Fabrice's 429CJ 71 project

[Fabrice]

@Vern Cook ahaha, thx! The thing is, at first when I really started on the trunk floor is that the only thing you do is measure, take some notes, remove, discover an issue, on which you make something for to fix and return to destroy/cut/remove more... a few pict at a time, I thought many times about posting, but there is nothing to show except a car that is less of a car every time you work on it. Then much later you finally start to put meat back on the bones, yet you still not really have material to show because while you have spent hours of metal shaping to rebuild what was sick and tired. This very unthankful non rewarding work, feels almost all the way as if the progress is near zero!



Until you look at some just a few months old pictures full of rust, holes and dirt and realise you actually have done something!!

 

[Sheriff41]

Very impressive work, Fabrice!

 

[MOTORCITYBADBOY]

Nice work. Following!

 

[Bill Perkins]

Long time not posted anything!! :O

I've been occupied with non mustang related stuffs lately, and while my "cave time" has been reduced, I've been busy as usual.
I did not post anything and picts started to pile up! Tme to address that!

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Time has again been spent on both sides lower quarters, which were not only very poorly made, but also totally off on so many aspects.
From the fold to drop-offs not being straight that needed be addressed, to find out the distance fold to drop-offs was wrong, distance to end to floor, shape to match wheel house... basically I can say these quarter were by far the worst piece of repop sheet I have ever encountered!!


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What was made for the driver side, needed be done as well, and because the car has been repaired on a few places the wrong way and also because on some places the metal was damaged by corrosion. I have been hammering, cutting and rebuild lots of things. That in order to obtain perfect fit, straight and strong for the final assembly ( that's the goal, we'll see how that goes on that day! )


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Because the floor was next, I also had to fix a lot of that piece simply because, well, it does not fit the way I define something to fit. There too, errors on the stamping or poorly cut places such as the fuel hole, which would ensure to have issues installing the filler neck later on...
And once the frame is prepped, in thick layer of epoxy and you have a fit that fits, you have to enjoy making about 200 holes, that if you care to have as many welds as the original spot welds. yes! +-200!!! :O

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Many MANY tests fits later, changes to the metal and the also corrected drop-offs in place ( funny detail, I was whining about the price of these to find out I had bought them many years ago and found them with the floor sheet, so did not had to made new ones! . They did not ask for much correction, but they had to be test fitted with the wheel house and floor to allow me to weld them before welding the floor as a whole. Which turned out later to be a good idea as because they were precisely placed they helped guide the whole floor in place with a fairly good accuracy for the final adjustment.


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No way back! It was time to weld the 200 holes, and because I decided to keep the healthy part of the upper floor (and therefor save my back the removal of the fold down structure) I had to weld nearly 1.5 meter where 1 meter on the back was on high temperature to make sure the floor and body were having a strong bond because it's not really the best place to cut/weld. (tho my back told me it was the ideal place as all went pretty ok and saved me tons of fold down structure removals)

and then the joys of grinding.... grinding and grinding and also grinding. Not to forget the few holes that needed be re-welded because not fully covered and grind again! My neighbors were absolutely delighted I'm sure! :O


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But hey, my floor was in place!! As I had cut partially the overkill big bar part of the fold down to allow my tools to access the welds, it had after clean ups and protection to be placed back in place... another serious amount of welds later I could enjoy again grinding in a weird position!


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In between activities there was also the latch support that needed help. The poor thing had been twisted, it was weak on all its connections and rusty. So after enjoying my acid bath, I've reinforced it while test fitting it on the new tail panel...

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Speaking of tail panel. The baby comes as a universal piece, so when you have the honeycomb option, you need the holes!! Which is not as easy as one may think, at least if you want something fairly near of where the holes should be so the plastic thing hangs right! And because it's a 71, you also need to weld close the 73 specific holes that you do not want like the extra ones meant for the extension that goes in between panel and bumper. Finaly I could enjoy weld in place the restored latch support after making sure the 2 recess allowed a perfect contact to the frame connector... Not too shabby repop. Tho I noticed a little diff, the original has a round recess where the electrics go to the plate light. this one is straight. as its hidden I did not merge the old with new for this. But if you're after concours, know that there is a diff!


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Oh yeah, of course, I won't detail the joys of paint removal, de-rusting, acid spraying and the most incredible positions you need to take to access some regions of the body.... or the multiple local reconstructions like this upper corner, where you need to weld upside down laying inside on your freshly installed new floor to reconstruct the channel, after of course have removed the double metal sheet and welded it back. change the fold metal against the quarter... So much fun!!


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And then it was time for a great idea!: The flange patch being unavail at my local shops, and the one found online sold for an idiotic price when you add the shipping and the tax (y a know, the famous tarifffffsssss). Well I decided: I'm gonna build the dang thing!! and if I fail, I can always open my veins later on, but at least I try! Dang tarifffffs! :O

Soooo once I agreed on the stupid idea.... one thing I can tell now that I did not really taken in account, was the fact that our wheel "arches" are NOT regular in terms of curves! Like really not!!
I've spent time to make templates, make bucks and also spent AGES to actually be able to fold the metal with inverted crowns and 90 degrees sharp edges.
Lucky me, turns out on exception of 2 locations, the wheel house metal was strangely strong while the skin was eaten to death. For the wheel house I also needed to build "tools" ( read: repro the curve and cut/sand wood ) for these as well, as they need be the exact opposite as the exterior piece but smaller radius...
That alone costed me a few afternoons in my near freezing point garage....


