Fabrice's 429CJ 71 project

[Fabrice]

As many parts were restored over the course of the winter, this past weekend felt like xmas.
Finally it was time to put back things together, unpack many prepared parts from their masking tape, bags etc..
Last but not least, while the weather was real bad in the country, somehow the north was lucky (for once), we even had the first "paint ready" temperature, and oh boy did I use the opportunity!!




Among my victims: the first of the 2 pancakes assembly with the arm... Putting back the spiral spring with the correct load was a bit challenging, but the work was mainly about ensuring that all the rotating points and contact point were properly greased.




Once the whole was back together, it was time to test again that baby to make sure all was operating as it should. Well, looks like the motor liked the make over. With all the pivot, gears in fresh grease, I'm pretty sure the window will go up and down much stronger and smoother than they were when I tested before dismantling.




Another victim that got my attention: the column. Here some picts while putting it apart. Even loose it was not really turning nicely, found out the axle bearing was shot, rust had found its way on many parts and oh boy it was amazing the crap that had accumulated inside over the years... removing every bits of the column wasn't a nice experience and even had to use force at times... but hey, it was a perfect way to occupy myself in a winter day!




My now routined paint removal/de-rust/plate/repeat turned extra hours on this baby... While most was done in past weeks, its still not fully done, I actually still have brackets and hardware in my acid bath as I type, which I hope to finish this week so I can think about putting it back together. How many parts are in this column? Many!!




Slowly but surely the first results started to show up... Motivating me to get them to the next level.
All these pristine parts had to wait weeks before I finally could spray them. Too cold, wet.... Past 2 weekends were finally allowing it!




The car having a ginger interior, most metal parts are all painted in what is supposed to be a mat "chocolate" looking paint.
Unfortunately it gets another connotation in my eyes.. Just like all I do on this car, with the idea to respect the original, yet enhance it.
I went with a few "poo" looking parts to my fav painter. After measuring, comparing with monsters, I ended up let mix a the to the eye exact same brown, except it was now a high quality paint metallic with fine particles. The idea being to get more contrast and nicer highlights that the original would ever give...

Dang it, paint is expensive thee days!! :O

After spraying the colour on the parts primed last week with great care to obtain a nice distribution of the particles, I was at this point a bit disappointed, as it was my first time spraying this color, I was afraid it might be a tad too dark...




But the moment I started to spray the top coat, it all came alive! As the round parts are subjected to keys and close to the eye, I opted to spray at a slightly lower pressure than I usually do (2 bars) to obtain a substantial layer of coat. More durable. I must say getting it done wasn't as easy as one may think as runs are easy when that wet. I have listened my painter who recommended me to wait 10 minutes after a not too thick layer, the surface being at this point very sticky, you can then dare more wet than usual. Pffew, the tip payed off!

Very hard to photograph it looks beyond my expectations! I know purists would prefer the mat, but as you know by now, I want my car be... my car! :O




More little guys were also set back together. The pedals for instance. dirty, rusty... no more!


I'm glad it's Monday, my eyes need to recover from so much bling bling!
I did more but will post later about that...

To be continued...

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Very, very nice!

 

[Vinnie]

Screw the matte, the metallic is beautiful!

The red liquid, is that acid or plating? Acid I guess?

 

[Fabrice]

@Vinnie , nope that's nothing more than salt & acetic acid (aka vinegar) highly saturated in zinc. 3 years ago, all was clear, but after having plated more than 1 meter x 20 cm van 99,9% pure zinc it has now this golden color. Instead of adding water that damps as some do, I add vinegar, so the acid ph goes down each time for a few in ratio, which is also responsible for this colorisation. The plus is now that it takes only a few instant to get a nice layer and because it's so saturated and the ph lower than the acid present in vinegar at normal concentration, even hard to reach places get a minimum deposit of zinc crystals.

 

[Fabrice]

Time for a little update...

