Bought Sadie an early Christmas present (long)

First, in case you forgot, or you didn't read it, here's the thread explaining my new plan for Sadie:
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=577371

Basically, I had come to the realization that I simply didn't have the skill, money or equipment to be able to properly fix all of Sadie's rust issues so I decided to pull what was good off of her and wait until I got out west (to that mythical land of rust free cars ) to find another mustang to put her good parts on.

Well, I happened to get a fair amount of money (no, I didn't rob a bank ) so I started looking locally. Most of what I found were either too far away, way out of my price range, or junk. Then I happened to find an ad in an autotrader (actually, I didn't see it the first time I looked through the mag. I was about to throw it out a few days later and decided to give it a quick glance through again and that's when I saw the ad).
http://chelle.mine.nu/hostingpics/mustangad2.jpg
It sounded interesting so I called and made an appointment to see it.

Went up there Friday, looked it over really well (crawled all over the ground with a flashlight & stuck my head in all the nooks & crannies) and for the most part, it was a VERY solid car. The only rust I found was a little on the driver's side cowl, the battery apron, bottom corner of the outer wheel housing on the driver's side, a few small bubbles here & there, 2 spots on the hood that had been sort of patched with bondo, and the bottom of the radiator support. That's all. Floor pans, torque boxes, frame rails, trunk floors, toe boards, fenders, quarters, headlight buckets, etc, all appeared to be rust free.

We were going to test drive it that day, but only one of the brake lights was working so the mechanic (very nice guy, btw) said he'd fix it and we could come back in a couple days to drive it. It ended up only taking a day to fix it (bad ground) so we went back yesterday and I drove it around a little and it ran pretty good so I made an offer, he countered, and now I have another mustang.

The plan is to use it as a daily driver (I needed a car anyway and this is a heck of a lot better than a POS Honda) while I rebuild Sadie's engine. I'll also transfer a few things from Sadie to it (like her console, recovered seats, hood etc) and use some of the new parts I'd bought for Sadie on it (like the battery apron & outer wheel housing). So it will be like Sadie's getting the body transplant that she needed, but with less blood, sweat, tears, swear words, & money than if I'd actually replaced all the rusted stuff on her.

And since I know someone's going to pull this if I don't post pics . . .

. . . here's some pics.

Exterior:
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/outside01.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/outside02.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/outside03.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/outside04.jpg

Interior:
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/inside02.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/inside03.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/inside01.jpg

Trunk:
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/trunk01.jpg

Engine (yes, the power steering works):
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/engine01.jpg

The bad stuff (rust):
Outer wheel housing
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/rust02.jpg
Viewed from inside the trunk
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/rust01.jpg
Battery apron from the underside
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/rust03.jpg
Spots on the hood (Sadie's hood is actually in better shape so I'll most likely use it)
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/rust04.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/rust05.jpg
Radiator support
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/rust06.jpg
Driver's side cowl
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/rust07.jpg

Passenger's side cowl looks pretty good. I think the collar was replaced (never actually seen an intact original cowl collar so I can't tell for sure), but it appears to be nice & solid.
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/cowl01.jpg

Tomorrow I'm taking it to get inspected & registered so I'll take my camera and snap some shots of the undercarriage while it's up on the lift.

-Chelle

Oh, and oddly enough, with all of her rust, other than the collars, Sadie's cowl was in really good shape so I'll probably use that as a doner when I get around to fixing the cowl (I already have the plastic replacement collar kit).

-Chelle

1) Before you decide on calling this one Sadie, even w/ the transplanted parts, drive her for awhile, you may find she has a different personality, and "Sadie" (completely) doesn't fit....you might have to lengthen (pedigree) her name!

Click to expand...

LOL. Yeah (for everyone else) I forgot to mention that the "new Sadie" has more of a male personality. So things might get a little akward.

B) Has Sadie seen her "new" body yet?

Click to expand...

