Fabrice's 429CJ 71 project

[Fabrice]

After more than 2 months I'm back!!
Won't extend on the reasons behind kuz that's not a forum for old ladies

Anyway, where was I last post???

ah yeah, I was busy on my second door and past 2 weekends I've restarted activities on the inner skin...




After having used the skin for template purposes for the corners,
I was time to cut the underside, and before weld the new piece, spend the tedious time to cut out reproductions of the original water holes. Then weld it.
At this stage, there is a little extra meat corner side, to allow me some play/error margin to later on weld in the corner that I've already made, also with extra meat.




Next, take a big breath and cut all the sick metal! :O
Then reproduce the front side, and weld it in place. Added extra holes on that one vs the original as I noticed there was half the amount as the on other door. I bet someone shift in 71 was almost over and there was not time for extra holes!




Then it was time to cut, massage, insert that corner in. Not much words necessary to explain but many many try & fits to slowly inset that baby as of course, the skin needs to fit the shell...
But once the home brew rubber channel was in and the metal started feel cold. I was having an inner skin with a corner again!!




One more thing: the other side, so far acting as template was sick too. So after the cancer been cut and an healty piece was in, it was time to serve my neighbourhood with the awesome sound of discs on metal, the melody of my hammers altered sometimes with the crispy clear sound of my files amplified by the size of the skin... I'm sure they enjoyed almost as much as I did! :O

At this point, all necessary repairs were made on the door! OMG, I'm dancing alone in my garden to celebrate !!




This past Saturday was sunny, dry and temp ideal. So quickly brushed, degreased, vacuumed, air blown the babies, covered all the weld points with squares of tape, added sealant on the welds and applied a nice thick layer of primer.
If you scroll in time back how the door was looking and how it looks now is hard to believe but hey, I'm looking at it so it's real!




Once hard, it was time to spray a good layer of black satin chassis paint on top of the primer...
Next weekend I should be able to put these babies back together! Woohoo!

To be continued...

@tpj71mach @cv_72mustang thx and sorry for not having replied!!

 

[bishoppeak]

We are not worthy!

 

[tpj71mach]

Looks great! Nice Job!

 

[timachone]

Great, awesome, unbelievable! The Master of the Doors - better than new! What a great result! Bring it to an end now soon!

Hope all is ok there at home, take care and looking forward to the end of the door story.

 

[dawson357]

Artist! Oh to have even half your skills.

 

[Aus73Mach1]

Simply amazing work. Well done.

 

[Fabrice]

Time for a little update!

Did lots of things in past weekends, but one really needed be done before cold/rainy days return: finish my door!




So now that the shell, the inner skin were fixed, it was time to close the sandwich once more.
I've started first by reinstalling the 2 bolting plates that I had de-rusted and plated a few months back.

Easier said than done as due to the many welds on the thin inner skin, the metal had stretched on some places, schrinked on others.
Eventually, with more efforts than on the driver side door, I've managed to realign every single spot weld that I have previously drilled out, getting more easy each new weld as the metal was hot.




Next step was to fold the lip, because I use Zincor 1mm, which is a very strong metal, especially over the entire length of the door (1,36 meter to be precise).
I first started to support the lower outer skin with a good piece of wood, as even if the metal was already folded on a metal breaker, it's easy to give the fold a wrong direction and would be very difficult to correct if wrong.
Once aligned and flat I've gently hammered the metal with a piece a wood, then gradually set the lip under pressure going from once side to the other. and ended up with a nice straight and regular lip!




After making my neighbours happy (again) with grinding and hammering sounds, applying seam sealer all around the lip, a good degrease, I've spread a primer layer and ended up with a door done!!!
Sure, I will have here and there to fine tune the surface before paint them on the inside later on, but...
FINALLY my 2 doors are finished!! Woohoo!!

