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Good point Greg! I'm near San Antonio and even here the humidity can play havoc. We've been shooting a light coat of primer "as we go". Many times just to sand it off a day or two later. But if we don't we start seeing the rust discoloration overnight in some cases. I'm not really a paint and body guy but luckily I know one! ;)

Eric, your car is going to be awesome! I really love seeing and learning from you as you go. And yes...I really do have lift envy...bad! :D

John

 
Finally had a chance to get back on the q-code..I'm ready to do the body work on the roof but as many of you know the fast back roof needs a better support system so your not chasing your filler all over the place..My original plan was to use a few extra stock supports..played around with that but not really 110% happy..So I decided to do the reinforcements I saw done on another car..So far so good but it's a ton of work..Lots of fabrication.. bending..fitting..bending..fitting..So far I'm real happy..no flex in the roof what so ever..I also removed the stock center support..tweaked it a bit..repostioned it..You can see in the first pic that I start with 3/8" solid rod then bend to the exact contour of the roof..

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So, I had the painter come to the shop to check out the Mustang today, and he's cool with what I've done so far (made me feel good that I hadn't screwed anything up). He was pleased that I'm going to the effort of stripping off all the old paint and sanding it down to bare metal (less work for him and less money for me ;) ). He said that even my crappy welded seam on the driver side quarter is a lot better than most of the DIY'ers that take their cars to him and told me to not to worry about filling it... he'll get it a lot straighter and use less filler to make it right. He said I did a great job with the quarters and seemed impressed that I got the contours matched up so well on the door and end caps. I also showed him the rest of the parts (end caps, valances, bumper, and Master Fastener Kit) and says I'm doing everything right so far. He also said fixing the original doors won't be a problem since they're not in bad shape, actually.

The plan is to call him after the 20th (he's on vacation for a few weeks), and figure out when to get the car to his shop. He'll have it for 1-2 months and it'll be all shiny when he's done. His plan is to keep me posted throughout the job and call me in periodically to make sure I'm satisfied with what he's doing... especially when it's time to mask off the black areas (that way if they don't come out just right, it's my fault rofl ). GREAT Day today!!!

Hey Greg - there's no surface rust coming through yet... just my crappy ol' 3.2MP camera and PaintShop Pro X's older photo processor. You're probably also looking at the doors and/or trunk lid - I haven't touched the doors yet, and I gave up on the trunk lid because of all the bondo (got a new repop lid on the way). The roof and upper quarters are still just as bare metal as yesterday and no signs of the bad stuff yet. The big test will be this coming Friday when I get back to the shop - if there's anything showing up, I'll take care of it and throw down a quick coat of primer. Thanks for the tip, though - it's VERY reassuring knowing you guys have my back... that's one of the best parts of having this site and all you professional guys here watching over us newbies. ::thumb::

This is so surreal - I never imagined getting to this point, and even less so as the months and years drug on. I was starting to feel like it had become the never-ending project: less of a car, and more like a Mustang-shaped hunk of metal that I'm just supposed to come to the shop and cut/grind/weld on every weekend. I can't wait to start seeing actual color and shine start coming together... then it's just a matter of putting the cool stuff back in and start enjoying it as an actual car by the time summer (and car show season) rolls around. The ONLY bummer in this whole deal: I will definitely not be making the trip to the Mustang 50th as it looks right now. But... a road trip will definitely be in the works to at least go see her folks and family in SC and VA.

Q!! What can I say, Man - freaken AWESOME (as usual). As I was sanding my roof, I noticed a lot of flex between the roof cross members on mine. Thanks for sharing the pics - I might just have to do something similar if I have time before the painter tells me to bring it to his shop.

 
Last night got a couple blocks from my house in the bloody snowstorm and noticed blower motor was slow, wipers were slow and lights dim. Turned around and came home and discovered battery was dead after realising car was about a foor ways from where I wanted it and it would not start :(

so today after shovels away all the snow that decided to cover up the car I took out the alternaor and voltage regualtor for testing and hooked up battery charger. Hopefully the other vehicle will get me to auto Zone.

