65' Mustang GT - Ford Muscle Forums : Ford Muscle Cars Tech Forum

dennis111 · 11-27-2010, 03:45 PM

Rather than crap all over Gydyup's thread, I thought I should start my own. Due to a mishap at the track I needed to replace the RH front fender which was damaged in 3 places:

Since the paint on the car is over 30 years old with some scratches and the normal fading, I decided to give the body a complete winter makeover. First I removed the tranny and motor, then the interior. Finally I removed the windshield, doors and the front cap. Here is an early November shot:

Since I did not know the condition of the cowl vent area, I decided that I needed to start there. I drilled out 167 spot welds and found that the hats were in great shape.

Unfortunately there were other problems that dictated I replace some sheet metal:

I ordered 2 cowl replacement panels from CJ Pony parts:

I then proceeded to cut out the offending metal and trimmed my patches to fit:

You never have enough vice grips for this type of job.

I tacked it into place with my mig welder, then kept going over it until all the holes and seams were plugged. Next I brazed over the welded areas to fill any remaining pinholes that were in the pan area:

After the grinding was done, I needed to strip the rest of the paint with my DA:

I then used body filler to blend the new seams:

Before I could go on, I needed to repair a couple of rust areas on the upper cowl:

I cut out the rust and butt welded scrap metal in place:

Once done to my satisfaction, I stripped the remaining paint off both the bottom and the top of the cowl:

dennis111 · 11-27-2010, 03:58 PM

This morning I started with this:

I masked it off:

Then I applied the epoxy primer to both it and the inside of the upper cowl:

Once it was setup, time for some seam sealer around the cowl hats:

I allowed the sealant time to setup, then the real fun began when I laid down 3 coats of Rangoon Red acrylic enamel:

Sometimes it is a shame to hide all that good craftsmanship inside where no one will ever see it again:

FEandGoingBroke · 11-27-2010, 04:11 PM

Going to be a shame to get spot weld splash all over that nice pretty paint

Where is the Ground contact coming from during re-installation?

dennis111 · 11-27-2010, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FEandGoingBroke

Where is the Ground contact coming from during re-installation?

Just had to remove the tape to reveal some shiny metal that will get a couple of coats of weld through primer before reassembly.

Topside remains bare metal.

FEandGoingBroke · 11-27-2010, 04:33 PM

excellent! I missed that!

dennis111 · 11-29-2010, 03:14 AM

Remasked and sprayed weld through primer on the bare metal:

Welding up holes in the front apron. Found that a 3/8" thick piece of solid copper works wonders when plugging small holes or as a preventative to blow through:

Yeah, I went too deep with the spot weld tool and need to touch up the divots prior to welding the apron-to-cowling top plate.

n2omike · 11-29-2010, 04:20 AM

Wow, you've got one EXTREMELY winter ahead of you!

Looks Great, and good luck!

dennis111 · 12-05-2010, 04:37 PM

Throughout the week I've been tack welding the cowl in place and finally finished it up yesterday:

Note that the tape is over the vent to help cut down on the amount of grinding and sanding crap that might fall in there.

Today I broke out the DA sander and went to town on the roof. 3 hours later It was bare (except for around the rear window.) There is some repair work to be done on the driver's side roof where apparently someone sat on it in the past. Although the dent covers a somewhat large area, it is minor and an easy repair.

The rear glass removal is being saved as an evening, after work project.

The car looks kind of cool in its current 2 tone appearance:

Hope to get the roof repaired and all the current bare metal primered this coming weekend.

Oh, here is a shot of the cheap $5 spot weld tool that I used when removing the cowl:

It worked terrific. This one tool cut 167 spot welds plus it was used to make holes in the patch panels before plug welding.

dennis111 · 12-12-2010, 03:59 PM

Removed the rear window and found scaly rust in the channel:

Attempted to wirebrush it but all it did was burnish the rust so that it was shiny. I ran to our nearest farming supply and purchased this $10 spot sand blaster and some media:

I did a decent job, but I had to fill the bag at least 40-50 times to do the bottom channel. Unfortunately I found some rust holes that need repair:

Not wanting to let the roof and cowl remain bare another couple of weeks (Christmas is coming, you know) I went ahead and repaired the dings in the roof by first doing some hammer and dolly work. Once it was fairly level, I covered the offending areas with lightweight body filler:

Once it was sanded to my satisfaction, I masked off much of the car in preparation for the epoxy primer coat:

I wiped it down with wax and paint remover and then shot on 2 wet coats:

I waited a couple of hours for the epoxy primer to dry and then I covered it up with 3 coats of primer surfacer. Once it set up, I removed the masking:

As seen below, I did not primer the complete roof sail panels as I need to do some work in in the rear window channel and I need to re-mig the area where the roof joins the quarter panel, at the quarter window:

Next up will be stripping the quarter panels and then making the wheel flair opening a little wider at the front for taller slicks.

frdnut · 12-12-2010, 07:37 PM

Damn Dennis is there anything you can't do?..Now it's bodywork and paint..

gbic1 · 12-12-2010, 10:48 PM

Nice work

FEandGoingBroke · 12-13-2010, 10:07 AM

Looking good!

dennis111 · 12-13-2010, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frdnut

Damn Dennis is there anything you can't do?..Now it's bodywork and paint..

Didn't you know that I am a Renaissance man?

Nah,

I'm just a jack(off) of many trades but master of none.

Thanks guys for the good words.

cornhauler · 12-13-2010, 05:28 PM

Dennis,
Car's looking good. Looks like fun. What epoxy product are you using? In the past I've used the Omni product (PPG) availible from O'Rielly's. Sometimes it takes a day to get it but at $77.99/gal, hardener $15.99/qt. seems to work pretty good and i like the confidence of that layer of epoxy. Again thanks for sharing!!
don

dennis111 · 12-13-2010, 05:56 PM

I too am using Omni products-for the first time. I was a Dupont guy, but my supplier retired. So far I am happy with Omni which is easy for me to get here in the sticks.

Epoxy primer/hardener:

Primer Surfacer/hardener:

The filler I use is Evercoat Rage Gold. Great stuff, applies well, sands good but is on the expensive side.

Topcoat will probably be plain old hardened Omni Acrylic Enamel. I prefer BC/CC, but Figure that Acrylic Enamel will be the easiest to repair should I have another racing incident, such as dropping a wrench on the fender.