These two babies were surely challenging at times and they've eaten quite a few weekends of my time (278 zillions of hours), but there is also a reward:
Both have costed me only $97 for the metal, $20 to have the skins folded on a giant industrial metal breaker, and about $50 of good paint/primers.
$170 is surely not expensive for 2 healthy doors but my advice is: Do not wait till the rust pops if you haven't looked at them for a while! They are 50 years old!! Remove the panel, inspect them, oil or treat the inside and do not let them come to the point mines were into, because it's freakin lots of work to fix them!! I mean freakin lots and lots!!
By having a friend who currently let a reknown restoration company in France install 2 new door shells, know that the repop are not only expensive, they also require quite some work to fit properly!
So take good care of yours!!

 

[tpj71mach]

Time for a little update!

Did lots of things in past weekends, but one really needed be done before cold/rainy days return: finish my door!


View attachment 69228

So now that the shell, the inner skin were fixed, it was time to close the sandwich once more.
I've started first by reinstalling the 2 bolting plates that I had de-rusted and plated a few months back.

Easier said than done as due to the many welds on the thin inner skin, the metal had stretched on some places, schrinked on others.
Eventually, with more efforts than on the driver side door, I've managed to realign every single spot weld that I have previously drilled out, getting more easy each new weld as the metal was hot.


View attachment 69227

Next step was to fold the lip, because I use Zincor 1mm, which is a very strong metal, especially over the entire length of the door (1,36 meter to be precise).
I first started to support the lower outer skin with a good piece of wood, as even if the metal was already folded on a metal breaker, it's easy to give the fold a wrong direction and would be very difficult to correct if wrong.
Once aligned and flat I've gently hammered the metal with a piece a wood, then gradually set the lip under pressure going from once side to the other. and ended up with a nice straight and regular lip!


View attachment 69226

After making my neighbours happy (again) with grinding and hammering sounds, applying seam sealer all around the lip, a good degrease, I've spread a primer layer and ended up with a door done!!!
Sure, I will have here and there to fine tune the surface before paint them on the inside later on, but...
FINALLY my 2 doors are finished!! Woohoo!!

These two babies were surely challenging at times and they've eaten quite a few weekends of my time (278 zillions of hours), but there is also a reward:
Both have costed me only $97 for the metal, $20 to have the skins folded on a giant industrial metal breaker, and about $50 of good paint/primers.
$170 is surely not expensive for 2 healthy doors but my advice is: Do not wait till the rust pops if you haven't looked at them for a while! They are 50 years old!! Remove the panel, inspect them, oil or treat the inside and do not let them come to the point mines were into, because it's freakin lots of work to fix them!! I mean freakin lots and lots!!
By having a friend who currently let a reknown restoration company in France install 2 new door shells, know that the repop are not only expensive, they also require quite some work to fit properly!
So take good care of your

Wow, they look great! Nice job!

 

[Fabrice]

Another busy weekend passed...
Let's start by a lucky event.



As I was busy stripping the car interior and finding only dirt, little screws and even shells of snails (go figure)...
I know my friend (the previous owner) looked for the precious build sheet with no success and I was already amused to find a parking ticket from a parking place in Montparnasse (Paris) from the 70's, so the last thing I was expecting was to find it! But there it was!

Unlike in my 73 where it was under the front seat under the carpet, the document was smashed under the rear insulation, and by some luck located on the only floor region that had not seen any form of moisture, paper not really yellowed either! Carefully unfolded it and I've let it a couple of days under a few heavy books before being able to take some pictures... I haven't yet looked at it in details, but that surely will be an interesting decoding!




For the past 3 weekends, next to the restoration of parts, I've been busy removing everything from firewall to rear.
Discovering in the process how I will occupy my weekends in a not too far future.
I could post xx pictures of everything, instead, to keep this thread a coherent read, I'll detail all one by one when the time comes as I go.
Let's just say, I do not have to fear to get bored for many weekends ahead! :O


So what did I do in parallel??



