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Bumper ?

R

RustyRed

Active Member
I managed to get most of the front of my car off yesterday...guess that's the good news.

Realized I forgot a part that I need to fix the fender apron so I called John's and ordered that piece plus a set of fender bolts. Figured on the bolts while I had them out no since in putting the crappy looking old ones back in.

My issue is the bumper. The outside that you can actually see when it is on the car looks great. I believe the kid I bought the car from said something about having put a new one on a couple of years back. The issue is the back / underside of the bumper is getting some rust on it.

Any idea if it would look totally stupid if I knocked the rust off and then painted it? I was thinking if it is on the back / underside no one would really see it anyway unless I took the bumper off and a few bucks worth of paint sounds a lot better then the cost of a new bumper....just wasn't 100% certain if that is the best route?
 
Thats pretty typical of repops. Not gonna hurt anything to put some paint on there, not sure how well it'll stick though.
 
Prep and paint as you would any other part. The chrome plating on the back should be roughened but the rust usually takes care of that. I suggest black paint. I have done them before with no problem.
 
Do you mean on the actual outward face of the bumper, on the lower portion though?

Is it just surface rust - can you not steel wool it and clean it up & wax it. Maybe even clear coat it?
 
"70_Fastback" said:
Is it just surface rust - can you not steel wool it and clean it up & wax it. Maybe even clear coat it?
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That might work....it is on the back where no one could see it when it is on the car, heck I didn't know it was there till I took the bumper off but if it doesn't fly then my guess was that no one would notice some black paint on the back side.
 
If it's on the actual INSIDE face of the bumper, I say coat it for sure! I love the duplicolor truck bed coating in the rattle can. I would coat it with that stuff and call it done.
 
I have several cans of undercoating around...guess that is about the same stuff as bedliner....

Have spent a lot of time in the last few months going through the underside of my car and scrapping a bunch of crap off then undercoating it. All that got started with doing the floor pans and the new floor pan metal made the rest of the metal on the underside of the back end look like crap so I started working on cleaning it up and coating it little by little.
 
The inside of my bumpers were beginning to rust, so I applied Rust Encapsulator to convert the rust, and then topcoated with a chrome/silver rattle-can paint.
 
"RustyRed" said:
I have several cans of undercoating around...guess that is about the same stuff as bedliner....

Have spent a lot of time in the last few months going through the underside of my car and scrapping a bunch of crap off then undercoating it. All that got started with doing the floor pans and the new floor pan metal made the rest of the metal on the underside of the back end look like crap so I started working on cleaning it up and coating it little by little.
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I do not like ruberized undercoating at all. The truck bed liner is hands down better in my opinion.
 
I'm just happy I finally got the driver's side fender off last night.

Started working on it on Sunday afternoon but ran out of time. The bolt at the bottom back towards the door was the problem. Typical for the kid that used to own it but instead of putting the threaded clip in they had spot welded a square nut onto the car...why the world will never know. I know he was on a tight budget but those clips cost less than a buck. The nut they had welded on came loose and was just spinning but not loosening. Once I figured that out, all I had to do was slip a flat head screw driver up in there to hold the nut in place and use a ratchet with the other hand.

Now I get the fun of cleaning up and painting all the metal behind the fenders and replacing a couple of panels before putting it all back together.

Remind me again why we consider this "fun" :rofl
 
You know it's fun. Didn't you feel like a manly man when you dicovered the issue with your nut? :rofl

I love working on these cars. I was actually bored this past weekend with nothing major to work on. I not one for having "down" time I guess.

Do you have any pics of your car? I don't know much about it or what you're doing with it; plans, etc. Thanks.
 
"70_Fastback" said:
You know it's fun. Didn't you feel like a manly man when you dicovered the issue with your nut? :rofl

I love working on these cars. I was actually bored this past weekend with nothing major to work on. I not one for having "down" time I guess.

Do you have any pics of your car? I don't know much about it or what you're doing with it; plans, etc. Thanks.
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Funny you should mention it....I am afraid I'll get bored with the car if I ever really get it all done.

I've owned the car a year plus a couple of months. So far the things I have done to it are mostly aimed at getting everything back in working order. Last year I put in a new gas tank, had a friend help me replace the floor pans, pretty much rebuilt the front end, had a serious brake job done, rewired the front of the car, rewired the back of the car, repainted the dash, put in LED tail lights, and LED gauge lights, etc.

Going forward, my next area of focus is to get the engine bay cleaned up and have a 302 built for it. I was going to pull the motor this weekend but the wife put a hold on that (long story, but basically she can screw up any plans you make, truly a gift of hers) so I am now hoping to be able to pull the motor sometime around July 4th weekend.

After that the only big things I really have left to address on the car are rims and paint....along with some minor things such as getting new leaf springs. I eventually also want to convert the front brakes to disc but that is a ways down the road just yet.

Couple of pictures that I have handy....

One of the car when it wasn't torn all apart,

mustang.jpg



This one is right after I repainted the dash but before I started putting it back together. However it does show off the new carpet.

dashafterpassenger.jpg



And one of the engine bay, we'd have to call this the "before" picture. Hope to have an "after" picture sometime this year.

enginebaydrivers.jpg
 
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They're tinted...but not super dark.

They were like that when I bought it and since I don't have AC I can't say that I mind. Have thought about trying to get a little darker tint on them eventually.

I may one day look into what it would take to add A/C but right now I have too many more important issues to tackle with my time / money.
 
"70_Fastback" said:
Seems time is cheap... :conf
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:rofl

That is until you have to buy the time of someone else at a shop, then time is expensive...I have started learning how to do many things on or to the Mustang because I don't want to pay what some of these places want for labor. Buy a Mustang and learn to weld...who knew. Some of the local shops also seem to think you have "sucker" or "back burner slow day" project stamped on your forehead when you bring in a classic.

By the way, here is a picture of my car as of about half an hour ago....I'm thinking I am going to have a long weekend :run

Picture007.jpg
 
Are those cases of beer in the background...?

If so, your not getting that fender back on anytime soon! :rofl
 
Nice looking car. Looks like your doing well. The dash and carpet look great. If I may add something.....push the brakes to the top of your list. Even if you keep the drums for a while, ditch the jelly jar MC and get a dual bowl MC at least.
 
"70_Fastback" said:
Are those cases of beer in the background...?
Click to expand...

I wish but no they are water...stocking up for hurricane season (or because of the new president) a little early this year. Developing quite the stash of ammo as well so I would suggest it has nothing to do with hurricanes. Guess that makes me one of those "right wing terrorist" the department of homeland defense wants to keep an eye on :rofl :zip
 
"Fast68back" said:
Nice looking car. Looks like your doing well. The dash and carpet look great. If I may add something.....push the brakes to the top of your list. Even if you keep the drums for a while, ditch the jelly jar MC and get a dual bowl MC at least.
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I was thinking about upgrading the master cylinder when I pull everything out of the bay to paint it. However, I wasn't sure how hard that was to do, any mods required or just bolt the new one on?

I had an old F150 in high school that ate MC's for lunch, probably just some bad luck with rebuilt parts but I replaced the darn thing several times...I can replace one of those in my sleep.

Also wasn't sure how much that would cost in parts?
 
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