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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!
 
#153 ·
Finally got some time to get at the inner wheelwell on the pass side to see what the inside of that "lapped" quarter work looks like. I could feel it by reaching around and new what had been done, but just the same was curous as to what I'd find.

From the rear looking forward,...can't really much.



This is the money shot,...front front looking backward, you can actually see the lap weld pretty clear.



So again, I'm totally puzzeled as to how and why this was done. I wouldn't thought it was possible but it appears that the quarter was somehow for some reason, cut. Look at the clean lap cut above, it had to be on purpose, the cut's waaaay clean.

Then somehow one side was pulled under the other and welded, the depression then filled with a nice slathering of Bondo,..?!


On the driver side, the inner well lip came apart pretty easily from the quarter, the pass side is still welded on solid. I'm assuming that there are spot welds,...where? How does this come apart, I've got it cut out except for a coupla inches.

Sawzall was much easier to work with than the cut off wheel.
 
#155 · (Edited)
Finally got around to trying out my Harbor Freight spot weld cutter. I've had this thing for a while, just haven't had the desire to get into the spot weld drilling business yet.

They've gotten mixed reviews, but at $5.00 bucks a pop, there's not much to lose if it turns out to be junk.



We'll be removing the front frame rails / pan supports and running a sold connector from the front frame to a new narrowed rear frame,...not frame connectors, but a solid connection, front to rear.

There are about 10 welds on the outer support side, 10 on the bottom and another 10 on the inner side. The hardest part of drilling welds is keeping the bit from running, having my punch would have made things easier. There is a pointed center bit on the cutter, but it does still walk at times.

Like all things Mustang, the first few are the hardest, how much pressure and how far to cut into the metal are the biggest learning curves.





After 29 3/4 welds my new tool breaks on the last weld on the inner side. The tooth section breaks clean away from the bit, not from faulty import construction, but from me using to much pressure. Note to self, let the tool do the work. Fortunately I'm able to pry up the last weld and call it a day in the Mustang Garage.

So all in all, Im happy with the HF spot weld cutter. It easily went through 30 welds on one side of the double headed bit. I'll swing by HF, replace the broken one, pick up a few new ones and keep drilling. I've got the driver's side to do and then remove the support from the trans hump.

I can't imagine working without a rotisserie, this thing just makes it soooo much easier, drill, flip the car, continue drilling!

This Harbor Freight $5.00 tool gets a thumbs up from me.
 
#158 ·
This. It's an old school repair that was actually quite common "back in the day" mainly because it was easier than replacing the full panel.There's nothing wrong with bondo either, as long as you fix the dent before you fix the dent.
 
#159 ·
It looks like that corner was hit at one time and they replaced the whole corner section. I have done many of those that way but we would go straight up and offset the metal edge for a flush weld. The other seams were the one in the trunk lip seal area and down the rear behind bumper (both are factory weld areas so the welds look normal/original). A lot of times the replacement panel came from a wrecked car in the junkyard because they never made a complete corner section back when I was doing them.
 
#157 ·
LOL

Just finished reading through your buildup and I gotta say.... you got a knack for story telling!! hahaha

You definitely got your work cut out for you on that one!!! My kids both, daughter 12 and son 21, have always loved dads "projects" and just last week I picked up a 68 T-bird for the 360 horse 429 Thunder Jet and was going to part out the rest..... until my daughter went with me to get it and took a liking to it and NOW it has become a project for her first car!!! lol..... I DID NOT WANT ANOTHER PROJECT!!!!

But I told her we would do a "50 footer" job on it over this summer and she can start driving out behind the house. Then, if it turns out to be dependable, we will do a better job over the following year and a half. Yesterday she posted a pic of it on face book telling her friends to look at what she will be driving to school when she is 16!! hahaha... I'M SOOO SCREWED! Now I HAVE to finish it!! LOL

Enjoy the time spent with your son! Memories that last a lifetime and then some :)

Good luck on your journey!
 
#162 ·
ag460, I like the idea of a 50 footer!
 
#163 ·
sure saves on being meticulous! haha Plus, she will be driving it through the back yard... which is a field, for the next couple years learning how to drive. No sense doing a good job now... Maybe when she gets closer to 15 I will do it over.

Please don't follow my way of thinking, lol..... I think you want that Stang to be better than a "fitty footer", lol
 
#164 ·
You still alive on this project?
 