It will look like a deja vu, but thing is: there are LOTS of parts in and out of a steering column! :O




So for most parts, it's been the routine: paint removal, de-rust, plate and/or paint...
if you ever restore yours, one detail, there are on 2 brackets (one shown above) some insulation plastic for the aluminium parts.
At first I thought I'd glue these back on and was about to throw them away, but know that you can pop them out and reinsert them after the paint (if you paint this bracket of course). They fit right back in thx to a small tab moulded in them and once the aluminium is hammered gently back in place, there are good for another 50 years of service!




Because this hobby is the most diverse hobby ever, there has been templates making involved too. From cutting insulation hose to reproduce the ones inside (yes, there are 3 foams inside our column, with the solely purpose of keeping dust and hot air entering the column ), to the reproduction of the seal to firewall.

For this one, which I could relatively find easy online for 5 to 15 buxx, the shipping was killing it. Basically ending up in the 80-100 buxx range at my door. :O
Short story, researched the kind of foam being used. Found out there is a so called CR foam rubber these days being of much better quality than the original used in the automotive industry. Even saw a US shop offering the original and the same in custom CR foam for 20 buxx.
So I ordered 1m x 1m (39.5 x 39.5') in 4 mm thickness and got enough to reproduce new ones for both my cars, the brake booster's and even be able to copy later on some insulation parts as it's also sound, heat and water proof for not 20% of the price of one pre-cut at my door!
Surely, you gotta use a cutter! The most work was to sharpen one side of a piece of house PVC tubbing prior to slam nicely the main hole out.

Also there is a little extra step, which is to reinstall the foam rubber with staples. There are 3 +- 1 cm wide, lucky me, I bought these wide staples a while back to restore the ram air scoops, also hold by staples, and they are of the same size...




And after more or less 3 years, I've been playing with the green juice bath I have used to plate my radiator brackets, few latches : Nickel!
I bought a 10x10cm x 2mm plate to restore some original door handles in my old house (100 years old) and thought, hey, these bolts and nuts are looking quite poor compared to the rest now So been doing polishing, green bubbles and ended up with jewels




And then, and theeeennnnn.... I ended up with a clean bunch of parts supposed to be a 7173 steering column! :O




Time to play puzzle. At first glans, I thought I could work in "white gloves", well noooo, not at all! Even taking great care, it's been quite a greasy experience!
Why? Because you'd need 4 hands at least to both hold and insert some of the parts. For instance, the inner shaft, made of 2 parts gliding in each other (ya know, the up/down play you got at the steering box), which is a pita to gently tap in the new bearing, as the shaft goes down (till I saw the light and inserted a round piece of wood while gently tap it from above). Inserting the second shaft full of grease with its 2 foam bits that needed some massage to get in the main casing...

One notably annoying part was to install the new cylinder keys. Lost ages on this one. On my column, early 71, the first casting isn't the one we see later on. It also has some cast in the center for the lock mechanism. Hence the white plastic washer that you can see above not present on later castings (and any shop manual views I have for multiple Fords). So because it was really not helping by its design/shape to find out how to insert the second casting on the first one, aligning the rod to the ignition shift, have the lock fit and not damaging the fresh paint was challenging on itself, but found out that to obtain the right distance for the rod travel to allow the cylinder key to be in the "cranking/springy position", and be able to remove the key once off wasn't that easy either once inserted. I was glad this was done comfortably sitting at my kitchen table vs crawling in the car to find the right spot as it required some close inspection to find out what was going on... I know my 73 was much easier as the castings are designed for each other and somehow the right "play" as the switch wasn't that of a challenge. But for an early 71 it is not. I would recommend, if you do yours to measure real good where your ignition switch is placed before you remove it!




Once the last screw for the turn indicator switch was tightened and the bling bling bold inserted on the shaft. I forgot all the bad words I may have said during the reassembly and could mark my steering column as done! Yeeeepy!
Really pleased with the result!

Looking back at the entire restoration, if you plan to do yours, it's not difficult at all... on paper. The practice however is slightly different.
I can't say it's difficult either, but let's just say, there are a few trikky things hidden in there that do make this piece a fairly challenging piece.




