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Just another 50 yr pile of Sheet!

36K views 197 replies 23 participants last post by  Gydyup 
#1 · (Edited)
Finally,....I am finally able to post some pictures of the 67 Rustang coupe that I've been working on for the past year or so. The idea of posting pictures along the way seemed cool and fun enough, but hey,...how the crap do you post pictures on a forum.

Photobucket,..what is that, never hear of the guy. Oh its not a guy, but some website that actually allows you to post and host pictures that can then be downloaded to a forum, who'd though such a thing was possible,...damn, I really need to get into the "now"!

So OK, I now have the desire to post pictures, I understand that it can be done, but just where do I gain/obtain/secure this knowledge? It appears to be some sort of secret, unobtainable to me information, passed down from friend to friend, father to son,..whatever. Just how do I gain entrance into this picture posting club, is there a monthly meeting, a secret handshake, a particular wave to let others in the club know that you are also a member?

After much advice, I'm a very slow learner, I am finally able to say that I am a member of this club, still don't know the secret handshake or wave, but I'm finally able to post up some pictures,..whoo hooo!
 
#125 ·
Finally came across a pic thats really close to what I have in mind,....old school for sure.

 
#129 ·
You got a steal, I got a Kobalt and love it, mine is 60 and does everything I have asked, even DAing the car to bare metal.

I could have got a new 80 from Lowes when I got mine, it was a return (guy didn't know he needed 220) Never ran. They offered it to me for 650. I paid 450 for mine.

The yellow stang is awesome, there was a Utube thing going around a year or so ago, its an alcohol Windsor that screams. Sounds wicked.
 
#130 ·
The yellow Rustang is the car I always wanted in highschool,......don't see many if any Pro Streeters today.

I'm also excited about the compressor, still gotta get 230 to the garage though, hadta pump up the kids tires yesterday,.."Dad, can't we just use the new black thing??" :(
 
#131 ·
Couple things I cant live without, compressor, welder. Wish I had invested in a plasma cutter, time and money I have spent on cuttoff wheels would have paid for it a couple times over.

I blow crap up all the time, literally. Ooooops. the pool floatie isnt rated to 130PSI!:eek: Sorry baby doll, well just run down to Toys are us and get another. Or the Tire store and get that Semi tube!:rolleyes:
 
#132 ·
Finally got some Rustang time and wanted to cut out the inner wheel housings on both sides.

This is to be a back halved car, the rear frame will be cut out and replaced with a new narrowed rear frame to allow big ole MT fatties in the rear.

We'll start with the drivers side because I'm a little curious to see how bad the wheel well lip area is rusted beyond the visible hole and close rust bubbles.



The easiest parts of the shell that are coming out already were removed earlier before the shell was mounted to the rotisserie, figured I get as much weight cut off before mounting the shell.



Shoudda used my Sawzall, probably woudda been easier and faster than the small cut off wheel, kinda hard to get it in the smaller spots. To sweaty / dirty to wanna get in the car and drive to the office and pick it up, figure we'll just take what we need out in pieces.



All cut out and removed, looks much worse than it is, what we're seeing is just surface rust on the lip and inner quarter panel.



Cut out a small patch in the rear quarter that'll haveta be patched.



Once I wire wheeled the rusted lip area, it looks to be just two areas that are bad,.....more may show up after the blasting, but I was just curious to get a feel for what was there. I've been looking for a thread or link where someone patched small areas of the lip, but haven't seen any yet,...I'll haveta post up some pics when we get to that point.



The aftermath,.....



I was hoping to get to both sides today, yea right,.....as with everything, much, much easier said than done,...we'll save the other side for another day.
 
#133 · (Edited)
Id slap a wheel arch panel in it and call it a day. While you got it cut out, do you know how big a tire your gonna run? You may want to consider opening up the wheel opening. Did that on Vegas back in the day, putting huge slicks under them. Stock opening is really small, so expanding the lenght of it a couple inches makes it look sweeeeet.

