Progress on my 69 Coupe (56k Warning)

(Note: posting multiple replies because of image-per-post limit… couldn’t find any mention of this in the FAQ section though)

Hey all. I dont think I've ever really done a progress pic, but I'm sick home from work today so I figured it'd be a good time to burn a few hours prepping this to show everyone. So here... is my story.


Alas, I have no pics of when I very first got her, but she was very nasty. From the outside, the hood was blistered, and rust holes mared the surface of the car in usual places... but not terrible. Inside is where it was bad. Rats and mice had completely infested this car. By the time I got it they were all dead, but had definatly left their mark. The Trunk was covered in rat poop.. like little Vitamin-E Gel pills.. but poop. .. in the cabin there were a few dead mice layin around, poop all over mixed with some rat poop.. When I pulled the headliner out, tons of mouse poop came raining down. It was absolutely disgusting. The smell was in my nose for a freaking week. oh oh! and under the backseat was a cute mummified family of rats all curled up together... Momma and some babies.. totally dried up and crusty thankfully. Actually I may have a pic of that on a roll of film somewhere but I dont know.

Here is where my picture chronicals begin:

In the barn she sits. After I got her and her counterpart(another 69 coupe in a little better shape) I put them both in the barn to give myself time to prepare mentally for the oncoming challenge... and to give the birds something to poop on.



Both floors need to be replaced so I went to work wire wheelin and did a bit'O'cuttin... .. I ended up using a spot weld remover.. that worked with moderate success.. Plus a sawzall, hammer & chisels(critical), cutting tool, grinder, etc.. the usual. Also, be carefull about your glass when grinding inside. I got metal grindies melted into EVERY window of my car... wait wait, the doors were off so they were safe.. okay, ALMOST every window of my car. The windshield is beyond usability, but the others I think I can use for now. they arent too bad... plus the windshield cracked somehow a few months later anyway.. yeesh.



and with one floor out...



My new floors! Yay! .. one came painted, one came bare with a little oil on it.. so I primed it after a thurough cleaning.



I got a little too excited with the cutting wheel and had to put in a little extra strip of metal to fill the void... *sigh*.. that and the super quality welds.. this picture is just embarassing... My buddy who's shop I was using at the time was thuroughly impressed.. lol.. he's a welder.



Patches went into the inside front corners of each floorpan.. my buddy did most of the work getting this one in...



Some custom seat mounts there.. the old risers were too rust on the bottom and I didnt wanna deal with welding on more rust.. a bit overkill in the thickness dept. but the'll work.



Drivers side seat mounts... Beefier than passenger side because of gizmos we made in the pic after this. Also, you can see in this I POR15'd the floors.


For the driver's side we made rails to move the seat back 6" ... they can unbolted and the seat will mount back in the stock position.. I dont remember where I put those rails though unfortunatly... crap. This is my only picture unfortunatly.

Floors are done.. now the engine bay.... ... *sigh*



Custom battery tray.. I began making it roughly flush on top, but ended up just having it overlap on the bottom.. It aint no show car. Its one piece with two bend in it. I bent the sheet metal by grinding a slight groove where I want the corners(inside of the corners) and then just bent it over a counter edge or somethin.



A little patch panel here.. there was a bit rust hole right in the center of where I put the patch.. why would it rust out there? ..



I added a heavy hunk of angle here.. there was a bit of rust so I did what could to be sure it was strong enough..




and the sky turned black. I put the mustang into deep storage at my buddies for far far too long. It ended up out in his field with just a bedliner from a truck upide down covering the front clip... it was a sad time.

Somewhere off in the distance... a dog howls.



Intermission:

OKAY, 1.5 years later! My buddy was like, hey, you wanna go on a road trip to Texas? and I was like.. YA, Buddy! So then there was the matter of what to drive.. my truck.. his K5 ?.. hmmmm.. "We could go in the Mustang sense your gunna have it done by Sept 1st, right?" he says.... I laugh.

oh wait are you serious? .. apparently so... you see I had set that date as my finish time for the stang earlier this year... however I still hadnt been doing anything about it. Its June now. I debate it for a bit and decide.. heck, that would rock... even if I dont finish it in time I'll get some progress done! so I get my Stang back home around July 20 or so. Gotta have it home so its easily accessable to work on, not at my friends shop.