Almost blinded by so much bling bling, it was time for me to pick the next patient: the dashboard body. As you can see on the picture, the brown isn't the expected brown paint, simply because Ford did not bother spray anything on the back.
Soooo, I already know I need to order a few liters of elbow oil to handle this baby!


To be continued...

 

[Cleveland Crush]

OK Fabrice, that's throughly impressive!!

 

[Fabrice]

Update time!!
I did a bit of everything this past days...



First finished the last bits done this winter: the second pane cake back window motor.
Somehow putting back the arm spring has been quite a challenge while it went back easy on the first one.
Also got scary moment: Nothing was moving for the final testing moment. Oh nooooo!!! :O
But found out it was my test battery that was down to 8 volts... After few moment of recharge the little guy was going strong and smoothly in both direction! Pffewww!
Pane cakes motors: done!




As suggested in my last update, indeed the dashboard body got my attention... brown and from a distance one could think Ford did paint the back side.
Well no! It is rust and it is everywhere!! No structural damage tho, which is refreshing for once!
So started by removing everything, taking loads of pictures to make sure everything will be put back where it belongs..




Not in a chronological order, but here's what been done to the corroded back sides of the bezels: They've enjoyed my newly bought Nikkel anode and they are now looking beter than never before! :O




And then it was time to have great fun! First step remove all the paint!

After months searching for an alternative to the paint remover I was using that I can no longer buy (thx brexit), found one doing and looking the same, except it's now about more than 4 times the price :O So in order to save the "power" for the hard to reach places, first step was to remove as much as possible mechanically with a soft disc. Our dashboards being what they are, it did not take to long to realise that most of is made of hard to reach places!! While I used the remover to soften the paint and tried to work as quick as possible, it took way more elbow oil than remover to obtain a 100% free paint side! Like waaaaaay more!!!
The front side alone costed several hours of labor to obtain a pristine surface everywhere.... but hey, the weather was fantastic so I was working on my tan at the same time

At this point, I was kinda happy Ford did not bother paint the other side!!!




Next step was to remove the rust that was everywhere. Started by a good wash/brushing to remove the tons of dirt/dust that had been accumulated over the years, and applied with a brush on the wet rust, a non diluted layer of phosphoric acid to accelerate things. Once done, It went standing up in a container so I could collect and reuse the juice over and over till I would be satisfied. The game being to spray diluted acid on the metal and not let it dry. After each application, help here and there with a metallic brush for the thickest parts of rust, most on the lower part of the dash. because it was a nice weather, it was drying fast, so my hope to combine this dirty job with other activities was a no go, and ended up spend the afternoon keeping this baby wet...

At some point, ancient remains of red primer started to show up and the rust disappeared! Poof! Magic!




After that, it was time to play with water! First applied soda to neutralise the remaining acid that was drying fast, then did a good soapy "wooling" to remove the last reminders of ancient primer, and a final good rinse with clear water.
Then air dried the baby and finished to remove any trace of humidity with the heat gun. Focussing especially on the many spot welded double sheets places where water was trapped. Not wanting to risk any chances of flash rust on the now entirely bare metal pristine dashboard....

Bye bye old paint and rust!




Because I want to spray more brown parts together later on, the baby received a protective 1k zinc layer in order to wait for that day without any chance to develop any rust.... dashboard paint and rust removal done!




In between, did little things, like fixing the "central vent" thingy. The 3 brackets were rusted to death, 2 were loose as the plastic was broken. So while the brackets enjoyed a week in acid, I've melted back the plastic together, nikkel plated the brackets and reinstalled these with new rivets. As the poor thing was saggy, I even heated up to regain its original shape to ensure the air would not leak at the connections.

Lots of attention to a part nobody gives a sh... !




I did more, which I'll post about later on, but as I wanted to finish the weekend with something useful and zinc plate the long bracket on top of the dash that holds the foamy dash pad, I found out that I need build a new longer container as the part is too long to fit in my current container. Worth the effort, as more inside rusted metal parts are also longer...

Oh well, took revenge and nikkel plated the lower rod that holds the dashboard in place! There! Bam! Did it!


