Front End Fixes

The guys at Mustang Maniac have been busy welding up new plates to the inner wing and replacing the top cap plates to the fender from the cowl area. This little plate is quite a critical part of the car structure. To remove it without being on a jig will cause the car to bend at the firewall, in effect making the car sag in the middle. Although I had painted the areas and left the offending holes unpatched Yogi has taken a big chunk out and welded a completed new piece back in its place, just to be sure. The welding has been ground down and ready for more protective red oxide.

The steering linkages are the concentration this weekend as I am a little frustrated about having all the parts over my bench. Yes, I know I can move them, but it also prompts me to do something about it. So the plan was to remove the Gibbs Brand, not that you need to, but I Wanted to clean it up again to remove a few little pockets of grease I had missed around the valve mechanism. I applied the degreaser and with a clean white cloth to see where the dirt came from. Once I was happy with the parts being clean and dry I started the tedious masking up of the areas not to be painted. First of all was the rubber sections, and nothing else as everything was going to get a good coat of red oxide primer over it. I found that carrier bags on the larger parts inside the masking tape areas is a quick and easy way to protect the areas not to be painted. Only a small amount of tape is needed to hold it in place. I applied a blob of poster tack into the screw in sections to stop the paint getting in. Once it has been sprayed pull it out and throw it away.

The spraying of the red oxide primer was a little slow to dry due to the weather not being its best. But allowing coats to thoroughly dry before giving a second layer. I also sprayed the idler arm sections and the steel pipe from the valve as well at this point as they are quite small.

With the red oxide dried the next task was to mask up everything that was not going to be satin black painted. That was going to be the valve area and the main ram. To save the valve area complicated masking up I used a vinyl glove over the part and pulled it towards the accurate masking I had done earlier, to secure it in place was a simple wrap of tap around the wrist section. You only have to turn it inside out to re-use the glove with no wastage! The satin black paint dried a lot faster now as the sun was coming out and warmed the man up to an acceptable temperature.

The final part once the black had dried to was to reverse mask up ready for the silver spray. The smaller parts didn’t need to be masked again as they were going to be a single colour. Unfortunately the silver is taking hours and hours to try even though I used thin light sprays to build up the colour it is still a little tacky. I was hoping to add the pipe work to it today but the cool weather has put a stop to that. Rather than ruin the paint I decided to leave that till next week.

I would like to share a final photo of how I am supporting the ram and main steering bar while it all dries. Yep, I know it looks a bit naff, but it works.

Review:

I have added a tool review for the Makita GA454530KD Angle Grinder here, or go to the Tools Review Menu and find it there. This was the replacement for my unbranded grinder that caught fire on me a few weeks ago. What do I think of it? Find out by reading the review. You can also click on the picture to go to the review!