Restoration of a 1965 Mustang

Saving some money

2011-12-12T22:32:00.000+02:00

I took Destiny to yearly inspection at the end of August. As it passed with no remarks, I was encouraged enough to prepare her for the review of the museum inspectors. But before that I did something I had waited for a long time. I carried everything out of my garage, drove Destiny to my parents' garage for a couple of days, patched and painted the walls, burned the oil drips out of the floor and finally spread the floor epoxy.

The tone of the color became maybe too dark but gives nice contrast to Destiny's Zinnoberrot and the most important is that it's easy to keep clean either with brush of wash. I lost the count of days it took to carry everything back in as I washed and cleaned every single item before it was allowed to enter. Once this was ready I glued in the missing door weatherstrips and emblems and contacted the authorized inspectors to drop by for a visit. They first wanted to get a couple of photographs of Destiny to see if everything was in such a condition that the inspection was reasonable to do. So I did. Below is one of the shots.

I paid special attention to keep the boot top on in the pictures and while the car was checked. I somehow was disappointed that inspection did not take even one hour. But what I was glad about was that they did not take a look at the convertible top. Now, this inspection has nothing to do with what they call concours correct restoration . This is all about money ! If a car is +30 years old and is rust-free, has shiny chrome and unbroken interior and resembles the condition it had when it left the factory, you'll get dispensation of certain rules as valuable historical vehicle. In my case it means, that the yearly inspection has to be made only every other year (save 50 €). It means that the mandatory road insurance cost collapses from yearly 600 € to 34 € (yes, thirty-four). It means that Destiny is liberated off the yearly car tax (100 €). And what's most important is that the insurance company approves it for full cover insurance (for nominal 159 € per year) including collision, fire, theft, vandalism, a roadkill with a moose and towing back home. I consider this a valuable benefit if I plan to make longer trips than those to local events and cruising nights what I did this summer.

Now that I had saved so much money, I felt like shopping at NPD's website. I wrote a list and ordered parts worth $500 to replace this worn-out cloth and blurred rear window. And once again, they had all the needed parts for fast delivery at their Florida exports stock.

RMV Title Inquiry

2011-02-28T22:18:00.000+02:00

During this exceptionally long, snowful and cold winter that we have experienced I haven't spent too much time in the garage. Instead I have consulted my friend with his project strengthening and replacing the floor pans of his '67 FB. I'll have to document that some day.

I have kept up the conversation with Destiny's last owner in the new continent every once in a while. He has told me a lot but could not recall the name and whereabouts of the previous owner. So if I want to find out the earlier history of this secretary's Mustang I'll have to consult the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles by filling and mailing the application for title history search.

Determined and ready to waste the expected 25 € for obtaining a check for the needed $5 fee, I entered my bank's office just to hear that they had stopped selling checks two years ago. Unbelievable. I decided to take my chance and attached a 10 dollar bill to my application and sent it over. Seven weeks later I was lucky to find a letter in my mailbox. Inside was a screen print of a title transaction with very little new information. Maybe I should have checked Photocopy of Original RMV-1 Application
Here's a little sample of what I got :

No previous Title number to continue the search with. The only new information was the Reg # 65BT44 and the odometer had 84900 miles fifteen years ago. By the end of 2007 it had only 92200 meaning that Tom drove an average of less than 700 miles yearly. Tomorrow is the first official day of spring and I sure do have to start preparing Destiny for the season. This year we're gonna beat Tom's average.

The truth about Santa Claus

2010-12-24T12:00:00.022+02:00

One of the myths of modern times is Santa Claus. It is very common to believe that he lives in North Pole and that he uses Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer for the transportation purposes while delivering presents for the nice children. The truth lying behind these myths is that Santa actually lives in Finland, in Lapland in the place called Korvatunturi. And think about him flying with a reindeer-driven flying sleigh. Would it be possible to drop by in every house here and there with that kind of old-fashioned vehicle. No, instead he'll have to exploit something more rapid and modern type of transportation. The below live footage shot today shows the truth. So you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout , I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town...

Merry Christmas to all pony-riders !!!

Gaskets and pin bolts

2010-09-21T21:09:00.000+03:00

Listening to the engine with stethoscope did not bring me new ideas where the clanking sound came from. So I decided to troubleshoot the easiest and cheapest things first. I took off the exhaust manifold (which by the way is one of the few parts that "Tom" - Destiny's owner from '96 to '06 - had replaced ).

The leakage can be seen in the opening of cylinder #5 and in the bigger opening of cylinders #3 and #4. The bolts hide behind the starter so it crucial to have them tightened well before installing the starter. Obviously I had missed this.

Obtained new Fel-Pro gasket from a local speed shop for € 8,60. I felt so lucky for them having the gasket in the shelf that I even forgot to claim 15% discount that they promise for members of FMOC .

This time I remembered to install the locking washers that I had purchased earlier from NPD. I paid special attention to tighten the manifold bolts little by little in cycles like you do when you tighten the cylinder head. But while torqueing the pin bolts which attach the exhaust pipe to manifold I broke the other one. Damn ! Where would I be able to find 7/16" bolt with course thread in one end and fine thread end in the other.

But thanks to internet I found this webshop. One business day later the bolts arrived in an envelope to my mail box. Total cost € 4,15 including VAT and postal costs. Cheap as soap. Installed exhaust pipe. Took a test drive. Destiny purrs like a kitten now.

The last day of the summer

2010-08-31T21:32:00.079+03:00

Doesn't Destiny look inviting, does she ?

Another shot after the first time she was washed this summer. There was no need to wash her because for weeks and weeks there was no rain, only warm sunshine. Though I must admit that that not more than 500-600 miles has been added to the odometer so far. I simply have not had time to take her out as often as I had wanted. But every time I did I had enjoyable moments. You can see that there are emblems and mouldings still missing. I'll finish them later.

It was exactly two years ago when I started to break her apart. Is she better now ? For sure. I did not make any improvement to driveability, exept for the front Gas-a-just shocks. Their effect is clearly noticeable. Now I can do 55-60 mph on a highway and still steer her. Wheel alignment has not been checked by measurement, but it seems and feels to be near the specs. The body as a whole feels stiffer now as well.

But it's not only sunshine. First I had something with Holley 1940 carb. After disassembling, cleaning and re-assembling it started to work fine. Then appeared the tapping sound which I thought came from a leaking gasket betweet the exhaust manifold and pipe. I replaced it but obviously that was not the reason. So far checked oil quality and pressure. The valves get their share of oil and the clearance is ok. Timing, breaker points and Autolite 46 plugs checked. The sound is not such hard metallic clank as is the case if the crankshaft bearings are broken. Neither is it as rough as when caused by detonation. The sound can be heard with idle and while driving open throttle, but is most clear while reving.

So I still have to check manifold to head gasket and cylinder pressure leakage prior to deciding for stronger operations. A leaking exhaust valve echoing from the leakage in the exhaust pipe ? Maybe. It's good to have a good analyze first. Soon the driving season is over and we'll have some six months to fix her before the start of the next season.

Inspected and approved

2010-07-12T17:30:00.000+03:00

I've been quite busy since I brought Destiny home a couple of weeks ago. Except for the weekends (which I have dedicated to the family) I've spent all the evenings in the garage bolting parts together. I had prepared and cleaned the most of the parts in advance while Destiny was in the paint shop so now it was all about bolting. Though, there are a couple of parts which are easier to install with a friend. One of those is the windshield which was installed with a rope and with help from my 17-year-old daughter in less than an hour. (Remember to install the clips for the mouldings prior to the weatherstrip! I didn't. So we had to do it over). Little by little my spares shelf started to go empty. And finally the car was ready for the safety inspection.

She still misses rocker panel mouldings and all the emblems as well as door weatherstrips. But those are not needed in the inspection unlike windshield washer which is something you have to have. My car didn't so I purchased an OEM set for 10,90€. I think I'll have to use it only one a year when the car is checked. Or maybe I'll order an original set from the NPD later.

I was worried about the ride height earlier but now as all the parts are there it looks fine.

We are currently facing a heatwave with temperatures going up to 32°C so I don't envy the guys doing their job at the inspection. Above the inspection has been started and the VIN in checked first. He really did not have to spend much time checking the suspension and steering.

After the test drive Destiny was approved and is permissible to be driven until August 31st 2011.

I had my first day of summer vacation today so from now on this summer goes on by driving Destiny in every possible occasion. I'll keep on blogging every once in while but at this point I want to thank everyone supporting and encouraging me in this project and especially Alex for his really helpful blog which makes it easy for any average computer technician (or computer salesman like me) to rebuild a piece of crap into a daily driver.

Back home

2010-06-18T00:53:00.004+03:00

This morning as I left for work the sun was shining high as it does here this time of the year. My garage door faces east so I couldn't resist opening it. This is what I did see. Destiny's repainted rear sun-bathing.

Yesterday afternoon we picked her up. She was driven out from the paint booth and up on my brother's trailer and soon Lil' red riding hood is safely returned home. But isn't there something horribly wrong in the below picture ?

Yes, you noticed it. The licence plate should be NOT-66 instead of YEP-66 [JOO means YEP or YEAH in Finnish]. If you register a new car you normally get long plates with six random digits selected by a computer. They also have EU's ring of stars like in this picture.

Or you have to pay 1000 € for special plates, if the string you want is available. I think these have been paid for. I didn't want to pay that much at the time of registration. But I was able to demand 5-digit plates due to the fact that the long ones don't fit. These are not delivered by the computer. They have a small supply of free 5-digit plates in every registration station. So I had about a minute to go through and make my selection and JOO-66 was the best I could get. I might consider investing on CID-200 if I win in the lottery.