Um . . . Actually, "new Sadie" had a bad headlight so I took Sadie's remaining light (she's only had 1 installed for quite a while now). So Sadie's blind, but her eye is sitting in "new Sadie's" floor (I'm just going to let my mechanic install it when I get it inspected).

-Chelle

Thanks.

Yeah, it's not exactly 98%. He was actually suprised when I told him about the cowl. Not sure if it was because he honestly didn't know about it, or if he was just suprised that I knew to look and actually found it. Still very fixable, though. And it came with a cowl cover so I can put that repair off for a little while.

-Chelle

Really, the pics don't do it justice; it's a heck of a lot more solid than Sadie. Probably more solid than Sadie was 20 years ago.

The radiator support isn't nearly as bad as it looks in the pic (there's a lot of shadows that are making the hole look bigger than it is). And there's no bondo around the wheel houses. What you're probably seeing is the undercoating & seam sealer.

I'll get some better pics of the underside tomorrow. I'm good friends with everyone at the place where it's getting inspected so they'll have no problem with me being in the shop and poking around at it while it's on the lift and they'll give me their honest opinions about it too.

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention that this car spent most of it's life in California & Hawaii. In fact, it came to Kansas from Hawaii sometime between November 2004 and April 2005.

-Chelle

Something else I forgot to mention:
It already has disk brakes on the front!

And the in-dash clock (although it's not working at the moment).

-Chelle

Well, it's all inspected and registered, and my mechanic was pretty impressed with it. There's a few leaks I'll have to fix, though, but nothing major.

And I got a better look at the radiator support. It's just the bottom on that one end. The top & sides are fine. But I do understand the concern so I'll most likely weld on a patch for the time being. Then when I have the front clip torn apart to do the cowl, I'll replace the whole support. But right now it's just way too cold (it's snowing) to get into that big of a project. But to just do the patch, I might be able to use the shop on base (at the very least, I know dad can) or the dealership where I got it inspected might let me borrow a bay on a Saturday afternoon since their shop is closed then.

I'll post some pics of the undercarriage when my fingers thaw out (no heater).

-Chelle

Okay, drank some Earl Grey; fingers are thawed.

http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/underside01.jpg

Driver's side floor pan, frame rail, & torque box
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/underside02.jpg

Passenger's side pan & frame rail (& my mechanic cussing at the headlight - someone used bolts instead of screws to hold the ring and it's difficult to get a socket in there. That's why I let him do it. )
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/underside03.jpg

Driver's side front frame rail & bumper brace
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/underside04.jpg

Passenger side under the fender (the spot at the top is the back of the battery apron & you can see the radiator support spot at the bottom)
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/underside06.jpg

Passenger's side rear torque box (forgot to snap a pic of the driver's side one)
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie2/underside08.jpg

EDIT: Oh, and yesterday I put Sadie's shifter handle in it and her 3 stuffed animals (Shut up! I'm a girl!) and it's already starting to feel a little more like Sadie.

-Chelle

So do you think that a patch job (with some pretty thick gauge metal) will suffice for a while?

I really hadn't planned on doing the cowl for a couple years (wait until I get out west, get a good job, and another car to use as a daily driver). But I suppose if I absolutely had to, I could go ahead and try to do the full support replacement in the spring when it's a little warmer. It looks like the hardest part would just be dismantling the front end of the car.

I know a patch isn't going to be a permanant fix, but if it can buy me some time until at least this spring, that wouldn't be too bad.

-Chelle

Thanks.

Actually, from what I'm told, it was a heater delete car because it was in Hawaii. The place I bought it from threw a buch of heater parts in the trunk. They were supposed to have a guy come in and install it before they sold it, but he never showed up.

Between what's in the trunk and what Sadie has (including a brand new plenum, core, & I believe a new blower too) I can get a working heater system and have a bunch of extra parts to sell. I just need to get around to installing it.

-Chelle