To be continued...

 

[Sheriff41]

Absolutely incredible work and results Fabrice! You never cease to amaze with your restorations!

 

[gcombez]

Time for a little update...

It will look like a deja vu, but thing is: there are LOTS of parts in and out of a steering column! :O


View attachment 76495

So for most parts, it's been the routine: paint removal, de-rust, plate and/or paint...
if you ever restore yours, one detail, there are on 2 brackets (one shown above) some insulation plastic for the aluminium parts.
At first I thought I'd glue these back on and was about to throw them away, but know that you can pop them out and reinsert them after the paint (if you paint this bracket of course). They fit right back in thx to a small tab moulded in them and once the aluminium is hammered gently back in place, there are good for another 50 years of service!


View attachment 76494

Because this hobby is the most diverse hobby ever, there has been templates making involved too. From cutting insulation hose to reproduce the ones inside (yes, there are 3 foams inside our column, with the solely purpose of keeping dust and hot air entering the column ), to the reproduction of the seal to firewall.

For this one, which I could relatively find easy online for 5 to 15 buxx, the shipping was killing it. Basically ending up in the 80-100 buxx range at my door. :O
Short story, researched the kind of foam being used. Found out there is a so called CR foam rubber these days being of much better quality than the original used in the automotive industry. Even saw a US shop offering the original and the same in custom CR foam for 20 buxx.
So I ordered 1m x 1m (39.5 x 39.5') in 4 mm thickness and got enough to reproduce new ones for both my cars, the brake booster's and even be able to copy later on some insulation parts as it's also sound, heat and water proof for not 20% of the price of one pre-cut at my door!
Surely, you gotta use a cutter! The most work was to sharpen one side of a piece of house PVC tubbing prior to slam nicely the main hole out.

Also there is a little extra step, which is to reinstall the foam rubber with staples. There are 3 +- 1 cm wide, lucky me, I bought these wide staples a while back to restore the ram air scoops, also hold by staples, and they are of the same size...


View attachment 76497

And after more or less 3 years, I've been playing with the green juice bath I have used to plate my radiator brackets, few latches : Nickel!
I bought a 10x10cm x 2mm plate to restore some original door handles in my old house (100 years old) and thought, hey, these bolts and nuts are looking quite poor compared to the rest now So been doing polishing, green bubbles and ended up with jewels


View attachment 76492

And then, and theeeennnnn.... I ended up with a clean bunch of parts supposed to be a 7173 steering column! :O


View attachment 76491

Time to play puzzle. At first glans, I thought I could work in "white gloves", well noooo, not at all! Even taking great care, it's been quite a greasy experience!
Why? Because you'd need 4 hands at least to both hold and insert some of the parts. For instance, the inner shaft, made of 2 parts gliding in each other (ya know, the up/down play you got at the steering box), which is a pita to gently tap in the new bearing, as the shaft goes down (till I saw the light and inserted a round piece of wood while gently tap it from above). Inserting the second shaft full of grease with its 2 foam bits that needed some massage to get in the main casing...

One notably annoying part was to install the new cylinder keys. Lost ages on this one. On my column, early 71, the first casting isn't the one we see later on. It also has some cast in the center for the lock mechanism. Hence the white plastic washer that you can see above not present on later castings (and any shop manual views I have for multiple Fords). So because it was really not helping by its design/shape to find out how to insert the second casting on the first one, aligning the rod to the ignition shift, have the lock fit and not damaging the fresh paint was challenging on itself, but found out that to obtain the right distance for the rod travel to allow the cylinder key to be in the "cranking/springy position", and be able to remove the key once off wasn't that easy either once inserted. I was glad this was done comfortably sitting at my kitchen table vs crawling in the car to find the right spot as it required some close inspection to find out what was going on... I know my 73 was much easier as the castings are designed for each other and somehow the right "play" as the switch wasn't that of a challenge. But for an early 71 it is not. I would recommend, if you do yours to measure real good where your ignition switch is placed before you remove it!


