Selene/Fred is a San Jose built 1965 Mustang

[AzPete]

You planning on driving that thing soon? Get those wheels and tires off so you can see the next project.....

Looking good. Very enjoyable to watch your progression.

 

[abrahamfh]

You planning on driving that thing soon? Get those wheels and tires off so you can see the next project.....

Looking good. Very enjoyable to watch your progression.

Thanks Pete, Im sure I have included many WTF is he doing moments.

:lol :lol :lol :lol

I will take care of the tires on Sunday. LoL! I can't find any tires to fit the wheels Fred originally came with so I have two sets of tires and running out of room. I had bought some from Craigslist when we pulled the engine out so I can roll Fred around but I am not comfortable with them due to them having been drilled out to fit Fords and Chevys.

 

[AzPete]

If you are using the drilled wheels for rolling things around while working on it, I would say they will be fine. Even driving with them is ok if drilled correctly but I would not like those to drive on myself. Many after market wheels today are factory drill for more than one pattern.

 

[abrahamfh]

Last night I was able to get a lot done, well, at least to what I believe is a lot done, LoL!

I actually decided to revisit my floor pan situation, especially after Craig so nicely implied that he could possibly be persuaded to donate his time and welding skills to help me out.

Front PS floor pan. What do you guys think of just cutting out the section in a rectangle and cutting out a patch from a repop? The pan is very solid and strong around the area I have already cut.

Looking back at the thread we had touched the subject of the fiberglassed PS rear floor pan. I decided it was time to see what could be done.

From inside Fred with a light underneath.

The underside

I took some Lacquer Thinner, poured it on and used a old Spackle spatula to get it into the edges of the FG.

Once I let it soak for a while I used a pair of pliers to try and lift up a corner just enough to get a old flat head screwdriver between the FG and the floor pan.

I was able to get the edge closest to the rocker to lift up a little, and then used the pliers again and after some serious effort it popped off. OH YEAH!

Thinking about putting it up on the garage wall, what do you guys think?

This is what was hidding underneath the FG. I don't know if I can get away with a patch. Anyone with some insight, please chime in.

Here is a shot of the DS rear floor pan, it's really solid.

Here is a shot of the DS front floor pan.

Once that was over with, and I was as high as a kite from the thinner I got back to removing the PS quarter window and the quarter panel ornament.

After that I got really tire and went to bed. LoL!

 

[AzPete]

Depending on the patch quality, it would be a toss up. Some floor sections I have dealt with were a good fit. Remove the entire section and weld in. Others were off to the point of being impossible to fit as one piece and I sectioned in the specific rusted out areas.

Get your patch panels and lay them over the floor and see how the lines and such align. Then decide on the full section or a square patch.

I found a squared off section was better to work with and easier to line up. Just make sure you get all the areas of rust as the areas outside of the heavy rust may have pinholes that are not yet visible. Maybe a bit of light pounding with a rubber mallet (no deforming the metal) to knock some of the other rust loose. This is where the blasting helps.

 

[tarafied1]

I try to use as much of the original panel as possible but don't overlook heavy pitted metal that could continue to rust away. I think Pete said it well! It's looking good Abe!

 

[Midlife]

I would first wire-wheel or blast the surface rust off of what is left of your floor pans before doing anything else. That rust may be hiding many pin-holes or too thin a metal to patch to. Any metal you want to accept a graft from a patch should be as thick and original as possible.

 

[abrahamfh]

As I was trying to carry out Pete's request to take the wheels off Fred, I encountered some stubborn wheel nuts that would not come off while Fred was in the air. As I started to lower Fred off of the jacks, this idea popped into my head to try and figure out what rear axle gears Fred was packing. What a nightmare trying to figure it out via some online tire to drive shaft rotation equations. Yeesh. Once I had pretty much given up trying to determine what gears we were dealing with I noticed something that resembled an ID tag. After hitting it with the wire brush and some lacquer thinner this finally revealed itself.

Now to figure out what it means.

Finally, it's 2:27, I'm cold and I'm tired but the job got done. Here ya go Pete.

Oh yeah, since I needed to drop Fred's rear to remove the tires, I had a encounter with the forgotten three speed Fred came with. What should I do with it?

Anywho, any request anyone wants to make on what to do next I'm all ears.

