Slowest resto ever - Project AmsterFoose / Current subject: The rear window edge

[c9zx]

Looks great! I also like the cat. Chuck

 

[Vinnie]

A few things had to be re-attached to the bottom cowl before continuing.

First this, can't even remember what it's for. I only cut out 1 of the 2 spotwelds so it's still exactly in it's original spot:



Attached to the bottom was some kind of... whatever. I re-created it and welded it back making sure the hole to hang the heater from is exactly in the same spot:



I really did not want to weld upside down so I kept it in place from below with a magnet:



And I drilled 3 little holes to weld it from the top, I realise this could compromise the cowl but it will have to do:



The result so I can attach my heater in about 7 years:



Next up is fixing the upper cowl bit that I cut out, it needs quite a bit of patch work:



One of the patches has got to be one of the funkiest looking ones I made sofar:

 

[Manu Mach1]

 You are one of the artists present on this site, good work!

 

[Vinnie]

 You are one of the artists present on this site, good work!

Hahaha, thanks but personally I wouldn’t go that far ;-)

 

[92GTS-R]

Nice Job 

 

[rio1856]

Your fabrication skills are excellent!

 

[mach71351c]

Nice job!

 

[Vinnie]

Wellllllll, a few months have passed and my cowl is fixed. That's the short version of this post. If you wanna know more details, keep on reading!

My last update ended with a funky looking patch. Well, the one after that was more challenging!

I made this patch:



To go here, on the RH side of the cowl:



And it worked out well:



After finishing welding the patches and fixing up other areas I prepared the bottom cowl with 3M welding primer:



Tack welding the top in place and securing its position:



And done:



Now I prepared the portion of the frame rail that goes on top:



Almost 30 plug welds were required for this part and I really was not looking forward to doing those coz it was still too hard. However, I experimented with my wire feed and have now found that with a small increase of the wire speed I can now make plug welds that fill in early one go!:

So I clamped it in place:



And welded it in:



Finally my cowl was finished:



Very happy I got this done. It was a lot of work but it saved me a lot of money and better it gave me better welding skills!

 

[Vinnie]

With the cowl finished on the last day of 2021 (feels great to have it finished last year) on the first day in 2022 I started on my RH quarter. I can see a bit of crap in the drop-off and you can be sure there is rust in the wheel well edge so that's all going to be replaced, just like I did on the left side.

It starts with drilling out welds at the back around th tallight panel:



Don't forget to create reference points if you need them:



And 15 minutes later:



Next is positioning the new drop-off panel. In my new one the 2 holes were about 0.5 - 1cm (that's metric!) off:



Use the superduper welding clamps and tack that sucker in:



Tacked:



More in a few months ;-)

 

[timachone]

Nice work and welds you did - use your current flow and bring it to an end soon!

 

[Vinnie]

Haha, that won't be any time soon! After the RH quarter I have to do my floors and last weekend I found out the battery apron needs work afterall... Then I need to close all the holes that the trim around the vinyl roof left behind. The vinyl ain't coming back so no need for holes... After all the welding is done it will be stripped completely and get dipped in acid and coated with primer. In the meantime the engine will get pimped. And then the fun proces of building a car will start. I think I'll get to that point in 1.5-2 years. That's being optimistic ;-)

 

[Vinnie]

More than a month has passed! What happened?

The drop off was finished:



Now it was time to see what the wheelhouse edge looks like: CRUSTY! I cannot imagine ANY 50 year old Mustang not having crusty wheelhouse edges. Therefore, for the life of me I don't understand why people "restore" a car and giving it beautiful paint and other upgrades without looking into this:



The top of the rocker and the bottom part of the edge seemed pretty decent so I'm going to leave those. In the pic below you can see the cut out edge in the top left corner:



Cuttin the new edge out of a new outer wheelhouse:



Test fitting and marking the cut in the old edge:



Cut and patch put in place (gotta love these clamps!):



Pro tip; drill these holes before you weld everything in place (I forgot...):



Welding done, new edge is in. No more rust:


Next up is fitting the quarter patch:



To be continued...

 

[timachone]

Well done

 

[rio1856]

Excellent!!

 

[jpaz]

Excellent! Your doing a great job, keep it going!

 

[mach71351c]

Nice work! Well thought out .

 

[Vinnie]

Made a bit of progress last weekend on the RH quarter. I'm really noticing increased skill now as this wheelhoude and quarter is going a lot faster than the other one, which was my first ever big welding job. Still slow coz I can really only work on my car once every 2 weeks but still... Anyways, I did this last weekend:

Used phosphoric acid to clean the rear of rust. Worked like a charm! Before and after:

​

On to the actual quarter. Really, EVERY bit of sheetmetal you buy needs work, it is NEVER easy... However, this quarter only needed a small patch and some extra welds for strength (in my opinion):

​

Finally ready for fitting and marking (that little seat is a true life-saver btw! For the europeans here, it's from LIDL, 35 euros only!):

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I fixed the panel using clamps and a few rivets, measured all my reference points 10 times over and then cut the new and old in one go with a 1mm thick disc. Works perfect:

​

Then I remembered some holes that the P.O. made for the old and never coming back LPG setup. Frustrated by having to spend time on it now I figured it would save time later while I have better access now so I filled them:

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But I just had enough time left to fit the quarter patch and it sits there PERFECTLY fine. It meets all my reference points, very happy with how it fits:

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So in the coming weeks I will be welding this baby in which concludes the big jobs on the rear and I can start looking forward to replacing the floor...

​

 

[timachone]

Great result, Vinnie!

You don't have to fear now the other projects, well done!

 

[rio1856]

GREAT JOB!!! Dude!

 

[MAD IRISHMAN]

You must have the patience of a Saint! Admire your efforts!

 

[Vinnie]

Howdo! This weekend I worked on the quarter 2 days. The first day was awesome, tag welded the quarter, made sure I had perfect gaps in as many places as possible. It went really well, all of the 120 tags (I counted them!) except for 2 were beautiful, have a look:





The second day I wanted to get in all the spot welds. What fuckery! Had to do about 44 of them and about 8 popped loose. God I hated that sound so much I almost started throwing **** around my garage... Since I don't have a lift I have to get in really **** positions to weld, looking up and bad light. Also I have very little room next to the car. About 50 cm (less than 20 inch). Anyway, I did manage to get them all in before my time was up:



My "office" yesterday:



Now all that's left is welding the gap in the skin, guess I'll do that in a couple of nights or maybe in 2 weeks...

Very happy I'm getting this one off the list!