But hey, it's summer and I'm driving my Mustang convertible. No roof, no windshield and no seat. Have you ever driven a car sitting on the bare sheet metal ? Fun but be careful. You have to take good hold with your left hand on the streering column while pushing the brake pedal if you don't want to find yourself in the rear of the cabin and your car hitting wall in the garage.

So how did the paint look like now ? First of all A LOT BETTER. Not even near to perfect, drips and orange peal. But it'll do for now. First half of the summer is soon gone and from now on it's only up to me and Destiny.

Some history in between

2010-06-15T16:26:00.000+03:00

Every now and then I've e-mailed to "Tom", the latest owner of Destiny in Massachusetts to whom I got the contact through a detailed receipt of an antique radio repair shop. Tom's story of the history goes like this.

The car has been in a storage from 1985 until 1995 when someone whose name Tom could not recall purchased it. The guy sold the car to Tom in April 1996. At that time the car was red already.
Soon after Tom purchased the car he replaced the shocks (rear only), tires and exhaust system. He also had to replace the exhaust manifold in 2005. According to Tom, the engine and transmission have never been opened.

So it seems like the owner who had the car from '95 to '96 was the guy who performed the DIY restoration with rivets and bondo.

When I got the car in 2007 it had Goodyear Spectra M+S 195-75/14 tires with 1" white stripes. I wonder if these are the tires Tom bought fourteen years ago. They still are in good condition. This makes me think that Tom did not drive too many miles with Destiny.

But now it seems like this information well has dried out and if I want to solve the mystery of a first owner I'll have to turn to the authorities. Maybe they would be able to help with the first 20 years.

There are a couple of application forms to be filled. The request for personal information is needed for Title history search. The thing is that the request only costs $5 but can only be paid with a check, which I do not use. I e-mailed the Massachusetts RMV department and suggested the payment in advance with my credit card and here's what they replied:

"You can not pay for a title history search with a credit card by mail."

Awesome ! I almost thought I could. If anyone has good ideas how to obtain that history search, please contact. Maybe I'll have to attach a five dollar bill and see what happens.

The rumours in town tell me that Destiny might have gotten a coat of red today, so I have to go now.

Waiting for the next round

2010-05-28T00:33:00.100+03:00

I felt so dissapointed in the bad paintjob that I totally lost my interest in blogging, nearly lost my interest over the project Destiny as well. As soon as the bodies were carried out from the battlefield I returned to the garage. Little by little the the parts started to go in again. The new gas tank was installed with a bead of sealer.

The brake master cylinder was restored, new brake tubing was bent and installed and all the wheel cylinders were replaced with new ones. I just wonder if the new ones (made in China) will last as long as the originals which still were there in the rear. At least I think they were originals. I did not bother to buy a new master cylinder. Instead, I ground the rust off, polished it and sprayed some clear over it. Here are a couple of pics before and after.

After the brake tubing was done, I dismantled the the rest of the braking system, cleaned, greased and repleced the wheel cylinders with the new ones ( made in China ). I wonder if they will last as long as the previous which I think might have been the originals. I put the brakes back together, poured some fluid in, and with a help from my wife (experienced with "pressure-bottom technique" ) pressing the pedal bleeded the brakes and tuned them. Sorry, no pics but she looks great. The parking brake handle was cleaned and painted and installed.

The fuel lined had been replaced earlier, by the Swede obviously, so I reused them with new flexible hoses and clamps.

I had fixed the heater two years ago when I prepared Destiny for the first driving season. During that summer it dripped every once in a while. The examination showed that it had a puncture, so I replaced the core with new aluminium type, painted the shell and put it back in.

Then I installed the front valance and the rest of the front metal parts, headlights, parking lamps, bumber brackets and front bumper, horns and engine bay wiring. It appeared that I have two pieces of right hand side front parking lamps. I had not noticed that earlier and will have to order new for left hand side.

Seems like the the guy who restored this car back in the US had a donor car with a working right hand lamp.

When all this was done I installed door latch mechanism and striker plates, then was the time to install wiper motor and arms. As soon as this was done I cleaned, fixed and installed the under-dash wiring, light switch, wiper switch, ignition switch and the meter panel. (Should I have known that there is a cheap bezel available, I would have replaced it.). Then the shifter for the transmission and the car is ready to be started.

The oil pressure sending unit appeared dead and a new one will have to be ordered. The neutral safety switch did not work either. So order to save time, not the money (you propably find it easier for get one from NPD for less than $30) I drilled out the two rivets, cleaned it and piled back together with small screws and nuts. Works fine now.

Then I cleaned the tail lights, installed and tested them, installed the steering wheel and cranked the engine, drove the car out of the garage and back in. Works fine, exept for the oil pressure warning light.
What a feeling, what a feeeeeliiiiing !

What next ? Yes ! I deinstalled the tail lights, drilled out the tail light panel and welded in the new one.

Now Destiny was ready for the Round #2 at the paintshop. I delivered her back a week ago and have spent the last days cleaning the garage for her return. I'll be back as soon as that happens.

Paintwork done ?

2010-04-06T00:57:00.000+03:00

I picked Destiny up from the paint shop on April 1st. Here a shot of her after the Easter with hood and fenders assembled and the front valance panel loosely bolted in. Looks good, doen't it. No fooling or photoshopping done here. I really like this phase. Things start to take shape at last and the clean parts can be attached so that this time they'll stay there.

BUT... What does not look good can be seen in the picture below with some daylight. The rear taillight panel doesn't look good and the driver side quarted panel looks horrible. A major failure during the filler work for sure. Maybe I just should have followed James' advice and done this myself.

Once this was realized it was too late to turn the trailer immediately back to the paint shop. Damn it, what a mess is will be solve this. A convertible which can only be driven at night ? Shit.

Also visited this years Easter show. I'm not sure whether it increased or decreased my frustrationbut here is one nice '66 convertible this time. For sale for 39.000 €, if someone is interested.

But my favorite of all was this classy Norwegian restored '57 T-Bird. Only thing missing is Barbie Doll sitting there behind the steering wheel.

Off she goes

2010-03-13T18:39:00.002+02:00

Mr. #5 gave me such a reasonable estimate of the cost for prepping and painting Destiny that I decided quickly. He had moved his shop a while ago and was ready take my project in right away. So I attached the hood latch and on the trailer she went.

Some fifteen minutes later she was rolled in. I wish she'll stay there until Easter at least. Now I have a couple of weeks to prepare the remaining parts in my garage. I started my "vacation" with dusting and cleaning. Then I carried all the parts in from my shed where I have stored them for two winters. I'll be having a nice busy time to prepare them for the assebly before Destiny will return.

But first I'll have a real vacation with my family under the sun in the Canary Islands.

EDIT: Remember my entry in December about the Winter War. Today we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of that one.

Preparing for the paint job

2010-03-07T00:54:00.000+02:00

There are two kinds of tasks in a restoration of a Mustang, the easy and the difficult. It is easy to weld in new replacement sheet metal. It's easy to bolt in new ball joints for the suspension. A little more difficult is to replace inner rockers of a convertible. Just prepare for it and you'll do it. It's easy to get any of the replacement spares shipped overseas in a week. It's easy to earn the money for paying any of them parts. It's tough but still possible to spend ten days under your car grinding, sanding and eating the dust. What seems to be the most diffucult portion of the project is to get two things agreed with a paint shop guy, the schedule and the total price.

The car is here, ready and willing to be painted. I did the normal procedures for the front end sheet metal and she's all dressed to be delivered.

I have consulted with five of them and here is how it looks so far.

#1 I'll do one only project during the winter. Get your car ready by January and I'll do it. The car was ready but he wasn't. Meanwhile he did two other projects.

#2 I'll do this in March, I'll spend 100-150 hours or more @20€ per hour on it. Plus You buy the paints and filler. After this I've contacted him three times to agree for the schedule, but he never showed up.

#3 Bring it over tomorrow. The price is 4000 € or more. This was told on phone without even seeing the car.

#4 I can start it next week. I'll do six weeks nothing but your car. 4000 €.

#5 We'll do it for 2000 € , no receipt. We can start in a week. I offered him 2300 € ( note I offered him more because I assumed he had made a faulty estimate. ) The day after this he called and wanted to raise the price because he - as he said - had made a faulty estimate. At this point he was still unable to give me a correct estimation.

So my conclusion is that either I'm stupid or they are. I make a salary above the average but I do not make 4000 € in a month after the taxes. So I just refuse to pay such an amount for the paint job, knowing that the material can be purchased with less than 1000 €. It's not about the money, it's about the price.

So while waiting for Mr #5 to give me the exact price, we deciced to give Destiny some gas and sparks.

The battery was charged, the drive shaft went in, some hoses and water as well, followed by lubricants for the transmission and the engine. And finally we were able to lead 12 DC for the starter.

The engine cranked and fired up with no leaks, no special noise. The smoke from exhaust manifold paint burning filled the carage with the sweetest sound I've heard for 18 months.

The doors

2010-02-16T22:23:00.001+02:00

No it wasn't The Doors, it was Rolling Stones who sang I see a red door and I want it painted black .

These weren't even red but I still had to paint them black along with some smaller parts.

No colors anymore, I want them to turn black.

But I can not see any girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes. Not yet.

Steering column

2010-02-05T15:17:00.000+02:00

Steering shaft is there already and a new grommet goes in followed by the ring. These are the first parts to install to the inside of the firewall.

The old insulation pad was the slid in place and attached with new pins. Don't forget to place shifter light's voltage wire at this point. I do not have or plan to install the console. If I would, it's wiring should also be installed between the pad and firewall.

