New project for this winter. 71 Mach 1

[turtle5353]

I was able to get the driveway plowed last night and get the mustang pulled out and gave it another bath. I pressure washed all the heavy stuff off of it. Lots of dirt and debris and around windows, cowl, under fenders ect. Then hand washed with dawn dish soap and hot water. Then pressure washed again. I was froze by the time I was done and soaked and a little icy!! But atleast I got it all done. Pulled it back in the garage to dry. Start installing the trunk pan tonight.

 

[turtle5353]

Well I was able to get the trunk pan fitted and welded in place last night after work. Everything went off without a hitch. I still need to grind all the welds down, but it was getting late and I didn't feel like doing it last night. Over 100 spot welds holding that thing in. Also had to transfer the jack mount, and gas tank strap mount, and gas tank location tabs to the bottom side of the pan. Next up is the driver quarter panel and taillight panel. Just a little tip I found helpful when you have to punch 100+ holes for spot welds. The outside perimeter ones are easy with the flange/punch tool, but the inner ones can be a pain in the butt. It takes forever if you use a center punch to mark the holes, then drill out with a standard drill bit. A really easy quick way to do it is to use a self-tapping screw in your screw gun with a magnetic bit holder. No need to center punch the holes. The self tapper doesn't slide around like a drill bit and eats right through sheetmetal way faster than a drill bit. If the self tapper holes arent big enough for your liking you can go back through with a 1/4" drill bit and open up the holes. Since the hole is already there the drill bit opens the hole easily. Then just dress the holes to get the burrs off with a grinder. Easy peasy. Saves a ton of time. Heres some more pics.

 

[basstrix]

Looking good. Thanks for posting up the progress. Looks like the same batch of work I need to do to my 72....trunk floor, drops, a little rear quarter work, and some driver's side apron work.

What did you coat the frame rails with before the floor was welded in place? Was the adjacent surface to the frame rail also coated?

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

You are moving on with the job really fast. Wow that cowl had got rusty. When you pull the windshield hope the upper part of the cowl doesn't look the same. They hold trash in that pocket under the bottom of the windshield and rust quickly.

One the spot welds. One thing I found that helps me is to use an automatic center punch to hit the centers of the welds snap them a couple times. It is difficult to get some with a hammer and the automatic center punch is quick and compact.

When I was working on my garage and putting up the conduit I also found that the self tappers did drill the red iron frame of the building faster than a drill bit.

There is an old Tool & Die trick to help make the drills cut faster. You thin the web in the center of the drill bit down. You need a good square corner on your grinding wheel to do it. Maybe look up on web to get some pictures.

You can keep that cold up there but they say it will head south soon.

Great work you are doing.

 

[turtle5353]

Looking good. Thanks for posting up the progress. Looks like the same batch of work I need to do to my 72....trunk floor, drops, a little rear quarter work, and some driver's side apron work.

What did you coat the frame rails with before the floor was welded in place? Was the adjacent surface to the frame rail also coated?

I sprayed weld through primer on and in the rails. Then inside the rails I top coated it with some kind of rust encapsulator/preventor my buddy gets from work. They use it on boilers. So I figured it should work for the frame. The inside of the frame looked brand new still, no rust at all.

 

[turtle5353]

You are moving on with the job really fast. Wow that cowl had got rusty. When you pull the windshield hope the upper part of the cowl doesn't look the same. They hold trash in that pocket under the bottom of the windshield and rust quickly.

One the spot welds. One thing I found that helps me is to use an automatic center punch to hit the centers of the welds snap them a couple times. It is difficult to get some with a hammer and the automatic center punch is quick and compact.

When I was working on my garage and putting up the conduit I also found that the self tappers did drill the red iron frame of the building faster than a drill bit.

There is an old Tool & Die trick to help make the drills cut faster. You thin the web in the center of the drill bit down. You need a good square corner on your grinding wheel to do it. Maybe look up on web to get some pictures.

You can keep that cold up there but they say it will head south soon.

Great work you are doing.

Thanks David. We are not pulling the windshield. The owner didn't want to get into all that. The rest of the cowl looks really solid.

I also use the auto punch when im drilling out old spot welds.

And cold is HERE!! Only a high of 10 tomorrow.

