New metal is in....

[RustyRed]

Well....I finally finished up the majority of the welding last night on my new radiator support and fender apron. It is hard to take a picture of it right now with it sitting in a shady garage and no place to stand with a camera that you don't catch the glare of the sun so you will have to forgive the fact I can't take a picture to save my a**.

Still have a number of things to get done before she is back on the road mostly rewire things, bolt on things, putting the radiator back in and one more small piece of add'l sheet metal to weld to the new fender apron but she's getting there.

However, here is what I started with....

And here are a couple of how it looks now.

The pictures are pretty bad but hopefully you get the idea. Might try snapping a couple of pictures later in the day when it is more shady around the entrance to my garage.

 

[Fast68back]

Looks good. It might be an optical illusion or it might be the nice clean new metal, but the new battery box area looks a little larger?

 

[70_Fastback]

Good work. And I'm glad to see you drinking some of that 25 year water supply there :nice

 

[RustyRed]

I think it might actually be a little larger. Seems deeper more so than bigger the other way.

I took last Friday afternoon off and started fitting in the new metal. The one place I had a problem with the "fit" is where that front edge of the new apron meets up with the rad support right in the battery box area. Finally just had to lean into it with everything I had and put a clamp on it while still holding it.

But I have also noticed the battery tray is hard to get the holes on the two new pieces to line up with the old holes. Probably going to have to drill a couple of new holes on that one but no big deal.

This has been a lot of work but rewarding to know I could actually do it...and the best part is my hood still lines up and closes properly, LOL! If I had it to do over again however, I would buy the piece that has the first cross member already attached to the rad support because it was a pita to get the first cross and the rad support separated.

Don't have too much more to go. My boys helped me paint the inside of the fenders with rust converter last weekend and I need to throw a coat of paint on those. I cleaned up my radiator some on Sunday and need to paint it as well but going to start putting her back together and hopefully get it done this week. I need to get it up on jack stands on Saturday...when I started to take my transmission cooling lines off one of them snapped. I knew they were sold as pairs so I just said screw it and snipped the other one.

 

[Fast68back]

Didnt they change the orientation of the battery somewhere between 64.5 and 66? I seem to recall in some pictures the battery lays out differently, I'll see if I can find some pictures to illustrate.

here is one of them,

And this way

 

[RustyRed]

Looking at it again I think in part it just "looks bigger" in the pictures.

On the first one I was more towards the front of the car looking back down the car. On the second one...I am more behind it taking a picture looking forward. The new clean metal probably also makes it look larger.

I was actually pretty pleased with the fit for the most part...at least for reproductions. The battery tray doesn't look like it will fit exactly but I only played with it for a couple of minutes the other day. It will fit but will have to make some new holes for it.

 

[Dne']

Yahoo!!

ep Yes, rewarding! Looks great Rusty!!
When I went through this process, I though I would just replace the radiator support, so I cut just the radiator support out leaving the crossmember, but when I went to Finally open the box to see my new radiator support, it had the crossmember attached to it :doh. So that led me to replacing my struts too! All in all, I'm glad I replaced it all.
Again!! way to go! ep
dne'

 

[RustyRed]

Thanks dne'.

I made it a point during this process to not get in a hurry and have cleaned up a lot of stuff I can't normally get to with the fenders on the car. Most of it you can't see with the fenders on so not really about appearance, just doing what we all do with Rustangs....dealing with and hoping to prevent further rust :rofl

On the plus side of things...a friend of mine is going to give me some new rocker moldings that he had and doesn't need. I thought that was really cool since my old ones look like they have been through WWIII and they want a lot more than I would have imagined for those prior to your getting stuck with "over sized" shipping that I am becoming convinced is a scam with some of the really light parts.

It is nice also to see my 8 year old twins taking an interest. They helped me paint several misc. pieces on Saturday and appeared to think it was a blast. On Sunday, one of them helped me drill a couple of holes. I kept a hand on the drill but he was holding the drill, squeezing the trigger, etc. You would've thought he was king of the world he was so thrilled with himself. Now he wants to try welding but I told him he will have to wait a few years on that one, basically told him welding can be dangerous (I have a burn or two to prove it unch )

 

[RustyRed]

Ok, so not much risk of me quitting my day job to take up photography as a career path but here are a couple of fast snap shots. I didn't have much time at lunch but did have a couple of minutes. Finally got the last few bits put back on the Stang last night and she is basically ready to put back on the road. Need to check the tranny fluid, air the tires and give her a bath but that is totally minor stuff.



Here she is back in the garage and all put together.

Couple of the new metal, at least as good a picture of it as I could get. The new metal is the radiator support and the battery tray plus the fender apron under / next to the battery tray.

I was amazed at how much a little wire brushing and some gloss high temp paint helped the radiator. A buddy of mine came over to look and thought I had bought a new radiator but here is how the bay looked before I started all this.

Not really a noticeable difference to most people and the bay in general still looks pretty crappy but at least all the metal under the hood is now solid. Hoping to get in there and replace the worn out old 289 with something newer soon and will really clean up the bay then. Also planning to change out the export braces and add a Monte Carlo at some point.


Little by little as they say.....

 

[Dne']

looks great!

That came out great!!! I'm proud of you!!! ep

 

[Midlife]

Well done! You should be very proud!

 

[Sluggo]

Nice work.

Did you borrow my camera?

 

[70_Fastback]

Excellent job! Very rewarding ahe?

 

[RustyRed]

Did you borrow my camera?

Well...actually my camera was broken at the boys' b-day party some time back and I haven't gotten around to replacing it and the camera on my cell is messed up as well so I borrowed the boys' super el-cheapo camera.

I hit the two year mark next month so that I can get a new cell phone for a lot cheaper than I can now so I am waiting to replace it but going to try to find one with a decent camera...

One thing that I am going to add in the next couple of weeks is I have seen the deal where you can put a '68 style clamp to hold the battery down. For the moment I still have a tie down type strap on my battery and it looks pretty tacky. :rofl

 

[cmayna]

Looks good. I have a suggestion regarding your battery. When your battery craps out, buy a new one with
the terminals switched having the postitive post away from the battery apron. Doing this will prevent you from
possibly zapping yourself whenever you attempt to disconnect the + cable letting the wrench touch the sheetmetal.

Yes you would need to change out the battery cables.

 

[RustyRed]

Thanks cmayna...I'll keep that in mind but I hope it will be a while before I replace my battery.

I have had the car about a year + 2 months and somewhere in that time the battery went totally dead on me. I started checking it out and found paperwork that it was 3 - 4 years old. It was dead as a door nail so I replaced it. This one is give / take six months old.

On another note, I drove the Mustang to work today. Other than the fact it is hot as heck outside and I don't have A/C it was great to finally get to drive her again.

I feel like the car rides much better (or stiffer or smoother hard to explain) now with that metal replaced. Maybe it's just me but it feels like it rides nicer...am I on drugs?

Going to order a Monte Carlo bar today because it is a father's day present and get it installed pretty soon. From there I am going to get some new export braces at some point and I am seriously considering adding some subframes to the car.

Hoping to pull out the worn out old 289 at some point in the near future but waiting to see on a couple of financial things with that one.