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1969 Mach 1 Restoration

GPR

GPR

Active Member
This 1969 Mach 1 was bought new by the current owners Aunt who was a school teacher in West Virginia. It has a 351 with a 3 speed manual transmission. The current owner bought it in 1992.

Looks pretty good in the photo.



Around 10 years ago he quit driving it when he noticed this rust around the power steering bracket. He did tell me a few years ago he did take it out for a short drive.



The owner starting taking it apart and had it delivered to us.



I noticed around the quarter scoop hole that something was going on. It looked like they had put a quarter patch on. This is what we found. They had a quarter skin over the original rusted out quarter panel.

 
Wow its amazing what gets done to make the repairs sometimes. If that was done by a shop it stinks that they would do a butcher job like that and charge their customer.
 
This is the left rear frame rail



Right wheel well



Front frame rail



The top of all the fender aprons look like this

 
This is inside one of the shock towers



Since the floor and frame rails were so bad we ordered this from Thoroughbred.



Dynacorn parts that have come in



We made a jig with the stock suspension points and correct dimensions to build the car on.

 
I'm not sure what was used for a patch in the wheel well



The quarter panel was cut off



Not much holding the outer wheelhouse



Brian added braces before he cut the floor out



 
your builds are always intriguing...the amount of work you do to save one of these cars is above and beyond. The quality of work is always top notch as well. Keep the pictures coming!
 
Brian has the floor cut out



Needs new torque boxes



I just had to show this again



I was told by the owner that this was done at a Ford dealer in a small town in West Virginia.
 
Hah! What's left to be stock? The roof? Wow...you guys have taken on quite a challenge, but one that is within your abilities. I know I don't have that kind of money to spend restoring that car.
 
Brian wanted the shell sanded and epoxy primed before he starts to install. Almost ready for a couple coats of SPI epoxy



 
There certainly won't be much left original to that car. It would almost be easier and cheaper to just buy a complete shell and just put the VIN tag on it. At what point does one choose to go that way? After the cost of parts and labor it would appear to me that would be the way to go on this car. I understand the desire to keep a car in the family that has sentimental value. But how much of the finished project of this car will actually be the car that started this? I know on my car I have over $6000.00 just in body parts. I was border line going that way myself. After labor and everything I probably should have.

Amazing work by the way.
 
I make oil said:
There certainly won't be much left original to that car. It would almost be easier and cheaper to just buy a complete shell and just put the VIN tag on it. At what point does one choose to go that way? After the cost of parts and labor it would appear to me that would be the way to go on this car. I understand the desire to keep a car in the family that has sentimental value. But how much of the finished project of this car will actually be the car that started this? I know on my car I have over $6000.00 just in body parts. I was border line going that way myself. After labor and everything I probably should have.

Amazing work by the way.
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Don't let the Dynacorn new body route fool you. Those shells need a lot of work to make everything fit correctly and that equates to a whole lot of shop hour cost too. As a newer member here you need to search out some of GPR's (Rusty) older posts/threads to see and learn a bit more about what he and his crew are capable of doing. It's amazing.
 
Horseplay said:
Don't let the Dynacorn new body route fool you. Those shells need a lot of work to make everything fit correctly and that equates to a whole lot of shop hour cost too. As a newer member here you need to search out some of GPR's (Rusty) older posts/threads to see and learn a bit more about what he and his crew are capable of doing. It's amazing.
Click to expand...


While I too agree the work they do is simply amazing....I have also questioned how far do you go to save the original car. I would guess that less than 10% of the original car will be left when they are done. Using Dynacorn parts or a Dynacorn body may be a push at this point. Setting the legalities aside.....either way the only truly usable part of the car is the VIN and title. I am glad that there are people out their like Rusty to save these old cars, but my oh my the cost to do so much be astronomical.
 
My '70 Mach was almost that far gone . . . we kept the frame rails and about half of the floor pan. Replaced all wheel houses though. I figured out once that I had about $23k in shop labor and OEM/NOS sheet metal. YIKES !!
 
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