The brake pedal and support had been cleaned and painted earlier. Note that I needed a box of french red wine to assemle them. The support seemed like it left the factory unpainted.

The steering column tube was then pushed through the grommet...

...and bolted with the bracket to the brake pedal support.

Date Code 23A

2010-01-23T22:07:00.073+02:00

Destiny's Date Code on the door data plate is 23A meaning it was supposed to roll out of the factory on Saturday 23rd January 1965. No-one knows if it did, but I spent her 45th Anniversary today. During the passed week I spent a couple of evenings sanding the epoxy primer gray. Then I applied seam sealer to each and every seam I could imagine would benefit of it.

It took two tubes of Dinitrol seam sealer which was brushed smooth after being squeezed out of the tube.

I decided to spray one more coat of primer. This time I spent some time to figure out the correct and the most efficient way to penetrate the primer into every gap. I managed fine as I started from the most difficult areas like the bottom of the trunk drop-off and the gap between wheel well and quarter panel behind the trunk lid hinges. In order to be sure hand-brushing some primer prior to spraying might be wise.

But I managed fine. Now you can hardly find a spot which would not be covered with primer or paint. I've decided the color for Destiny. She'll become Zinnoberrot 138 ( cinnabar red, that is ), which can be found from BMW's color scheme.

So, after admiring her for two days like this, I grabbed my sanding papers again and got her gray again. Had I been wise, would I have applied the last coat with red epoxy primer. In the next episode we'll see if Zinnoberrot 138 will beat the black-gray primer.

The final patch

2010-01-17T23:58:00.001+02:00

Time to start the new decade. Today I welded in the very last piece of sheet metal. This honourable final patch was somenthing I had forgotten to do earlier. It is situated in the left-most edge in the corner of firewall and cowl side panel just above the torque-box's upper end and is about 1" x ½".

I've used two bottles of CO2-Argon and about 8 kilograms of welding-wire while knitting this vehicle back to the current status. Here is a picture of my old but faithful Kemppi 180C Mig-welder which I bought used years ago for 100 €. I still may need it with this project but hopefully only for minor jobs, not for patching or re-doing my earlier welds.

Looking at my welds which were done a year ago, in the beginning of the restoration, one might say that they could have been done better. I think I've gotten better and better and even might be able to restore a more challenging project one day. The question is where to find such a project ? From here maybe. There are three things a man does not forget once he has learned them. 1. How to ride a bicycle. 2. How to make love to a woman and 3. How to weld.

Destiny is now covered with primer and most of the body parts are being fit, almost ready for painter. I think I finally found a guy who'll perform the paint-job for her. He dropped by yesterday and estimated 100-150 hours of his work until the job is done. 20 € an hour and that'll be 2 - 3000 € plus the materials. We agreed this to be done in March. I just hope that there won't be slippery on the roads until that because all of the painters consider insurance companies better clients and in that case my project would be postponed. A couple of shot of how Destiny looks right now.

We agreed that I'll paint whatever is inside the car and he'll do everything that's on the outside plus the undersides of the hood and trunk lid. Next weekend Destiny is celebrating her 45th anniversary. I think I'll cheer her up with new coat of primer and seam sealer. So let's start sanding.

The hood alignment

2009-12-28T23:34:00.003+02:00

Now the engine is installed as well as Holley 1940 1V-carburetor which to my knowledge is not the one which was installed in the factory back in 1965. Instead it is a replacement type of carburetor that Ford apparently ordered from Holley as the original Autolite 1100 showed up to be more or less unfaithful.

The driver side front fender, door and quarter panel had some lead melted over the seams. Because the fender was there and I needed some more room to my carage as well as somenthing to cover the engine, I decided to install the hood. First thing to do is to bolt the hinges into the fenders. No need to torque them too tight at this point...

...because you have to unscrew them many, many times before the hood lines up nicely. I studied the internet for good advice for aligning these parts but it seems that trial and error is the only available instruction for this job. My hint is: if the rear end of the hood is too high, release the screws and lift the hinges up from the front end. This allows the rear end of hinge to go lower.

Ok. Destiny can be recognized as a Mustang now but what surprises me is the ride height which still is too high. There is not much weight to come to the front anymore. Someone said that sandblasting the springs is about the same as forging them. Might be true. Anyway, after a short mechanical period, I'll have to get back to my grinding equipment and sanding paper before the final primer shooting.

Engine installation

2009-12-06T23:56:00.003+02:00

A short repetition of the history (all Finns may skip to the first pic) :
Finland was a territory of Sweden until 1809 when the Russia conquered the eastern part of Sweden after two years of battles. Finland remained part of Russia until V.I.Lenin signed the declaration of independence on December 6th 1917. A couple of years later Mr.Molotov of Russia and Mr.Ribbentrop of Germany argeed upon a split over the territories of Europe. According to that pact, Finland was to be a part of Soviet Union's premises. On the 30th of November 1939 Soviet attacked Finland without any declaration of war which was followed by a war known as the Winter War of Finland, a 105 day battle after which Finland remained independent but lost 10% of it's geografical area. A year later Finland joined Hitler's troops in order to get Karelia back (with interests) by attending the Continuation War but that's another story.

And what has all this to do with the restoration of a Mustang ? Nothing. But a small quiz to summarize your knowledge of the WW2. Which three european capital cities of countries participating the WW2 remained un-occupied. The correct answer is in the bottom of this entry.

Now, here is the inline-six with C4 automatic transmission hanging from a hook in the roof of my garage.

The packet is hoisted up and the unibody is rolled under the package. Mr. 67FB is controlling.

Easy as can be. After three quarters of an hour the powermill is back where it belongs. Damn, the shifter linkage points to a faulty direction.

Mr.Camaro68 has checked the engine, cleaned it and painted black and red. Many of the gaskets were replaced. The cylinder head was not opened as there was no reason for that. Here is a shot of the timing chain which had streched to en extent that it had to be replaced along with the new crank and cam gears. Some slack down there. I am waiting to see whether there will be a smoother run and improved fuel economy.

Here it is sitting back in the engine room. It originally had 120 hp.The fuel filter bowl will be replaced later.

This shot was taken a year ago while the engine was moving upwards.

A couple of pictures to compare the before and after status of the engine. The cylinder head is supposed to be black. Only the valve cover and and air filter cover are to be red-orange.

Yes. The fuel pump bowl will be replaced with a new one which is still under construction.

Destiny looks like a car again , doesn't she ? Below is a another shot of her from a year ago. The change is evident. With the engine installed I have got a plenty of options how to proceed with my project.

And the correct answer for the question above is that the three un-occupied capitals were Moscow, London and Helsinki. A reason to celebrate the independence day.

Destiny is taking a night out

2009-12-02T13:40:00.023+02:00

Some Dinitrol 410 to the seams after hand-sanding and one more liter of Spies Hecker Permacron® 630 and the floor is done. This took about three nights altogether.

Rear axle and the differential case was coated with the same stuff. I did not open the differential. Some oil leaked out from the ventilation tube while turning it around but it looked clean so Why fix it if it is not broken.

I had some paint left and there is no snow outside so I had the chance to handle my pair of skies as well.

A set of new exhaust pipeline and a muffler would cost about $230 or about 300€. Even after spending a year outside my garage under the gutters it only had some surface rust which was disappeared after two hours of sanding. A rattle-can of heat-resistant paint (cost 6.60 €) sprayed and heated over the tube. The exhaust has been welded into one piece so it has to be installed at this point, before the rear axle.

As soon as that was done, the leaf springs were installed with new front end bushings and eye-bolts. The rear axle was placed on jack stands by lifting it one end at a time until it was in such height that the springs could be attached to rear shackles.

And the axle was dropped on the leaf springs and bolted in place. Destiny is ready to roll again.

Destiny hasn't been outside of the garage since last January. At that time she was carried but this time I did not need much help turning her on my driveway. A short stop on the threshold was needed to blow the dust off.

Exactly a year ago this rust-bitten car flew back from waterblasting. The rear tail light panel and the area behind rear valance is the only remaining rusty area.

The engine room is ready and waiting for the delivery of the straight six due to happen next weekend.

More primering and fitting

2009-11-23T14:41:00.001+02:00

My friend finished with leading the seam welds on the passenger side, so I was able to epoxy primer the quarter panel. I spent an other evening sanding the door and front fender and primered them as well. The door was loose when primering, but I couldn't resist the temptation and hung it back the next day.

The outer rocker was primered too. It only needs a small patch to the rear end near the rear wheel well.

I test fitted the rear seat because I wanted to ensure the correct position for the brackets which hold the bench and I am going to weld screws to the floor where they'll lock the lower end brackets of the backrest. Fits fine. It only needs a couple of nice girls sitting there.

During the summer of 2008 Destiny's engine and transmission worked fine. The 200 cubic inch six-cylinder is known to be a durable engine if maintained regularly. There is no reason for a total overhaul and I had planned only a minor cleaning and painting for it. Anyhow I was glad and surprised when an other friend of mine offered that he would like to do this part of the project for me. I thought that he's only interested in V8-equipped GM-products with +400 hp. But his own restoration project is ready and he needs something to do to pass the polar night. Here is a glimpse to what's going on in his garage with my 200.

We have agreed on a schedule that Destiny's engine and transmission is delivered back and installed on Finland's independence day, on Sunday the 6th December. I've got two weeks to prepare Destiny for that.