#166 ·
From post #155. Talk'n about the spot weld cutter walking. If you drill a 1/8" hole in the middle of the spot weld first, the pointer in the center of the cutter will lock in the newly drilled hole.

Be careful, if you are only trying to cut through the first layer of sheet metal, you will lose your depth adjustment from the pointer.
 
#168 ·
I center punch the orig spot weld to be cut, drill into, but not through it, sometimes it goes through. Usually I can tell when the drill penetrates the first layer.

then, when cutting, you generally will get a feel for when you cut through the first layer, also you will always get a little puff of rust from the cutter when you get through the first layer. Drill a divot or whole, but with out it, you will break a lot of cutter heads from it walking.
 
#167 ·
Not how I really wanted to spend my Labor Day Sat, but with the thunderstorms, outside activities that weren't covered were not gonna happen.

Completed the pass side removal of the sub fame and jumped over to the driver side.

Although the floors were totally trashed and removed, the torque box actually looked pretty solid, although it was to be removed anyway. As with anything on these old cars, most of the bad stuff is hidden,....open up the box, remove the sub frame from the front frame, and as with the other side, major rust holes in a structural location!







Scary to think of how many cars are on the road with no doubt the same large structural rust in the frame area. And while just a shell, this is a fairly rust free car, other than surface rust.

I post this same thought ever time I spend a good amount of the afternoon working on this shell,...I really admire those that have done the whole ground up restoration and are finished, I hate that resto-mod term, there is just so much work involved in bringing these babies back to life.


I can't imagine doing this with the car not being on a rotissiere.
 
#169 ·
Hey there you go! Wonder where you had gone. I am so glad i am done with all that cutting and welding. Now its someone elses problems for a while.

:D
 
#178 ·
I do appreciate the interest
 
#174 · (Edited)
CAnt see a drill bit taking the abuse a spot weld cutter puts on it. I used the Blaire, found them far superior to Eastwood or others. A good punch and small hole in the center of the weld, and your off. If you drill through with the spot cutter, just a little more welding you have to do, its gonna happen. Odds are your new spot weld holes are not gonna line up with the old ones anyway, if so, your spending way too much time measuring. And if the cut through hole doesnt line up, then you just hit it from the backside if you can or seal it.

Having done the floor pans, cowl, fender aprons and rad support, quarter panels, and a mini tub, Ive lost count of how many welds Ive cut out. The other trick, if you get 100% of the weld out of 100% of your intended holes, your really good. I used a flat stripper tool from Home Depot to drive in and seperate the remaining weld, and that would usually lift and further ID the next welds even better.

First thing, light grind to id the weld, center punch em, drill hole, cut. Like a factory productin line.
 
#176 ·
Hi Israel, I've been watching your build from the beginning. There is a channel on youtube of a guy rebuilding a mustang, a 68, with major rust problems, I have learned a lot from watching him he explains everything step by step, check it out, hope it helps you. There are 20 vids so far about it, he is in the process of restoring it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC3j82QWHHQLooking forward to your next update.
 
#177 ·
Thanks for the interest and comment,....I've seen many of his videos, never this one, THANKS!!!
 
#179 · (Edited)
aven't been very active with the car recently, I really need to get back into the groove.

I've been worried about flash rust with the humidity down here, but have been reading about Phosphoric acid / Ospho, and it's ability to stop the rust, so I gave it a try.

Great results from the Ospho, super easy to work in, pretty deep looking surface rust came off with little effort and wiped off with no apparent residue.

The residue remains,.....enough to stop the flash rusting which popped up quickly on the areas that were sanded, Ospho' ed, then water wiped.

As far as I can tell from the research that I've been doing, the common dominator with good vs bad adhesion results of Epoxy sprayed over PA, seems to be the Epoxy mfg. The good redults seem to come from KIRKER Epoxy vs others.

SPI makes no bones about it, don't use our product over PA!!

Area of the roof as it was.

Sanded down, right hand area was treated with Ospho, the left wasn't.

In just a couple of hours, the untreated side was covered in surface rust.

Luckily, this surface rust just wipes off.
 
#180 ·
I took mine to bare metal all over, with aheat gun, scraper and the 80 grit on a DA sander. Took two nights.