 

[computercarguy]

Do you have some pictures of the location tabs? Mine where gone (PO had cut out the whole floor and put a flat piece of galvanized in) and I am thinking of recreating them.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

You are moving on with the job really fast. Wow that cowl had got rusty. When you pull the windshield hope the upper part of the cowl doesn't look the same. They hold trash in that pocket under the bottom of the windshield and rust quickly.

One the spot welds. One thing I found that helps me is to use an automatic center punch to hit the centers of the welds snap them a couple times. It is difficult to get some with a hammer and the automatic center punch is quick and compact.

When I was working on my garage and putting up the conduit I also found that the self tappers did drill the red iron frame of the building faster than a drill bit.

There is an old Tool & Die trick to help make the drills cut faster. You thin the web in the center of the drill bit down. You need a good square corner on your grinding wheel to do it. Maybe look up on web to get some pictures.

You can keep that cold up there but they say it will head south soon.

Great work you are doing.

Thanks David. We are not pulling the windshield. The owner didn't want to get into all that. The rest of the cowl looks really solid.

I also use the auto punch when im drilling out old spot welds.

And cold is HERE!! Only a high of 10 tomorrow.

Little bit surprised at the owner not taking the front and rear windshields out when doing a repaint. Under the front windshield will probably have a hole in the cowl after seeing the hole in the end of the cowl. You should at least take a piece of wire and probe under to see if there is holes. If they are that is water coming directly into the car. It is usually worse on the passenger side.

I was just down to my garage and it was 55 deg. with a little oil space heater going and it is 4,000 sq. ft.. Glad I am not in the deep freeze.

 

[73pony]

You are moving on with the job really fast. Wow that cowl had got rusty. When you pull the windshield hope the upper part of the cowl doesn't look the same. They hold trash in that pocket under the bottom of the windshield and rust quickly.

One the spot welds. One thing I found that helps me is to use an automatic center punch to hit the centers of the welds snap them a couple times. It is difficult to get some with a hammer and the automatic center punch is quick and compact.

When I was working on my garage and putting up the conduit I also found that the self tappers did drill the red iron frame of the building faster than a drill bit.

There is an old Tool & Die trick to help make the drills cut faster. You thin the web in the center of the drill bit down. You need a good square corner on your grinding wheel to do it. Maybe look up on web to get some pictures.

You can keep that cold up there but they say it will head south soon.

Great work you are doing.

Thanks David. We are not pulling the windshield. The owner didn't want to get into all that. The rest of the cowl looks really solid.

I also use the auto punch when im drilling out old spot welds.

And cold is HERE!! Only a high of 10 tomorrow.

Little bit surprised at the owner not taking the front and rear windshields out when doing a repaint. Under the front windshield will probably have a hole in the cowl after seeing the hole in the end of the cowl. You should at least take a piece of wire and probe under to see if there is holes. If they are that is water coming directly into the car. It is usually worse on the passenger side.

I was just down to my garage and it was 55 deg. with a little oil space heater going and it is 4,000 sq. ft.. Glad I am not in the deep freeze.

I can send some cold your way. -15 is the low tonight and the high this Sunday is supposed to be -8.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Thanks David. We are not pulling the windshield. The owner didn't want to get into all that. The rest of the cowl looks really solid.

I also use the auto punch when im drilling out old spot welds.

And cold is HERE!! Only a high of 10 tomorrow.

Little bit surprised at the owner not taking the front and rear windshields out when doing a repaint. Under the front windshield will probably have a hole in the cowl after seeing the hole in the end of the cowl. You should at least take a piece of wire and probe under to see if there is holes. If they are that is water coming directly into the car. It is usually worse on the passenger side.

I was just down to my garage and it was 55 deg. with a little oil space heater going and it is 4,000 sq. ft.. Glad I am not in the deep freeze.

I can send some cold your way. -15 is the low tonight and the high this Sunday is supposed to be -8.

We got down to 18 a couple nights but the ski slopes here are dying this year. They use to open in Nov. some years when I use to ski lots. I will have to watch the snow levels on Mt. Michell they use to get over 100" a year but it is way down. Glad global warming is here again. Happened many times in the past but people don't accept that.

 

[basstrix]

I love it here in the desert soutwest... 75 today and forecasting 77 tomorrow

 

[turtle5353]

Do you have some pictures of the location tabs? Mine where gone (PO had cut out the whole floor and put a flat piece of galvanized in) and I am thinking of recreating them.