 

[fordrule]

are you replacing all the rubber busing on the suspension and steering ...throw some PB blaster to loosen up the hardwear and see what needs to be replaced. check the wiring in the engine compartment and start seeing if any other metal repair needs to happen

 

[AzPete]

Put the car on one of them there frame things to spin it around........lol

Are you pulling the suspension to replace? Do you need the suspension for moving the car? I would do the suspension as mentioned. Make sure the frames are good before getting to deep into the suspension.

 

[abrahamfh]

are you replacing all the rubber busing on the suspension and steering ...throw some PB blaster to loosen up the hardwear and see what needs to be replaced. check the wiring in the engine compartment and start seeing if any other metal repair needs to happen

To be honest with you, I have no clue what I am doing at this point. LoL! Actually I have had no clue what I have been doing this whole time if it wasn't for all of you but I have not taken the time to look at the suspension yet.

I will do that as soon as I get home this evening.

Put the car on one of them there frame things to spin it around........lol

Are you pulling the suspension to replace? Do you need the suspension for moving the car? I would do the suspension as mentioned. Make sure the frames are good before getting to deep into the suspension.

That would be cool if I could fit one of those things people sometimes cook chickens or pigs on into the garage, space is starting to get super limited. The front frame rails look really good, with the exception of those two bumper bracket bolts that broke off in the PS frame rail. Almost everything from the cowel forward looks to be in really great shape other than a small patch about 3"x3" required for the front PS apron where the battery tray was and it's pretty much set.

 

[Dynamic]

I am thinking of building a rotisserie once my car arrives. makes under body prep work that so much easier especially replacing floor pans. The cheapest one I can find here to buy is around the $1000 mark, but I am sure you could rig something up for around $100 tops

 

[AzPete]

To be honest with you, I have no clue what I am doing at this point.

Are you going to have the car blasted? If so, it needs to be on a rotisserie to be done right. If you are going to handle the rust yourself, it can be done the way you are setting now. You just need to level and support the car good before doing major re-construction.

Really, blasting or not is the decision on how you precede.

 

[abrahamfh]

I woke up yesterday with a bit of a soar throat and last night I think I officially can say I have the FLU! uke! Freakin Fudge muffins.

Anywho, that wasn't going to stop me from getting some work done on Fred. I figured I would at least remove the shock dust shields.

This is only is the second time I have ever encountered bolts that refused to budge. WOW! The first time was with the PS bumper bracket bolts and it didn't go to well then. I decided to take everyones advice and hit it with some PB and torch it. It was the first time I have used that propane torch and I have to say, besides the smell it was really fun. Only the DS required the nuts to be torched.

Here is the only damage in the engine compartment so far, what do you all think? I really would like to avoid having to cut out the whole front PS apron to repair this but I will if it's the only real correct way to repair this.

I am starting to notice that I am slowly acquiring a "while I'm at it" attitude when working on Fred. Since I had removed the shock dust shields I figured I would remove the shocks and didn't see any reason why not too.

I got the DS shock removed extremely easily, but the PS was a whole different story. One of the bolts which gets a nut to hold the shock tower bracket down broke, as I would ratchet the nut the bolt would spin freely. How bad is that, I see that they sell them on NPD I think? Are they just spot welded into place?

 

[Fast68back]

Sooo, who took the picture?

 

[AzPete]

Those three bolts have a square shoulder that holds them while turning the nut. They are not held in place except for the fact that they kind of wedge into place. Get new ones.

Sooo, who took the picture?

Somebody else may be doing this work and we are being duped........hmmmmm

 

[Midlife]

The carriage nut under the shock tower is worn; stick a screwdriver in there to hold it in place while you turn the bolt.

 

[Fast68back]

The carriage nut under the shock tower is worn; stick a screwdriver in there to hold it in place while you turn the bolt.

Its already broke

"One of the bolts which gets a nut to hold the shock tower bracket down broke, "

 

[abrahamfh]

Sooo, who took the picture?

Those three bolts have a square shoulder that holds them while turning the nut. They are not held in place except for the fact that they kind of wedge into place. Get new ones.


Somebody else may be doing this work and we are being duped........hmmmmm

I have recently contracted the same elves that built Shag. LoL! Soo kidding. I can only hope to be half as thorough as Craig has been with Shag.

My sister and her boyfriend were over so I hassled her into taking the photo for me. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to actually be in a photograph working on Fred.

 

[Anonymous]

Stupid question, but are doing all this work with *gasp* hand tools?