 
After several years of grunt work we finally did something that looks like progress. It's amazing how much better things look with a fresh coat of paint. There are more photos over in the project forum.

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Sorry I don't have any pics, but I got a few things done.

Both rear brake assemblies installed, parking brake assembly installed so the cables are off the floor, and installed the front sway bar.

I pulled the harness out of the dash and am preparing to send those to Midlife for refurb.

 
Fit the radio into the bezel. I like it.

2ilepax.jpg


 
Finally had a chance to get back on the q-code..I'm ready to do the body work on the roof but as many of you know the fast back roof needs a better support system so your not chasing your filler all over the place..My original plan was to use a few extra stock supports..played around with that but not really 110% happy..So I decided to do the reinforcements I saw done on another car..So far so good but it's a ton of work..Lots of fabrication.. bending..fitting..bending..fitting..So far I'm real happy..no flex in the roof what so ever..I also removed the stock center support..tweaked it a bit..repostioned it..You can see in the first pic that I start with 3/8" solid rod then bend to the exact contour of the roof..

What are you using to keep it on the roof?

 
Finally had a chance to get back on the q-code..I'm ready to do the body work on the roof but as many of you know the fast back roof needs a better support system so your not chasing your filler all over the place..My original plan was to use a few extra stock supports..played around with that but not really 110% happy..So I decided to do the reinforcements I saw done on another car..So far so good but it's a ton of work..Lots of fabrication.. bending..fitting..bending..fitting..So far I'm real happy..no flex in the roof what so ever..I also removed the stock center support..tweaked it a bit..repostioned it..You can see in the first pic that I start with 3/8" solid rod then bend to the exact contour of the roof..

What are you using to keep it on the roof?
The ends get welded to the side rails http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-reinforcing-the-roof-pics

 
unfortunately, nothing....since I have moved out of the immediate area my dad hasn't done much with it.

So of course we still intend to sell it, though my dad is going to check it in for a tune up at a local speed shop just to make sure it's running at it's best when we get start serious about it this spring.

In other local 71-73 news, the friend of mine that had that blue 73 Q code for sale since the middle of last year has FINALLY SOLD IT!

IMG_8045.jpg


he was asking $23,950 or so for it, and I'm happy to report he got $23,400 for it. And though his was in slightly better condition than ours, that is still good news for us since we are going to be asking about 20k or so for ours.

 
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Today I was able to get the gear vendors overdrive bolted in and measured for getting the drive shaft shortened. I have to hook up the electronics and put the dash back in (had it apart for a different reason). Hopefully will have it back on the road in another couple of weeks.

 
Cleaned everything out of the car, assembled the front bumper, hung it on the car, installed the front valance I thought I'd done such a great job bashing back into shape and discovered it doesn't fit so well or look quite right, got some things organized, and called the painter (only to discover he's not quite ready for me - be another 2 weeks).

Bummer.

Oh well... there's some things I still want to do anyway, so I guess I have a few weeks to get them done. ;) :D

(edit) Oh yeah - almost forgot that I got it running again yesterday. I swapped out the Duraspark module and starter solenoid (it was one I grabbed from Auron's car when I got a bad one from the parts store during first fire-up), and it fired right up. Ran great for about 10 minutes, then when I fired it again, it died after about 30 seconds... same symptoms. My pal Jim pulled the coil wire to check for spark and it fired and ran... then ran fine after plugging the coil wire back in again. It sounds like a bad coil wire now... which sucks because it's brand new. That, or maybe Jim just has 'the touch.'

Nah... I'm going with the coil wire. rofl

 
Let's see did a few things since it was a warm 36 degrees and sunny, pulled the cover off the 72 and swapped my mint used window cranks into it. Then spent a couple hours pulling parts outta the garage to sell and be organized, found stuff I forgot I had.

 
Oh DAMN, J!! ::thumb::

That is lookin' absolutely beautiful, and I can't wait to see it done. VERY Nice!

 
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