Underside floor

2009-11-16T01:08:00.000+02:00

I spent about nine nights lying on my back. My neck and shoulders are still aching but finally I think I've come through the worst of it. Not the swine flu but preparing the underside of the floor for painting. I wasted hours with angle grinder and every other scraping device I could imagine. I have used 0.8 mm string in my welder. Now I understand why someone adviced me that 0.6 mm would be enough. The reason is, the thicker the string, more to grind. I'll have to remember this prior to starting with my next project.

In the above picture is a view to transmission crossmember and propeller shaft tunnel. Some remainders of seam weld between the tunnel and floorpan can be seen. The flaps which connect the frame rails with reinforcement pans are not alike with each other. But WHO CARES as long as they are solid. Below is a shot to passenger rear wheel well and rear crossmember. This was the nasties area for grinding. My advice to anyone who is clearing this area: Have it media blasted !

The areas under the rear seat. Yes, I made them myself ! They may not be alike either but at least the rear seat passengers do not have to fear for dropping on the highway.

You may say that you've seen better. So have I. But...

... it is very rare to see something like this anymore. Yak !

Passenger door revised

2009-10-29T13:48:00.000+02:00

I messed up with the lower patch panel for the passenger side door. See the blog entry of this miserable moment. I ordered a new patch panel (Canadian made, excellent fit btw.) from NPD. Despite of my ugly welds, it took me one night to remove the potato field off the door and another one to fit and weld the new one and a third one to finish it.

Although mig-welding is almost as fun as chain sawing, I felt pretty frustrated redoing something while I still have enough work until the car is back in the traffic. But now the result has approved the quality control carried out by myself. Looks much better now, doesn't it.

The wide picture shows what has happened on the rear quarter panels. A friend came by and offered a helping hand with melting some lead over the sheet metal welds. Now he can proceed with right side door and front fender.

Meanwhile I think I'll concentrate on finishing the floor and installing the rear axle. Destiny still has to wait a week or two until she can burst out of the garage doorway.

Front suspension and steering linkage

2009-10-23T16:16:00.063+03:00

The parts for front suspension had been media blasted and primered in spring. I painted them black along with the engine compartment. The lower control arms got updated with new bushings but the ball joints appeared to be in such a good condition that I approved them. As a matter of fact if they are worn, you need to replace the LCAs as a whole. If both your upper and lower control arms are in a bad shape you might consider a kit available from Cal Mustang for replacing all the control arms. But I did not want to invest to them at this time. These will do until I'll do the disc brake conversion as well.

First I attached the LCAs and the sway bar with new end links. I had ground the rivets off the original upper control arm ball joints. The new ball joints seem to have the grease fitting in a diffent place than what the originals did. Therefore the screws were installed sort of upside down. Maybe it does not matter anyhow. The camber and caster are adjusted with shims in '65s. I installed them back as they were when disassemled. The control arms are similar on both sides so there is a fifty-fifty chance that I've mixed them. I'll have to adjust the camber and caster later anyhow.

Next: I attached the strut rods. These are the old ones which have only been blasted and painted. Even the rubber bushings at the front end of the rods are original.

I could not figure the purpose of the "wings" between the strut rod and the LCA even though I studied the Mustang Illustrations Catalog. But I decided to install them back anyhow.

Later I discovered that the wings act as limiters for steering. If turn enough the spindle arm will meet the "wing" and prevent the wheel from turning too much.

Once the control arms were ready I placed the spindles in between. And not only the spindles but the RUSTY (???!!!???) front brake drums also. OK, I'll do something for the drums at the time when all the for drum brakes are checked. The back side of the drum brake plate was cleaned with wire brush and painted black.

I want this vehicle to roll so I won't spend time with rusty brakes for now.

The front coil spring got themselves new insulators for upper ends and a coat of enamel. Here is shown a best position for compression tools (borrowed from a friend, thanks). I decided that there must be six rounds of coil spring wire between the jaws. Take some time to position the jaws in a way that they will not be in way when you place the spring between UCA and the shock tower top end.

And here is the coil spring 4 inches shortened and ready to go in. Instead of ratchet you may find useful to use wrench tool for loosening the compressor tool because...

...you may end up with a situation where you can not detach your ratchet because there is no more space left. I know , I did and had to compress again.

But finally the spring was there.

My carage is small, only 6,0m x 3,5m. Therefore I need to move my car while proceeding with the project. This can be done with a help from a couple of friends and their wives or by rolling the car on its own wheels with a help from my own wife. That's why the steering box and linkage are the next thing to be installed. Not much time did I spend with restoring the steering box. You can not fix it art home. If it's worn replace it. The steering shaft is Spear O'matic -type, a solid rod which may be harmful for your chest in case of an accident.

And the opposite side companion for the steering box: the pitman arm.

Tie rods were worn to an extent that they were replaced with new ones. I'm so stingy that I revived the original tie rod sleeves and installed the tie rods prior to attaching them. I screwed an equal amount of threads at both ends so while adjusting the toe neither of the tie rods will drop out of threads. And a rule of thumb is that the tie rod with counter-clockwise threads is the outer one. The inner ones have normal, clockwise threads.

I couldn't resist the desire to see Destiny ( I call her My Destiny nowadays) on her front feet shamelessly posing with the new KYB Gas-a-Just shock absorbers. I would have preferred the softer and cheaper GR2-type of KYBs which might have been better for a daily cruiser but my local dealer bargained these for 100 € /pair VAT 18% included. ($150) . In US you can obtain ones from NPD for $43,95 /each.

A lot of negative camber seen in this picture below. This is the weakness in Mustang's front suspension. The camber variates depending on the ride hight which is not good for the grip. Too much negative in the up-position and too much positive in down-position. Those willing to improve their vehicle's handling and performance on curvy roads may want to do something for this disadvantage. But I don't ! At least not anymore. No reason for adjusting camber/caster/toe at this point. The front will move downwards once the 200/C4 is installed.

But where is my engine and tranny ? Only a licquid gas container can be seen under my workbench. And a jar of California Sun Maid Raisins on top of it. Is that all the thieves left ?

Engine compartment paint

2009-10-12T13:12:00.031+03:00

Two weeks, I said in May. I'll let the primer dry for two weeks until I'll give it a final coat of semi-gloss black. After 21 weeks of drying I guess it's time to crawl back into the garage and start sanding and preparations for the paint job.

The engine compartment had a lot of drips and I had to use rough grit sandpaper for those areas. But mostly I managed with 250 grit.

The wheel well side turned out to be easier. Epoxy primer needs to be sanded to ensure good adhesion for the clearcoat. The color turns gray when the surface is ground. A friend of mine suggested polyurethane coating for the engine compartment. It forms a good shockproof surface and will not get scratched if it is hit by a wrench while fine-tuning his huge aluminium big-block engine. I discussed this issue with my candidate-for-body-paint-job. He absolutely refused the idea and voted for acrylic based paint. I do not want to argue with a specialist so acrylic shall it be. And due to the fact that my wrench is so small and my six-banger is so narrow, I felt OK with the decision.

The windshield window frames of a convertible will be covered with mouldings to such an extent that no body color will be seen. Only the inner side of the pillar will be visible. My interior will be black so I decided to do the frames and dashboard as well.

A lot of vacuuming was needed until I was able to apply silicone remover and Dinitrol 410 seam sealer and as soon as this was done I proceeded with spraying the Spies Hecker Permacron® 630 . This was done using wet-on-wet technique straight after I had finished with seam sealer so sorry, no pictures of that phase. Actually the sealer includes polyurathane but is compatible with the acrylic enamel. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished product after three coats of paint.

I ordered something between glossy and matt. The guy at the paint shop said he mixed 70% of the gloss-compound. The result may be too shiny but looks fine to me.

I had prepared the UCA's, LCA's and the strut rods and handled them as well.

The dash is now ready for the installation of the mono AM radio.

Looks quite menacing now, like UFO has turned out to Darth Vader's battleship.

To my opinion this paint job succeeded well. There can be seen a few scrathes from using the rough sanding paper but once the engine is back in they'll be difficult to be noticed.

The independence day surprise

2009-07-04T23:12:00.001+03:00

I took my girls to amusement park to celebrate the 4th of July. Well, actually not to celebrate the American Independence Day, but to have some fun in the beginning of the three-week holidays. Going to an amusement park with your children is money well spent. Though, I must admit that I'm so stingy that I did not buy an entrance bracelet for myself, only for the girls. I only bought a couple of single tickets for devices which interested me the most while the girls visited all the devices that they could.

A guy who painted my friend's Corvette during the passed winter visited my garage the other day. I wanted to hear his comments on how I should proceed with my bodywork if he would paint my pony in the winter. I was glad to hear that my thoughts had been the same which he recommended. First thing to do is to get my pony back on its' all fours then reassemble it and ensure that all of the parts fit. After this I would dismantle the doors, fenders, trunk lid and hood. OK. But how much would the paint job cost. He gave an estimation of 5000 € including some sheet metal straightening. Now, this was something which exceeded my initial budget for this part of the project. I'm sure that his work would be of excellent quality but I'm building up a daily driver here, not a show car.

It's been 10 months since I rode the pony last time. The summer is at it's best and I really do long for the days of last summer with my Mustang. Would this have been a perfect day to enjoy Mustang while driving home after a nice day in the amusement park. I set the navigator of my station wagon to "avoid-the-main-roads" and was driving back home along the bending country roads. This kind of roads would have been perfect for the six-engine of my 'vert.

But for a modern station wagon with all of the safety belts, unlocking brakes, driving stability systems and all of it's dozen air bags, I felt like 80 kms per hour (50mph) speed limit is not enough. Surely, the policeman in the approaching patrol car did not agree my point of view.

His radar measured 108 kms per hour (67 mph) which resulted a speeding ticket of 700 €. Yes, you read it right ! Seven hundred euros ($1000) ! Freedom and justice have prevailed, I guess.

