My new project! If you want a good laugh, check this out....

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2055619/1

This is my new project while the Mustang is on the back burner.

Some of you may remember that I picked up a '96 Maxima with 112k on the clock, in perfect condition for 500 bucks because the owner didn't want to pay his bill at my Dad's shop. I picked it up because my Thunderbird that I was driving as a DD is/was hurting big time. After about 2 months, I realized that my T-Bird was much better. Drove better, handled better, braked better, etc. It was just a piece of s h i t, but now I'm fixing that.

It's got 150k on the ticker, and what a roach she is. No paint, yellow headlights, gross interior, nasty wheels, the whole 9 yards. I'm painting myself, cleaning the headlights or buying new ones (I can't decide), putting in a completely new interior, and sanding and clear coating the wheels (I'll get new ones down the road). And to finish it all, my Dad and I are going to put in a new motor. A buddy of his at the Ford dealer can get a re-man'd non-PI 4.6 with zero hours for 2100 bucks. It comes with a 3 year 36k warrantee. Not a bad deal...

I'm going to try and post pics of my progress along the way.

I'm going to start with the paint...I'm going to wetsand with 220 (or 240...whichever it is), clean it about 40 times and go back and wetsand with 400. Anyone have any other suggestions? I've never done any kind of body work before, so I'm open to whatever anyone has to offer.

Make sure to check out the website and enlarge the pics. The small thumbnail ones don't do it justice. I'm really glad I had a girlfriend before I started to drive this car.....this thing is a TOTAL chick magnet.

Joe

What a PITA this is been so far.

I started with the hood and deck lid - 2 of the 3 worst spots. The hood took me a little over an hour. I had to take quite a few spots down to the metal and probably half the hood down to the first coat of primer - it seems that there are two coats of primer. The paint started to spider crack is lotsa places, hence the reason I had to take it down so far.

The decklid too about 2 hours and about a quarter of that had to be taken down to the metal and all of it is down to the primer.

I'm going to do the roof tomorrow. I'm expecting that to take a good 2-3 hours, and judging by the sanding I've already done, most of the roof is going to have to be taken to the metal.

She's starting to look mint though!

I'll take some pictures after I get the roof done.

Joe

RIO5.0 said:

Thats was his Aunt's GPS system....

Click to expand...

Damn...LMAO. I never noticed that.

The Mustang's rear is still blown. I wasn't too concerned with it while I was in school because I didn't have it with me. We moved sometime around April and the house has caused nothing but problems. New windows, leaking Florida room, leaking roof. (Florida room and roof were only supposed to be 7 years old). Then, just as things started to calm down, we went to our beach house for 13 days. My old man and I went up to the strip this past Friday night for the street night, and it kinda lit his fuse again. He seems pretty siked to get some free time and get it together.

I'm only paying for the paint supplies and interior stuff - the motor is on Mom and Pop.

I've got all the parts of the Mustang - Detroit Truetrac, Moser 31-splines, pinion bearing, crush collar...etc. I thought about dumping the cash into the Stang, but I need a reliable DD. 150k on the ticker, and to my Aunt's own admission, (and my Dad serviced the car when he worked at Ford) the car has been run out of oil more times than they can count. She's hurt big time.

Plus, I'm going to paint the Stang (probably next year) so this will be good practice.

Joe