I bought the arch panels for mine, but cut out only what was bad, and used the piece from the arch panel I needed. Big thing, just cut straight/square lines using body line references to lay out the new panel alignment and keep it simple

With what your doing, based on what I have done, I would have bought a plasma cutter. The hours saved, and cuttoff wheels used would have paid for one. The cheapo eastwoods are fine for what your doing, wont last forever, but enough to do your car.
 
#135 ·
Not sure at all what size rubber, other than, "as big as I can fit".

May sound funny, but with all that I'd doing, I wanna keep it as stock looking as possible, interior seats, gauges, dash,.....all that I can, so I'm not sure about stretching the openings.
 
#136 ·
Just a quick tip when welding in patch panels of any form always try to do round corners not square the square comers have a tendency to pull the surrounding sheet metal and make it much harder to finish smoothly
Never heard that, I'll haveta start noticing,...thanks.
 
#137 · (Edited)
Im with you, keeping stock dash/gauges etc with the aftermarkets in cups mounted under dash, more for that retro late 60s early 70s vibe.

Once you get the arches replaced, you will need to put the car on jacks or a stand to the ride hieght you want, and put your rims and tires under neath to get the measurments etc. Then you can look at the opening and see how it looks.

What most find when backhalving and pro streeting, the orig openings are way to small for function and looks. Most of your tire will be covered by the body, and only the wheel and half of your tire maybe showing. Looks like a cheap toy. A lot of the pro street cars if not most have the arches expanded.

Im betting the yellow stang has modified radiused arches or extended, those are huge meets flush with the rocker up front, but clearng the rear radius of the quarter. Maybe not a great angle.
 
#138 · (Edited)
If you been following this build thread, you have come to see a definite pattern with road trips and my affinity to not back down from a good / GREAT deal due to the distance required to close on said deal.

Just to recap for the late comers that may be here only for the blown up avatar:

We drove 15 hrs each way to snag up the shell for a cost of $300
We drove almost 2 hrs each way to snag up a "new" 80 gl compressor for $500

Drum roll,........

Got back late last night after picking up a, "New in box, never used or even taken out of box" Lincoln 180 MIG for $300.

Now it is the Home Depot / Lowes version, but sells everyday at both stores for a little under $700, then add for tax.

Craigslist is awesome, but ya gotta check it daily for what you're looking for. I want a 230 MIG, but really don't have the $$ right now, crap I don't even have the voltage run to the 115 only garage to hook up the compressor yet !!

But, I'm always looking for a deal, so,............

I've learned from both CL and Ebay that the most important rule for me at least, is to find the deal, then decide if it's really to far to travel and to much $$. Don't sell yourself short by saying that its waaay to far or waaay to much $, so I'm not gonna look anyway.

FIND THE DEAL FIRST, THEN FIGURE OUT IF YOU REALLY WANT IT

OK, rambling here, been checking CL daily for a MIG deal, what I'm looking for is a STEAL, mom's still fuming about the 230 v 80 gl compressor thats not even hooked up yet,..whatever!

See an interesting CL listing for a new never used Lincoln 180 MIG for $375, we text and it turns out the MIG was a gift after he had just bought a Miller. He knows what the Lincoln cost, but doesn't need it and does need quick cash. $375's a good deal, but more that I have, since I'm still feeling the pain from the compressor that I brought home unannounced.

But still,......we text and he'll take $300.

Great deal, but he's two hours away, this is a Thursday afternoon, both kids are in school and have school tomorrow. If we tear outta here right after work, we won't be home until pretty late, but I don't wanna paass up this deal. I know there'll be hell to pay,...."Kid's remember that trip made for the compressor, dad found another deal, where do you wanna stop for dinner, it's a little bit of a drive."

She volunteers to miss cheerleading practice, he gets picked up sweaty from Cross Country practice and we head off,....