I really do have to get back to the garage after my vacation. I can not afford to drive these boring modern cars any more.

The trunk

2009-05-15T16:07:00.011+03:00

A couple more patches needed to be made before finishing the trunk for primering. The right (R) hand side rear transition...

... and the left (L) hand side. This patch was made of the leftover part of the door skin repair panel. It had a suitable flange on it. Thus the patch is bigger than the one on the right (R) side, this one fits better. Maybe the size does matter...

No, it does not ! It's how you use it ! Then grinding down the spot welds. Note that I welded the stupid looking extra pieces of sheet metal to the front corners of the gas tank opening. My car had similar stiffeners when I got it. I am not sure if they were originally installed at the Ford plant, but I tried and succeeded to refabricate them.

I removed the trunk lid hinges and found something which amused me a lot. Now, think about being a new employee at Dearborn assembly line in the sixties. There was a massive demand for Mustangs and prpably no time to train the new personnel. So the Ford engineers solved the problem creatively. They designed a trunk lid hinge support brace which educates the employee by itself. There was a big "R" pressed on the right hand brace and "L" on the left hand brace.

After grinding there was some sanding to be done. Excellent therapy after a frustrating day's job at the office. Can be recommended to anyone.

Same treatment for the outer side of the rear quarter.

And finally some primer to cover the cleared area. I'm not too happy with the result of the paint job. My spray gun needs a thorough cleaning prior to the next use.

After the first coat of primer there are still a few areas which have to be brush painted before applying the next coat of sprayed primer.

Little by little the Mustang is turning black.

There is no way using the spray gun to enter the cross-member area behind the backrest of the rear seat. It has to be finished manually.

Springtime

2009-05-15T16:06:00.010+03:00

OK, no updates for a long time. The reason is: The springtime. The light has overcome the darkness and spending the evenings outdoors has defeated long nights in the garage.
But every once in a while I've been doing this and that.

The driver side door came out better than the notorious passenger side. I ordered the lower skin from NPD yesterday. We'll see their ability to deliver this time.

The springtime is an excellent season for repairing the suspension and springs. The structure of the Mustang suspension is well explained in Alex's blog. I had dismounted mine in a very early phase of the restoration. Now I had some of the parts sandblasted and painted. To find someone to do the sandblasting was (once again) hard to do. Ten years ago there would have been a couple of companies nearby where some would have done the job off-the-record for a fixed fee.

I checked all the bushings and joints, then decided to replace only the parts which were decidedly damaged. I'll replace the inner bushings of the lower control arms as well as upper ball joints and all of the tie rod ends. My original intention was to fix the car for a daily driver, not to improve the suspension or performance at this time. I'll try to stick to the plan A.

No, I'm not going water-skiing yet. These are my rear leaf spring leaves separated. You could easily order a new pack of leaf springs for $ 200 but I deciced to recover the old ones. I'll just have to replace the bushings and rear shackle kits and wrap the leaves with a set of new clamps.

I spent an hour or two (three nights altogether that is) sanding the engine compartment and finally I was able to give it a coat of epoxy primer. I'll let it dry for two weeks before applying final coat of semi-gloss black. The front fenders have been welded and found a handy place to be stocked.

Guess what colour this car will be ! I spent 3 long nights (2 hrs, saturday morning) sanding the under-dash area. The red was not chosen for the consistency but for better visibility when assembling the appliances.

45th anniversary

2009-04-17T00:00:00.000+03:00

Mustang was presented in New York on April 17 , 1964. There is legend that a finnish dealer Are Oy made a false start and exposed Mustang a couple of days in advance on April 12 as a world premier. True or not, there are as many legends as there were Mustangs produced. Anyhow, the demand for this car was so big (one million sold in 18 months) and they were manufactured in such a hurry that many mistakes in design and production remained for years. Take the cowl vent structure for an example.

This is one story to add in the list. Below is my passenger door with the rusted out lower edge. The tape is to expose the distance to the edge after I cut out the rusty part.

I left some of the flange to both ends. This would help me line the patch.

Then it was time use some precise tooling to fabricate an exact patch panel for the bottom part of the door. A table, a couple of clamps, a piece of 2"by 2" and a hammer. My table is one of extremely rare tables which are equipped with inline-six and water-cooling. See below picture.

The unique reproduction part was then tack welded. Note that I drilled holes for plug welding the bottom flange. Do not follow my example ! Later you'll find out why.

The patch was seam-welded and... ...ground. Looks good at this phase but it is not often when you lye on the ground looking upwards to the bottom of the door.

Before welding the visible parts I wanted to make sure that the door fits with front fender, quarter panel and outer rocker. Minor hammering was needed to adjust the bottom flange.

The gap between the door and the front fender is ok.

Enough with fitting. Let's proceed! This is the patch panel for the door (Canadian made, excellent fit). It's about 8" wide but I decided to use only the lower part of it in order to avoid welding the curvy area in the middle of the door. Holes were drilled to the flange which will bent to cover the flange in the bottom part.

Mark the line for cutting the rest of the rusted area.

There is no picture of the next phase ( Do not try it at home ! ) I plug welded the holes in the flange of the bottom part to the repair panel ( A mistake ! ). The welds generated heat and pulled the repair panel against the bottom flange. The only plug welds which are needed are the ones in the below picture.

The door fits fine and looks good from a distance but the lower area is as bumby as a potato field. There are three possible ways to fix it. One: Use some hammer and a lot of putty. Two: Apply tape stripes to cover it. Three: Order a new repair panel from NPD and re-do the outer part.

So, after 45 years Mustangs and Mistakes still go hand in hand.

Easter show

2009-04-14T12:41:00.011+03:00

The FHRA American Car Show takes place every Easter. This year the theme for my visit was to decide the new colour for my convertible. It won't be Ivy Green. Neither will it be Vintage Burgundy any more. I took some pictures of the Mustangs in the show.

Left: Black ProStreet '65 FB looks great, but black wouldn't look good on a 'vert with black interior. Black coating needs an excellent straight sheet metal and base-work.
Right: Really good-looking GT350R -replica of Fred van Beuren's GT350R -race car in Sebring 12 hrs. race in 1967. A paint like that on an inline-six convertible ?

Above left: A smoking gun.
Right: '07 Shelby GT500 , white rally-stripes on blue.

Above: '67 Shelby GT500 (#02565) owned by the same (lucky) guy as the '07.

Above left: A norwegian '67 GT-390 exactly as new. What a nice colour on a straight car.
Above right: Red '69 Sportsroof. Looks as Poppy Red in the pic but was more like Rangoon Red.

Below left: The owner of this BMW is a big fan to Nicholas Cage.
Below right: Gone in 53 Seconds ?

Decision: My '65 will be bright red. That's for sure now.

But where were all the convertibles this year ?

Do I have to turn my one-day-this-will-be-my-daily-driver into a show-stopper project and correct this injustice in the show of 2010 ? Or maybe in 2011. Give me a couple of years or a decade to finish it first. I'll start tonight by patching the passenger door.

Seat platform

2009-04-07T15:01:00.001+03:00

When I detached the seat platform in december I was worried if it would be bent and never go back again. I made a couple of test fits and realized that there was no reason for worries. The seat platform is made of thick metal and can take some heavy hammering without complaints. The flanges needed to be straightened a little. I suggest straigtening on the garace floor before final fitting. Once the hammering was done, I marked the places for plug welds (about 50) and draw the outline to the floor pans, then grinded the metal clear to achieve good adhesion for the welds.

The accessories needed are a couple of carpenter's screw clamps and a hammer, two 50mm bolts to line and hold against the propeller tunnel and two longer ones for pulling against floorpans. I enjoyed welding this one. Thick and clear metal, high amperes, enough room to work and so on. I added some seam welds here and there to ensure that the platform sits tight.

After an hour of welding I felt so trustful of my progress in cherishing this 44-year-old lady that I deciced to open the passenger "door". I think this unibody does not have the risk of sagging any more.

Look, mom, no braces !

Stupid is as stupid does

2009-04-05T23:45:00.005+03:00

You don't have to be too smart to restore of a Mustang, because I think that at least 90% of the job is grinding. I prepared the seat platform for the installation by grinding it for one evening. I do not believe in these stuff which kill, encapsulate or transform the rust. But this time I gave a shot for one of them. Here is the bottom of the seat platform after being treated.

And here it is after some more grinding, water-sanding and primering.

Now since I had my spray gun loaded with epoxy primer, I though that I might paint the cowl grille panel as well.

Having gone so far I thought I could paint the dash too.

And the floor...

The back seat area...

I did not feel tired and I liked my job, so I painted the hood also.

At this point my compressor was so exhousted and screaming aloud and was so hot that I thought it's oil was boiling. I felt pretty tired and I thought I would go home.

That's all I have to say about grinding.

Primering the cowl

2009-03-29T10:48:00.002+03:00

The cowl panel required wetsanding and a couple of patches before it satisfied me enough to be primered. It seemed as it never had been covered with a good coat of paint.

After the rust was removed I pulled out my spray gun, mixed some Temacoat GPL-S Primer, hardener and thinner and took my first lesson of painting with spray gun.

I also painted the firewall which had been grinded earlier. The last coat of paint was too thick and caused some orange peel effect.

The grille panel looks better that it ever has looked after the '60s.

A detail of the coated cowl vent. Maybe I could have done better with the seam weld between the cowl vent panel and the center area, but I think this will do. The black paint looks so good that it is a shame to hide it with the cover panel.

Before closing the box I sealed the seams around the vent cylinder with body sealer. The grille panel was spot welded back and covered in order to avoid dirt to get in.

