fstbck70

Welcome,

I've posted a few pictures of the progress I have made so far, but thought I'd put everything into one place and update as I go.

Bought the car in March 2013 after I traded in my college crotch rocket in Omaha. I am the 4th known owner of the car. Previous 2 owners bought it with the same intention as mine to restore the car. Neither of them worked on it at all, it just sat. It came with plates from Texas with the last registration stickers reading 1993. That's really all I know about the history of it. Came with the 200 6 cylinder engine and 3 speed manual. Those are both long gone.

I don't have any pictures when I first bought it. Old phone was destroyed and couldn't retrieve any photos. I have been working on it as much as I can when I can. It is a long process for sure.

fstbck70

Taillight Panel
LH/RH Quarter Panel Skin
LH/RH Taillight Mounting Panel
Taillight Panel Brace
Rear Trunk Floor Crossmember
LH/RH Trunk Floor Panel
LH/RH Outer Wheelhouse Panel
LH/RH Seat Base Panel
Inner Trunk Bracket
Front Inner Fender Apron (Battery)
Radiator Support Crossmember
LH/RH Floor Pans
Jegs Subframe Connectors
5 qrts. Shopline JP377 Epoxy Primer
1 gal. Shopline JP202 2K Surface Primer
1 gal. F-E282 Z Grip Body filler

fstbck70

Here are the pictures of the primer I did a few weeks ago. I used PPG Shopline 377 Black Epoxy Primer. Sprayed very easy, came out okay. I didn't notice any runs or anything like that. It was my first time ever painting with a paint gun and I thought it turned out great.

mcrider

Nice. please keep us informed on the progress!

ER12883

Nice work! What are your plans? Back to original drivetrain or something different? How about paint? Original restoration or mods?

Keep us posted in how it goes.

fstbck70

Well the 200 c.i. and 3 speed are gone, didn't come with the car. (Kind of glad it didn't) It has an 8 inch rear with 3.00 gears that I plan on selling when I get to that point. As for under the hood, my gf has a relative that supposedly has an assortment of engines (427, 428, maybe 429) around his property. He supposedly has a mecca of ford cars and parts all over and is getting to the age of selling. We'll see what happens there. Wouldn't mind a 4 speed top-loader, but 1 more gear would seem like the way to go.

As for paint, I'd like to go black with deep red (blood??) BOSS stripes. I can already see the amount of body work involved with that color combo though. haha

I need completely new front suspension and steering. What was on the car was pretty much gone and it was missing quite a bit of parts. I am thinking of getting the Rod and Custom RC-106 suspension kit. It comes with everything from cross members to springs to steering rack to brakes to steering linkage. It's pretty complete. It also gets rid of the shock towers and opens the bay for easier maintenance.

The rear is really the only thing that I haven't decided on. There are a couple 9" housings on CL for cheap, but will probably need to get a good 3rd member and axles.

I have a good direction I want to take it, it will fall somewhere in between original and resto-mod.

ER12883

Sounds like fun!

It is kinda nice to not have a pristine original car - it frees you up to do what you want with it without worrying about originality. My car was Frankensteined together at some point. I've found day codes from 65-80, but interestingly there are some things I'm very sure are original that probably should have been replaced a long time ago.

fstbck70

Just ordered some new parts to finish up the body portion of my build. Updated the parts list in red. I was waiting for a call from mustangs unlimited about shipping since the quarters are classified as truck freight. They were going to charge me $195 to ship those to my house!!!

Well, on their eBay page, they had the same quarters sold as a pair for $300 with free shipping. Basically it would have been $120 for shipping and $180 for the panels. BOOM just saved ~$75. And to top it off, since those are shipped via truck freight, the rest of my orders were free shipping as well. Saved another $50 off those.

So if anyone is looking on their site and trying to get free shipping in big items(truck freight items) look at their eBay page and mind one for free shipping. Then put in whatever other items you need and get free shipping on those as well. Pretty happy!!!

Only problem is that one of the quarters is backordered so won't get anything until the end if July. So since I have some time between that, I can focus on smoothing out/body filler on the underside. I plan on cleaning up my welds and filling in the weld lines. I have also been thinking about using a truck bed liner, possibly raptor liner by Upol. Id like to use it on the bottom floors, trunk area, wheel wells, etc. Wondering if you guys have any comments/concerns about that idea vs normal paint.

