Grabber Lime Restoration Update - Trunk Area

[Motorcity Mustang]

Working on the trunk area on the Grabber Lime Mach 1.  Took a while to find the correct color of textured trunk paint, but got the color as close as I could to original (but the flecks are much smaller).  Got the overspray on the inner quarters, wheel wells, and back seat structure (non fold down on this Mach) after looking at one of my original cars, and using the 429 Megasite.  Cleaned up the marker light housings and working on the taillights now.   Repainting the matte black on aluminum is a pain in the butt due to the amount of taping you have to do.  Also put the black edges on the taillight panel before the honeycomb and moldings go on.   My buddy that did the body/paint forgot to put the holes in for the molding clips, so had to make a template and drill those in the taillight panel. Yikes!

Working on the taillight harness next and installing the spare tire/jack and rear bumper.  

 

[JD79]

That looks fantastic! I would be really happy with that result.

 

[mach71351c]

Nice work!

 

[Tnfastbk]

Working on the trunk area on the Grabber Lime Mach 1.  Took a while to find the correct color of textured trunk paint, but got the color as close as I could to original (but the flecks are much smaller).  Got the overspray on the inner quarters, wheel wells, and back seat structure (non fold down on this Mach) after looking at one of my original cars, and using the 429 Megasite.  Cleaned up the marker light housings and working on the taillights now.   Repainting the matte black on aluminum is a pain in the butt due to the amount of taping you have to do.  Also put the black edges on the taillight panel before the honeycomb and moldings go on.   My buddy that did the body/paint forgot to put the holes in for the molding clips, so had to make a template and drill those in the taillight panel. Yikes!

Working on the taillight harness next and installing the spare tire/jack and rear bumper.  

The lights are fun but really worth the extra effort

t

 

[kcmash]

I am surprised they don't drill those holes for the replacement tail light panels.  All the cars had a trim piece there, right?

I said the same thing.  Yikes as I drilled through the Grabber Blue paint on my car.  Masking tape, a sharp bit, and a lot of praying.  Mine turned out good too.

Now the second " Ah-Ha" moment on repop taillight panels is they ARE drilled for the 73 bumper filler.  So you have the series of holes needed for the 73, but not the 71 or 72, then you still need to drill holes for the rear valence install.  Looks like you already installed the valence.  What are you going to do with the holes above the valence?  I am still trying to decide.

kcmash

 

[7173Vert]

I am surprised they don't drill those holes for the replacement tail light panels.  All the cars had a trim piece there, right?

I said the same thing.  Yikes as I drilled through the Grabber Blue paint on my car.  Masking tape, a sharp bit, and a lot of praying.  Mine turned out good too.

Now the second " Ah-Ha" moment on repop taillight panels is they ARE drilled for the 73 bumper filler.  So you have the series of holes needed for the 73, but not the 71 or 72, then you still need to drill holes for the rear valence install.  Looks like you already installed the valence.  What are you going to do with the holes above the valence?  I am still trying to decide.

kcmash

B351...

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Would love to see a sample of the trunk spatter paint in person. I have never found anything even close to original. 

I know the clean side marker lights and clean tail light housings look great but at the factory when they sprayed the spatter paint the car was completely assembled. The marker lights, wiring, rubber plugs, shock access hole plugs and tail lights housings got some over spray on them. Looks bad but that is how it was.

I have the MCA but they even deduct if you do not have spatter paint on those items. If it had a fold down it had over spray on it also. 

Too late now but Daniel Carpenter sells his seconds of the tail light lens for half price. The defect is that the aluminum trim is not attached so you can remove them and much easier to mask off the trim. Then you just put some sealer on and put the trim back on after paint. His gaskets for the tail lights are much better also. The original Ford gaskets suck as we can all see the rusty trunks in these cars.

Here is couple pics of my original 73. Notice the bent edge on the top of the tail light panel, factory installed. 

 

[Hemikiller]

I am surprised they don't drill those holes for the replacement tail light panels.  All the cars had a trim piece there, right?

I said the same thing.  Yikes as I drilled through the Grabber Blue paint on my car.  Masking tape, a sharp bit, and a lot of praying.  Mine turned out good too.

Now the second " Ah-Ha" moment on repop taillight panels is they ARE drilled for the 73 bumper filler.  So you have the series of holes needed for the 73, but not the 71 or 72, then you still need to drill holes for the rear valence install.  Looks like you already installed the valence.  What are you going to do with the holes above the valence?  I am still trying to decide.

kcmash

Base 71 models and Boss 351 had no rear panel. The textured metal panel became standard equipment in '72. 