Long story short, we get home about 10:00 on a school night and mom is LIVID,..she's also upset.

We'll haveta open up the box for a more detailed looksee this weekend, sometime when she's cooled down.



I was seriously feeling the evil eye through the house when I went outside to snap this trunk shot.



Apparently the evil eye was strong enough to delete my picture
 
#139 ·
That is an awesome deal, you got the gas hook up right? Buy the tank, cheaper than renting it.
 
#140 ·
Gas, yes!
 
#141 ·
That's more than enough for what you have to do on that car..........75/25 Argon/CO2 for your gas, .035" wire and some extra tips and a tip cleaner....and some sort of nozzle dip to keep the slag from sticking to the nozzle and tip. KEEP IT CONSTANTLY CLEAN! Here's a link to some really great tips and tricks.
http://www.youtube.com/user/weldingtipsandtricks
Happy Motoring! :)
Rob
 
#142 ·
Very cool link,..........THANKS!
 
#143 · (Edited)
OK, finally have a chance to open up this MIG and have a closer looksee at what we actually have. "New, never used" actually meant "New, never opened". I took a quick cursory look before we finished the deal, but only now have the time to fully unpack this baby.

Instruction manual, parts list and DVD



Torch, gas line, regulator, MIG and FLUX wire, MIG tips and ground clamp w/ lead.



The unit itself packs some weight, I've a full size tank that I'll be including on my stand, so I'll probably wind up building my own cart.






The drawback to the chain store version of the Lincolns are some the inner parts being made outta plastic, particularly the rollers. Not sure what I'm looking for, but everything all seems to be made outta metal.




Well maybe all except the roller lockdown knob, the wire feeder and the assy lockdown knob on top.








On the knobs, I thought I read that both knobs are "tapped" having preset stops at each level, the right knob, is "tapped" with five presets, A - E, but the left, the wire speed is infinitely set, 1 - 10, or anywhere in between.






So here I sit, my two new and totally awesome tools, an 80 gl compressor and this 180 MIG, ready to go if If I only had 230 in my garage.

We'll haveta get working on that power supply huh,....


On the plastic internals, what should I be looking for, I thought the plastic wheels were the obvious short cuts on these units??
 
#144 ·
The drive wheels for the wire are metal, thats pretty standard. The tension knobs are all plastic, that's fine, you won't be changing the tension much, if at all. All in all that's a pretty well built welder for what you'll be doing with it. The rule of thumb for the voltage is 1 amp per .001" of material thickness. Inside the cover is usually a settings guide for the material that you are welding, follow it, the manufacturers know what the machine wants.
'Ya done GOOD! lol
Rob
 
#145 ·
What are back half cars welded up with, something like this or a TIG?

With gas this'll only handle 3/16", 1/2 gassless.
 
#146 ·
Wife's been planning a garage sale for the last coupla weeks so crap has been getting dragged outta all corners of the house and attics and is being "staged" all around my pristine 67 pile of sheet.

Not worth an actual picture, but imagine this: a rotisserie project surrounded by garage sale type items that look as if they have erupted from the shell as if it were a volcano. Crap is just hanging, tumbling and dripping from everywhere.

Not sure if I've posted this or not, but it's just a little example of the drawing / pulling power of a classic Rustang in any shape, maybe even moreso in it's totally broken down rotisserie stage, cause you know there's some serious work ahead or wrapping up. Either way you know that a lot is going on.

A while back I had the garage doors up and was working on the sheet pile, I had just deposited my .50 into the Coke machine and was enjoying a cool refreshing beverage. The kids have no idea what actually falls from the Fanta Orange slot.

As I'm kicking back, I notice a guy pass by on a motorbike,....he almost loses control as his neck pops back to reaffirm what he has just seen,....an old Rustang being worked on.

