paint stripper – One Man And His Mustang

The weekend still arrived slower than ever after a Bank Holiday at the beginning of the week. I was excited to get down to Mustang Maniac to see what had been done to my car. The lower cowl was going to be replaced as it had rotted through and that piece of work was known about. With the cowl off the guys could see the fire wall and the back of the dash clearly in daylight. On full inspection of the dash they could see it had gone a little thin underneath and rusted pretty badly all along the inside. A discussion was had to either replace the whole dash, or weld parts onto the old dash. This would mean shaping metal and replacing the radio slot that is always butchered on the classic cars. The decision was made to replace the complete dash, not a cheap option but it was going to be worth it in the long run. As ever Adam had a full dash in stock and was fitted, welded and brazed into place. It’s a little difficult to see black on the dark underside but you can make it out.

The top part of the firewall had to be fabricated as it was little thin in the top crease, so again it was decided by Terry to cut the top off the firewall and replace it with fresh metal and shape it to the new lower cowl. Metal work skills being displayed in all their glory and you can’t even tell it has been replaced. With the lower cowl now firmly welded in place it was masked up and then given the first of a couple of layers of primer. It was at this point I was sent this teaser photo by Adam to show the primer had been applied to the cowl, this is the first piece of fresh metal to get proper paint.

I turned up very excited and itching to see the car expecting to see the cowl in primer. I wasn’t disappointed the lower cowl was painted in the colour that I wanted, Acapulco Blue. Obviously I am biased big time here, but it’s a bit different and a stock ’67 Mustang colour, I am absolutely delighted with it. This was the first time I had seen the colour on my car. A pretty special moment.

Acapulco blue

new dash and cowl

I got a bit carried away having a little bonding session with the fantastic paint job much to the amusement of the guys who followed me in to see my surprised look. Adam broke the news to me about the very busy day ahead of me. The trunk was to be removed and then strip it back to bare metal to see if there was any “little surprises” waiting for us as Adam puts it. What he means is, are there any pin holes or rust that have been covered up. I started on the top side and then worked my way to the underside. The underside took a lot longer due to all the corners and curves that made it hard work. I am pleased to say after a few hours hard work that the trunk is solid and no rust at all, except for a two very light surface areas where the paint had chipped off on the top side.

The next job was to red oxide the inside firewall as I had stripped it back to metal last week. The end results are pretty amazing I must say.

I was spoilt this week in my own little sanctuary, a nice guy Chris was given the dubious pleasure of working with me for the day. It’s normally quiet in the work shop, but last weekend it was a nice change to have somebody to share a conversation with all things cars. Chris made a great job of stripping the right side B pillar and the rear panel under the rear screen. Thanks for your hard work Chris. Throughout the day the normal visits from the guys was in full flow and towards the end of the day I was given some “homework” by Adam. That homework was to take home one of the fenders and strip it back to bare metal. Adam was right it was a busy weekend for me with a few more to come like it. Things have stepped up a notch, big time!

Sunday, I got up with a full day in front of me and the backs of my legs aching. My homework was to be completed along with the trunk hinges and sprung bars that connect them to hold the trunk open. The hinges were to be stripped and all paint removed as it has to be painted the same colour inside the trunk. I though I would try to be clever to strip and clean the parts with the sprung tension bars in place. Unfortunately this turned out to be a nightmare so I had to remove the bars.

I held one of the hinges in the vice and lever out the first bar. This was enough to start a cascade of events. The sprung bar unleashed itself like a coiled cobra and the end of the bar slapped me on the left hand at the base of the knuckle, the instant pain caused me to rub my hand as the other bar sprang away hit the man cave rubbish bin, this in turn was sent flying leaving a cloud of old sanding dust and rubbish all on the man cave floor in the doorway. After the initial clean up and the bruise on my thumb and wrist getting darker by the minute, I took the hinges back outside to complete the strip down. Both hinges came out pretty well and I was well pleased. To protect the inside of the hinges I gave a coating of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator to prevent additional rust on the inside of the hinges. The sprung bars were given an undercoat of red oxide and then a top layer of silver.