Well, still in doors land, I've been busy restoring the hardware inside the doors... de-rusted and plated last year a great deal of all, but the power windows arms/motors were still on the todo.
I've started with the driver side and first thing I did was to test the motor. The baby was turning the gear just fine, but as a friend of mine pointed out, I should take a closer look at the gear...

What you see above is a working motor!! But once you take a closer look, you see the "pellets" as they are called, are in pieces.
On the lower side of the pict, you can see the new "bushings", which I've ordered (3x per motor) and the original ones, barely able to remember the cylindrical shape that they should have.

The day they arrived, my 73, probably jealous of the attention I give to the 71, decided after years of perfect operation, to stop move my driver window just like that! What a timing!
One would think, it's an isolated case, but truth is, I have now restored 3 of these motors in the past weeks and all were in same state!
The one no longer working on the 73 was not much worse. The pieces were just reduced to a size they could no longer help engage the gear... 50 years is simply having its toll on these plastics composition and it's only a question of time before your power window fails.




I have done the same for the 3 motors, but as it's rarely documented and often these motors are replaced vs being fixed for less than $1 (if you buy the bushings per 50 or less than $3 if you buy them per 3), I hope the detailing will help someone.

After a good clean of all parts, which is frankly a dirty job, it's time to put all back together. it looks and is easy... the practice however is really much more tricky than it looks! Inserting the last one especially is a real challenge... but after 3 successful surgeries, I can give you a hint: do not throw the motor against the wall despite the immense frustration! You will succeed! My mistake, was the fear to break the bigger gear, assuming it would break on me, but it's made of a much more resistant plastic than I thought and designed to be under pressure, you can (and need) to use some force to insert the last one. You will swear, say bad words for sure, but like me you will get that last $%^&* bushing in!!
Once you reach the happy moment of having the 3 inserted, you need to tap the gear in. There too, some plastic mallet hits will do magic!

I have installed the motor back on the 73, and I can tell you I have never seen it working that well. fast, responsive and noiseless. It works as on a modern car! My advice would be to replace these if you for some reason remove your door panels because I've pretty sure that your 50yo bushings are as bad as mine all were!
Keep in mind that removing the motor from the door and putting it back requires some gym, but just like for the bushings, a little loud bad word here and there will get you there!




Once the motors themselves are closed/back together using good friction grease, the rest of the assembly still requires some love...
For now, I'm happy 3 of these are restored and that I can mark these off my 71 todo list!

I already wonder how much fun is hidden in the flat "pancake" rear ones

To be continued...

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Oh yes the build sheet is the pièce de résistance!

And, if I may add and over state the obvious. The most recent example of your skill throughout the restoration process, as you completed the rebuild on the doors and door components... a master's work!

 

[Mustangkid]

Another busy weekend passed...
Let's start by a lucky event.

View attachment 69588

As I was busy stripping the car interior and finding only dirt, little screws and even shells of snails (go figure)...
I know my friend (the previous owner) looked for the precious build sheet with no success and I was already amused to find a parking ticket from a parking place in Montparnasse (Paris) from the 70's, so the last thing I was expecting was to find it! But there it was!

Unlike in my 73 where it was under the front seat under the carpet, the document was smashed under the rear insulation, and by some luck located on the only floor region that had not seen any form of moisture, paper not really yellowed either! Carefully unfolded it and I've let it a couple of days under a few heavy books before being able to take some pictures... I haven't yet looked at it in details, but that surely will be an interesting decoding!


View attachment 69587

For the past 3 weekends, next to the restoration of parts, I've been busy removing everything from firewall to rear.
Discovering in the process how I will occupy my weekends in a not too far future.
I could post xx pictures of everything, instead, to keep this thread a coherent read, I'll detail all one by one when the time comes as I go.
Let's just say, I do not have to fear to get bored for many weekends ahead! :O


So what did I do in parallel??

