Crane's 1968 Mustang Restomod

More progress! I'm getting excited again. My paint guys are finally getting some work done consistently.

Here the latest:

More progress! The paint and body guys spent some more time on it, and for the first time in a very long time, this car is the same color for the whole exterior. (ok, well perhaps not for the roof where the vinyl will go!)















Super excited! We will be pulling the glass soon, and the doors will be removed to paint the car. The jams and such will get painted too. Should be done pretty soon now!

robert912005 said:

well it does look very nice, but what is going to be done on the inside where the patch panel was put in?

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Not sure yet. Will probably smooth it all over and cover it with undercoating. I'm not super worried about it, but at least want it to look somewhat nice.

Cruising at the speed of smell.

Got the trunk of and an prepping it. (well not ME, the body guys)



Old weather seal is so brittle you can crack it by touching it.

A bit of surfacy rust was found under the trunk lip. We will grind into it and see what we find and decide what to do when we know more.

Also scraping off all the crap underneath the adhesive. Fun fun.

The paint guys have been busy. All the jams have been sprayed and cleared, and now they are back to bolting stuff onto the car. I spent a bit of money at the hardware store investing in new zinc plated hardware to bolt everything back up. Wow it's crazy how much more flange bots cost then hex bolts. Still, they have a really nice look that I like.

We roll on!

Today we did some more fitting for the fenders and hood. We also got the glass out and started to clean the glass channels. Does anyone know a good way to clean those out really good? I was thinking of getting a wire wheel for it.



Now that the fenders are on we can start to see the new stance. Keep in mind it is fully adjustable with the Rod & Custom front end, so I can move it where I want. What do you think? Move it up a hair? Lower? Just right? The nice thing about the kit is you can do pretty much whatever you want when it comes to stiffness and ride height. It may take some tweaking to get it perfect.









We decided to go ahead and have the vinyl top and headliner installed before final wet sanding and paint. Tomorrow we will put it on the tailer and take it in. The are installing the headliner and vinyl top for $750 which includes all materials. They are also not using a kit to make the top, they will create the seams themselves.

I did order some Dynamat Extreme to do the roof. I plan to cover as much as I can under the headliner since I don't want to pull the headliner or top later. I also decided to go with the name brand for this reason. Not sure if its worth it or not but figured I best not skimp now.



Oh, and these supposedly go underneath the front fender and is some sort of fastener. Trying to find another one. Anyone know the name?

Thanks Horse Sence, do you know what those nuts and clips are called so I can order one?

Alex

Moving on! We decided that the vinyl top and headliner should go on before final paint, which is probably a good idea. The upholstery guys agreed, and said they could squeeze me in mid next week. We went ahead and loaded it up and hauled it over to their place.



The next order of business was to get it cleaned up and looking good for the upholstery guys. After sitting in Painter Dave's shop for nearly a year it was looking pretty grimy. After a thorough scrubbing the entire car was looking a ton better. I took a scotch brite pad to the windows with some cleaner and all the sudden my glass was transparent again (a simple spray and wipe wouldn't even come close). Also shined the tires a bit, vacuumed, and wiped down all vinyl with Meguiars Vinyl treatment after washing with soap and water.

Ah yes. The smell of the vinyl. Haven't experienced this in years since the car was new to me. Baby I'm back. Now I remember what it's all about. 55 degrees outside, and hell yea, life is good right now. It's been far too long.

The car all scrubbed down and looking half decent again.





Next it is time to prep for the vinyl guys. One reason I did the thorough cleaning was in an effort to send the message: "This is a nice car. Do a good job." I don't know why, but it seems like people do much better work on a clean car then they will on a dirty one. Even when I get my tires changed I clean my jalopy up to look good. Just a habit. Not sure if it works or not.

Before the upholstery guys install the vinyl top I wanted to install a sound deadener.

First off I better specify my goals- while I do plan to put a high end modern stereo in it, this isn't so I can have competition sound. I mainly just want a nice quiet ride (taking into account the car IS actually a classic Mustang) and a good "thud" when I shut the door. Sound deadeners seem to improve the feel of a car in weird intangible ways. Thats what I'm going for. I do not require 100% coverage.

I ended up choosing Dynamat for a variety of reasons. First off, I don't really think there is a huge difference between all of them. I'm sure you could get all technical and get in a huge debate over the Dynamat / Fatmat / Peel & Stick debate. I don't really buy into it. I'm sure there are some cool physics behind it, but for the guy like me it probably all is pretty much the same.