first hinge

before and after from each side

both cleaned

sprung bars

inside treated

The homework was a dilemma, how to remove the paint from the fender. I decided on my Dewalt dual action sander with a 100grit discs. I intended to go down to the undercoat and then use a lighter and lighter grades to get to the bare metal. Some of it went to plan and some of the paint came straight of and I went to the metal. I will have to fine buff the tiny swirl off the metal work now this weekend. The purpose of the homework? to see if there were any little surprises waiting for me. I am pleased to say I didn’t find any on this original panel so far. I still have the top edge to complete but that could be later in the week or next weekend.

right fender

starting the clean

holes for the emblems

A big update again and a lot has happened, I intended to post on Sunday as normal. But, I had so many pictures to edit it was very late to start writing this little lot up. Forgiven?

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Right fender work to treat the inside click here

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The weekend arrived and I was tired, dead to the world. There is no alarm set at the weekends just for the sake of it, we enjoy our time to wake up slow talk and work out the weekend plan of action. I normally leave the house by half eight to get to Mustang Maniac, but this time we didn’t wake until almost nine. All I can say is we both must have needed the sleep. I got up showed, dressed and left without breakfast. I got in the car and looked for to my trip down to see the guys. Unfortunately as I arrived near Duxford air museum the world and his mate was going the same direction as me. The roads were coned into a single lane in order to filter us down to the entrance. I must say well done to the brain surgeon that decided to send all traffic the same way even though I didn’t want to go there. Hardly the loudest bang in the firework box should we say! Unfortunately I have to go past the main entrance to get on the country roads to Mustang Maniac. The main problem I had was that there were people standing in front of my car trying to direct me into the airfield car park. When I asked them to get out of my way so I could get past, they got the hump with me for not wanting to go in there – get over it! Not everybody wants to see planes, just as not everybody wants to restore a car. I eventually turned up at almost eleven, this delay was cutting into some serious resto time. I was not a happy bunny. But as promised, the first thing I done was to take some more pictures of the car from last week and the work I have done this weekend. I painted the front of the car now except for the small parts that need a little mig welder work to fill the holes and the battery section of the inner wing. We will take the plate out and work out if we need to replace the whole inner fender or not. The other part that has not been painted on the front is the radiator cooling grill to the upper right side. The grill was patched up with filler previously and was very brittle, so we will now have to replace that little section too. So, rather than show a few similar looking pics, I have added the completed front end over the last couple of weeks and the end results. I think you can see more of change that has taken place this way. I even tried my hand at a little impromptu panel beating. The radiator opening at the front had a few wavy edges so I got a flat faced hammer and a sturdy flat block behind the metal and give it some therapy. Boy did that feel good, my mind wandered to other things that were bugging me over the last few days as I was doing that little bit.

Sunday was a day for cleaning of the steering mechanism. This was the usual remove grime, remove paint and remove rust. I have a link to all the pictures here or go to the Photo Menu – Steering – Steering Linkages Recondition for the full step by step pictures so far. This was a probably the most grimy job I have done to date. Now that the parts are cleaned up I will go over them with the wire wool and make sure they are ready for paint nearer the time. A little detail on them in black and some silver highlights sounds good to me. The cleaned up parts look a little shiny or wet as I have just coated them with Gibbs Brand in order to stop them rusting.

Just a couple of how it was:

finger tight fittings

ball bearing in place

How it is now:

idler joint before

idler joint cleaned up

ram pipes

removing paint

after paint stripper

coated with gibbs

polished pipes

cleaned fittings

In order to keep an eye on the parts and where they all go I have used some diagrams and my manuals of course. What I have done is I have compiled a selection of the most helpful Steering and Suspension Diagrams onto a single article that can be found here, just like my brake diagrams I compiled. I hope they are some help to you; As the parts are so integral to each other I decided to keep them together rather than split them up.