View attachment 76490

Once the last screw for the turn indicator switch was tightened and the bling bling bold inserted on the shaft. I forgot all the bad words I may have said during the reassembly and could mark my steering column as done! Yeeeepy!
Really pleased with the result!

Looking back at the entire restoration, if you plan to do yours, it's not difficult at all... on paper. The practice however is slightly different.
I can't say it's difficult either, but let's just say, there are a few trikky things hidden in there that do make this piece a fairly challenging piece.


View attachment 76496

Almost blinded by so much bling bling, it was time for me to pick the next patient: the dashboard body. As you can see on the picture, the brown isn't the expected brown paint, simply because Ford did not bother spray anything on the back.
Soooo, I already know I need to order a few liters of elbow oil to handle this baby!


To be continued...

Very nice chronology of work and great results.

Greg C.
71 429CJ Mach 1

 

[Fabrice]

A nice long weekend!
Some go to the beach, go places, others sweat!



It's been a while I come across issues with parts being too wide or too long and decided to remedy this. As I have a series of long parts to come, started the weekend by making a more suitable container for these using PVC gutters. Even made a little one to act as a "volume taker" so I don't need too much fluid for the shorter ones.
The glue had not fully dried up, the first baby came out!




Slowly but surely collecting all the brown metal parts to paint them all in one go. I had to go thru the now routined paint removal, de-rust, plate...

The pict above shows once more that sanding alone and spray on the old paint is a really bad idea. The dang rust goes really everywhere and will ruin any new paint sooner or later if it's not taken out completely.




And more crazy boring work.. The interior trims turned out to be a real pita for unknown reason. The paint was as of another type vs all other brown parts done so far, Not reacting to my remover and the rust starting making it even harder. But eventually got 2 of the 3 done, both enjoying an acid bath as we speak... I kept the last one for next week as I wanted do other stuffs.




After so much fun, it was time for even more fun stuff! :O
Removing glass is never a walk in the park, but with the amount of goo/paste/whatever added over the years by previous owners, the fun to remove the trim alone took another dimension!!!

I had done some of this enjoyable work previously during the cold days but postponed kuz it was too much fun in a freezing garage. Once the trims, also full of goo removed (it will be so much fun to clean that too), thanks to a tip last week to cut the top of the rubber to free the glass on its contours, I did that once I had figured out on the inside that the two connections for the defrost were safe/freed, I was able to lift the glass, and glide it over the roof from the inside. It went surprisingly easy. Thanks again for this tip that saved me not only time but prevented I did something wrong and damage or break the glass!




After a good clean, first one in 25 years, I was really very pleased to see that the glass had only one scratch, and actually almost too insignificant to even talk about it. The defrost grid is as new too.

This alone gave me energy to even consider go to the next step: remove the rest of the rubber and free the glass channel from the sticky stuff. Found afterwards only one point of corrosion on the driver side that will need extra meat to be added. For the rest one could say the insane amount of goo used did protect a bit. The original green paint is intact over most of the channel.



I did more, which I will post over later on, and discovered some "issues" but overall I was afraid to discover some real bad hidden ancient damages under the roof, but no, just the regular brown suspect and not that much! Pffew!

And of course, in between dirty jobs, with this nice weather, I had to take the lady 73 for a spin on some of the lovely back roads that we have around the city!

To be continued...

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Awesome job grinding thru the tough and “boring” projects, amazing craftsmanship as we’ve all come to expect.

 

[Vern Cook]

Beautiful work Fabrice. Awesome and inspiring.

 

[James Bond]

Very very impressive!

 

[NOT A T5]

Haven't seen another Dr. OETKER pizza box in a long while...LOL!!

 

[Fabrice]

@NOT A T5
Well, scroll up! What do you think I've used to make the template for the steering column/firewall gasket??? hehehe


What a beautiful weather we had this past weekend.
Absolutely perfect for the stuffs I needed do....




Started by finishing the side of the dashboard, after a week in acid rust was nowhere to be seen, so it went straight to my bubble bath and got out pretty.




