How would you begin?

[Taranis]

I have a 1968 Coupe that I'm just getting around to restore and wondering where to begin. Each area I think about attacking, I see an up-side and a down-side. I could really appreciate the help on figuring out where to start. Let me give you a little info about the car and what I want to do to it.

1968 Coupe with a 289 and a C4, 8" rear and drums all the way around. Was originally light Blue. I think Pacific Blue? Then someone did a bad red paint job on top of that. The front frame rails are rusted out in front of the shock towers. I want to replace the front end and, place a new engine in it, place rack and pinion on it, new front suspension, 9" rear, and course new paint.

The real question is should I bring the whole thing down to metal before I have the fron-end worked on, or visa-versa? There really is no rush to get this car done. I just can't take it totally apart at once because space is a premium in my Grarage.

 

[2nd Mustang]

I have the same problem with space, so when I attack an item to work on my Stang, I allow much more time than what I originally thought it would take. Murphy's Law. I would think safety first, such as the mechanicals, etc.

 

[jikelly]

I would think safety first, such as the mechanicals, etc.

That's the way I did mine. All work done by me. It's easy to work on the old stangs, but very time consuming. Where I have run into trouble is when jobs take more money than I had planned. That's when the stang winds up sitting out in the yard for months at a time. I would say pull your engine and repair the front frame rails, then replace your front suspesion components. Make modifications that will improve handeling, braking and add the rack and pinion system to revolutionize your steering. Then if you need the car running again, clean and restore the engine compartment, rebuild your motor and throw it on in. Then later you can pull your interior, refurbish it, replace your wiring harness, if its bad, fix whatever else, and lastly do the paint. At least that is basically what I did. Rust sucks big ones by the way.

 

[65straightsick]

Suspension first, always, it wouldn't make since to throw a rebuilt engine in there and try to work on suspension. Get the R&P and new front suspension in place now, including disc brakes if need be and then if you want clean up your engine bay while its empty. Then I would say if you need all new wiring do it now with all the engine components out of the way so that when the new engine come, you just plug and play. Like mentioned above, interior and paint are last on the list.

 

[69 Capecod]

I would get the new engine and build that. If you are going to build it your self. If not then send it to where its going to be built. Why that is being done I would work on the replacing the frame rails and work on the suspension. If you are going to convert to disk breaks then I would do them next basicly I would start from the inside and work my way out. Thats my toughts anyways. If your going to paint the bay then when everything is off is the time to do it. The easy way to work on all this is to Pull the nose and fenders tho.

 

[rbohm]

the very first thing you need to do is examine the car carefully, and determine what needs to be done to bring the chassis to it original specs. that includes rust repair, and other damage repair. remember that the chassis is the platform for everything else, and if it isnt right, the rest of the car will suffer.

next determine what engine and suspension upgrade you want to do, and stiffen the chassis accordingly.

once the chassis is done, you can get going on the suspension and brakes, then drivetrain(including the engine), then bodywork, then interior. you want the car to safe and solid FIRST.

 

[jikelly]

I forgot to mention that you will need to find an inexhaustible source of funds.

 

[65straightsick]

I forgot to mention that you will need to find an inexhaustible source of funds.

Yeah i forgot that part.....the bottomless pit of money is needed above all

 

[Thenemesis]

if the body has some problems as far as rust.. then i would pull it apart and strip it.. fix the body so you have a solid ground to work on.. then go from front to back with the modifications.. get your front end rebuilt w/ rack and a new motor.. then go back from there.. we just started on our 68 coupe prostreet which will basically be everything you want done but ours has already some of your choices done to it.. we are starting on the body which is actually VERY solid and has no rust (even in the cowl is like solid) and the passenger 1/4 needs some dings out and then were painting it the flat primer black HOTROD style then putting a 428 CJ, rack n pinion, already has a 9" but we will put in a detroit locker with 4.56 gears, tie the frames, put together a interior and BAM we have a prostreet

 

[Taranis]

Gracias all,
I've pretty much looked the car over and the "only" rust that can be found is on the front frame rails. I'll go ahead and take the engine out and have someone weld the new frame rails in place. Mashburn Mustang is about 20 minutes away. I hope they can get to it in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Thenemesis]

well what kind of rust is it.. like thick rust thats ate it away or surface.. you can also just put patches in like a patch for just the outer section (if that the only part rusted).. we put a frame rail from the right shock tower forward on our fastback and we had to replace inners and outers on it.. when we were done it looked factory but was better

 

[Taranis]

About 6" in front of both shock towers, about where the bumber brackets bolt to, there are rust holes on the bottom of the frame rail. Plus, when I removed the bumper brackets, quite a bit of rust came out. I kinda' figured that if there's that much rust up there, then I can' trust those peices to be structurally sound. The floor pans look good and I can't see any gaping holes in the cowl vent. Front Torque boxes are shot, though.