I'm no mechanic by any means, my brother has an IROC Camero that he's been restoring for the past year so he has much more experience than I do. My question to y'all is, with me having almost no money, what is the best way to try to restore my 1978 Mustang II Hatchback? Should I save a bit of money then spend it on priority 1 and 2 with a mechanic to fix it, or should I fix it up myself risking messing it up? Or should I just save all of my money and wait to fix it all at once? I've never done this before.

 

The best way is to spend what you can(little at a time) and do the work yourself. It's more rewarding that way. I have no mechanic background but using this forum, there are plenty of people willing to help as much as possible. Good luck on the build and keep us all updated and take pictures along the way

 

I agree. It's much more rewarding doing it yourself. Between google and this forum you can tackle anything just make sure you do your research and have a first aid kit handy I was cutting in my carpet yesterday and had a razor blade plunge into my leg. A few butterfly bandages later I was back at it. Just for example the interior of the car was riddled with surface rust. The dash pad was fried. All paint was faded chrome worn on cluster and doors and headliner was torn. Between the above and a few resto books this is what I created. Like we said much more rewarding.

 

Yeah, the dash and the carpet are pretty nasty, but I think those are low on my priority list because I have a tranny and powersteering leak. The power steering I'm hoping is just a tube that I need to replace, I don't know what to expect with the tranny. I know it's been rebuilt once(maybe twice), but when I say I'm no mechanic, I really have no idea what I'm doing.I can do cosmetic stuff, sometimes :P

Edit -

Btw, I see the dimmer switch in the floor there. Yeah, I made alot of people mad one night until my paw-paw showed me where it was!

 

Nice job on the interior and dash work

 

Thanks. On the plus side the ps and carpet are both fairly simple jobs to do once you get into them.

 

What's the 'ps'? and how much did the carpetting cost you. Because the carpet in mine is origional, and nasty.

 

Ps power steering carpet wasn't bad I think it was like 150 and I came pre formed

 

It came preformed

 

Oh wow, that's not bad at all! My problem is I have a small hole in the bottom of my floorboard in the rear passenger side. Here is a picture:


So I have to wait to fix that first before I start on the carpet.

 

Also, how can I tell if my hatchback is a bolt-on or a pin-on? I can't find a hatch, so I'm thinking about buying a fiberglass one and I see that there are those two different kinds.

 

That question I do not have an answer for.

 

Well convienently I had a guy walk into my office today who owns a body repair shop and he'd fix the hole in my floor for $50. Getting that fixed on Monday!

 

Sweet. Make sure he's doing a lead fill and not huts mudding over it. The lead is a bit stronger and is the right way to do it.