View attachment 69586

Well, still in doors land, I've been busy restoring the hardware inside the doors... de-rusted and plated last year a great deal of all, but the power windows arms/motors were still on the todo.
I've started with the driver side and first thing I did was to test the motor. The baby was turning the gear just fine, but as a friend of mine pointed out, I should take a closer look at the gear...

What you see above is a working motor!! But once you take a closer look, you see the "pellets" as they are called, are in pieces.
On the lower side of the pict, you can see the new "bushings", which I've ordered (3x per motor) and the original ones, barely able to remember the cylindrical shape that they should have.

The day they arrived, my 73, probably jealous of the attention I give to the 71, decided after years of perfect operation, to stop move my driver window just like that! What a timing!
One would think, it's an isolated case, but truth is, I have now restored 3 of these motors in the past weeks and all were in same state!
The one no longer working on the 73 was not much worse. The pieces were just reduced to a size they could no longer help engage the gear... 50 years is simply having its toll on these plastics composition and it's only a question of time before your power window fails.


View attachment 69585

I have done the same for the 3 motors, but as it's rarely documented and often these motors are replaced vs being fixed for less than $1 (if you buy the bushings per 50 or less than $3 if you buy them per 3), I hope the detailing will help someone.

After a good clean of all parts, which is frankly a dirty job, it's time to put all back together. it looks and is easy... the practice however is really much more tricky than it looks! Inserting the last one especially is a real challenge... but after 3 successful surgeries, I can give you a hint: do not throw the motor against the wall despite the immense frustration! You will succeed! My mistake, was the fear to break the bigger gear, assuming it would break on me, but it's made of a much more resistant plastic than I thought and designed to be under pressure, you can (and need) to use some force to insert the last one. You will swear, say bad words for sure, but like me you will get that last $%^&* bushing in!!
Once you reach the happy moment of having the 3 inserted, you need to tap the gear in. There too, some plastic mallet hits will do magic!

I have installed the motor back on the 73, and I can tell you I have never seen it working that well. fast, responsive and noiseless. It works as on a modern car! My advice would be to replace these if you for some reason remove your door panels because I've pretty sure that your 50yo bushings are as bad as mine all were!
Keep in mind that removing the motor from the door and putting it back requires some gym, but just like for the bushings, a little loud bad word here and there will get you there!


View attachment 69584

Once the motors themselves are closed/back together using good friction grease, the rest of the assembly still requires some love...
For now, I'm happy 3 of these are restored and that I can mark these off my 71 todo list!

I already wonder how much fun is hidden in the flat "pancake" rear ones

To be continued...

Thanks for the much needed information regarding power windows I’ll be doing mine soon will probably refer back to your comments here.. thanks again

 

[Kilgon]

Hey Fabrice, just checking in on you and your build. It's been a few months since you posted anything. Hope all is well on your end.

 

[Fabrice]

Thank you @Kilgon
I've discovered this warm reply yesterday. I haven't been much on the forum lately and you're right, it's been too long!
Lots have changed in my life past year and my mustang weekend time has been reduced, until past weekend where I've resumed activities as usual...
Not posting anything here doesn't say I have done nothing! :O

After my last post, I also had to be busy on my 73 because of 2023 tech control. The weather was terribly cold and the car being outside, it took me a while to do the stuffs I needed be done instead of working on the 71, then went to Sweden for almost 4 weeks and once back I spent time re-organizing my garage. Now divorced (to name just one of the changes), I end up having a sea of space in my house and so brought most of the 71 in parts upstairs as I have a mustang room now lol
That alone took a few weekends, and after that, replacing all the old tube lights by new LED's version in the garage took also some time!


Anyway, here's some of the stuffs I've been busy doing in between non mustang related things.





So on the 73, changed the rotors by nicer sporty ones, replaced wheel bearings and other details. All in the bellow zero c wind (pure joy!). Painted them too and it took ages to dry them with a heat gun :O. I've put a few miles on them since the tech control which it passed fingers in ze nose, and I must say they are doing what they should very well!

