Sydneydrumdr 71 sportsroof project pics

[Sydneydrumdr]

Hi guys,

It's taken a long time but the work has finally begun on the car that I bought direct from Orange County CAL in 1987!! She has sat in varoius storage sheds and even under a tree - tarped of course - but I want to show you where I'm up to with this rebuild. Here is a pic of the 351 and C6 coming out. Taken about a year ago. Motor was the original tired 351C 2V and has been stripped down, machined and bored +.30thou", C6 has been tricked and rebuilt.

Here is the new sheet metal being added to replace the rusted inner apron and battery tray. A new Dynacorn Mach 1 bonnet/hood fitted and even some new rims on the rear to see how it all looks on the car.

Here is a shot of the rear in black epoxy brushed on to cover some bare metal exposed years ago. The 15x10 alloy Magnum rim is looking fat on the car. A new lower quarter panel will be fitted in place of this home-made repair panel fitted in the late 80's. The car is pretty clean with only small rust holes in RH rear floorpan and some in RH quarter. Sills and doors are solid and rust free.

Here it is on it's way to the paintshop on a flatbed. The wire wheels look ridiculous but they got the car rolling for now. A new RH fender/guard fitted here too.

I will post the next lot of pics showing paint prep soon.

 

[tony-muscle]

Awesome pictures. What color is she going to be?

1971 M-code Mach 1


Out of curiosity, how difficult is to move these cars from the US to Australia? How long of a ship ride?

1971 M-code Mach 1

 

[jbojo]

Nice car!!! What are your plans for the motor?

 

[Sydneydrumdr]

Awesome pictures. What color is she going to be?

1971 M-code Mach 1



Out of curiosity, how difficult is to move these cars from the US to Australia? How long of a ship ride?

1971 M-code Mach 1

Thanks. I'm going for Nightmist Blue with white cobra stripes. I haven't seen one with this treatment yet. I want something in keeping with the marque but not just another Mach1 look a like. It will challenge some purists but hey. My choice.

It's been 30 years since I brought this baby here. Shipping these days is in the order of AU$3-4k. Takes about two months, give or take a few weeks for loading and quarantine this end. Companies bring whole shiploads of classic cars on a regular basis. Some of your best vehicles are now here in Aus and NZ. Mind you, recent shipments are much harder to fill with solid, minimal rust bodies - we see a lot of cars that are rustbuckets and are only viable now that we have such a great range of replacement panels on the market to rebuild them.

Nice car!!! What are your plans for the motor?

Thanks. The motor was tired and had a thick coating of sludge all over the rocker gear and heads. Pretty standard for this age car.

I want it to be a warmed up weekend cruiser, so staying 2v but with head porting and bigger valves running hardened seats. New short skirt pistons and longer rods, balanced and running a mild street cam. Holley 4 barrel and Edelbrok manifold to get it back on the road, but looking at EFI options long term. Electronic coil and pointless distributor, headers with dual pipes. Keeping the C6 Auto but we upgraded the shift kit when it was rebuilt. Running A/C and power steer so hoping to keep it fun to drive.

 

[Luke]

Sounds good. Look forward to seeing some more pics as the build goes along

 

[mickus]

Looks like you have a little more work ahead of you than sharpening a few bearing edges or tuning a few marimba notes!

...Mickus

 

[Sydneydrumdr]

This car had been in a few accidents which meant it's had damage to just about every panel at some point. I bought it with accident damage down the LH side.

The car came complete with good used panels including full LH quarter/rear fender ready to fit. This work happened in 1988 courtesy of a good friend who is a panelbeater. Between us we got the old damaged quarter off by drilling out factory spot welds and fitted the replacement rear fender, door and LH front fender. A new tail light panel was also welded in while we were at it. It then sat waiting for it's day to be reborn. Fast forward 27 years to 2015 and here it is.

Body work in this picture above, started with the new inner apron near the battery tray and aligning some previous smash repair work.

The engine bay was stripped of all wiring, brake lines, steering, etc to allow the small rust repairs around the heater hose inlets in the firewall, then to paintstrip and prepare for epoxy primer and eventually body colour in the engine bay.

Internal rust treatment starts - thorough wire brushing with grinder wire-wheel then rust converter and grey epoxy enamel used throughout the inner panels of the car.

External paint is removed with strip discs and chemical stripper. All old filler is removed and panels hammered smooth to minimise the amount of filler required.

Lower quarter panel removed and filler near door opening stripped off to reveal some previous badly repaired damage. Nine inch diff is out to be rebuilt and old leaf springs probably going in the bin. New springs bushes shocks etc being fitted during re-assembly.

The RH door card and lining had never been off the car! We did find some body filler on the door skin tho! Smash repairs short cuts!

The door off and the door shut stripped with the wire wheel. This pic shows the shell on jacks. It was later lifted onto a rolling trolley frame to allow easy moving into and out of the spray booth seen in the background.

Some annoying small rust holes in the rear floors meant we decided to fit new floor pans in the rear by butt welding them with the MIG.

 

[Sydneydrumdr]

This shows the car at the moment. In it's new coat of epoxy primer.

 

[Sydneydrumdr]

Throw back to 1987 and here is the Mustang as it arrives at my place in Sydney. LH damage from when it was stolen off the streets of Los Angeles, taken on a joy-ride and badly side-swiped. An aussie corvette importer found this car in an insurance auction for me and arranged it's shipping down under to me in Sydney. Total cost at the time was AU$5300. Not a bad investment.

The importer included some used panels to repair the damaged LH side. Here are a couple of pics taken during the LH rear quarter replacement.

 

[71_resurrection]

This car has an interesting past for sure, can't wait to see it painted, your color combo sounds great!

 

[Pastel Blue]

Nice work to date. Soon, you will really start to see the pay off for all your efforts and hard work. Cheers.

quote=71_resurrection;244328]

This car has an interesting past for sure, can't wait to see it painted, your color combo sounds great!

 

[mach71351c]

Nice work. Thanks for posting.

 

[DK73]

Wow that is so awesome work [WINKING FACE] Regards Lars DK73

Sendt fra min D2005 med Tapatalk

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Doing some great work there. It seems that the world is going to end up with lots of the great American cars for sure.

David

 

[Sydneydrumdr]

Hi guys, it's been a while since my last update on my 71 Sportsroof project and I now have some pics to show you what's been happening down here. The pics will explain a lot and show you the many hours we've been spending on the car and the results have been worth all the effort. These pics are about 12 months old now and I'm currently putting everything back together. Still a way to go yet but rebuilding the suspension and steering at the moment with all new parts. This forum has been my go-to reference for all my build questions - as just about every topic has been covered here.!  I'm lucky that you all have been contributing your knowledge and experience so that the rest of us can learn and have confidence when we tackle the same problems. Thank you mustang brothers! I hope you like the progress pics.



























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[OzCoupe72]

Great looking project and like the color scheme. Will be interesting to watch your progress and see how the finished product turns out.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Mikes73]

Looking great, can't wait to see it finished up.

 

[luxstang]

WOW!!!

 

[Vinnie]

I love the paint! Going great mate!