I don't have any pics of them right now. I can climb under the car this weekend and get you a couple pics of them. I circled there locations on these pics just to give you an idea on where they go. You should be able to make them yourself pretty easily. Just a couple bends in a small piece of sheet metal. If you cant make them let me know and I will copy these ones and bend a couple up for you and send them your way.

 

[turtle5353]

You are moving on with the job really fast. Wow that cowl had got rusty. When you pull the windshield hope the upper part of the cowl doesn't look the same. They hold trash in that pocket under the bottom of the windshield and rust quickly.

One the spot welds. One thing I found that helps me is to use an automatic center punch to hit the centers of the welds snap them a couple times. It is difficult to get some with a hammer and the automatic center punch is quick and compact.

When I was working on my garage and putting up the conduit I also found that the self tappers did drill the red iron frame of the building faster than a drill bit.

There is an old Tool & Die trick to help make the drills cut faster. You thin the web in the center of the drill bit down. You need a good square corner on your grinding wheel to do it. Maybe look up on web to get some pictures.

You can keep that cold up there but they say it will head south soon.

Great work you are doing.

Thanks David. We are not pulling the windshield. The owner didn't want to get into all that. The rest of the cowl looks really solid.

I also use the auto punch when im drilling out old spot welds.

And cold is HERE!! Only a high of 10 tomorrow.

Little bit surprised at the owner not taking the front and rear windshields out when doing a repaint. Under the front windshield will probably have a hole in the cowl after seeing the hole in the end of the cowl. You should at least take a piece of wire and probe under to see if there is holes. If they are that is water coming directly into the car. It is usually worse on the passenger side.

I was just down to my garage and it was 55 deg. with a little oil space heater going and it is 4,000 sq. ft.. Glad I am not in the deep freeze.

David, I checked around the cowl and pressure washed inside it. Clean as a whistle now. After pressure washing I checked for leaks and could not find any inside. I think some debris was just packed in there by the drain and rotted it out. The hat looks good as does all the other metal in the area. Seems like the rust is localized to just that one spot, luckily!!

 

[mach71351c]

I love it here in the desert soutwest... 75 today and forecasting 77 tomorrow

Yup a perfect 71 today in San Diego. Rain and 63 tomorrow, then back to perfect Saturday.

 

[turtle5353]

Got some more work done this weekend. Got the tail light panel fitted, quarter panel extensions fitted, and rear bumper all mocked up. I am pretty happy with the fit. Got it all blown apart again and started on the quarter panel and trunk drop off. Over all the fit wasn't too bad on the quarter panel but it definitely need some tweaking. The over all length of it wasn't long enough. I ended up having to make a couple relief cuts in the front and rear to get it into place where I wanted it. This will keep my corner looking nice and sharp. Just weld up the slice and grind it down. Spent a lot of time getting it just where I wanted it before making my final cut with the air saw through both pieces. The trunk drop off fit well with a little trimming. the bottom of the outer wheel well will need a little patch. I roughed one in for now and will finalize the bends and welding after the quarter is welded in. I attached everything with clamps and self tapping screws for adjustment. I got almost all of it punched and grind prepped for welding but ran out of time Saturday night. Going to try to get back at it this week but got some 12 hour days coming up at work this week so probably wont get much done till Friday. Any how here are some pics and if you have any questions let me know fellas.

 

[turtle5353]

I talked to the owner of the car today and got a little more on the backstory. The car was bought new by his dad in 71 in texas and was driven til 1984 for about 40,000 miles. It was parked in 1984 till 1992. His dad got it up and running again but the starter went out after only 200 miles. He again parked it in the garage and there it sat til November of last year. The father passed away and the son inherited the car. Since then the son had all the mechanicals gone through and got it roadworthy again. He drove it all this summer and wanted to get it painted and fixed up over the winter. That's where I came in. So heres a couple pics he sent when he went to pick it up.

 

[turtle5353]

Got some more work done on the 71 this weekend. Finished up the quarter panel. Pretty happy with the end result. The repop panel needed a fair amount of work. Had to make a couple relief cuts at each end. But got it all welded up, ground down, and ready for first coat of mud. Also got the left side trunk drop off welded in. The trunk pan is all ground down and primed. That's all till after Christmas. Hope everyone has a great christmas!

 

[basstrix]

Looks like some good progress there!

 

[73429mach]

Your moving right along, Looking good.

 

[mach71351c]

Nice work! Thanks for posting.