I was a bit incensed with the repop panel as it had the holes for the '73 bumper filler, which made no sense to me since it's a one year only thing. Holes are easy to add, and a PITA to fill. Luckily, I had added my trim panel holes before starting paintwork.

 

[Stanglover]

Looking good there. Still waiting to win the freakin lottery!!

Geoff.

 

[Motorcity Mustang]

I am surprised they don't drill those holes for the replacement tail light panels.  All the cars had a trim piece there, right?

I said the same thing.  Yikes as I drilled through the Grabber Blue paint on my car.  Masking tape, a sharp bit, and a lot of praying.  Mine turned out good too.

Now the second " Ah-Ha" moment on repop taillight panels is they ARE drilled for the 73 bumper filler.  So you have the series of holes needed for the 73, but not the 71 or 72, then you still need to drill holes for the rear valence install.  Looks like you already installed the valence.  What are you going to do with the holes above the valence?  I am still trying to decide.

kcmash

That taillight panel was a red oxide NOS one.  Boss 351 cars, and plain cars didn't get moldings in the back, so I guess that is why they did not put them in from the factory service panels.  I am going to have to leave those 73 holes in the bottom of the taillight panel, I forgot to tell him to fill those in before they welded it on and painted everything.  Hate to go back and re-do everything at this point.

 

[Motorcity Mustang]

Would love to see a sample of the trunk spatter paint in person. I have never found anything even close to original. 

I know the clean side marker lights and clean tail light housings look great but at the factory when they sprayed the spatter paint the car was completely assembled. The marker lights, wiring, rubber plugs, shock access hole plugs and tail lights housings got some over spray on them. Looks bad but that is how it was.

I have the MCA but they even deduct if you do not have spatter paint on those items. If it had a fold down it had over spray on it also. 

Too late now but Daniel Carpenter sells his seconds of the tail light lens for half price. The defect is that the aluminum trim is not attached so you can remove them and much easier to mask off the trim. Then you just put some sealer on and put the trim back on after paint. His gaskets for the tail lights are much better also. The original Ford gaskets suck as we can all see the rusty trunks in these cars.

Here is couple pics of my original 73. Notice the bent edge on the top of the tail light panel, factory installed.

I had a hard time with the paint also.  Got the color down close (used two different shades and misted some over the other, but will never get the spatter flakes as big as they were originally.  Don't ask me to duplicate it, because I will never be able to mist it exactly the same again!   I agree with most of your statement onthe trunk lights, etc, but not all marker lights and plugs got painted for some reason.  I have 12 71-73 Mustangs (seven 71 429 Machs, 71 Boss 351, two 72 Sprints, and two Pink 73 Convertibles) and nine of them have paint on the marker lights and the other three don't.  Only three are original and 2 of the three don't have paint on the markers.  I debated which way to go, so I went with the clean look since I am not going to show the car, just drive it.

Keep the comments coming, I learn something every time I post pictures.

 

[turtle5353]

Its looking great!  I almost did the same thing with the yellow mach 1 i did a couple years ago.  Luckily i just had it in primer and one of the forum members saw the pics i posted and told me not to forget to fill those holes in. I went back and welded them shut and reprimed. Very glad someone noticed before i painted it.

 

[7173Vert]

Would love to see a sample of the trunk spatter paint in person. I have never found anything even close to original. 

I know the clean side marker lights and clean tail light housings look great but at the factory when they sprayed the spatter paint the car was completely assembled. The marker lights, wiring, rubber plugs, shock access hole plugs and tail lights housings got some over spray on them. Looks bad but that is how it was.

I have the MCA but they even deduct if you do not have spatter paint on those items. If it had a fold down it had over spray on it also. 

Too late now but Daniel Carpenter sells his seconds of the tail light lens for half price. The defect is that the aluminum trim is not attached so you can remove them and much easier to mask off the trim. Then you just put some sealer on and put the trim back on after paint. His gaskets for the tail lights are much better also. The original Ford gaskets suck as we can all see the rusty trunks in these cars.

Here is couple pics of my original 73. Notice the bent edge on the top of the tail light panel, factory installed. 







We have hashed this discussion previously... I’m pretty confident that ‘71’s did not have the trunk rear side marker lights sprayed with the gray splatter paint. As time went by, later models did. The same goes for the tail light housing’s... 

 

[turtle5353]

Would love to see a sample of the trunk spatter paint in person. I have never found anything even close to original. 