I post this just to say Bendix pads do suck big time (at least to be able to mount them). First, found out that the metal plate wasn't cut to fit, and had to grind almost 2mm on each side to have them fit into the spindle. No biggy but one would expect they'd fit out of the box no?

The most annoying was to discover that they had another issue: After trying forever to secure them on calipers with the retainer and lock clip. At first blaming my fingers that were turning blue because of the cold, then found out that I could not get them deep enough to have access to the groove to lock them. The problem was due to the brake material that wasn't machined to the right depth where the little rod rests onto. After some careful drillings at the right depth, they went in without any problem.
Another famous brand that could use a tad more quality control me think...




On the 71 front, because of the really cold weather, I've been busy with the "derust_plate_repeat" cycle!
From tank straps, filler, door plates in pillars, bolts & nuts, pedals assemblies to steering column parts. My "to be painted" box is growing waiting for warmer times!

Noone escapes my sauce!




I won't cover in detail all the little details, but because you waited long, here the emergency brake assembly more detailed. All stiff, dirty, rusty...




After a week in acid, in bubbles bath and zest of elbow oil, the little guy and its hardware looks pretty again. All in fresh grease, super smooth and even with a switch that actually switches




I also restored one of these 'panecake' power window motor. I'll post soon on it as this is not often detailed and could help someone...


I should coming weeks be back on the forum! It's been too long!


To be continued...

 

[Sheriff41]

More amazing restoration, Fabrice! Warmer weather is coming soon!

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Welcome back! Yes, after so many life changes it is difficult to re-focus. But you seem to be back on track and everything looks great, as usual.

 

[Kilgon]

Sounds like you have had a trying past few months. Glad to see you are fine and have been working on your cars. Once again, your pictures prove that you do things right the first time around. Although I'm happy with the work I did on mine, I wish you would have started on yours before I began on mine. Your work would have influence me (and it has) to take the extra time and steps to make it as good as possible. It's the attention to small details that make the final results really shine and you are one of the masters at that.

 

[tony-muscle]

I am just amazed on how well your rust disappearing bath works. Its like placing an old crusty dirty part in the bath and then picking one new and shiny one over night ..... I know it is not that easy and it involves a lot of work but looking at your pictures one can only dream about it. Keep the awesome work!

 

[Fabrice]

Hey guys,
It's been a while since I updated... don't go think I went soft on the mustangs! :O
It's just it's been very cold, very wet and as I couldn't really work on big things, i've been busy working on different things instead of bigger ones. They need be done anyway..

Because I don't want to put back a car together not being sure if everything works, (and will keep working for a while). After restoring the front power windows motors, I also restored the rear motors, aka pane cakes motors, the rails...
I wanted make some detailed cover of the procedures, but as it takes time, I kept postponing due to lack of time...




Both my motors were in operating condition, but very dirty, rusty, one under some black sticky protection that has been a hell to remove.
I have prepped images showing the entire process, but as its been months and since then I have been doing more. I'll keep it simple.
if you never looked at these, which is expectable as they are a massive pain to remove from their location.
Know that to open these, you only need once you remove them from the gear/arm, to pop out a lock washer, remove the motor gear to locate a lock ring and very gently open/pry the tabs all around before you can enjoy remove the sealant, which of course has turned into some sticky dirty goo...




Once open, you basically end up with 2 part. One with the flat very strong magnet and its floating copper disc, and the gear side, that is driven at the center by the copper disc. Both mine were looking great, and even the brushes were in excellent condition.




After good cleaning (lots of cleaning!!) , de-rusting, plating what I could (2 motors at the same time), all electrics checked, Mine were ok, obviously not used much. I came to the point where I could think of reassemble both units.




