Sooo close!

Ooh baby! it's getting closer to being finished!
A bit of work to be done on a door and the guards.




The beaver panels are geting a good going over, removing the excess bog and repairing the old dents properly.







The bonnet will be getting some more atention too, lots of plastic required to build up the butchered scoop.

There are a few dips and uneven spots that need to come out.

Beneath the skin

The torture test was quite successful on restoring the door gaps and getting some of the bulge out of the rear left guard. Now it is a matter of shrink, hammer and file. It is getting straight but still needs a heap of work. Looking at how the car sits, I may have to get the springs reset again to level out the rear end.

The metal is a bit thin but it will be straight and have a much better finish than that which the previous panel-slapper provided (hey, triple alliteration).





A fair bit of work is going into this quarter.

Still a way to go!

On the rack of torture

Martin decided to whack the beast onto a big puller to see if we can straighten up the left rear quarter. The left door never sat properly and the gaps were not even.

The crease in the boot floor/ subframe and the unnatural flare in the wheel-well needed to be removed.

The procedure is pretty straightforward. Hook up a big chain to the subframe, bolt the car down to a level plate and give it a huge pull. Bit like torture on a rack I suppose!

After pulling the back, errr . . . back, he put a ram inside the wheel arch and applied pressure.

Then heating the metal, proceeded to belt and shrink the arch back into shape.

Well! What can I say? We knew there had been some dodgy work done on the rear left quarter but after the sandblaster finished, we finally got to see what the restorers of yesteryear thought was acceptable.
Looking at the images you see a peculiar dimpled effect. like lots of little holes drilled into the metal over which copious quantities of bog was applied.
The strange holes are possible a type of "key" to enable the large amount of plastic filler to hold on.

We just are not sure . . .


But on the bright side . . .

All the sills and edges have been cleaned off with great outcomes!

There appears to have never been any rust in the sills or front behind the guards or in the firewalls. The car is in pristine condition in the places where rust tends to develop. My suspicion that the vehicle has hardly ever seen rain, seems to be correct.

Around the back of te car the story is as expected, she has attracted rear prangs, at least two in her life, but we can rebuild and make her look as good as new (maybe better).

It is a bit depressing looking at my beautiful mustang in such a grotty condition, can't wait to see the result.

Have placed a sizeable order with Mustangs Unlimited in the US for a bunch of new bits including bumpers, rubbers and mirrors.

It's in bits!

OMG

My beautiful pony has been torn to pieces.

Guards in one corner, bonnet in another all looking very forlorn.

Good new is that it is only temporary, tomorrow the sandblaster dude is coming in to get the panels back to bare metal. Then we shall see how badly the yanks have treated her in the past.

One thing we discovered is the right side rear has been replaced with another originally painted in metallic green. Looks like it is not too bad a job though. One the other side . . . well we are not sure what we will see after the sand blasting, but the work was not done to a very high level of quality.

That is something we intend to fix!

Speaking of fixing stuff, the "Boy Racer" bonnet has been tamed to something more akin to a real Shelby style. Take a look at the new slots, much better I think!

At the other end of the car the boot lid is off another vehicle and will come in for a bit of attention. There has been a little dingle up the back and this will be pulled out and straightened up, a new rear bumper is to adorn the new straighter back.