Good bye cowl vents. Hope to see You again. But not earlier than after another 44 years.

Shooting myself in the leg

2009-03-20T00:05:00.016+02:00

When this UFO flew back to my garage in December, I told my friend who was helping me at the time, that I'll drill out the 200 spot welds and open the cowl to be able to fix the cowl wents. He asked me whether I was planning to shoot myself in the leg as well. He is the one with Corvette and does not understand the full meaning of rust repairs. The spots are marked red now, so that I'll see them better when I drill them out. They may not be 200 altogether, I lost count after 150.

And here are the new cowl vents waiting to be installed. The new life insurance for the floor.

It took one evening to drill. I lost six drills and two spot weld cutters while opening the cowl. A lot of rain and autumn leaves have have gone through here. And a lot did not. Causing the cowl to rust.

The driver side looked like this.

And the passenger side was not much better. Safety instructions: Always wear rubber boots when driving in the rain.

Starting from the driver side. First I safely cut away the most but left the upper edge. On this side there are three lugs and a hole for wiper mechanism. I left them in place so I could place the new repair panel on top of them and mark their position.

Next evening I cut away the rest of the rust and welded the repair panel. The holes for wiper lugs were drilled where I had copied the marks.

The passenger side is easier as there are nothing else to be positioned than the cowl vent itself. The red mark on the windshield frame and the fender apron form a straight line against which the cowl vent hole must lean on.

On the third evening I was able to weld the passenger side.

I did not have cone-shaped bore at hand so made a change in my plans. Instead of drilling the opening and welding lugs, I transplanted the part from the old panel.

The cowl vent grille panel needs a lot of grinding and intensive care before the coffin can be nailed up. But my leg still feels OK.

A competitor for AD Inc.

2009-03-10T22:53:00.005+02:00

What on earth is this piece of sheet metal ?
Is it a reproduction panel which can be obtained from NPD for $18.95, manufactured by American Designer Inc. in Canada ?

You guessed right ! It's not.
I made it out of 0.9 mm sheet metal plate using cardboard as a pattern and a hammer as a tool. There is no repair panel available for this part of the floor unless you want to buy the full center transition floorpan which is both expensive and difficult to replace.

There is a small flange in the transition crossmember that was suitable for seam-welding.

The darning on the left side is made by the Swede, not by me.
I might consider establishing a sheet metal workshop and competing against American Designer Inc. with higher quality and lower prices. The is a huge demand in the market for this product.

Or maybe I should just settle down and replace the driver side as well.

Reinforcement pans

2009-03-08T12:36:00.009+02:00

This is a lower reinforcement pan for '65 Mustang painted with Nexa Autocolor P565-909 1K etch primer. These were used in convertibles only to stiffen the self-supporting unibody. I have drilled some holes to the flange already. The four bigger openings are factory-made.

These are pressure impregnated boards which I used for compressing the pan against the floorpans. Any other type can be applied but I had these near my hands when I designed these helpful tools.

The bolts I had were too short so I had to use something else available to act as a washer.

Time to weld the spots. I started from the outer edge where the reinforcement pan meets the inner rocker with a couple of spots the moved forward on top of the floorpan and finally used a couple of bolts and lugs to pull the flange against the propeller tunnel.

The floorpan area covered by the reinforcement pan had earlier been primered. The holes are for inserting the seat lugs and for spraying the anti-rust compound.

The bolts are left there. I may later exploit them for hanging fuel and brake lines.

The inner flange was seam welded all along the flange. This seam costed me a shirt. It caught fire from splashing weld. The seam weld between the floor pan and the propeller tunner is left below the flange. The picture below shows two things. It is a reinforcement plate to be bolted between the two reinforcement pans. It is important to check that the pans are in line with each other so that this plate can be installed. I did not fit both pans simultanously. Instead I installed one and after that aligned the other using this plate.

The other thing seen in the above picture is the blue color. I painted this plate about a year ago with P565-909. The plate went throught the 2500 bar high pressure wash and it remained slightly blue. The etching obviously had worked, very adhesive stuff, but requires a top coating later.

I'll reuse the original seat platform. It is waiting for some hammering, grinding and primering.

Restructuring the right fender

2009-03-02T12:55:00.005+02:00

Just to make sure I will not run out of things to do, I fetched my fenders from the shed where I have stored them over the winter. I prepared them for the high pressure wash by removing the emblems.

There is a structure in the rear of the fender. I got afraid that the corner would not be strong enough to sustain the extreme pressure as it mostly was made of rust, rivets and putty. The bolt in the picture is one of my dirty-fixes-for-the-first-summer.

If the structure and lower part would vanish, I wouldn't have the reference points left to fit and match the repair panels. So I had to make an exception and fix this before cleaning it. First I cut the worst parts and placed the fender brace on top of the old one and marked the red line. No need to say but the brace, manufactured by American Designers Inc. , made an excellent fit.

Once the correct position could be determined, the repair brace was narrowed a little to leave a few millimetres for the fender sheet metal to be twisted inside. Then the brace was finally welded.

Before the final welding I had to test-fit it against the car body about a half-a dozen times because there is a knot in the brace which has to meet a similar hole in the outer rocker extension. I placed a tape above cutting line and marked some distances between the tape and the bent shoulder of the lower part of the fender.

When I was sure that the reference points were marked correctly I welder the repair panel using spot and seam welds.

The gap between the fender and outer rocker looks good. The flange twisted to inner side of the fender will spot welded after the wash and primering.

The fender is ready to be delivered for the high pressure wash. The driver side fender is better and does not have to be pre-repaired.

Trunk drop-off dropped off

2009-02-25T23:56:00.008+02:00

This is the trunk floor drop-off and rear frame rail before the high pressure wash. The lower end seems like something is about to burst out. An Alien maybe ?

This is a picture of the same area after the wash. The one who made this was not the chicken farmer because he would not have wasted this excellent net for Mustang risking his chicken to escape meanwhile.

First thing to do is to make some room for the operation by cutting off the most of the dirt.

The floor has some spot welds to be drilled out. Thanks to the wash they are well visible as the subframe support that I'm so proud of.

The fitting and welding was done pretty much like I did on the driver side except that I first welded the trunk drop-off panel (needs modifications, made in far-east, btw.) and after that welded the lower quarter repair panel and the wheelhouse patch.

The lip of the wheel house is waiting for a couple of patches which will be welded from outside. Now all the concours correct restoration specialists can see a huge mistake here. Yes, the bumber bracket should have been removed and welded on top of the floor. I did not want to do this ( as I did on the driver's side ) because it ruins the taillight panel when you drill it out.

I'll cover the trunk with a carpet...

History is repeating itself

2009-02-13T17:35:00.005+02:00

I marked the lines for the quarter repair panel and for the lower rear as I did on the other side. As this side was in better condition, I decided to use a smaller patch this time because I want to avoid too much seam welds on the visible sheet metal.

Some tape was used to help to line the angle grinder for cutting. The inside was sanded and primered.

Light blue primer looks good though I think that this one will be red one day.

Another look to the same before the quarter repair panel was installed.

The repair panel looks Ok. It needs some bending on the corners and on the lower flange before it fits.

Passenger rear wheelhouse

2009-02-11T12:34:00.008+02:00

Maybe I was too eager to proceed and made a mistake when welding in the passenger side floorpan. The right order is 1) weld it to the inner rocker 2) then to the frame rails 3) then to torque boxes and finally to the propeller shaft tunnel. I had to detach a couple of tack welds as I did not follow this rule. Afterall the pan went in quite well. Under the rear seat is an area which was so lousy patched (by the swede ?) that I removed it and will fix later.

Then I made some space to be able to fix the frontside of the rear wheelhouse. This side required smaller patches than the driver side.

Luckily the wheel flare arch has remained and helped me to shape the new parts.

And the quarter repair panel was test-fitted and marked.

The shape may be not as round and smooth as the original, but is made of thicker material and will do it's purpose.

Passenger side for a change

2009-02-02T23:55:00.009+02:00

The car was easily turned around with the kind help from my friend's wife (!) and a couple of men. As I'm starting to restore the passenger side of the car, it is great to see how they made it in Ford's Dearborn assembly plant 40 years ago. Note the picture on the wall to the right of the windows. That fellow in the picture is most obviously the reason for this (and many other) Mustang being so rusty. What is he doing ? He's posing for the camera while he should be spraying rust-preventive paint over the body ! Read the full story.

Actually the passenger side was in better condition that the driver side.

The cutting and drilling and preparations take a lot of time. The work was pretty much the same on this side as it was on the driver side. Due to my experience I had the courage to cut bigger pieces and save some time and a lot of cutting discs.

After a week the new inner rocker and torque box was installed. A huge gap is waiting for the floor pans. The frame rail has been grinded and primered. My subframe connector is well exposed in this picture.

Left wheelhouse and flare

2009-01-22T23:38:00.015+02:00

Sometimes you have to make compromises between the quality and the time and resources. My left side wheelhouse looked like this.

The both sides of the wheelhouse could have been ordered as reproduction part, but I decided to limit the restoration here and patch it using sheet metal plate with 1,25 mm thickness. The bad thing was that I had to recreate the shape without a model.

I set the new wheelflare on top of the old one to see the area which it would cover.

Then I marked the area with a pencil. My patch for inner wheelhouse is well visible in this picture.

I used tape to make sure that I won't cut too much. I've heard about a Mustang which had an inch of sheet metal missing all along the quarter panel.

Now the rusty part could be drilled and cut out.

First I made a patch for the lower section of the outer wheelhouse. Prior to this the rear end of the outer rocker needed to be straigtened. I drilled a hole and used a lug and a nut as a puller.

