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The new guy and his new car

You're not a lawyer?
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No, just a lowly IT guy.

and you can always do what some do.......just open your wallet and have someone else do ALL the work
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LOL...my wife said the same thing. She also called my lovely new orange car "the great pumpkin". After I get it down to the metal and see how much work is there I may rethink the pay someone else to do it route.
 
WAY higher on the food chain. :lol

I have a toy Mustang (with interchangeable parts) that looks just like your car.
 
"daveSanborn" said:
Wayne,

Welcome to the wonderful world of owning a classic Mustang.

Some free advice:

Slow down.

I've wanted a 67-68 since I was a kid, so I'm pretty excited.

Unless you're getting ready to kick the bucket, your dream car isn't going anywhere. Do it right the first time and you'll avoid wasting time and money.


I bought it sight unseen, so I'm sure I'm in for a few surprises when it gets here this weekend.


Trust me, you're in for a LOT of surprises. Based upon the description from the bodyshop you're looking at a LOT of metal work. Understand that it's unlikely that the bodyshop that inspected the vehicle understands these cars half as well as most of the members here. Building a classic Mustang is a fairly easy/straightforward process, but it has to start with a solid foundation.... the body. Before you spend a dime on "go fast goodies" like a TKO or 9", realistically, unless you do the work yourself you're looking at probably $5k in metal work. Since the drivers side floor needs to be replaced, this is usually a sign that the cowl is leaking. If that's the case, $5k will get you started, but you'll need more cash. The good news is it's only money. You can make more.

IMO, this should be your agenda:

1. Thoroughly inspect the car for any damage. Use this forum and the knowledge from our members to help perform this inspection. There's nothing that you'll find that we all haven't seen before.

2. Figure out if your skill level will allow you to carry out any of the necessary repairs or if you'll need to farm them all out to a qualified shop. If/when you do need/find a qualified shop understand that your "emergency" to get the car repaired isn't their "emergency". It's not uncommon for a really good shop to have your car in various stages of progress for months/years. You'll hear it refered to as "paint jail". Of course it can be repaired faster/quicker, but you'd better be standing there with your wallet open to make it happen. Based upon only the description you've provided of the bodies condition, a quality shop's repair bill to include paint could EASILY top $10k.

3. Dream about the days of going to swap meets to source replacement parts and when all you have to do is figure out the difference between a TKO600 and 500 and then buy one (by the way, it's an internal difference and can't be determined from the outside).

Slow down.

We can tell you everything you'll need to know and more... whether it's good news or bad.... but don't let your excitement over obtaining your dream car cause you to jump into poor decisions.

Also, since your car's coming with a 289 there's not a snowball's chance in he!! that there's a 9" rearend in it unless someone swapped it in already.
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Great advice. Car in my signature just came back from paint and body last month after 18 months in the shop. Bill was for 328 hours labor, which is about 2 months if he only worked on my car for 2 months straight. Does that happen? Yes, it does, but only if you walk in the door willing to sign a contract and write a check for the estimated cost to do the project. Otherwise you put down a depost, he does some work, then while you save up for the next check to write, he does some work on another guy's car. Writing a check $2500 or $4000 at a time and seeing the progress is a lot easier than writing a check for $20,000 up front.

Mentally prepare yourself for the reality of replacing stuff you don't think needs replaced. The quarter panel skin and outer wheelhouse you know needs replaced might turn into full frame rails and the entire back of the car due to hidden rust or collision damage, or both. Any body shop can give an estimate when it comes to metal work, but all bets are off after they actually open up the car, as nobody can provide an accurate estimate sight-unseen on what's behind the outer layer of metal.
 
Hopefully the body shop has discovered and disclosed your biggest worries. The car looks pretty good in the pics, but I know that it's pretty easy to polish a turd in a photo.

Congrats on the car. Take your time, do it right, and enjoy the journey.
 
Hopefully the body shop has discovered and disclosed your biggest worries
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It has a little more rust than I expected, but so far doesn't seem too bad. After seeing the front frame rail I'm going to go ahead and pull the motor and have the engine bay blasted too.

I got all of the interior out and so far the drivers side floor will need some attention. That tar based sound deadening crap is a pain to scrape out.
 
That tar based sound deadening crap is a pain to scrape out.
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It's easier to remove if it's "warmed/heated". A heat gun will soften it up, but a torch will turn it into "goo" in short order.
 
Wow, dude joins a site, has a cool 68 fastback, so obviously a guy we want to keep around (particularly if he ends up painting it green) and in his first 6 posts he already had to witness a dude in a balerina costume and the gay flag. That's one heck of a welcome mat we just laid out, huh?

BTW, didn't say this earlier, but welcome to the site. Can't wait to see pics of the progress you make with this car.
 
"sigtauenus" said:
Wow, dude joins a site, has a cool 68 fastback, so obviously a guy we want to keep around (particularly if he ends up painting it green) and in his first 6 posts he already had to witness a dude in a balerina costume and the gay flag. That's one heck of a welcome mat we just laid out, huh?
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Well it best that we don't hide family secrets to new people. Leaving Jer in the closet would be wrong. He's free spirit. :lol

And he know's he's welcome here, heck he has a Mustang. :pbj
 
almost ready to get the orange blasted off
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I'm not really sure what you mean by that statement.....


Does it mean you're almost ready to media blast? Or that you've made some progress disassembling the car?


Honestly, you've still got a ways to go before the car is ready for blasting. In a perfect blasting scenario every nut, bolt, screw will be removed from the car leaving ONLY the shell.
 
yes, I meant getting it media blasted.

In a perfect blasting scenario every nut, bolt, screw will be removed from the car leaving ONLY the shell.
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I'm going to remove the paint from the front frame rails tonight, but if they look good I'm not going to media blast the front end. Almost all the parts are new and I really didnt want to pull the engine unless I needed too.

From the firewall back pretty much everything is out of the car. Thanks agian on the Tar removal tip, that was nasty stuff.
 
"beach pony" said:
In the immortal words of our very own Azpete: If it ain't broke, we'll fix it anyway!
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The correct words are in my sig............not like anyone reads that :lol

As Dave said, when blasting of any type, it should be a bare unit. That media will get everywhere.

Welcome. I take it you don't like the color it came to you in......
 
when blasting of any type, it should be a bare unit. That media will get everywhere.
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This is what I was getting at in my earlier response.


I've done some pretty crazy $hit, but I dunno if I'd attempt to media blast a car with the drivetrain still in it. I've had cars blasted with minimal suspension items installed, but all of these installed items were removed after blasting and then discarded (worn out UCA/LCA/coil and leaf springs). Your front suspension/brake pieces appear to be fairly new, I doubt you'll be wanting to throw them away.

The media makes a BIG mess. It get's into cracks and crevices that you wouldn't think would be possible. Cleaning the media out of a stripped shell is a pain. Cleaning the media out of a half disassembled car would be a living nightmare that I'm betting you will regret. To clean the car of ALL media, it's likely that you'll have to completely disassemble the car anyway.

From where you're sitting now (looking at your picture)..... you're about 8 man-hours away from having the car completely stripped. If you leave the drivetrain/suspension installed, you're looking at considerably more time than that to seal the installed components from exposure to the media (if 100% sealing is even possible).

Proceed with caution.
 
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