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What to do... hmmm
- Thread starter Kats66Pny
- Start date
Turn that frown upside down Kat, you never know what will happen. (Maybe the CA StangFIX spirit will overcome the TX folks and show up at your doorstep one day uninvited with tools in hand)
We are all restricted by budgets and other curve balls life likes to throw at us, do what you can and slowly it will all be done before you even know it. At least you can drive your car. :10
I only dream of the day I can drive mine.
We are all restricted by budgets and other curve balls life likes to throw at us, do what you can and slowly it will all be done before you even know it. At least you can drive your car. :10
I only dream of the day I can drive mine.
sigtauenus
Active Member
Kat,
While I think Dave was being a little overly harsh and dramatic, I agree with his sentiment.
If you do any work to the outside of the car to make it look better, chances are sometime done the road you'll want to perhaps wash the car, which means water. If you get to that point where you have carpet in the inside and wash the car, regardless if you drive in the rain, you will have wet carpet and soon after that rusty floors. Wait too long to fix this and its not just floors, but toe boards, torque boxes and frame rails.
Yes, it sucks, but the cowl must be fixed.
Technically you can "freshen up" the car with a cheap paint job, freshen up the engine bay, throw some carpet and shiny new bumpers on the car and it will look decent, but you if you have any desire at all to keep this car, you will only be chasing your tail, as it won't be long before all that stuff you did needs done over or at least the parts associated removed and reinstalled again because a critical step wasn't completed beforehand.
If you know that up front, and are ok with that, then do what you need to do when you want to do it. But know up front that if you put paint on the fenders that paint very well might get chipped or scratched taking said fenders off again to do the cowl, or a spark from grinding down a weld on the apron, the cowl, or the floors (which will eventually need done if not already) may burn a hole in the fresh paint.
Nobody is saying you need to tear the car down to nothing and spend $30,000 on it. BUT, there are some things you may want to make a priority to fix in a certain order because that will end up saving you time, money and effort further down the road.
AND, you don't have to pay a shop for labor for this stuff either. There are local hobbyists who will loan you a welder and all you need to do is buy gas and wire, and very likely some guys who will weld for you if you have the prep done, ie, the old parts removed and the new parts cut to fit and ready to weld on.
If you look at my build thread, I tell the story about driving my car for about 10 years and 100,000 miles on a $4000 restoration, if it was cheap or a shortcut I did it. I was willing to do that at the time knowing it was a temporary fix and knowing I would have to do it right eventually. Then you can see what was involved when I tore it down and did everything over again.
While I think Dave was being a little overly harsh and dramatic, I agree with his sentiment.
If you do any work to the outside of the car to make it look better, chances are sometime done the road you'll want to perhaps wash the car, which means water. If you get to that point where you have carpet in the inside and wash the car, regardless if you drive in the rain, you will have wet carpet and soon after that rusty floors. Wait too long to fix this and its not just floors, but toe boards, torque boxes and frame rails.
Yes, it sucks, but the cowl must be fixed.
Technically you can "freshen up" the car with a cheap paint job, freshen up the engine bay, throw some carpet and shiny new bumpers on the car and it will look decent, but you if you have any desire at all to keep this car, you will only be chasing your tail, as it won't be long before all that stuff you did needs done over or at least the parts associated removed and reinstalled again because a critical step wasn't completed beforehand.
If you know that up front, and are ok with that, then do what you need to do when you want to do it. But know up front that if you put paint on the fenders that paint very well might get chipped or scratched taking said fenders off again to do the cowl, or a spark from grinding down a weld on the apron, the cowl, or the floors (which will eventually need done if not already) may burn a hole in the fresh paint.
Nobody is saying you need to tear the car down to nothing and spend $30,000 on it. BUT, there are some things you may want to make a priority to fix in a certain order because that will end up saving you time, money and effort further down the road.
AND, you don't have to pay a shop for labor for this stuff either. There are local hobbyists who will loan you a welder and all you need to do is buy gas and wire, and very likely some guys who will weld for you if you have the prep done, ie, the old parts removed and the new parts cut to fit and ready to weld on.
If you look at my build thread, I tell the story about driving my car for about 10 years and 100,000 miles on a $4000 restoration, if it was cheap or a shortcut I did it. I was willing to do that at the time knowing it was a temporary fix and knowing I would have to do it right eventually. Then you can see what was involved when I tore it down and did everything over again.
I'm not really understanding why it would be considered a half-assed job if I do the car in sections and keep her somewhat drivable while I do it? If I strip down a fender to bare metal, repair any damage (or replace the whole thing if too bad), and primer it. Then do the other fender, the hood, cowl, quarter panels, trunk, roof. Not neccessarily in that order but basically move in sections around the car (repairing what needs repaired) until the whole car is in primer and then paint it instead of the whole car being apart with fenders off, trunk off, hood off, engine out and stripped down to metal.
AzPete
Well-Known Member
Yes, you can do the car by sections as you stated. Just be sure to get the problems fixed under the piece you are working on. Rear quarters also involve the rear fender wells, inner and outer. What about the frame rails.....how are they for rust? Check out a lot of places for problems before you start. The biggest problem is the cowl. You have to tear into the car for that major repair. That is the hard step as once you decide to go there, it is a major job.
