Pit Of Despair

[THUMPIN455]

This will be the build thread, I wasnt planning on doing the Cougar first, it was sort of forced on me. Now it is sufficiently done, I can leave you guys awed at the amount of rust an old Ford can have... Ok, I need this thing out of the shop, it is taking up space and making it difficult for me to get other things done. So that means it is going to get put together, and while I will try to do the best job I can, I will not go to any extraordinary lengths to make it perfect. I do however want it to look very nice, not like the $240 paint job I put on a 79 Trans Am last month. So the camera is headed to the shop with me again, the Cougar is taking a break, and I will divide my time between the Cougar, Trans Am, Pit of Despair, and my other projects. I really need to get motivated and get some stuff done this year. Winter comes far too soon, and thus far it hasnt left. So as a reminder how how far the old beastie has come, here is where it started after I bought it for $20, and it waited on the farm for 13 years before I could get to it. Really I only wanted the 9" and the Cleveland from it, but hey why not rebuild it? Now I know why... Where it sat for a LOOOOOONG time.. out in the weather. Not good on old cars. Not a straight piece on the thing, even the roof had a tweak in it. I managed to get it out for the most part but, if you know its there you might see it. Previous owner had a thing for people running into him. Man what a mess, if your car looks this bad, just find a better one. Seriously. Just start cutting and get as much rust gone as possible, and sandblast everything under the car until it is either gone, or is bare metal. Then one day I started welding on it. New floor pan. Radiator support and fender wells. Got some extra doors from a member here, man those things are heavy. And this is how it looked when I took a break from it to start the Cougar. Now that the Cougar is to the point I just need cash for parts, I can do the things that I dont need money to accomplish on the Mustang. There is a vision in my head of how it could look, it doesnt have a theme, it doesnt have a purpose, its just a vision I want to create.

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[4reboy]

sweet, I've been waiting to see some pics on this future beauty! Looks to me like you only have the back half of the car left as far as metal work is concerned haha...

and I know what you mean about those doors being heavy... my dad got 2 complete doors (windows/locks/handles and 1 has a black door panel...) and two extra door windows and a sportsroof rear window all for $60, and moving those doors around is a pain! you don't realize how big they are until they are off the car. After doing some work on my dad's car I've realized there is a ton of extra bracing inside the doors which i'm sure contribute to a nice chunk of the weight...

so far those doors we scored have been working out, took the door handle off one which worked perfectly, and I'll be replacing the glass on one of the windows (idiot PO thought it was cool to etch in flower designs into the quarter window and put his initials on the drivers door window... still need to find a quarter window.

sorry for long post, just got excited haha. I look forward to seeing the progress on the POD!

[2+2GT]

Great project! At least you didn't give up in the face of challenge! Some people are not so determined:

[andrewmp6]

Yeah i remember when you bought it you have came a long way but still got longer to go.Good luck with it love to see it done.

[AlexZi]

Haha that thing was a wreck. Good for you for bringing it back to life. It seems you enjoy bringing beaten down cars back to life...as Ive seen the pics of your Cougar as well. You shall be known as "The Ressurrector"

[THUMPIN455]

I move the doors around with a two wheel dolly, like you would use to move a refrigerator.

Right now its buried under all of the parts for it, since I have done 4 projects since I started on the Mustang. It will take up much less space in one piece, having fenders here, quarters there, 3 sets of doors laying around, and a hood taking up more space, then the dash, seats, engine, trans, its everywhere! Makes it difficult to get anything else done, like my heat system, insulating the last wall of the shop, working on more than one other car...

Anyone can take a rust free car and build a jewel from it, it takes a lunatic to do the same with a hunk of rusty roof section!

[eZ]

It takes a lot of skill to rebuild a car but it takes a very "special" (see crazy) to bring one back from the rusted pits of hell. Thumpin this car will appreciate what you have done and treat you very well. You crazy SOB.

[THUMPIN455]

I have spent the last two days getting the pass side wheel house fitted, and trimming the quarter panel. What fun I am having with cheap china made parts. They fit with some persuasion from my 32 oz motivator and metal shears... I did the door hinges last week, lucky for me not all of them needed inserts and pins, because I found out the hard way you need to drill the hinge to fit the oversize bushing so you can repair any out of round in the hole. Hard to see what its doing under the press, so i goofed up a couple bushings, then had to search the shop for a drill bit larger than 3/8" but smaller than 1/2"...

Its coming along, and when I get something final welded I will take some pics for you guys.

I had the bright idea of building it for F.A.S.T. racing with a 4V Cleveland, it would work if I can stroke one and do some filling in the ports to improve flow. I could build a bunch of compression and run it on my homebrew until I go to the track, then switch carbs and run it on race gas. Its an idea, we'll see how it plays out. I am more of a Pontiac type when it comes to racing, but I have plans for almost all my Pontiacs.

[andrewmp6]

Here is something to look at http://www.ve3sy.com/scj/2006-start.htm that car was half as bad as yours but looks great done and its mean.

[longlive289s]

hell....i need to get outta my parents house. i wanna do this. strip my stang and go from bare metal. i gotta buddie that is lookin at a house that actually has a pit dug into the 3 car garage.....they arnt asking to much for it either lol