Putting back together is "semi" easy. I say semi, Because you can go the "Ford" way, that is to set a strip of calk/goo back, but as I've seen on one, that it was sticking to the gear, I went for the modern way, that is to seal afterwards using modern sealant that stays waterproof and doesn't stick. For the grease, no need to be too generous, the casing has a series of contact points and adding grease there is all what is needed. You need keep the two parts of teh casing together, first reinserting the o-ring+washer (I used a small socket for that). At this point, the sandwich is secured and you can enjoy putting back the spring that needs to engage into the big gear rectangular holes and fit the out gear bracket. That one is tricky and it's only when I had one done after a few attemps that I got it: you need offset it 1/2 turn, then while twisting you push the 1/2 turn and it goes right in. If the spring is not flush, its not engaged. Right after you really secure the other side by reinserting the lock ring (which btw has insanely small hole size for such device and I had to file my ring pliers to be able to remove/place it back).

At this point, it's a good idea to test the electrics and see if the motor turns. Both were very happy and me too!

Then taps gently the tabs back. They only need to keep the sandwich extra secure, no need to be wild as they could break (similar to the brake booster). Then because I used modern sealant, I've taped the region where water/condens could potentially enter and applied it. I could have use my finger without taping, but hey, where's the fun in that! :O



Oh and yeah there is also the arms that need attention. I started with the one rusty, the other was almost rust free. After a vist to my acid bath and a fresh layer of zinc. Not easy to plate due to the complex shape. I need rotate the assembly often, make some weird shaped anodes to cover the hidden places.
The rivets were just too good to be broken and be replaced.
I ended up with good looking arms. Both springs and all hardware ready, I could think about the next step...




Which was after waiting weeks and weeks till the weather was finally dry and much warmer only this past weekend. Together with many parts done during the cold days, they received the final touch, which is receiving 2 of the greys that I use on all the car.
Now that these are finally done, I can finally think about putting them all together. Same for many other parts...


To be continued...

 

[Fabrice]

I don't post for weeks and now another post the same day!! :O

As suggested by my previous post images, I did more parts. In the batch, the rear window rails.
Yeah sure, you can wool them, grease them and call it a day kuz you don't see them.... Yeah you can, but I don't




So these babies including brackets and hardware enjoyed a long acid baths and met after that my electrons!




After this massage and a bit of elbow oil, they looked pristine ready for the next treatment. But as weather was terrible. They had to wait under a layer of sprayed zinc as I could not entirely coat them in my too small for these bath,





Thx to the long awaited better weather that we had this past weekend, I was able to finish these babies. Once the contact part inside the rail taped, they received a nice grey jacket and a gloss coat.




In between all these dirty jobs, I of course took some breaks and took the lady 73 a couple of times out. After months ending up fouling the spark plugs and the sniper config after a few hundred miles, I finally found out that it was the spark plugs that were too cold. It runs now much better... Did give it some love too in past weeks, new oil, cleaning, some electric..




Nuff driving, works needs to be done! And so I did start too on my dashboard. The poor glovebox, brown by paint AND rust needed some attention. So I gave it that.
It's currently waiting with other parts for better days and also because I want to spray more brown parts together as I've payed a visit to my painter with brown parts and let compose the exact same brown but in metallic instead of the original mat color which I dislike. Dang it paint is expensive these days :O
I will also need to bondo it a tad as somehow someone managed to put a dent right in the middle of it...




I have also handled this baby for a big bunch, In the middle of it... I'll post soon more on it.




Also bought a new toy: a bead roller, always wanted one, which I will soon need for my floor as some parts I need for patches are not available (unless you would buy the full floor). I could only test it a bit because I need modify it to allow me to work correctly and also to reinforce it, as the few test I did, showed the plate trying to twist when I was using Zincor 1mm quality metal, which I plan to use on my floor.. But I think we're gonna become good friends once I have welded some square tubes here and there.

And since I'm divorced now, I also need work on the house, garden and ensure I have clean underwear too next to the mustang things !
Hence why I've been more quiet on the forum lately. Sorry for that!


To be continued....

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Wow, you have been very busy! Looks great, just as we’ve come to expect from your posts. Always the craftsman!