Hello, everyone. I’ve mentioned this car a time or two before, but I finally managed to move it from my in-law’s place to mine. I figure that means that the project officially begins now.
To give you some background, I acquired this car from my father-in-law. He’s a bit of a hoarder. I didn’t find out until four years into my marriage that her dad had this ’66 coupe holed up in his dilapidated garage buried under junk and old tools. Naturally, I asked him what he’d take for it. He simply replied that I could have it; I just had to dig it out of the garage. Never one to turn down a free car, I got to work.
I had my work cut out for me.
At the time, we lived in Germany. I didn’t really get a chance to start digging it out until we returned to the states in 2016. I then started to work on it as I time allowed whenever we visited. Over the course of several months I slowly dug it out. My father-in-law even let me keep some of the tools I found; this included a Snap-On air drill and air hammer, and a Chicago Pneumatic cutoff wheel. Nice stuff.
Things were looking better until I finally managed to get it out of the garage entirely.
It wasn’t until last weekend that I was able to get a friend with a trailer to help me get the car up to Wichita Falls.
So now the real project begins. The car has a lot of issues, but appears to be a solid foundation. The plan for this car is a mild restomod to include a modern suspension (IFS up front and torque arm or four-link out back as money allows) and a mild V8, 5-speed conversion. More 6-cylinder Mustang coupes with black standard vinyl interior were made in ’66 than any other variant (which also happens to be the year they made the most Mustangs), so I don’t really have any reservations about modifying this car to fit my taste. The only options this car appeared to have were an automatic transmission (replaced at some point with a 3-speed) and air conditioning (original Texas car). The only unique aspect of this car is the original color: Sauterne Gold Metallic. It’s nearly identical to the Lime Gold of 1967, but not nearly as popular. I like the look of the color, so the plan is to repaint it in this hue when the time (eventually) comes.
You can still see bits of original color here and there along with questionable paint and body work. Someone tried to paint it a rather ugly metallic blue at some point. My father-in-law is a skilled paint and body guy. I’m hoping none of what was done to this car was his work, because it’s atrocious.
In addition to the shoddy body and paint work on this car, there is what appears to be accident damage (the fenders are still at the in-laws; I’ll grab them at some point) on the front left and at the back. The floor pans are very rusty with large holes in most of the foot wells. The frame rails and other structural areas appear to be solid.
Anyway, without further ado, here is how she sits at the moment.
The area around both cowl drains and where it is spot welded to the body are all very crusty. None of it appears to be rotted completely through, though. You can also see here the hogged out and slightly mangled radiator support.
Floor pan carnage; the frame rail below appears rust free. I’m guessing that the floors are in the shape they’re in because it was likely stored outside at some point. The carpet was still installed when I started digging it out. The front passenger foot well is in the best shape other than a large dent that was caused from the bottom. The rear seat pan is very rusty with some pin holes here and there. It’s not nearly as bad as the foot wells.
The trunk appears to be in decent shape with little rust. You can see here some rust in the trunk drain channel along with some very ugly welds on the tail light panels. Also of note is the mangled rear fuel tank mounting lip. I think this car was rear ended as well at some point. Perhaps it was involved in a pile up? The original bumper was still attached and had a very pronounced bend in it.
Here you can see a rather large dent on the rear of the roof. I have exactly zero paint and body experience. I’m hoping my father-in-law can teach me a thing or two. I can’t afford to pay someone else to fix this car up, nor would I want to.
To give you some background, I acquired this car from my father-in-law. He’s a bit of a hoarder. I didn’t find out until four years into my marriage that her dad had this ’66 coupe holed up in his dilapidated garage buried under junk and old tools. Naturally, I asked him what he’d take for it. He simply replied that I could have it; I just had to dig it out of the garage. Never one to turn down a free car, I got to work.
I had my work cut out for me.
At the time, we lived in Germany. I didn’t really get a chance to start digging it out until we returned to the states in 2016. I then started to work on it as I time allowed whenever we visited. Over the course of several months I slowly dug it out. My father-in-law even let me keep some of the tools I found; this included a Snap-On air drill and air hammer, and a Chicago Pneumatic cutoff wheel. Nice stuff.
Things were looking better until I finally managed to get it out of the garage entirely.
It wasn’t until last weekend that I was able to get a friend with a trailer to help me get the car up to Wichita Falls.
So now the real project begins. The car has a lot of issues, but appears to be a solid foundation. The plan for this car is a mild restomod to include a modern suspension (IFS up front and torque arm or four-link out back as money allows) and a mild V8, 5-speed conversion. More 6-cylinder Mustang coupes with black standard vinyl interior were made in ’66 than any other variant (which also happens to be the year they made the most Mustangs), so I don’t really have any reservations about modifying this car to fit my taste. The only options this car appeared to have were an automatic transmission (replaced at some point with a 3-speed) and air conditioning (original Texas car). The only unique aspect of this car is the original color: Sauterne Gold Metallic. It’s nearly identical to the Lime Gold of 1967, but not nearly as popular. I like the look of the color, so the plan is to repaint it in this hue when the time (eventually) comes.
You can still see bits of original color here and there along with questionable paint and body work. Someone tried to paint it a rather ugly metallic blue at some point. My father-in-law is a skilled paint and body guy. I’m hoping none of what was done to this car was his work, because it’s atrocious.
In addition to the shoddy body and paint work on this car, there is what appears to be accident damage (the fenders are still at the in-laws; I’ll grab them at some point) on the front left and at the back. The floor pans are very rusty with large holes in most of the foot wells. The frame rails and other structural areas appear to be solid.
Anyway, without further ado, here is how she sits at the moment.
The area around both cowl drains and where it is spot welded to the body are all very crusty. None of it appears to be rotted completely through, though. You can also see here the hogged out and slightly mangled radiator support.
Floor pan carnage; the frame rail below appears rust free. I’m guessing that the floors are in the shape they’re in because it was likely stored outside at some point. The carpet was still installed when I started digging it out. The front passenger foot well is in the best shape other than a large dent that was caused from the bottom. The rear seat pan is very rusty with some pin holes here and there. It’s not nearly as bad as the foot wells.
The trunk appears to be in decent shape with little rust. You can see here some rust in the trunk drain channel along with some very ugly welds on the tail light panels. Also of note is the mangled rear fuel tank mounting lip. I think this car was rear ended as well at some point. Perhaps it was involved in a pile up? The original bumper was still attached and had a very pronounced bend in it.
Here you can see a rather large dent on the rear of the roof. I have exactly zero paint and body experience. I’m hoping my father-in-law can teach me a thing or two. I can’t afford to pay someone else to fix this car up, nor would I want to.