
Because most deep ones were under the reinforcement, I had to fab some "curvySpoon" from an old wood scisor and so began the hammering. tediously, for hours and hours..




Turning the door shell a zillions times to have the most secure and accessible. I ended up restore the shape within 0.1 mm at the deepest hard to reach places and totally reshaped the accessible ones with just a few different dollies and 20 gallons of elbow oil.




The lowest part of the skin was next. I had thx to a mistake on my driver side door a ready to use lower skin, already folded, so after measuring and measuring, I've cut both door skin and new skin
and put them back together. While busy, slowly hammering the lips around, using the old skin to keep the lines exactly as they were.
Once fully welded and skin lips sandwicthes hammered tight, thanks to the Zincor metal quality, the entire shell was strong again!




As days passed by, I've also returned to hammering, slowly and tediously improving the metal finish.
If i'd knew all the work involved when I started, I would have changed much more of the skin like on the driver door, much more easy!

Also like for the other door, as I need to replace the bottom, I've also fabbed a new channel for the rubber.




At some point last week, i was able to call that once rusty shell ready for paint, which I will do together with the inner skin later on.
After that I took the 73 for loads of very nice trips in the surroundings as the summer finally decided to arrive!




Past weekend was about rebuilding the inner skin corner, totally gone. And got it to a point where I could not go further till I would not have the new bottom in place. So last nite went to my buddy and we folded together the necessary shape. Once in place, the now in 3 pieces corner, will be much more easy to seamlessly connect to the rest.

But that's work for next weekend!

To be continued...

 

[tpj71mach]

Looking great! Keep up the good work!

 

[bishoppeak]

I'll bet you've got forearms like Popeye after all that!

 

[Kilgon]

I have to say you are a true tin knocker when it comes to working with sheet metal and rebuilding your doors. Great work.

 

[Fabrice]

@bishoppeak
ahaha, certainly is a lot of work. In fact, this door that I thought less damaged than the driver side, turns out to be much more work.
No way back now

@Kilgon
Thank you. Somehow you learn with each new piece a trick or two that can be reused for the next one.
Tho these @#$% corners are really challenging. Glad this is the last one!

 

[cv_72mustang]

I'd liked to 'pour' some of your brain into my brain . Excellent! Been reading this thread and others while recovering from covid. Best medicine.

 

[tpj71mach]

@bishoppeak
ahaha, certainly is a lot of work. In fact, this door that I thought less damaged than the driver side, turns out to be much more work.
No way back now

@Kilgon
Thank you. Somehow you learn with each new piece a trick or two that can be reused for the next one.
Tho these @#$% corners are really challenging. Glad this is the last one!

Keep up the great work!