6/2006
| Dans 1969 Mustang convertible project list | ||
| Frame Project | Drivers Side | Passenger Side |
| Remove Engine and Tranny | DONE | |
| New shock towers | DONE | DONE |
| Install new shock tower to radiator aprons | DONE | DONE |
| Install new front full frame rails | DONE | DONE |
| Install new seat pan rail | DONE | DONE |
| Install new Inner Rockers | DONE | DONE |
| Torque boxes | DONE | DONE |
| Toeboards | DONE | DONE |
| Seat Pans | DONE | DONE |
| Paint Seat Pans | DONE | DONE |
| battery tray | DONE | DONE |
| battery hold down | DONE | DONE |
| Install Carpet | DONE | |
| Install seats | DONE | DONE |
| Detail Engine compartment | DONE | DONE |
| Engine Rebuild Project | DONE | DONE |
| Put Engine/Tranny in car | DONE | DONE |
| Drive Car, have party | DONE!! | Partied hard |
6/20/06
I have been doing some paint prep….but not a lot. A friend came in from out of town and I wanted to take him for a ride so I put the car back together. I have put about 400 miles on the car now and have had it up to 65-70 on the highway. I did put new hinge pins in the drivers door so it does not sag any more, I also plan to do the passenger side. I also replaced the radiator. The car has been running a little hotter than I would like, I got a fan shroud and that helped a little, but still was not good enough. So I was thinking about replacing the radiator anyway and it developed a pinhole leak so that made the decision for me. I just replaced it tonight.
These cars are bizarre sometimes you can just go to the auto parts store and they have it right away, like with the radiator, and sometimes they just cannot get it…you just never know. Anyway I drove the car for over an hour tonight and it never got more than a little past dead center on the gauge so it seems better.
I need to take it off the road for a while to get the prep/prime paint done but is so hard to stop driving it!!! I need to get it done though the car does not look as nice as it is now. The out side looks like a car that needs a lot of work, but when you pop the hood and look underneath it looks great. Once I get it painted I will officially have a kick ass stang!!
6/4/06
I have been doing prep work fir the paint job, but not as much as I would like, work, etc getting in way. I plan to get to it hard this next weekend. I have decided as I am painting in my garage and don’t have a commercial air compressor I will do one section at a time. I will take off fenders, hood, trunk and doors and paint them off of the car. I am not using a pearl or metallic paint, just a solid candy apple red so I don’t have to worry about the paint hanging differently. With the smaller compressor I should not have to much problem painting the pieces. I plan on a primer coat, color coat and then clear, probably at least two coats of clear.
I did put on a small amount of the paint on the car, just dabbed it on to see how the color was. It is actually not to far off of the current color of the car, a little more red. Who knows what color the car really was when it was painted it has been many years and has faded and lost its shine. The little place I did put on the new color sure does look good though.
I plan on priming and then painting the under side of the hood and trunk first. If I screw these up so what, I need to practice and see how the flash time works, pot life, coverage of the paint etc. Pictures to follow…..
5/25/06
Well so far I have put 300 miles on the car. Car runs GREAT! The more I drive it the better it gets. Now I have stopped driving it to do the paint and body work. I have started by removing the drivers side door and fender. The bottom of the door was rusted so I cut off the bad metal and used filler. I know, I know, I should weld in new metal but I am considering this a practice paint job I intend to do a full blown sand it down to the metal and take a lot of time type paint job in the future, but spring is here the car runs great and I have spent the last year working on it, its time to have fun. So I am going to do a decent job but I am not sanding to bare metal, and replacing all of the bad metal with new. Also I have never shot paint on a car before so I do not want to have my first attempt with PPG $250-$500 per gallon. This is a practice job that I know will look good and I am sure the car will look awesome but I intend to re-do it in a few years anyway.
Here you can see the rust on the bottom of the door.
This is after I have cut out rust, applied filler and primed/painted from a rattle can, I am going to sand off the paint anyway I just wanted to see how it looked….not bad huh….I need to find a finer type of filler as you can see some of the bondo under the paint of you look close. But it sure does look better.
This is the kit I ordered. It is RayFlex paint.
http://www.paintforcars.com/kits_candyapple.html
In the spirit of this being my first and a practice paint job I have selected RayFlex paint. The Paint is only $39 per gallon, which by any standard is cheap. After doing some research on the web I found a lot of self painters who had good things to say about the paint, and a few who did not. So I figure that painting is 95% prep anyway and I don’t expect this to last into the next millenia so I will use this product. Here is a list of everything I ordered and the cost.
kits_candyappleCandy Apple Red Acrylic Enamel Paint Kit 1 $65.00
clearcoats_aecc2Acrylic Enamel Clear Coat 1 gal. 1 $39.00
supplies_hardenerAcrylic Wet look hardener for all our acrylic Auto paints 1 $22.00
supplies_reducerAcrylic Enamel Reducer Medium Speed – 1 quart 2 $16.00
supplies_primerSynthetic Enamel Primer Sealer – 1 gallon 1 $29.00
Shipping: Standard Shipping: $54.25
Sales Tax: $0.00
——————————————————————————————-
Total: $225.25
So I will primer the whole car, paint it and the clear it…..it should look sharp. Of course the color is the RayFlex flavor of candy apple red but it will do, and I bet it will look great when I am done.
Also since I have the door off and it was sagging I am replacing the hinge pins and bushings so it does not sag anymore.
5/10/06
Well so far I have put 235 miles on the car. So far no problems, the engine purrrrrrrs, the tranny shifts good, all is well. I need to stop playing and get to the body work. But I don’t waannaaaaa!! I have had it on the high way up to about 60mph. To be honest the faster it goes the better it is. I have been creeping up what I have done with the car. First I kept it in my neighborhood and under 35. Then I took it on local roads around my house and up to about 45-50, then a short drive on the highway to a friends house and up to highway speeds. There are some things I regret now. I wish I had changed the lower A-Arm bushings, they squeak. I know I should have but I wanted to get this thing back on the road and I have access to a lift so when I get around to it I will replace them. I did get the seats and carpet in, Looks sharp.
I do get looks when I am driving, and a few people have stopped to talk. When I get the paint and body work done it is really gonna be nice. But that means I have to stop driving it….very hard to do….Anyway I intend to start that work next week. I am going to pull out what small dents there are (there was some hail damage) and get everything straight and smooth and paint her up the original Candy Apple Red. Then a stereo and alarm system and she is good to go till next winter when I will address some issues with the rear of the car that need attention.
The black hood is primed. It is a replacement hood.
Another picture
New carpet
Another picture
5/01/06
Had to force myself to stop driving car, put 120 miles on it so far. I finished up the seat pan install, and started the carpet installation. Took a little while to get the seat mount just right on the passenger side. It was mounted incorrectly before and I had some adjusting to do to get it correct.
The carpet install is fairly straight forward. I let the carpet sit out in the driveway for a few hours to relax and get the wrinkles out. Then I placed it in the car. One problem area is the shifter, I had to remove it to get the carpet in and then cut a hole for it. I made the hole as small as I could so that I would not wind up with a gap around the shifter. It turned out nice. I still have more to do but it is coming along.
Carpet install in progress
Another picture
Seat pan install done and primed