More stripping down

 Here we have a rusty front cross member that needs cutting out, These rusted out from the battery acid dripping onto it. The inner fender also needs work.
I managed to get another crossmember of a car in Auckland to replace this part.

 I drilled out all the spot welds and will weld up in the same spots again to keep it looking all original.

Here is the donnor part all stripped of paint and ready to weld back in.

All lines up well should be easy to weld in but to get good access I'll need to remove the motor etc.

So next job is motor out.

Motor and transmisson out.

Here we are motor and transmission removed and heaps of room to weld.Managed to strip all the paint from the firewall and inner fenders at the same time.

Initial strip and evaluate

I started stripping the whole car every bit will be removed and refurbished or replaced, I intend to keep a majority of the parts in this car original unless it is really necessary. If a part needs be replaced, then I'll look for original new or used parts.

First i cut away the sheet metal of those damaged rear guards.

I kept the original back panel as it was not to bad and it will give me some good reference points to line up the rear guards as the chassis rails will have shifted.

The crushed wheel wells were reshaped to help things line up.

Now that the damaged guards are gone I fitted a new guard to see how things line up.

Not bad just a little tweeking here and there at least its not a mile out .

Managed to get a boot lid on Trademe it seems to line square. Also got two sets of wire wheel covers.

Back to stripping it down as I needed to get the damaged drain channels out and repair them.

Looks really naked.

The drain channels were crushed so had to remove them and strip them clean and reshape them.These also hold the boot hinges and the rear panel behind the rear window and in front of the boot lid.

  

It all started in June 2011

Bought this Mustang in June of 2011 from a guy in Hastings who had imported it in from Florida back in 2007.

This was third time lucky,I have had half a dozen other American cars before and had tried twice

earlier to buy a Mustang but the deals had fallen through.

This one had been built 13th July 1965 in Dearborn and came with a 200cubic inch 6 Cylinder and 3 speed manual which had been swapped for an auto back in the States. Apart from the transmission and the colour change it was still very original and in relatively good condition.

The upholstery was the original black trim, most of the panels are in good condition for their age in fact there were lots of original markings from the factory still evident which I have preserved.

Both front and back panels still have the original part number painted on the reverse along with the original inspection date.
After stripping the paint from the radiator panel I found some early production markings etched there.

 

I suppose it was very hot and dry in Florida for most of the time as this car was well preserved, the underneath was coated in what looked like tar from the roads that had melted and had been flicked up while driving around.I had to remove heaps of tar just to get back to the paint, which I was happy to do, as it had prevented rust in a lot of areas.Most of the floor is still original.

See the hunks of tar that came of the inside of the guards.

After chipping away  all this tar I'm left with the original paint that coated the car when it was new. Great to see and preserved in great condition and a lot lighter now should go a lot faster without all that Florida road tar and gravel.

Great floor only a small bit of rust on the passenger side.

That was the good news the bad news was, back in Florida the car was traded in to a car yard called the Corvette shop and all trade ins were kept at the back of the yard. Well one day while it sat at the back of the yard there was a really bad storm and the wall collapsed onto several cars damaging most of them.I was told the Mustang came off lightly.