He regains control and whips back to check it out and see whats up,...exactally what I woudda done. He pulls up, and from the rear knows that it's a 67 or 68, he used to have a 69 back in the day, blah, blah, blah, we talk for a while and as he's leaving I mention that I wish Mrs. Isreal was hear to actually see and experience the pulling / drawing power of the Rustang, even in this shape.

"Tommy, I'm over here", she says from the other side of the garage "and I still have a very hard time believing that there are actually two of you that find that sheet pile interesting and even remotely worth a discussion." Whatever, just a personal first hand run in with another aficionado. I do the same thing, stopping if I have time to check out cool cars if the owners are out. Bashful, introverted and passive I'm not.

One time at a friends house as I was leaving I hear the unmistakable sound of a heavily cammed car from the next block, I walked around the corner following my ears to find the source of this beautiful sound and had a short visit with the owner, who like me was thrilled that someone was showing an interest in his hobby; a full blown race car.
 
#147 · (Edited)
Haven't been able to anything on this sheetpile in a while, we're currently STILL "staging" for a garage sale, every time I go out to the garage, there's more crap piling up all around my rotisserie. Kinda like a volcanic eruption of toys, clothes, whatever,........:eek:

I'd swear that I heard that pile snicker at me last week as I pushed some stuff away so as to not scratch the rust.

As with all things, I'm always on the lookout for a deal / steal on anything car related, I've been looking for a trailer, something rusted and beat up so it'll go along nicely with the Mustang.

Somehow the subject of trailers came up around the house and Mrs. Israel heard. I try to bring up that car as little as possible.

"Ya know, mommas got a trailer."

"I know I've seen it, I don't want that thing, I want something that'll haul a car, not some old beat up, homemade trash hauler."


I remember that trailer from a few years ago, before we bought our, 50 yr old pile of sheet. It had beat up plywood sides about 8 ft tall that you'd see a trash man using to pick up junk, a real POS that was all rusted and hand welded,...........

"Those are just put on when they need to haul something tall, it's a nice trailer with four wheels."

Hmmmm, I'm gonna haveta take another looksee at this baby. Sure enough, it's a damn nice tandem trailer. Not sure what I was remembering, but again this was before we had the sheet shell, so I wasn't really looking for a trailer then, I was just remembering what I saw, or thought I saw.

So, I've got dibs on the trailer:

"Momma, lemme know before you sell, trade or give away that trailer,...I want that super nice, normal sidewalled, factory welded, pristine beauty."

OK, whats the catch,......there's ALWAYS a catch with what I find,...she lives an hour and a half away,...it's a damn good thing that I don't mind driving!!



Woudda been nice to have had the, "Ya know my mom's got a trailer" info when we picked the car up.

It's only six feet wide inside,...pretty tight squeeze there, even with modding the left fender and rail. Mine's still up on a rotisserie, Gydyup,....whats the wheelbase width on 67's ?

You guys with trailers must have eight foot wide ones?
 
#148 ·
When we left New Orleans for Chesapeake, we had a garage or yard sale. Summer after Katrina so you can imagine folks were looking hard for stuff.

I had the Mustang under the carport, covered, folks wanted to buy it without seeing it.

Sad, I had folks buying coffee mugs with my name on it, hair pins, you name it. A lot of folks had nothing, wound up giving most of it to them.
 
#149 ·
I have the Lincoln 180 and I am very pleased with it, it's good to have some great tools to make the build easier.

D


Sent from AutoGuide.com App
 
#150 · (Edited)
[QUOTE=Israel;It's only six feet wide inside,...pretty tight squeeze there, even with modding the left fender and rail. Mine's still up on a rotisserie, Gydyup,....whats the wheelbase width on 67's ?

Im not sure, Ill check for you. BUT, you have welder now, a torch or plasma cutter and that welder, the sides would be gone, notch that back and drop it for a beaver tail, make some ramps. Be in business.

I know the U haul trailers are narrow, the fender on the driver side is hinged so if folds down so you can get out of the car! Still works though. You can always put a electric winch on it to get it off and on too.