I know the clean side marker lights and clean tail light housings look great but at the factory when they sprayed the spatter paint the car was completely assembled. The marker lights, wiring, rubber plugs, shock access hole plugs and tail lights housings got some over spray on them. Looks bad but that is how it was.

I have the MCA but they even deduct if you do not have spatter paint on those items. If it had a fold down it had over spray on it also. 

Too late now but Daniel Carpenter sells his seconds of the tail light lens for half price. The defect is that the aluminum trim is not attached so you can remove them and much easier to mask off the trim. Then you just put some sealer on and put the trim back on after paint. His gaskets for the tail lights are much better also. The original Ford gaskets suck as we can all see the rusty trunks in these cars.

Here is couple pics of my original 73. Notice the bent edge on the top of the tail light panel, factory installed. 







We have hashed this discussion previously... I’m pretty confident that ‘71’s did not have the trunk rear side marker lights sprayed with the gray splatter paint. As time went by, later models did. The same goes for the tail light housing’s... 

 The 71 in the pics i posted above did not have overspray on the side lights or tail lights.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Would love to see a sample of the trunk spatter paint in person. I have never found anything even close to original. 

I know the clean side marker lights and clean tail light housings look great but at the factory when they sprayed the spatter paint the car was completely assembled. The marker lights, wiring, rubber plugs, shock access hole plugs and tail lights housings got some over spray on them. Looks bad but that is how it was.

I have the MCA but they even deduct if you do not have spatter paint on those items. If it had a fold down it had over spray on it also. 

Too late now but Daniel Carpenter sells his seconds of the tail light lens for half price. The defect is that the aluminum trim is not attached so you can remove them and much easier to mask off the trim. Then you just put some sealer on and put the trim back on after paint. His gaskets for the tail lights are much better also. The original Ford gaskets suck as we can all see the rusty trunks in these cars.

Here is couple pics of my original 73. Notice the bent edge on the top of the tail light panel, factory installed. 







We have hashed this discussion previously... I’m pretty confident that ‘71’s did not have the trunk rear side marker lights sprayed with the gray splatter paint. As time went by, later models did. The same goes for the tail light housing’s... 

That would make more sense if they were 71 and the process evolved each year. I contacted the Pinto forum since when the Mustang was built in N.J. the Pinto was built on same line. Their sequence of assembly was probably different than Michigan. I was asking them the color of primer used on the Pinto built in N.J. the Mustang would be the same since one paint shop. It for sure looks better with the lights and wiring not covered in the trunk paint.

 

[Motorcity Mustang]

Would love to see a sample of the trunk spatter paint in person. I have never found anything even close to original. 

I know the clean side marker lights and clean tail light housings look great but at the factory when they sprayed the spatter paint the car was completely assembled. The marker lights, wiring, rubber plugs, shock access hole plugs and tail lights housings got some over spray on them. Looks bad but that is how it was.

I have the MCA but they even deduct if you do not have spatter paint on those items. If it had a fold down it had over spray on it also. 

Too late now but Daniel Carpenter sells his seconds of the tail light lens for half price. The defect is that the aluminum trim is not attached so you can remove them and much easier to mask off the trim. Then you just put some sealer on and put the trim back on after paint. His gaskets for the tail lights are much better also. The original Ford gaskets suck as we can all see the rusty trunks in these cars.

Here is couple pics of my original 73. Notice the bent edge on the top of the tail light panel, factory installed.

https://ibb.co/J7L82qt

We have hashed this discussion previously... I’m pretty confident that ‘71’s did not have the trunk rear side marker lights sprayed with the gray splatter paint. As time went by, later models did. The same goes for the tail light housing’s... 

DIdn't even think about 71 vs 72/73 on the over spray on the markers/taillights.  I am going to check my other 71s vs 72/73s.    Thanks for the update!!!

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I see that you also used red oxide primer. So I assume your 71 cars had red oxide. That was what I was trying to find out from the Pinto guys to confirm color. I am thinking NJ cars got red oxide and MI cars got gray primer. Some say slop gray but not so if you check the Ford facts book they are very specific on type and amount of primer and top coats used. I could not find a copy of the 71 Facts Book but Ray had posted a copy of the 72. If you look at it must have been very early in 72 with some of the pictures having the cast Mustang letters going all the way across the trunk instead of the script on the right.

The Slop Gray was a mixture of any purge paint or paint that was caught in the recovery process and used on several of the bolt on parts. The primer is formulated different from top coats so entirely different type of paint.