Light two coats of etching primer soon as it was bare, then the body shop hit it with Epoxy.

The Etch primer did great keeping the rust at bay until I was ready to paint.
 
#181 ·
Been awhile since I updated anything, mainly because I really haven't done much,..I totally see how projects stall then die!

My last few vacation days finds me in my garage with my Ospho bottle, paint stripper and hand sander.

The plan still calls for media blasting, but I'll try to get as much of the flat surfaces done by hand as possible. I start out with paint stripper, pretty nasty stuff that makes a complete mess of the garage floor, staining it with every drop of gooey paint that I peel, hopefully it'll pressure wash up.

The more that I get into the stripping it, the easier it gets,......kinda sorta, the trick is to really lay it on THICK, to the point of it dripping off, again very messy.

For whatever reason some areas come off easier than others, for the stubborn areas, I scrape,let dry, use my palm sander then go back to stripper.

Note to self, orbital sanders are much better than jitterbug sanders for the job.

Certainly a slow process, but I was able to get a good amount down to the bare metal.



 
#182 ·
My 69 F100 was painted with house paint with a brush or a pine tree top and pealing worse than a 100 year old house. I could get up to 70+ mph at times and blow paint off it was pealing so bad. I used paint stripper on it and yes it is a pain in the rear for sure it was painted inside and out with it. I thought I would never get all the latex paint off of it but that was 20 years ago. Good luck and keep plugging at it will be worth it in the end get you some plastic and put down a lot easier to clean up just roll it up and trash it.
 
#183 ·
A drop cloth will be added for the next stripping, the Boss was less than happy with the residue!

Hoping it will pressure wash up.
 
#184 ·
Glad to see you back. I used a wagner heat gun and a scraper, worked awesome, took paint but not primer off, then a DA sander with 80 grit, got it to bare steel. I used a die grinder with sanding discs for door jams, tight areas etc. I didnt strip inside the roof, or package trays, not need as it was all good metal.
I did the whole car in about 10 hrs working at night.

Chemicals are nasty and leave a lot of clean up.
 
#185 · (Edited)
I finally finished the compressor line a while back. It's amazing how many different, preferred ways there are to run the lines, even from manufacturers.

It was / is really nice having a friend offer to thread the sections as needed, especially since I had no real sketched layout. I would chop a few sections, bring them to him for threading, then put them together and see where I was going next. With his help, I was able to run the line as close to the walls and pretty much whatever else I wanted, since I wasn't locked into buying pre-cut lengths.

I actually cut, threaded, assembled and painted everything to be sure that it all fit before breaking it down for final assembly.

So, we used 3/4" black iron:

From the tank outlet to a 3 ft whip
Into the supply line
Up about 4 ft
45 over to the corner, then run the length of the wall
28 ft horizontal
90 back about 25 ft
Vertical 18" rise
6 ft vertical drop
3 ft vertical rise
90 into the filter

Black iron
Multiple vertical rises as high as possible
Top of line drops
Auto relief valve
Drip legs
Manual relief valves
50 + ft run before first drop
5" slope overall

With the humidity here, I wanted to do everything possible to have the air as dry as possible before the filter. Some of you in cooler climates can probably get away with much less.





Wish I had more to show as far as car progress. The astute viewer will notice that I have no filter, haven't decided what to use yet,...still researching.

I'll be media blasting, then shooting epoxy and maybe final paint, so I only want to do this ONE time,..I'm open to suggestions.

__________________
 
#186 ·
that looks sweet, not sure what it all does? I have yet to route my air to a more permanent line, still using the old hose across the floor..I did make a manifold for regular use, and a separate one with filters, accumulators etc for painting, just switcha short hose jumpert input from one to the other.
 
#187 ·
You have no moisture issues running through hoses, even with water traps?
 
#193 ·
I do when running straight off the single accumulator for DA sanders etc, but when I hook up the manifold, filter and dryer, none.
 
#189 ·
Black iron the most preferred, even with the oil coating. I sanded, primed and painted it.

Galvanized will flake off
Copper is easily bent
PVC is an explosion in the making along with bodily injury.

Many guys have the above three, but all that I've read suggested black iron, along with the plumbing and drops. I only wanted to do this once. I read and asked a lot of questions before tackling this, Louisiana humidity is terrible,.......even in our Winter.
 
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