Returned to that dang trim, and spent ages to remove the paint. Unlike the dashboard or other brown part, the trim paint was not reacting to anything. Glad the dashboard was not painted with that one, that's for sure! What a pita!




The headliner went out and while I've learned that all the 5 arches holding it are not of the same size, I also saw that they were rusted and had become one with the headliner cloth... I could not possibly leave them like this, could I ???




Finally got all the long parts paint free! So next step was to use that long container made last week to de-rust them.... But of course, to plate them, I needed it too! :O
So made a quick and dirty container with the old pool from my kids, filled with water to prevent the parts to flash rust on me. Acid returned to the usual container and prepped the zinc bath again... (that's how you waste precious mustang time!)




And then spend the entire afternoon moving anodes around to get these babies back to a rust free state and durably protected. The front trim (above mirror) was a plating nightmare, as the loose little brackets inside were redirecting the power, preventing the inside to be covered...


And around diner time, after hours of work, I could finally look at pristine parts!
These were the last of the metallic parts that need to be painted in the brown (one need to save on expensive paint and regroup as much as possible per paint session). So I can now plan a painting afternoon for all ginger parts very soon!
I have the fold down to do, also painted brown, but I'll handle that baby at a later date as I need locate other stuffs like carpets for it.

I could have done more, but with this beautiful weather, I couldn't resist take the 73 for s spin a couple of times

To be continued...

 

[Cleveland Crush]

I have to sit down and rest after just reading about your level of project detail Fabrice!!

 

[Fabrice]

Time for a little update!

Been busy here and there and as we had really hot weather these past 2 weekends, I've enjoyed go drive the 73 with the 4 windows down and arm hanging at the door. Plom plom plom plom

But sweaty or not, I did stuffs. kus that baby is not gonna restore itself on its own!




Like, these "headliner tensioners" (if that's even english ). Just call them "Parts nobody cares about", but as there is no way I would reinstall these after a fresh paint. I've refurbisched them. Most work was about to remove the ancient glue used to hold the headliner. There were not too many places with corrosion but since I've build a bigger bath: hop! In they went!




Spent more time than I should have on the rear sway bar. Really rusty pitted and the idea was to have it sinked and polished to near chrome level to receive just clear coat like I did for my steering rod and both strut rods, but the shape being what it is, while I had the most of the painful work done, which was to de-rust it, and plate it, I could not use my polish machine with it. The weight and unbalance made it too hard to hold it correctly. One could say even dangerous. And once it had contact where I wanted, I couldn't get the friction/pressure necessary from the wheel. So just like many other plated parts, it already received a nice jacket of primer instead.
I'll spray grey/top coat it once i have more grey parts to handle. For now, rust is not coming back for a while!




And I've also returned to my dashboard. Most my metal parts finally ready, I needed fix a small detail before go next step. I had to use bits of bondo to fix that one because the dent on my dash door was right in the middle of it and unless I would open it completely as I did for my doors (no way!), there was no way to insert anything inside to allow some hammering or even gently push it back... so bits of bondo came to the rescue




The dashboard de-rusted was waiting for a few weeks for better days, and as these days finally came it was next on my todo!

Because my neighbors have this silly habit to enjoy their garden when it's nice weather and that exactly during spray period!!!
I've decided to invest into a super deluxe paint booth so I could spray without creating a massive cloud of paint fumes

So after extra time spent to fix some unfinished tubes and other defects that this really cheapo thingy was having. After sweating under the 33c sun (that's mega much 3 digits fahrenheit), I've layed the first layer of primer. I say first, because none of the parts I needed spray were of the types you can hang, and even if I would have wanted it, there would have been no chance the cheapo tent structure could have supported anything. It was barely able to handle the wind so... multi passes was te plan. first the backs, then the fronts, and that too for the color and the top coat...

End of last weekend I had my parts in primer and thought I could start spray the brown... nuhhh, the neighbors again, had decided to invite friends... worse, they dared buy a swimming pool for their kids and place it right next to my deluxe spray booth!!! :O

Sooo because that thing is clearly not exactly leak free as seen during priming and me not enough asocial I went sweating in garage and worked on the body instead. At least my primer was on!