The way your painter applied the top coats looks like factory for sure. They did not try to cover unseen areas with color coats to save paint. 

While working in the automotive supply chain I had to visit assembly plants that used our parts during launch. I was bored to death at the Econoline plant in Ohio and asked if I could get permission to go into the paint area. They are very strict on who can go in and what you can take with you. So they gave me a paper jump suit booties and a hair like shower cap. Me being 6'5" the jump suit made me look like a cartoon character coming half way up to my knees, lol.

When the cars came out from first pass in the paint if it was white the workers would sit down on a bench and do nothing. If it was a black or dark color they worked on any small dings before final paint. 

A guy comes over to me and wants to know what I am doing in the paint area and I told him I was a stamping supplier and was just killing time. We went into his office and he was a car guy also. I said something about Ford probably paid very little for paint. This was in the 90's and he said the price of paint to Ford was over $500 a gallon back then. The reason it was so high is that the supplier has to take care of any warranty work that comes up after delivery of the vehicle. 

The other thing I thought was odd was the Econoline body was made and painted in one plant then shipped to another to final assembly. They also did the Windstar and Nissan vans there but they also did final assembly there. It always amazed me how much twisting and rubber hammering and massaging they did in final assembly. It has got better over the years but few sheet metal parts are dead on when bolted together.

 

[Motorcity Mustang]

I see that you also used red oxide primer. So I assume your 71 cars had red oxide. That was what I was trying to find out from the Pinto guys to confirm color. I am thinking NJ cars got red oxide and MI cars got gray primer. Some say slop gray but not so if you check the Ford facts book they are very specific on type and amount of primer and top coats used. I could not find a copy of the 71 Facts Book but Ray had posted a copy of the 72. If you look at it must have been very early in 72 with some of the pictures having the cast Mustang letters going all the way across the trunk instead of the script on the right.

The Slop Gray was a mixture of any purge paint or paint that was caught in the recovery process and used on several of the bolt on parts. The primer is formulated different from top coats so entirely different type of paint.

The way your painter applied the top coats looks like factory for sure. They did not try to cover unseen areas with color coats to save paint. 

While working in the automotive supply chain I had to visit assembly plants that used our parts during launch. I was bored to death at the Econoline plant in Ohio and asked if I could get permission to go into the paint area. They are very strict on who can go in and what you can take with you. So they gave me a paper jump suit booties and a hair like shower cap. Me being 6'5" the jump suit made me look like a cartoon character coming half way up to my knees, lol.

When the cars came out from first pass in the paint if it was white the workers would sit down on a bench and do nothing. If it was a black or dark color they worked on any small dings before final paint. 

A guy comes over to me and wants to know what I am doing in the paint area and I told him I was a stamping supplier and was just killing time. We went into his office and he was a car guy also. I said something about Ford probably paid very little for paint. This was in the 90's and he said the price of paint to Ford was over $500 a gallon back then. The reason it was so high is that the supplier has to take care of any warranty work that comes up after delivery of the vehicle. 

The other thing I thought was odd was the Econoline body was made and painted in one plant then shipped to another to final assembly. They also did the Windstar and Nissan vans there but they also did final assembly there. It always amazed me how much twisting and rubber hammering and massaging they did in final assembly. It has got better over the years but few sheet metal parts are dead on when bolted together.

We actually made a mistake when we painted this one.   I looked at the underside of all my 71 Mustangs and 3 of them had red oxide, 2 of them had a darkish gray/black metallic, and 1 has a goldish color underneath (above the gas tanks).   We went ahead and painted this one underneath the darkish gray/black metallic thinking they just painted the underneath whatever color they had mixed from the plant (not thinking that was the primer for the whole car).   I thought at the time, they all had red oxide primer over the entire car, then they painted the underside whatever paint they had mixed laying around.  Thus the red oxide on the inside and dark gray blackish underneath - oops.   I spent too much time making sure the overspray on the inside and under fenders with the red oxide was correct,  but didn't want to repaint underneath since the Grabber Lime was already done.   This was the first 71-73 Mustang I am restoring, have only done 65-70 Mustangs/Shelby's prior,  and they were all red oxide.   Good thing I am driving this one!!

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Ray long ago scanned and posted the Ford Facts Book for 71. If you go to page 14 it starts to tell how the body is protected. They used Epoxy primer according to the facts book. Here is link to his post with the info.

https://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-1971-ford-mustang-facts-book?pid=133707#pid133707