Once the cowl is "fixed", the rest of the car could be done in sections.......unless the trunk floors need replaced along with a rear rail......and a floor board with a front rail.
Not trying to discourage you, just know the real bad areas before you start.
Once the cowl is "fixed", the rest of the car could be done in sections.......unless the trunk floors need replaced along with a rear rail......and a floor board with a front rail.
Not trying to discourage you, just know the real bad areas before you start.
A
Anonymous
Guest
That cowl is horrible, it should be a top priority...IMHO.
:wstup"silverbluePT" said:
"silverbluePT" said:
Fixed it for you Mark. :lol :lol
fd
tarafied1
Well-Known Member
I don't often disagree with Dave, and he is right. But (you knew that was coming), I did my car like you are thinking. I did it a little at a time and kept it close to drivable. Of course mine had much worse rust and there did come a time I had to take it completely apart. However, I do think you could do the weekend projects, even the cowl (maybe longer than a weekend) but it could be done. The risk is that as Dave said, you might do things twice or a lot of extra work over time. The downside to a complete overhaul is it can eat up a lot a cash and become discouraging. I did mine the long and wrong way but it did get done. That offer for an $800 shell might be the best way to go, buy the shell, collect good sheet metal. Get it all prepped and painted, put in new interior as funds are there, etc. then when the time is right, switch all the running gear and wiring, etc. Just an idea... I know the frustration, believe me. My car looked like this for 14 years!
AzPete
Well-Known Member
FYI....shipping a drivable car from northern Ca. to the Fl. panhandle (2500 miles) was $970.00....door to door. They talked that a non running would cost a bit more.
A
Anonymous
Guest
The cowl doesn't cost that much!
The welder needed does.
The welder needed does.
tarafied1
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I think you just need the lower cowl. Maybe just the sections would work (which are $50 each). The whole lower is around $150"silverbluePT" said:
You need a spot weld cutter $4.99 at HF. Surely someone around you has a MIG that can come over and weld it. Even if not, there are companies that have welders on their trucks. They might not charge that much or maybe you can rent one?
If I'm going to do it the 'correct' way and repair rust damage.. I would guess I'm going to need both top and bottom probably as there are tons of rust bubbles popping up where the top cowl vent meets the windshield as well as crap tons of bondo which I assume means major rust hidden underneath.
Oh and then the side pieces. The white/gray on the cowl vent.. is all bondo.
Oh and then the side pieces. The white/gray on the cowl vent.. is all bondo.
Dne'
Well-Known Member
This is a link I found~ a lot of work, but it can be done! What "other" areas are of great concern regarding the body/rust, etc.?
http://www.mustangandfords.com/howto/5206_cowl_vent_repair/index.html
http://www.mustangandfords.com/howto/5206_cowl_vent_repair/index.html
If you need to borrow a welder you can borrow mine. I (unfortunately) don't have any projects going on right now that would require the use of a mig.
My Aikido teacher comes to A&M (college station) twice a week during the school year to teach at the A&M Aikido club. He owes me a huge favor and I am sure he would haul it up there in his trunk for you....He'd haul it even if he didn't owe me one.
My Aikido teacher comes to A&M (college station) twice a week during the school year to teach at the A&M Aikido club. He owes me a huge favor and I am sure he would haul it up there in his trunk for you....He'd haul it even if he didn't owe me one.
Well hard to say since Gertrude is covered in paint.. but by the naked eye (and with a magnet!)...
LH Fender near the wheel has rust holes. Probably easily patched?
Hole in the engine bay eaten away by battery acid.
Trunk area has rust holes.
Dents all over the passenger door.
Rust bubbles near the front and back windows.
Several spots all over the body that magnets didn't stick so I can only guess someone went bondo happy.
Thats about as much as I can tell visibly. If she were bare metal then I'd be able to tell for sure whats hidden under the paint.
Thanks!!! :ecit
Umm does it come with a how to manual? Neither my husband or myself have ever touched a welder. :lol
......Yet."Kats66Pny" said:
Not to add another negative, but welding isn't as easy it looks. I thought I was so awesome and could do a bunch of work to my T-Bird a few years back. So I took--a YEAR-and-half--of welding classes at night at the local community college. I got pretty good and passed my bend tests and such, but I never was able to master the smaller MIG welders typically used by hobby-ists for automotive work. And what I learned, was that just taking up a welder and tossing a few crappy looking welds that can be ground down to look decent is not appropriate for structural repairs, such as a cowl, as these welds don't properly bond the pieces of metal if not done correctly. So while I could throw down a mean flux core or ARC weld, I should really leave the serious stuff to people who have the ability to practice and perfect the technique, like someone who does it for a living...since we're talking about the integrity of the structure of the car sitting around me when I get in an accident. I ended up pulling the motor out of the T-Bird and selling the shell.
So why worry about "restoring" the car? Some of my favorite Mustangs look like hell--who cares? I enjoy the driving experience of the car...I don't get them wet and I don't worry about where I park when I go to Walmart. (Rant/my pet peeve here) I honestly don't see why every car needs to be "restored," especially if you're on a tight budget.
So why worry about "restoring" the car? Some of my favorite Mustangs look like hell--who cares? I enjoy the driving experience of the car...I don't get them wet and I don't worry about where I park when I go to Walmart. (Rant/my pet peeve here) I honestly don't see why every car needs to be "restored," especially if you're on a tight budget.