1966 Mustang Coupe Restomod

rusty428cj

10 Year Member
Sep 29, 2007
921
216
84
Port Richey Fl
This is what we are starting with. There is not a lot of rust but since Ford did not prime a lot of the inner structure we will be removing all the sheetmetal do any needed rust repair and epoxy priming. The plans are to install Rod & Custom front and rear suspension, Wilwood brakes, Currie 9", AOD and a 347. The body mods will be fender flares, drip rails removed, cowl vents filled in and maybe a few other things as we go.

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One of the first things we did after bracing the body was to remove the cowl

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The quarter panels were removed

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The roof was also removed and there was only surface rust but in a few years it will get worse if it is not cleaned up now

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I'm sure a lot of you are wondering why do we remove all the sheetmetal. The quarters were replaced at one time and we did not trust the workmanship and once they were removed we found rust in the outer wheelhouse. The roof was removed because Mustangs are known to rust in the inner structure in the front by the top of the A pillar. In this case we were lucky and only had surface rust but over time would became holes. The other area on coupes is the sail panel inner structure and we did find rust. A little rust on the left side but the right side had a few small rust holes starting.

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Lower cowl welded in place

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The welds were ground down and epoxy was brushed on

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Upper cowl fit and welded

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Fender apron to cowl extensions welded in place and started to test fit the roof after it was sanded and the back side epoxy primed

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Brian has done a lot of work since I last posted

The rear frame rails had a little rust and needed to be replaced

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Test fitting the trunk floor and gas tank

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Plug welding the trunk drop offs

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Fitting the rear package tray and sail panels

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The quarter panels were shaped wrong and had to be modified

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Fitting the taillight panel and end caps

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Left outer wheelhouse welded in place

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The right side was to long and had to be modified

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Starting to weld the sail panels

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Rear panel welded in place along with the sail panels

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The drip rails were removed and welded

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Welds ground

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We still have more work to do inside the car but to stop the surface Brian sanded it down to bare metal

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I sprayed two coats of SPI black epoxy and it is back in the fab shop

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We had a major set back. Brian lined up the doors but when he went to line up the fenders and hood he found a major problem. A former employee welded the front end on wrong even though he measured and remeasured before welding. There was very little gap on the left door and a large gap on the right side so the front end had to be cut off. After working on this about two weeks at my expense Brian is satisfied with how it lines up and we should be able to start charging the customer again early next week.

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The replacement outer torque box had to be modified to get it to fit.

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Epoxy primed the engine compartment and undercarriage

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Started the bodywork on the fender aprons

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The extra holes in the firewall were patched and the engine compartment epoxy primed

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I still wasn't happy with the fender aprons and we did a little bodywork on the firewall

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One coat of SPI epoxy primer

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Two coats of SPI Turbo urethane primer

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I never have liked the way Ford just stuck the taillights on the outside of the taillight panel and the owner agreed. He wanted to install 67 taillights but the taillight panel is to small so we are recessing the taillights. He ordered a set of billet bezels from Eddie Motorsports.

The first step was to get the taillights to fit the new taillight panel and trace around it.

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Brian decided to make a new inner bracket out of thicker metal.

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This was his first attempt but it was a little to small so he had to make another one out of an old seat riser.

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Test fitting the taillight

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His new bracket tack welded in place

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The top piece is just to hold it in place and will be trimmed.

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The next step will be to make the filler pieces