Then I created an arch for the wheelhouse.

And welded in the remaining parts followed with normal routines ( grinding, grinding, grinding and primering).

The following day I welded the new part.

You may wonder why I did not replace the full quarter panel skin. The reason is that I was unaware of the poor condition of the wheelflare when I made the initial order for sheet metal.

Those who have sharp eyes and have stared Mustangs for an adequte time can see that this Canadian made part is not exactly as the original Ford part. The area where the side emblem will be installed ( and I will install it, though many of restorers do not ) is not as deep as it should.

The self made shape of the wheelhouse looks good enough for me.

Now the car was ready to be turned around for the start-up of same operations on the passenger side.

The financial crisis

2009-01-12T00:30:00.009+02:00

I read in the newspaper that the automobile industry in the US was about to go bankrupt. I got worried and decided to support them and order spares for my Ford. But these spares are either made in Taiwan or in Canada ! Ok. The actual reason for ordering more parts was the NO ADMITTANCE sign used to give shape for my driver side wheel flare.

I have ordered spares from NPD earlier and have been very, very satisfied with their deliveries and service overall. I wish all the best for the guys at NPD Ocala, FL where they have their international service. The draw-back of ordering goods outside US is that there is no free freight available for us and air-freight is quite expensive.

I made the list for the initial sheet metal order in an early stage and I did not have to have them quick. Therefore I ordered them through a local dealer in the beginning of october reminding him that I only accept the goods from NPD catalog. I wanted to avoid high freight cost so the package would come in ship-container along with many other. And that’s what it did. It took two months. The price was agreed based on the NPD catalog price and a multiplying factor of 1.3 .

Now what does the 1.3 multiplying factor mean ? I’ll give you an example.
101A-1LH REAR WHEEL FLARE costs $48.50 in NPD webshop.
If you order it and something else so that your order exceeds $300, you’ll get it delivered to any US home in three days for about $52 ( I assume the VAT is 7 % ).

When I order goods with factor 1.3 it means that the price includes the freight costs, customs and VAT ( 22% btw.). And that the currency is euro (€).

So, the REAR WHEEL FLARE delivered within two months to my local dealer ( where I have to pick it up by myself ) costs me 1.3 x 48,50 x 1 € = 63,05 €. As the rate between $ and € is 0,72 it means that I’ll pay $ 87,57 for the flare. Think about that next time when you save money by using traffic signs !

I wanted the flares fast so I ordered them directly from NPD no matter what the air-freight costs might be. They arrived in a week (Ocala FL-Orlando FL-Louisville KY-Koeln Germany-Herne-Boerig Germany-Glostrup Denmark- Helsinki Finland ) by UPS. After I had paid them and all the freight costs and taxes, I calculated the final ‘multiplying factor’ for this delivery. I was really surprised as it was only 1.32 . Should my local dealer review his business idea ?

Though I felt the parts were cheap, I almost paid twice the US price.

Talk about financial crisis ?

Rear frame rail and trunk

2009-01-11T23:35:00.026+02:00

Am I stupid or what but it is extremely difficult to edit the text in these posts if I use the Picasa to upload the pics. I had ordered and welded the Canadian made trunkfloor drop-off. Later I realized that the trunk will need a bigger patch. I decided to order the bigger Taiwanese made part and only use the area which I needed because the Canadian part was already been welded as well. I made a smaller patch from sheet metal plate to the front left side of the gas tank opening.

This may end up looking like a jigsaw puzzle when it's finished, but I refuse to replace all the parts little by little if they can be repaired. The rear frame rail was given two pieces of fresh metal in front of leaf spring rear attaching point. The rust was cleared as far as possible, rust-converter was applied and the inside of the frame rail was painted with etching primer. Then the black part made in Taiwan was welded. Here is the result.

This was not the state of art part. It needed to be shortened and twisted to make it fit. Note the spot welds which connect the black part to the Canadian drop-off. This was rather an easy part of the project but required about three evenings anyhow. One for drilling, measuring and cutting, one for grinding and primering and one for the welding and finishing.

Quarter repair panel

2009-01-05T23:37:00.004+02:00

Before cutting off the rusted parts of the outer wheelhouse, trunk-floor drop-off and the lower rear end of the quarter panel I test-fitted the parts. I think the best way is to install them all together. I placed the new panel on top of the old one as near to the right position as I could and used two lines of tape to mark the position. These two lines were relative to each other with a gap of 5 cm. Now I was able to cut the rust away and still be able to relocate the right position.

Then the outer wheelhouse repair panel was measured and cut.

After this followed the normal routines: drill holes, paint the ares which will be hidden, spot weld, grind down the spotwelds. Yes, I left the flange in the upper edge of the repair panel. So there will be two metals on top of each other which might catch rust.

But this will be a daily driver, won't it.

Driver side floor pans

2008-12-29T22:38:00.012+02:00

As soon as the torque boxes were welded I started fitting the floor pans. They are not difficult to be installed but need quite a many test fittings, then cutting and drilling the holes for spot welding. The new floor pans are longer than the original ones in the front end of the pans. This showed up to be excellent for me as I had not ordered new toe boards. The extension can be seen below.

Before the final assembly the edges of the floorpan were painted as it might be difficult to do later. First I welded spots to the area below inner rocker. Then I applied squeezers and pliers to pull the pan against frame rail extension and to the correct line in the propeller shaft tunnel where old and new metal overlap about one inch. It may appear later that rust feels that area nice and cozy but butt-welding would have been too difficult, at least for me.

I had to weld a couple of spots working under the body because I had drilled through the flange in the frame rail extension while removing the old metal. Therefore only few drilled holes can be seen in the above picture.

The separate rear part of the pan needs to be narrowed for about 6 cm as it is meant for coupes and fasbacks which do not have inner rockers. I was so busy working with it that I forgot to shoot pictures of it. Now I had fixed the first half of the floor. I wanted to do something else for a change.

Torque boxes and inner rockers

2008-12-27T23:06:00.012+02:00

The inner side of outer rocker panel was in good condition. It has been covered with zinc in the factory. I ground the small amount of rust and painted it as well as I painted the rest of the parts which would be covered when the new parts would be installed. The lower part of the rear torque box needed some patching but I decided to do it later after the inner rocker is installed.

Frame rails have been protected with paint.

The new parts looked great, but they did not fit exactly. The problem seemed to be that the inner rocker was about 1 cm wider than the original. Therefore it lined too high in the door jamb. I resolved the problem by bending the front torque box a little lower on the outer side. The inner side could then be hammered down to make it fit with the frame rail. Now the extra width was distributed evenly to the upper and lower area. I could be ground without having to weaken the spot welds.

Front torque box is installed and welded with spot welds
to inner rocker and seam-welded to the frame rail.
The side cowl panel and firewall still need some fixing.

As the inner rocker was in it's place I started welding it in the rear part of the car to attach it to the rear torque box. I had ordered new torque box covers but they are designed for coupes and fastbacks which do not have inner rockers. It almost ruined my christmas holiday once I realized that the part doesn't fit. After checking the I had correct parts I calmed down as I believed that there are no parts available for convertibles. So, they needed some modification to make them fit.

The modified rear torque box cover is being fitted

I spotwelded the cover to lower part of the torque box as well as to the inner rocker and rear frame rail. The leaf spring bracket was also welded to inner rocker. Now I could feel that the body (of the car ) was getting stronger again.

The lower right corner of torque box cover needs to be hand-made

I removed the rest of the of rusted parts to make room for fitting the new floor pans.

The floor has vanished. Not much left of the original

Floor pan under the rear seat was removed so that the new long floor pan can be fit.

Cleaning the driver side floor

2008-12-15T14:37:00.009+02:00

Now the car was supported and back from the waterblasting. It was time to tear off the rest of the rusted-out parts. I decided to start on the driver's side. First I removed the rear floor pan which did not take long. It almost came out with bare hands. Then I drilled and grinded the seat platform. You can see the diffence between the waterblasted metal and the part of the floor which lyed under the seat platform.

I still left floorpans connected to front frame rails. I wanted them to remain as long as possible to give the body some support. The floorpan doesn't even touch the inner rocker any more. After removal of the seat platform the inner rocker is practically in two pieces. The front and rear are connected only by the outer rocker. The inner rocker was removed piece by piece.

The pieces of Boston railway track do not support the car if they are separated by the rusted out rocker under the seat platform. Eventually after working a couple of evenings the most of the parts are off. I took some measures of the body just in case to control if it will be bent. So far it seems that the supporting structure is solid enough.

The front torque box is off. The frame rail needs to be patched. In this picture below you can see that the design of my "subframe connector" is incomplete. The frame rail can not be replaced as the car is standing on it. In this case only patching it was enough, so this did not bother that much. The second disadvantage is that the new torquebox does not fit in it's place. I needed to cut off the front extension of the outer rocker to be able to test-fit the new torque box. Well, it was shot anyhow...

Note that the car is standing on only four jackstands. The subframe appeared to be so stiff, that only three would have been enough. I patched the front frame rail, removed the remains of the rust and primered the new torque boxes and inner rocker before fitting them in place.

Front torque box above and rear torque box cover below.The phase of drilling and cutting the left side floor is over. It took longer than I expected because I wanted to make sure I won't do any irreversible mistakes. I'm sure that when I get to do the same on the other side I'll do it much faster.

Not much left of the inner rocker under the seat platform area.

UFO in my garage

2008-12-02T15:19:00.014+02:00

Due to snowy weather conditions the trip to waterblasting took two weeks. But finally you could see a shiny unidentified object flying in to my carage.

