Gregski

yeah right, like the wife would allow that to happen? jk, agreed

Gregski

The side trim bits had to come off, they were held on by 3 bolts on either side. In order to get to them the quarter panel windows had to be removed, lots of work, (photos available upon request, lol).

Needless to say these trim pieces will not find their way back on to the car. The holes will be welded shut, a job that will prove much easier said than done.

Gregski

Thanks, that's exactly what my wife said when I brought her home... NOT !!!

Gregski

here's what had to be done on the inside to get those pesky quarter panel "ornaments" off, I had some more pictures of the small metal bracket on the bottom but unfortunately they came out blurry so god only knows if I'll be able to put these windows back in properly, can't wait... Not!

Obviously these pictures also show you the state of my interior.

Gregski

The Rocker Panel Side Trim plastic brackets were next to come off. Technically my car did not have the trim on it any more just the pesky brittle white brackets. Even if it did they would not be going back on as I am going for the clean look. The brackets were held on with aluminum rivets which had to be drilled. Then I attempted to fill the holes by welding them closed with my Harbor Freight Flux Core welder.

Ignore the floor pan rust that fell on the floor, that's a whole new thread, lol.

zmetalmilitia

Yep, did the same to mine. No more rocker molding.

wumarshall82

Nice thread.

Gregski

moving on to the trunk lid, I needed to remove the "aftermarket" third taillight and the M U S T A N G letters. The letters surprisingly came off by gently wedging a screw driver under them. The plastic taillight was simply glued on there and only exposed one hole for the wiring.

I don't think my '68 has a '68 trunk lid on it as it doesn't have the holes for the chrome trim (thank god, less holes to fill)

Gregski

Some of these steps are easier than others, but all of them have to get done. Removing the rear fender extension trim proves to be a challenging step if like me you decide not to put them back on, however getting them off was just a matter of using your fingers...

When the trim was off I used a punch tool to punch the clips back in the holes, in hindsight that was stupid, but it wasn't till I was thumbing through a catalog a couple days later that I saw that they unscrew from the back. Although I believe you have to remove the fender extensions completely to get to those ends, I didn't wanna do that as they fit perfectly. At this point, Bob's your uncle, and I'm sure I'll face worse rattles than those guys...

Gregski

Once the trim is removed you are left with three roughly 1/4 inch holes on each side. The metal is what some call pot metal others die cast. Either way not something you're gonna wanna weld with your MIG jobbie. So what I did is filled them in with something similar to JB Weld. I went to my local plastics store and picked up "Amazing Goop" I know, you can't make this stuff up. It was their equivalent of JB Weld.

This stuff is truly amazing, it sticks to metal very well, and a couple days later I sanded it flush beautifully. Since I could not reach the back side of the hole to provide some sort of backing like using masking tape, I used a technique where i shoved some goop in the hole and pulled it back through to the front, and I worked it like that back and forth a bit. It was like taking a piece of chewed up bubble gum and wedging it in the hole and getting it to bunch up behind the hole and then smashing it down in front of the hole.

Yes you can buy replacement fender end pieces without the holes in them, but for $10 bucks you can't beat this solution for a daily driver like mine.