I figured it was about time to resurrect this thread. I hit a snag last year as our Outback took a dive on us and all the money I had set aside for the Mustang went to it, which eventually decided to completely die Christmas day at 9 PM 45 miles from home. That was a lovely lump of money to have it towed home. Stupid Japanese piece of crap.

Fast forward to the last few weeks and I've bought a welder, borrowed an engine hoist w/load leveler, managed to get the hub removed from the drum (what a PITA!) and have restructured my plan since I got no where last year and having just bought a new car in February again have no money in the coffers to move it towards driver status.

I figure I can spend less money right now and pull the engine, clean up and repair a few spots in the engine bay and then move to the floors and at least feel like I'm getting somewhere other than having 2500 lb paper weight/dust collector in my garage.

So my plan for this weekend:

1. Put wheels back on and drop car onto auto dolly's (One of the four tires holds air and these will make it easier to move when I need room in the garage for the inevitable summer projects that will pull me from this)
2. Remove front bumper, hood, fenders, front valance and wrap all in movers blankets for protection.
3. Drain fluids
4. Remove radiator
5. Pull motor and trans (6 cyl w/ C4)

Not sure if I'll get any farther than that as I know it should only take a day, but Murphy's law says I'll be lucky to complete that list by Sunday night.

So let me know what you guys think. Any suggestions you have or tips and tricks for dismantling the front body parts are welcome. And its good to be doing something and not just reading and being jealous of all of you

 

Well I have to say that I will most likely not pull an engine and trans together again. Of course after I get my energy back from the pain in the butt this was that opinion might change.

I was able to create some more room in my garage since I turned the car sideways on the dollys. I got the front end disassembled and motor and trans pulled. Only broke a couple of bolts. One was for the headlight, the other the bumper mount to the frame rail.

The second bolt in the frame rail is just spinning. I can't get a socket in there to keep it from spinning; suggestions? You can see in the first picture, the front bumper mounting still attached the frame rail. The front bolt broke, the back bolt just spins.






Very nice to have a three car garage. Also nice that these are such short cars. I was able to turn it 90 degrees so I could have more room by my workbench for other projects. Before there was about 18 inches between the front of the Mustang and my bench.




Engine/Trans are down on jack stands right now, will move once I've cleaned up my mess and decided where to put it.




I found another bad spot. Drivers side outer shock tower. I haven't cleaned everything up yet, but at a glance it looks like that is a bolt on part and not welded, is this correct?




When I took the fenders off this stuff was 'stuck' over these gaps on the outer part of cowl. Was this normal, is it tape or seam sealer? It was like this on both sides. I plan to weld all this to one piece but I was curious if this is normal.

 

looks like someone cut the cowl lifted it up probably to fix rust hols then fiberglassed back over their cut marks??

yes that spring cover is bolt on

 

So now its time to clean the engine bay and all the exposed areas and then get some protectant on them. I'm still debating on what I'm going to use to protect it. There are tons of threads about that so I'm not going to ask about that.

I do want to ask how those of you without rotisserie's cleaned the bottom of your Mustang? Did you just jack it up as high as you could on the side, front, or back? I plan to use a combination of degreaser and a portable steam cleaner, I'm just not sure how to get to the bottom without getting crud all over me.

 

I love my car dollies. They come in very very handy when you need to move your car inside the garage for extra space. One of the best tools your arsonal.

 

Not normal.. bet you will find rust underneath

 

by the way, that looks like duct tape that's been sprayed over with undercoating. You got allot of work ahead of you. I would not replace any parts what-so-ever, until you do all your sheetmetal. It's not expensive, just very time consuming. If you pic's are accurate and you do it yourself it'll cost you roughly $500-800 in panels and a couple of months work, if you have the welder. Pay someone else, you're looking several thousand $'s.

 

By the way, I haven't seen you mention anything about a welder. How do you plan to attack that rust?

 

I did in another post I was using to ask questions. I bought a Hobart Handler 140. I have some work on the front drivers side frame rail, not a big patch, 2 x 2 maybe. Then the front floor pans will get replaced. I haven't made a decision on what I'm going to use to protect against further rust yet. I still need to clean everything up and make sure there isn't anymore rust hiding out somewhere that I haven't found yet. I've been on standby as its 100+ degrees for over a week now.

 

Well I'm moving on to plan D.

Last week I got my new floor pans delivered and started my prep to replace those. After pulling the heater box and removing the firewall insulation I decided to test the cowl again just for giggles and grins. Decided that maybe any leaks were small enough that the water was being absorbed by the insulation. Unfortunately I was right. I've got a couple of leaks, one on either side that will need to be dealt with. Looks like PO had cut into the sides of cowl, shown in earlier pictures, to attempt a repair with tar of some sort. Its all over the interior corners of the cowl.

As I'll have to open up the cowl and having decided that as I move forward with replacing the floor pans among other things, I most likely will uncover more surprises. So, I'm jumping right on into the tear everything out pool and moving away from the drive 'n' restore pool.

Just wanted to update everyone with my lack of progress. In the end I'll have a rock solid car to put up with all your great restorations. I just can't wait till I can drive it. Patience is a virtue that this restoration will teach me, even if it kills me first.