This week, while finally nobody was in the garden, muhahahahaha, I took of break and started spray..




and sprayed more... Amazing how hard it was to spray that dashboard. Never thought it was that hard as you need go everywhere, and that wasn't that easy.
On the other side, as there is only 0.0005% visible of it, mainly the lower part where the knobs are, nobody will whine me about potential differences in colour depth in the sun!




And when was all dry to the touch it was time to bring these babies inside, and enjoy the metallic magic that transforms the colour under my strong leds in my garage. Going from chocolate to caramel depending on contrast/angle and yet measured as the original brown.

While I'm happy, especially if you scroll back and see how that thing was rusted, I found out that as there has been wind during the night that tons of small stuffs collected into the tent, which I did not see before the second pass and as a result, there is more dust and whatnots on the paint that my eyes like to see. Even if invisible when installed, the old monkey me might water sand a bit and spray a new coat on a few places/parts. None the less, I can't wait to see how this baby will look like with all the bling bling knobs and all back on it! But that's something I'll do this winter or the winter after that....




I have also spend some time on the body. (I can't post only bling bling stuffs!! ) Now having the two B and two A pilars paint free, I could enjoy discover some extra work hidden under a nice thick layer of bondo, Fun for the coming weeks!

I'll come back to these babies in details when I'll handle them...




For the rest, the green lady and me went to green places

To be continued...

 

[midlife]

You should have invited yourself next door to the pool after being all hot and sweaty.

 

[Fabrice]

Update for old men...

About almost 3 weeks ago, did bits too much and hurt my back and payed big time for it since then..
But after 2 hell weeks, it was bits better this weekend.

Because of that ,I did way less than I use to, but I wasn't planning stay laying flat whole mustang weekends,
so did stuffs instead, that I was planning to do this winter...




Right before that happened I've water sanded my dashboard and other part for a second top coat pass. I'll be back on this later on...




So not being able to stand more than 20-30 minutes at a time before it got unbearable, I kept myself busy with small things.
Like these trims on the quarters. They were in bad shape, bended, dented, scratched....
Slowly re-shaped them from behind using flat screw drivers & small pieces of wood and when they both had a returned to a satisfactory shape, they went under a 120 grid dry. which revealed more lows and highs. More tiny gentle hammering hits further, both scratches free, they went under 600 wet and when they finally looked better, they went met my polishing machine...

That alone was my entire afternoon last Saturday as I needed go lay down often. I was feeling like a 95 yo man!
But hey, at least now, these are done!



This weekend, much better, I went for another job planned for the winter: the heater box. First the blower casing...
First step, was to put the blower side all appart. Bag, label, take pictures of each part in place as of course by the time I will put it back together, I might have forgotten a thing or two!




Next was to test the blower, the vacuum actuators and remove from the casing all these ugly rusty brackets.
After a good soapy cleaning, short sanding session to remove lots of the rough surface, yet not too much. The casing received a satin black and all the ugly rustiness went in my acid bath.
I wanted take the wheel out of the motor, Unfortunately, my allen keys were having too much play to even try loosen the lock on the axle.
So need to get keys with the right US size or cheapo metrics I could hammer on and go find rivets, as they need be larger than the ones I have...




Sunday was also very hot and as a buddy told me there was a small US car meeting in a village next to my city. I decided ignore my back and go enjoy! I was just on the road, I've found a 68 vert in front of me! And later on, it was nice to discover 2 other 73, which I've never seen in the region and meet old members of the Mustang club there too. pitty I couldn't talk to the owners... mebbe next time.

And then we got phone alerts: a terrible stormy weather was about to hit the province. So drove back home quickly...




And as my back and me had a good time, I decided plate the parts that spent the last 24 hours in acid and gave them some nickel love while some seriously intimidating weather was raging outside...

So yeah, not much done, but hey, every bits counts!!

To be continued...

 

[tony-muscle]

Beautiful work as always. You definitely have the skills, patience and knowledge!