If it fits, what do you care, its free! I bought beat up *** pop up camper. Wife was not happy. I only paid 200. Saws All and hammer, the pop up was popped off, down to the frame. Some cutting, welding, I had a VERY nice
5X12 utility trailer for my golf cart and other stuff, for a little over 300 invested.

By the way, I have the Lincoln 140 MIG. Its done everything I wanted to do and more. I think I have run 30LBS of wire through it, and only had to change the liner once. I have used the 13lbs rolls, two of them now, and it does ok with the heavy roll. A little noiser in the motor, but it feeds fine.

Plugs into 110, I think thats why I went with the 140 over the 180. Ive welded some thick stuff, put a front clip on a CJ7, Roll Bars. Unless your working on a ship or tractor, the 140/180 will do anything you want.
I dont know why I did it, probably because it came with the .035 wire, but the buikders I have talked to have said I was crazy, and should be using .025 wire for the car. Much thinner and easier, prettier welds.
 
#151 ·
Certainly been a while since I've even looked at this rust pile, I do see how many projects go stale and then are forgotten, sold, passed on whatever.

OK, so the last time I was in the garage for any Rustang work, I took out the entire left side wheel well. This is going to be a race car for the street, so the tires will be MT Fatties, taking up the back seat area.

About half way through the left side, I mentioned that a sawzall would have been easier than my cut off wheel,.....totally forgot about that until I was about half way through again.

Small rust area / bent metal in the lower rear quarter, removed.



Probably will have to cut off a little bit more, but we'll get a closer look after the blasting. I'm wanting to save as much as possible.



Now for the big surprise, I've known that this "patch" was there since we picked it up. I could see the Bondo and picked at it until it fell out in big, thick chunks.

What I didn'y FULLY realize was the depth of the "repair".

I'm still puzzeled as to what happened here. There is an angled line where the quarter has been welded together.




Check out the thickness of the filler.





So here is where it gets interesting, this repair isn't a butted patch, but a LAP patch, hence the thick Bondo. The left half / rear of the quarter is actually UNDER the right half / front, then it was then LAP welded and filled over with Bondo.

How in the crap did this this quarter break / crack in the middle,...everything else on the quarter is straight, but there is just this lap weld all the way from the top all the way to the wheel well lip,...the entire quarter was seperated.

I'M OPEN TO ANY THOUGHTS AS TO WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!

I didn't get the inside all cut out yet, but you can feel the nice lap on the inside. I'll post up a pic when I get the rest of the well removed.

This'll be a fun repair, I don't want to replace the entire quarter, I want no problems with the vent line matching up. As stated, I do want to keep as much original metal as possible.

So has anyone done a diagonal patch panel?
 
#152 · (Edited)
Two things man, time savers.

Looks like somene did a hack repair, and just cut a piece of quarter panel to fit, lapped it with out flanging it and called it a day.

One, do not waste time on wondering what happenend and trying to fix a botch job. Just cut it back to good square lines and replace with either a quarter or patch panel. Easiest sometimes to buy a quarter and cut out what you need vice the whole quarter.

Second, I wish I had done this. Cuttoff wheels are good, but had I bit the bullet and bought a lower end Plasma cutter, I would have saved HOURS on my project. I gaurantee 60% of the time I spent on panels, tubs etc were just running a cuttoff wheel. The layout and welding was not the long pole, it was cutting out the bad stuff, and cutting the new stuff to fit. Especially the rough out, once you got it close, a cuttoff wheel is great. But for those long runs on panels, the cutt off wheel was a time sink,, and saws all just didnt get me nice lines, nor very good in tight places..

Saws All is ok for cutting really thick stuff, but the lines and kerf will be a bitch to weld back up, Plasma and cuttoff wheel do give you nice straight lines.
I also bought a flanging, punching tool for lapping panels properly. makes it easy and gives you a little buffer on alignments. Its cheap from harbor freight worked great.
 
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