45th anniversary

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

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

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

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.