I have heard, however, that Dynamat tends to be more sticky then the others, which is why I chose it. Since it is going underneath the headliner, I wanted to make sure it would stay for good. To fix it I would have to pull my headliner, which means also pulling the windows...and I don't want to do that. A few extra bucks is cheap insurance. Also...I can now say that my car has "Dynamat" without lying. It's kinda become a generic term.

There was an insulation type material under the headliner rods, glued in spots. It came down easy, and practically fell apart when removing it. My upholstery guys said they had new stuff to put up there. I scraped off most of the glue and wiped the whole area with lacquer thinner.



The roof area above looked pretty good. Didn't see anything that caused me any type of alarm. Some surface pitting here and there, but that has had to been brewing for 50 years. Not gunna worry about it.



This was the absolutely worst spot.



The install went fairly easy. One thing about it- it's sticky. Don't let it touch anything unless you want it to stay there. As a result its pretty tough to put in tight places. Still, its not super difficult to install. We used a roller to make sure it had good contact.



In this spot I needed to keep the bottom open for the vinyl guys. You need it to access the outer trim. I'm not going for 100% coverage, just want to get a good portion of it.







And finally...the before and after video.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_lkw8etTH8&feature=c4-overview&list=UUjw-UtEn88Kypr4TbgM8rEA

robert912005 said:

Hey i have a question. Why dont you paint the car first before you put the vinyl top on? You might get overspray on your new vinyl top.

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It was the choice of the painters. They felt that it would be best to do all the wet sanding with the windows back in, and there was also concern with the vinyl guys trying to put a top on after a fresh paint job, that damage could be done. It could have gone either way, this just seemed to be the best option.

Big week! We got the headliner in (and by we, I mean my upholstery guys) and it looks absolutely great. Well, the picture doesn't look great, but trust me- it looks good.



They also got started on the vinyl top. It looks fantastic so far. He is still finishing it up, and I will pick it up Monday morning. Very pleased. These guys didn't use a kit for it, they created it from scratch and did the seam by hand.













Another one of those very productive days. Very happy!

I was trying to decide if I should replace my glass or put it back in. I have had some stuff sitting on the shelf for years that I have never really used, so I thought I might as well give it a try.



Anyways, it worked really well. I am very happy with the results, and don't think I will replace the glass this time around. I used a softer scotch brite pad (red) along with this stuff and normal glass cleaner and just buffed it for a while. It worked great. I had a tape perimeter around it where it didn't get scrubbed on the first round. I did it twice. You can clearly see the line where I did it.



Something that was really interested were the written numbers. Not sure if this is factory glass or not. I know the rear one is.



Here it is, scrubbing the rear window on the ground. I spend 3 or so hours on both of them. Some of the work at this stage is not so glamorous.



Here is a picture of the glass installed back into the window frames. Its so clear you can't even see the glass!



Just kidding.

Well, back at it. After hauling it back to the painters a few things involving the vinyl top that need to be addressed.

First, I'm concerned about this area. It could tear, it might not. Not sure. He said he will warranty it. I will ask him about it.



I know when the window goes it it will be held in place, but I still it seems like it shouldn't do this.



On both sides there is a piece between the rail and the moulding that is loose and flapping in the wind. Not sure exactly what it is supposed to look like (so if someone can post a detail pic that would be great)



Here is the other side. Note vinyl handing below the molding where it was not trimmed high enough.

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Here you can see how the end is not completely glued down.



On this side the moulding piece sits too far forward.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...Do/w862-h647-no/IMG_20140305_162733.jpg[/img]

Here the guide coat is worn off. Not a huge deal, but I have to wonder why.



For the most part the headliner looks fine, but there is a wrinkle here.



Also glue on my fresh paint in the jams.



Anyways, after the initial excitement wore off and my body guys pointed this stuff out and I just wish I caught it before I hauled it off. I am going to go talk to them in the next few days and politely ask if they could fix these issues. I think they are all easily correctable.

One thing they did right was the seam lines. They are straight as an arrow, and the sewed it up themselves. It has that going for it. They also were very friendly and accommodating and let me work on stuff in their shop. I think they are good guys, but I did ask them to get me in and out as fast as possible. I imagine these issues are correctable. We will see.