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So far so good, replaced about a +-20 inches in and out and I should not need much bondo for the little imperfections . Each new patch, I "light test for pinholes the previous one and went on that way. This past Sunday I've reached the point where I'm at the last big chunk. ancient dents are gone, and metal is healthy, but dang it its a lot of templates making :O Next weekend I'll enjoy upside down welding inside the wheel house for that last piece that is now just tack welded in place. The good news is that the other side is in a much better condition!


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Did also some "inside" jobs, one of them, was to close a hole, that was not even round, that was I bet some alarm related light or switch from the past. This baby is right into your face when you sit behind the steering wheel, so after some "plastic welding", spent some time on the texture, and it's soon gonna be getting another primer/sanding session to soften scratches made to later on look more like the original texture. For now, I can't even see where the hole was, so thats good....


Still here? Sorry for this long post!
I'll try to return to regular updates from now on!

To be continued....

You are doing an AWESOME JOB, thanks for taking us on this trip with you, keep up the Awesome Work

 

[cjstaci]

your work is very impressive. Your skill, meticulous attention to detail, very, very nice.

 

[Fabrice]

Time for an update before I forget again

Past 2 weeks were cold over here, but who cares when you need to weld!




So where were we last post... ah yeah.. well I've finished my quarter flange, the last part is in!! Woot woot
There will be some bondo necessary to fix some minor details, but not much really.
The amateur me is pretty satisfied and even if far from perfect, it's now at least healthy again!



To progress a bit on the parts that need to be assembled back on the restored dashboard, I also worked on the instruments cluster, which was really dirty. Found out some heat point on the circuit board, not really sure what caused this aside that the bulb that was black, shorted, and probably got too hot, I have inspected and followed all the connections/contacts of the surprisingly in good state board aside it being incredibly dirty. Found no broken line or anything. gave each contact some love and got the copper back to a nice pinkish colour. Then worked on the casing which was also very dirty. The image does not translate how dirty it was very good, but it was really ready for some extended cleaning session!




Last week, my led's finally arrived from China. The very same sold over here per 10 at more than twice the price of 30 over there. As it was really cold and my cluster was already cleaned up. I've reassembled the unit with these babies while listening/watching about the new adventures of an orange man far away from my home.. :O (Nononooo I won't start on this!) ;D

Taking care of lifting back a bit all the tiny connectors of each sockets with a sim card phone tool ( after 2 attempts with a needle ending in a blood drup, I found that little helper very handy and much safer for the job! ). That to ensure a solid contact to my now revived board. (see arrows on pict)
And then finally installed a new lens, when I say new, I think I bought it like 10, likely more years ago as the original one on the unit has been badly mistreated for a reason I can't comprehend. I was surprised with a lens that was actually fitting exactly as it should!!! How refreshing is that?!

I was about to test each lines, potentially reverse the polarities of the bulbs, tho this type LED should not have this issue, till I found out my old test battery was dead and of a way too low voltage to test anything. So I'll need to do that later on when I'll have it recharged. Which I now realise, I have again forgotten to do! ;D




For those who thought I've turned into a softie by staying in house in the warmth. Well, you were right for just an afternoon, but I made up for it, and enjoyed burning out 2 wheel houses full of thick ancient bitumen. So much fun!! And it was also, after I had the car moved to the side that I could not access for a few weeks, a good moment to look at my future todo on that side. Which will be much less than on the driver side.. pffew! Only a bad flat dent repair (y a know, just bondo on the dent and call it done ) that had started to rust.

Now that the most is out, I'll finish these wheelhouses soon, but not before they meet my acid friend to remove the few spots of rust that I've found growing behind the ancient protection. Good news, they are both pretty solid and I have not found any hidden history in them!




This past Sunday, because I've consumed a bunch of my previous sheet. It felt like an IKEA kit to start fresh! Except this kit comes without plans, and that's exactly what I started with; making plan for my two next victims: the lower quarter between B-Pilars and wheel houses.
Both sick, removed and cut bellow fold line months ago, I need to repop these!

So went first make some template on my doors, to match their crown on the lower part and reused one of my wooden bucks to have the logical curve from the flange/wheel house.
First started with the folds, the top one, the body line at the 20 degrees like the doors and thanks to my Mickey mouse of a metal breaker, I managed to have both folded parallel at a constant distance from each other, but had to then rework them by hand to obtain some sharpness, as my toy tool, can't really handle 1mm zincor quality all over the necessary 24.5 cm length with a regular fold all along despite adding extra clamps..
Then it was just a matter of cutting more, heat/hammer the curve in and then more hammering.... until the afternoon was gone!

The pair seams to fit pretty well so far tested, and I'll fold/hammer the front part of them on the B-pilar once I'll have the driver side reinforcement inside the b pilar replaced. It's sick. The other side was done a while back already so I think welding these in place should be on the todo pretty soon.


To be continued...

 

[tony-muscle]

Amazing work!