The additional support structure can be seen under the floor of the flying Mustang. The rust damages were revealed earlier. Now it was able to see all the earlier patches too.

Driver side rear wheel well and rear frame rail after the wash. Note the patch by the Swede on the right and the beutiful design of my subframe connector.

The trunk floor drop-off is made of bondo.

This one is my favorite. The wheel flare is made of...

...NO ADMITTANCE sign ! Ford NOS-part no: C5ZZ-1234-XX

But the car was back home in my small garage in one piece. The sheet metal parts which I had ordered earlier from the local dealer were soon to arrive and at last the restoration was able to start without the risk that the fumes and smoke from burning bondo would fill the house.

Three months had passed since I drove Mustang for the last time and the job was about to start.

High Pressure Wash

2008-11-15T14:23:00.010+02:00

After it had become obvious that the car needed some heavier restoration than just replacing the floor pans, I started comparing the different ways of cleaning the old paint, dirt, antirust compound, bondo and rust out of it.

I decided to take the car to be washed with high pressure water. It is a method where water is pumped with the pressure over 2000 bars. This kind of pressure removes everything but the metal, it even removes the rust. In order to prepare the Mustang to be hung in the grill (or a rotisserie) during the wash, I started designing a supporting structure for the car’s body.

As the doors were removed I installed support braces in their place.

Then I bought about 20 metres of 40x40mm square tube with thickness of 1,5 mm. I bolted four crosswise bars to the body. The first in place of the bolt holes for lower control arms, the second between the front frame rail extensions, the third between the front end of the rear frame rails and the fourth between the rear of the rear frame rails. Then I welded two longitudinal bars which connect them on both sides of the car. These longitudinal tube were left under the crosswise bars to leave space between them and the floor structure. Now I had a solid subframe connectors which would prevent the car from twisting during the blast and restoration. The structure is solid but has some disadvantages too, which I discovered later.

I then welded the grill supports for front and rear and bolted them to where the bumbers usually are bolted. I tried to line the tubes so that the front and rear tube would be in line which each other so the car would roll easily in the grill.

Now the car was prepared for the car-wash. It was lifted on a trailer with a help of a couple of friends.This picture below tells a lot about the truth lying under the nice paint. The inner rocker viewed from the driver side wheel well.

I just hope that there is something left of my car after the high pressure wash...

The summer is soon over

2008-08-31T23:49:00.011+03:00

After the minor spring service I drove the Mustang as often as possible during the summer. My intention was to use it as a daily driver and that’s what I did. Whenever the weather was sunny or at least not rainy I chose to drive it instead of my family wagon. Convertible appeared to raise interest among the other travellers and pedestrians. If not on every other traffic light but at the latest on the third someone would comment what a nice car I have. I started counting traffic lights while driving. It also showed up to be very practical to go shopping with top down. The bags are easy to load on the rear seat without having to use keys or open doors.

I mostly drove short distances near home, but made one longer trip with my wife to spend a weekend in a city located about 160 km from us. On the bending country roads the car was at it’s best, driven with speed of 45-50 mph ( 60 mph is the absolute maximum for top-down driving and to avoid “waving” of the unibody) . During this trip I met the only technical problem when the retaining spring in the right-hand drum brake broke down. During the four months of summer Mustang gathered 2200 miles in her odometer (which by the way is as much as the average for the previous 43 summers) It’s fuel economy was good. Gasoline consumption was moderate, only 11,5 litres per 100 kilometres.
But soon it was August 31st and I had to decide whether to have the car inspected or to start the restoration. After reviewing the floor pans I decided to unscrew the plates…

I had thought that replacing the floor pans could be done without having to tear the whole car down. But I soon discovered that floor pans were not the only parts to be repaired. The parts of the unibody structure like inner rockers were shot or at least “creatively” repaired. You can not replace inner rockers without touching the torque boxes. If you fix the torque boxes, you’ll most probably need to fix frame rails as well. If you remove all of these parts at one time you’ll get two convertibles, the front and the rear. Therefore there must be supporting structure installed before removing the rotten parts. Anyhow a lot of cutting, welding and grinding was to be done before the floor pans would be replaced.

I googled the internet and found a couple of blogs with helpful information (thanks Kev and Alex). Their pictures and stories encouraged me to do this by myself. I dismounted the interior in order to clearly see what was lying under the carpet. And this is what I found.

The rusted out floor has been patched with light alloy plates riveted to the remainders of the floor.

Under the plates you can see that the original rear foot well is partly vanished, the rear torque box is rotten through. The shiny plate has been spot-welded from here and there by the swede, I guess. The floor pan under the rear seat is so rusted that parking brake cable is visible.

The driver side rear torque box. Note the thick metal which has been used to patch the inner rocker in lower right corner of the picture. If there is a missing piece of railway track somewhere in Massachusetts, don't blame it on me. Someone else welded it in my car. The thickness of the metal in next to nothing if it is welded to a rusted out part.

It was time to disassemble the rest of the car...

First Inspection

2008-01-02T22:17:00.017+02:00

The first inspection was done when the car was home. It seemed to run fine. I was astonished of the nice silent sound it had, espesially with the top down. The VIN code was easily decoded:

Year: 5 1965
Plant: F Dearborn, MI
Body Series: 08 Convertible
Engine: T 200 1v I6

Body: 76A Convertible, Standard Interior
Color: R Ivy Green Metallic
Trim: 28 Lt. Ivy Gold Crinkle Vinyl, Standard Interior
Date: 23A January 23, 1965
D.S.O: 11 Boston
Axle: 2 2.83:1, Conventional
Trans: 6 C4 Automatic

To my knowledge, the only options chosen by the first owner were the C4 automatic transmission and the AM radio. In the windshield I found a sticker of the inspection done in Massachusetts for year 2007. Had the pony lived there all these years ? It had around 92.000 miles in the odometer. If this was all, it would mean an average mileage of only 2.000 per year. That's not a lot. I am not sure what kind of climate there is in MA, but it is not California anyhow. Maybe there are only a couple of sunny summerdays yearly. Or had the car stayed in the backyard for years since the owner passed away in the 80's ? Then someone bought it, fixed it, painted it red and sold it to the swede. I started wondering the story behind this car. Was this car bought as a present to a high school graduate girl in '65 or to an elderly lady. Somehow I couldn't figure a ferocious youngster driving an ivy green six-cylinder.

I replaced the sealed beam headlights with H4 type to meet the local legislation, had the car registered and fixed some minor things for the coming season. I made a couple of interesting discoveries. Under the rear seat I found patches made of twisted plate, pop-rivets, bondo and a top of a tin can (of asparagus, I assume. Someone did not like it and hid the can under the seat).

The other discovery was rather nice one. Obviously the other (the AM radio) of the two options had broken down in '99 and the owner had visited Antique Radio Service in Bedford, MA and bought a repaired one. This and the name and address of the customer ( I'll call him Tom ) could be read in the shop receipt which I found behind the glove box. Antique radio shop had antique type of receipt form which helped me to track the previous owner.

With the help of Bedford Town website I was able to find out that Tom still lived there and with the help of Google Earth I could even take a look at the street where Mustang used to live. I wrote Tom a letter asking him to tell his story about the Mustang. Tom replied by email a few weeks later. He had purchased the car in April of '96. He promised to come back with more info later, but unfortunately he hasn't. Was he the man that hid the asparagus ? So, Tom , if you're out there , please mail me.

Getaway from Stockholm

2007-12-07T17:59:00.036+02:00

I started browsing swedish websites for cars for sale and soon found one which matched my criteria. Except for the engine which was 6 cylinder 200. The car had a nice looking price tag, so I called the owner.

The seller told me honestly about the car. It did not have power top, power brakes or power-anything. The convertible top needed to be replaced and the condition of the floor pans was not good. The car had been fixed and painted poorly in the US before the seller imported it to Sweden. I didn't have to check VIN to discover that this was not one of the collectors' most wanted Mustangs. However, the car was registered and inspected in Sweden, so it could legally be driven in Finland as well. At least for one summer. We agreed on the price and I decided to buy it. I booked tickets for a ferry to Sweden and a trailer from Stockholm to haul it to the ferry harbour.

There she stood (ironically parked on the place for the handicapped). Just like the seller mentioned "looks good from distance of ten meters". I took a short ride around the block, removed the swedish plates, drove it on the trailer and fifteen minutes later we were on our way back home.

We had "some difficulties with the brakes of the trailer" so we ended up with leaving the trailer to the sidestreet in Stockholm and driving the un-insured, un-plated Mustang with leaking top and malfunctioning heater and blower to the ferry and over the border without no-one asking a question.

Now the car was safely in the ferry and we could get away from Stockholm.

A couple of words for the start

2007-11-15T15:42:00.008+02:00

I always dreamt of having an american classic of my own - no matter what make or model - but the right time to start the hobby never came. A couple of years ago I had my house built, kids old enough to have some time of my own in the evenings. My middle-aged friends already had their dream-cars and were pushing me to buy myself a Corvette or some other toy. But I did not want to share their dream.

No, I had to have something else, something that no-one I knew would have. I decided to go for a Mustang and it had to be a convertible. I set some other specs too: model year early '65-'68, V8 engine, automatic gearbox, red paint, not a show car but a daily driver...

I got to know a guy who is a long-time Mustang-hobbyist and knows a lot of people in the local club. He promised to help me to find one. Easier said than done. After two years of searching, I still had no pony in the garage.

Thus the increased amount of Mustangs imported from US, the convertibles are owned by enthusiastics who do not sell the cars in the first place when they need money. Or if they do, they want a lot of it. It was time to take a look overseas...