Mustang Restore on a Budget

Hidden Problems

2010-05-15T01:13:00.006-04:00

I was looking at things to get an idea what I needed to do next and saw that my battery tray looked kind of rough. No holes in it but it looked like it could use a good blasting and repaint so I started to remove it. Once removed I saw that the inner fender had a hole right through it, probably from battery acid and someone just replaced the tray to cover it up. So this became an unscheduled project. We started to remove that panel and since the radiator support had holes drilled into it from hook pins at one time, I decided to replace that also at the same time.

After removing the inner fender panel we removed the radiator support.
Next we had to fit and weld the new panels in place which have arrived already. I will update after they are installed with a finished photo.

Rear Frame Rails

2009-08-11T22:10:00.003-04:00

Looking the car over really good now that all the body panels were removed, I found a few more areas that needed my attention. One being the rear frame rails. Although the right side was weaker than the drivers side I decided I would replace both since it was already a full tear down.

The sections of frame going over the rear axle seemed very strong so I decided to go with replacing only the rear sections of frame. Cutting out was fun, things were a little short on space cutting the drivers side out. The spot welds were pretty easy since almost all of them could be acessed from the trunk area. We tacked in the sections double checking the measurements from the old ones making sure they were straight and in the exact location as the old sections. The picture shows the passenger side tacked into place. I also cut out a section of the trunk floor because that too was rotted more than I would like and I wanted good steal to weld to. I will update the rear frame rail pictures as things progress.

The Movie "The Cowling"

2009-08-10T16:14:00.008-04:00

It really had my curiosity on how bad the cowl was. I decided that since the bad cowl could cause so much costly and time consuming damage, this was one area I wanted to fix right the first time. A mere 200+ spot welds later the cowling panel was removed. It didn't appear as bad as the interior damage made it look however there was some debris up against the cowl collars. I was expecting to find larger holes and I was anticipating putting in cowl patch panels but after cleaning the area up, I found the water was making it's way in through the seam at the base of each collar. Never wanting to drill out that many welds again, I decided to go with POR-15 paint and putty. I cleaned, prepped and painted the entire area with the POR-15 paint and then at the base of the collars where the seam was I applied the POR-15 putty. Afterward I did a leak check and all was dry. I feel really confident that this section of the car will never have to be repaired again. The painted pictures shown here do not have the POR-15 putty on the seams.

The Restoration Start

2009-08-07T22:30:00.003-04:00

I guess the start of this project was when my Dad purchased a new house with a 2½ stall garage. It also had a large floored storage area above which was idea for storing parts as they were removed. The downside is that his house was at a lake about a hour drive from my house. I decided however to start the project since I finally had a place to work inside. Did I mention heater too?

My Dad and I started to remove what we could and the more I removed the more problems I found. Under the carpet in front there were holes on both sides at the base of the toe floor boards. Most areas were so weak from years of leaking that with a little pressure, I was able to push them right into the torque boxes. I found out later that this was coming in from the cowl leaking. The water followed neatly along the firewall, right through the floor. I never even noticed the carpet ever being damp let alone have such a bad leak. So I could see both front side floor pans had to be replaced and the passenger side torque box was damaged from the inside and on closer inspection, I decided to replace the drivers side torque box as well. Added to that, the cowl leak had to be dealt with which would involve much more work to do it right. I imagine that keeping the car outside at my house for a couple winters did not help.

I decided that I wanted to do a restore that built the car the way I wanted, not perfect for shows the way the factory had it. My goal was to make changes that could easily be reversed if someone owned the car after me and wanted to return it to it's purely stock look.

Engine Swap

2009-08-05T15:12:00.010-04:00

So I pulled the nasty 302 out of the donor '67 and went through the motor putting in some 10:1 TRW pistons, I warmed up the cam a little, added a Torker II manifold with a Holley 700 duel feed, double pump on top. Hooker headers and MSD to help the ignition along. I also added a three row radiator since I thought it would be running a little hotter and I wanted to be very easy to drive on the city streets. With such small tweaks, I didn't see any problems.

The engine ran just fine. The previous owner had a Hurst inline 4 spd shifter attached to the Top Loader transmission and I had nothing but problems with it trying to put it in reverse, it would always lock up. Not being able to sort out the problem, I pulled it and replaced it will a standard Hurst 4 spd and it worked find. As I was putting the car back together, I noticed a few things that were not correct. The drive shaft would not slide all of the way on the transmission like it should. I pulled off the tail housing on the tranny and found part of the way up, the splines on the output shaft weren't quite lined up. No doubt thanks to the nitrous and assorted parts. Strangely I had the same problem with axle shafts too. I added them on the "to-do" list and figured someday when I get use of a garage I'll fix it. So I did not plan any long trips and only took the car to events in my town or nearby. I had a lot of fun driving it and the engine was just what I was looking for, stronger than stock but very good on the street. However the whole time, the rust starting, the transmission and rear axle were nawing away at me.

How It Started

2009-08-04T16:54:00.005-04:00

As the story goes...

When I first purchased the Mustang back in the 80's, it had no engine, the manual 4 spd top loader was still inside and a 9" posi with 456 gears in the back. Drag slicks were mounted on the rear and the nitrous system still mounted in the trunk. There was a large whole cut into the hood that the original owner told me he had done so the air filter could stick out of the top. At the time I could see some rust starting in the typical locations but it was not that far advanced.

You can see in the lower right of this picture, the back corner of a '67 donor car I purchased for the engine. Someone actually put a 302 ci engine into the car which was just what I didn't owning a "J" code Fastback however, almost all the parts weren't useable. This car was rusted so much, there was no floor, the trunk was gone, shock towers, rockers, just about everything was rotting away. I bought the car and sold what was left for $300. I don't even think I paid that much for the enhine. I really don't remember any panels that weren't rusted through on this so someone had a bigger project than I did ahead. This was my start, and as you can see the engine work and everything else had to be done on a gravel driveway and no garage. Good start.

Getting Things Set Up

2009-08-03T22:56:00.001-04:00

Well I have to start somewhere and here it is. I am starting this blog mostly for my daughter who wants so bad for me to finish the Mustang restore. We have had this car for years and she has never had a chance to even hear it run. Now she is on her drivers permit and I notice a heightened sense of urgency to accomplish this task. I will not go into detail about why this restoration has not been completed over the years, let's just say life throws a lot of things your way some times and in my case, the clock it ticking. I guess it is for everyone come to think of it.

Now, the reason I call this blog a restore on a budget is because that is the only option for me, if at all. You would be surprised how much you can save by doing some research and knowing what to purchase as far as tools and what not to purchase. Some purchases can really save money in the long run allowing you to do it yourself or have a business do it for you. So here we go. I will try and update this as often as possible to keep the reading as interesting as possible. I do live in Michigan however and I don't have a heated garage so the updates may slow some during the winter months.
My motivation? It was a letter my daughter was trying to send out to try and find help with this project.

I told her times are tough for everyone right now and the chances of someone just helping us out with a car restoration is not very likely. However, the more I thought about writing a blog, I could see where it may help someone restore theirs and maybe I will learn from others too.
So here's to a good build and happy outcome. I hope you join us on our journey!