Optimus Prime - The '68 Coupe

Baff Time

If leaving phosphoric acid on your part for 10 minutes works great, than leaving it for 20 minutes should work twice as well, right? Nope!

Funny thing this phosphoric acid is. You see it sorta has a reaction time, and after that it evaporates or something, so whether you leave a coat on for 1 hour or 2 hours it does the same thing.

So what works for me is applying it once, allowing it time do to it's thing, then using the steel wool to agitate it and help it out a bit, then applying a second coat, allowing that coat time to do it's thing, then agitating using the steel wool, then... well you get the idea, lather, rinse, repeat, it worked for me.

Now these fenders are not 100% done yet I will hit them again next weekend, and yes you can leave them like this and they won't rust, not in a week anyway, not in a month even, but I wouldn't put them back on the car like this un-coated with something, do you get what I'm saying?

Pic 1: Original rusty (40 years)

Pic 2: Wire brushed (2 hours)

Pic 3: First acid coat (10 minutes)

Almost Ready

OK, I figure I have one more hell day of head down get 'er done prep work and then I'm ready for primer. Here's a list of what I think I have left, see if I missed anything:

1. scuff up quarter panel ends (where the extensions used to be)

2. scuff up head light extensions

3. scuff up outside of kick panels where speakers went (bottom of A pillar)

4. scuff up stone deflector

5. scuff up insides of doors and coat with Rust Reformer

6. scuff up parking light doors

7. maybe scuff up rear bumper in order to paint it the color of the car (should I?)

I hate all the small *****. Clean garage [again] build outside temp paint booth for all the loose bits. Tape and mask off the car. Pray for good weather.

mercurycapri said:

I just bought a 1967 mustang for $450. All it has is doors, hood, windshield and the suspension, other than that its a shell.

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Awesome, what else do you need, jk!!!

mercurycapri said:

I used to be intimitated by rust but ive been checking up on this thread here and there. It doesn't seem to bad of a job.

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Sorry to have mislead you, RUST is a MAJOR pain, don't under estimate it, seriously it can be fixed but it's not all fun and games like I make it look and sound

best of luck to you, and say it in pictures

68stang351 said:

Geez man, you've inspired me! I feel motivated now do to some body work on my 68.

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Hey fellow 68er. All I can say is Baby Steps. You may be saying well shoot I would love to get going on the stang, but I need the hood, and the left fender, and the right fender, and the front bumper, and...

Wait, stop.

You don't have to buy all that at once. You don't have to fix all that at once. So divide and conquer. Keep an eye out for parts on Craigslist, I love parts hunting, and if you need a bunch of parts it's easy to find something becuase you are not just looking for the Boss 429 left valve cover, you know what i mean.

Even if you get and fix one piece per month in 4 short months you can have that front end almost done. At least all the heavy lifting. And if you think 4 months aint gonna go by quick, MARK MY WORDS. Just like there are Dog Years, there are Car Years, time travels at the speed of restoration, LOL.

Also while parts hunting that is the perfect time to grease the wheels a little bit with the spouse. Ask them which weekend down the road is open, no weddings, birthdays, funerals, reunions, etc. Heck maybe squeeze in a nice date night as Down Payment for a future weekend in the garage. See what I'm saying, there are things you can start doing.

Heck get out there you all and clean your garages. Spring is around the corner, and we all know our garages could use a little TLC. And you know and I know that walking in to a clean garage is motivation enough to pick up a wrench and take it to the old Mustang.

Best of luck everyone,
G-Spot

The Devil's In The Details

Another 12 hour day in the stable. Just when I thought I had everything removed, I went to finish scuffing the front cowl area and ran into the windshield washer squirters. Well off with these pesky things. I doubt they will find their way back on the car, but I am still documenting these for those of you keeping score at home.

Headlight Buckets

Went to hang up my hat, noticed the headlight buckets hanging from the hooks on the sidewall in the garage. Great forgot all about those, gotta remove the buckets out of the fender extensions and sand those bad boys. Found out that by removing the spring I could easily get the buckets out. The buckets are rusty, but they will be attacked later, for now it was time to sand the extensions. Learned that you can hammer out pot metal, die cast, what ever those things are made out of.

How about the other side?

Cute, but did I do the other side? ... Yup, and what a pain in the butt it is to sand these things by hand.

Pterodactyl Gills

Removed these inner fender splash shields. I'm not going to prime these, they will be painted black with POR-15 later. I removed them to have better access to clean the parts needing cleaning. Passenger side seems more rusty than the driver side, not sure if there is a logical explanation for this, maybe the right side of the vehicle rides closer to the street gutter, who knows, and at this point I don't care.

Stone Deflector Rust Removal

Pound for pound or inch for inch I should say this small piece was the most rusted of all the pieces that I removed. I just don't get it how the belly of it which sits horizontal to the ground can accumulate so much rust, it's not like a floor pan where water can collect like in a pond. It is still not completely rust free even after wire brushing it and soaking it in the Phosphoric acid. However I wanted to reserve a spot for it, so I have a place to post a picture once it is all cleaned up.

Starting To Mask Things Off

Finally the time has come to start masking things off. After about an hour of vacuuming the dust off the car as well as inside it I spent more time on my hands and knees vacuuming the floor of the garage using my small shop vac. Then I busted out the 2 inch blue tape and a roll of the 3 foot wide brown paper. I found that it is well worth buying the roll of paper than trying to use newspapers or old paper grocery bags. Saving some plastic from a new love seat we just bought for the engine bay helps too. Just use what you have.

I taped the wires in the rocker sill since I didn't wanna create more work for me by pulling it out. I will deal with the electrical later. Taping the windshield nice and neat all the way around is a kind reminder that I'm just an amateur as there was no reason to be so precise on the top.