Springtime

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.