I bring it home and here she is.



Needs some lovin from the long hiatus.. hayatis.. the long break...



ewwww, rust.



I'm mentioning to my buddy that it takes time to do things right... I gotta research everything before I do anything.. a lot of the research done here on Stangnet of course .. but he says, "Dude, dont research everything for 5 years, just do it!" so I'm all like... "K!"


so I do. I gotta fix the holes in my roof:



I had planned to patch it with sheet metal, rather than patching it by other means... hmm.. the roof isnt flat, I'll need a slight bend... So I get excited and order this, a JET Roll/Sheer/Break! SWEET!



Then I end up doing this:



and this...



and a little of this...



I had "Fiber Tech" goo to the top and bottom(very cool stuff), and then fiberglass matting on the underside for added strength. The reasoning, because I didnt wanna warp the poo outa my roof and not have time to correct it. I'll sell the car in a few years probably anyway so I can do my other mustang.. and do it better.

But before I applied that I needed to get the paint off.. Put on your gloves and mask .. Its time to remove aircraft!



Man that stuff is nasty. I quickly learned even miniscule flakes of residule paint burn when they touch your skin... and that latex gloves alone arent thick enough. It didnt put a hole in'm but still burned through'm. Pulls the paint up pretty good though...and body filler too



It takes more than one application though.. especially on this car which has been painted over the old paint, and has a plethora of body-fillered locations.
I began using a wire wheel to take off a few layers of paint, trying not go go down to metal though.. it helped quite a bit....



And then wipe her down and sand off the extra chunks.. Note, this is the second fender I did this to. The first was just too wavey and rusty.. I decided that and realized I had a spare after I had it pretty much down to bare metal... This is the replacement, which itself has some small dents and issues. The previous images were the first one.
View attachment 508010


Yay, parts from Laurel Mountain! I got a full kit but other boxes came later.



Painted John Deere Primer! Yay!



New leaves painted too! with a custom paint-rack.. Yay!



Agent Smith is happy too! Yay!
View attachment 508018

How I store it every night.. I have to be sure to get her in before the dew comes down.. left her out once too late and had flash rust on the roof the next day..



This is out of order, but note my lovely multicolors.. This car has bee wrecked before and repainted.. Lots of body filler, and a few metal crinkles here and there.



My trunk lid has some issues.... like the super neat rust?..there's also rust on the inside lip pretty bad. I have a spare, but it had a big spot of boddy filler on top, plus rust in the same locations just not as bad.. on the outside.. I think I'll use it but will have to do some patching...

This is quite lovely



ok, time to remove the rear crap... Thank goodness for impact wrenches.



Removin the rear valance.. The screws were missmatched.. plus the paintjob sucked.. This was a post-wreck-replacement panel.



The nekkid rear.. shield the eyes of any children.



Removing the goo from my door jams... I asked how to do this a day or two ago.. thanks for the advice guys.. I ended up using a slot head to scrap off the big chunks, then the paint thinner to scrub off the residue.

Next area of focus.. the trunk... notice the priddy holes. Thankfully, this isnt to much of a load bearing area as long as I dont get in a wreck.. I'll probably cut out some cancer and weld in a few patches.... I really hate rust.




Special thanks go out to

My Dad and brother for the tool access!
Buddy Pete for doing a little work on the trunk and the supply of Mikes to drink.
my buddy Mike for tools, storage and welding help.
JET for the tools

.


and Stangnet! You all are my hero's and when I grow up I wanna marry you!

.. oh and Al Gore for inventing the internets.



The end.

Oh! and one more thing I forgot to say.. I have to have it road-trip ready by September 21st.... Everyone laughs at me when I say that.. man, where's the respect!

I have a Ford Racing 5.0 Long Block sittin down in my friends garage.. waitin to put that in until I get the body painted... I'm thinkin I'll throw my stock 2bbl intake and carb on it for the road trp for gas mileage.. then once I get back I'll probably pick up a road demon and new intake.