Glenn

Right on Brett.

rasit

Wooden rotisserie? Nice! Sounds like you got a great plan.

fstbck70

It's half and half. The part that connects to the car is steel square tubing and the frame that holds it is 4x4 lumber and 3/4" plywood

Glenn

looks very strong to me. I see a lot of builders add stiffeners in different spots within the int. I don't see that in yours. Why is that, other than you didn't use them lol. Is that car stiff enough where they are not needed?

fstbck70

Didn't really think I needed them!!! Haha. But no, I put it on the rotisserie after I replaced the front torque boxes, both of the rocker panels are rock solid and the car is completely stripped. I also added subframe connectors too. That sucker isn't (shouldn't) flex an inch

fstbck70

I was able to get a little work done today. I have gotten the underside looking good after I sanded in body filler to hide the weld seams. I also have masked most of the panels since I will be applying the raptor liner to the underside, trunk, and inside floor plans. I am still deciding for sure to do the inside. I also plan to do the outside of the engine bay awhile later after I get a new suspension in it.

Other than that I am still waiting for the rest of my panels to arrive at the end of July so I will have a complete car, body wise.

It's going to be a slow few weeks waiting, so if you have any concerns/experience about where I should/shouldn't spray the the liner, I'd appreciate your comments. I am mostly unsure of the doing the inside. Here are some pics. Sorry they are pretty boring. I forgot to take good ones until after she got tucked in. Haha

ER12883

Nice, I'm excited for you! You're a little ahead I me - I've done the underside from the front of the tank to the shifter, this winter I should get to the trunk/tank area, so I can't provide much insight on that, sorry.

Keep us posted!

fstbck70

It's hard for me to be able to visualize the finished product and then see how much further I have to go. but it is a great learning experience.

Where do you stand with yours? What are all of your plans?

ER12883

I'm in an interesting place. What she eventually needs is a full tear down, some metal and body work and paint, along with a new trans, interior pieces and possibly a new engine or rebuild depending on some factors. Since she doesn't have original anything, I'm not overly concerned with originality as I build her up, so I guess you could call it a mild restomod. I'm considering a mild stroker, disks all around, AOD trans (she has an FMX from the 70s), and nice deep blue paint (she was originally beige, now tealish).

But for the time being, the brakes are in great shape, she starts right up, and has somewhat decent power. So in her current state I can drive her around and have some fun, although her roof looks kinda rough (someone long ago put in a sunroof, then someone else did a bad sunroof removal job).

My allowance money is still recovering from the purchase about a year ago, so apart from smaller projects (elect choke, new rad and fan, service, etc), I'm holding off on anything major. I will need to really assess how far I want to go on things like a new tank and rear undercoating if I'm going to have her stripped in the future anyway. It would be nice to do, but a little pointless depending on body/metal work.

Once I do take that plunge though, it will no longer be a rolling restoration, and I'm sure I'll be in the same state you are in. Hang in there, she's going to be beautiful!

fstbck70

Well I'm back at it. All of my parts have arrived and now it's just me, the car, and lots of welding wire. Haha

For the few hours I worked on it tonight, I mostly got the taillight panel aligned where I want it with vise-grips and will get it tacked in the morning. That was pretty easy to do, but I have a feeling that most of my time will go toward the quarter panels!!! Not really looking forward to that very much.

I'll get some pics up tomorrow!!!

fstbck70

Alright, got a lot done this past weekend. I really didn't think I would get as far as I did but had some great help from my dad.

First things first, I had many pieces to fit and weld on. The first thing to go on was the taillight panel and taillight panel attachment parts. This was by far the easiest part of the whole weekend. All we had to do was find the center of the back of the car and get the gas cap hole as close as we could get it. Using a bunch of vise-grips, we were able to line it all up and weld it pretty quickly. We then put in the bumper brackets.

The hardest part of the weekend, was the dang quarter panels. There had to be lots of cutting and fitting to get it just right. We used a flanger to indent the car that way the panel would fit flush right up to it. But man was it a pain in the a$$. Even though the repro panels are good quality, they aren't the greatest fit, which led to a lot of metal manipulation. After about 100 spot welds per side, she was locked in place!!!

The last part was the most fun. I went a head and bought Raptor Liner from U-Pol and sprayed the underside, entire trunk, and most of the inside of the quarter panels. Also did the back of the engine bay and plan on doing the outside of the engine bay and the front frame rails. First impression is that the stuff looks killer. I've used other roll-on liners before and they end up looking like crap. We sprayed it on and it came out very good. I'll let the pictures paint the picture.

Not really sure what will be next, most likely will begin the body work with filler while I save up for my front suspension. Let me know what you think!!!! Thanks

fstbck70

Will add photos when the app will let me!!!!