Seat covers are in!

Pictures to follow shortly. Going to be a little bit before I will have time to get them on the frames. I have a bit of prep work that needs to be done first. Probably won't get much done over the next several weeks as I try to get the restoration on the '65 Mustang coupe project wrapped up. I will post as time permits.

Another Quick Update...

Just catching up on a few items....

1) Roof is stripped (yeah!). And I thought the quarter panels were long!
2) Repairs to passenger's fender are nearly complete. Small amount of body work left.
3) "New" driver's fender is stripped and needs a small amount of work for dings while it was stored for the past 47+ years.
4) Started work on tailgate. Uncovered some small dents and a couple of pinholes. Started addressing them...
5) Starting to have upholstery made for the '67 bucket seats, as stated in previous post.
6) Completed put together a complete NOS factory Ford air ride assist kit! More on this later...

That's all for now!

Sketch Is Finally Done...

Finally finished the sketch of the buckets. I have been preoccupied with a 1965 Mustang Coupe with a 302 and 4-speed that I am restoring to resell and pay for my bucket seat upholstery. Anyone looking to buy an early Mustang? =-)

The old covers are off to the upholsterer, and hopefully in a few weeks, new ones will be on the way...

Another Set of Bucket Seats...

As much as I like the '68 Galaxie buckets I have already completed, I like the '67s even more. And, they are the right year for my car, even if they never were in my wagon in the first place. The good news for me is I picked up a set of '67 Galaxie buckets some time back, so I won't have to try to chase a set down. Here is a picture of what they look like:

These have a stamped steel skirt that runs around the base, and a stamped steel seat back that covers the entire back of the seat giving it an almost bowl-like shape. They don't have as much in the way of bolstering as the '68s do, but they are still very cool.

After a quick call to the upholsterer on Friday, it sounds like they will be affordable as well.

Now I just need to sketch up what they will look like...

Hood Is Stripped...

Stripped the hood the other night and only found a couple of small dings. Woo hoo! I just need to break out the putty knife and apply a little glazing putty to make it perfect.

I hope to start stripping the roof (finally!) this week. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel...

Will try to get some updated pics for the next post.

A Quick Follow-Up on refinishing the dash...

Looking back at a couple of posts, I realize I never gave an update to painting the dash area while still in the car. Well, I'm happy to report it went amazingly well!

I would say the secret to my success was PREP! Lots of masking, ever-so-carefully applied, and covering everything else with drop cloths and newspaper.

Can't wait to get the body done so I can start on putting the interior back in the car.

Driver-Side Fender Repair...

I started stripping down the driver's side fender and found there was a little more damage there than what I was expecting. The front corner had been hit.

At some point an attempt was made to pull it out and they coated it with body filler. Part of this process also included not straightening out the substructure of the fender or broken welds, and hammering some of the factory edges flat rather than straightening the metal back out.

It took me a couple of hours, but I got the fender a lot closer to where it came from the factory, but it will still need filler to help true up the metal, just not nearly as much as was there originally. And, the substructure is welded back in place as it should be.

Patching the Doors...

Been a while since my last post, but I have been busy working on the wagon. The engine is running great, but will need a little finer tuning. And, the bodywork continues.

I finally gave up on the two doors on the driver's side. The damage was pretty bad, and I was constantly struggling with trying to true up the doors. So, I purchased a couple of replacements. But, they came from a sedan, so I had to remove the window frame from the original door ans swap it onto the new one. Sorry, no pics on this process, but I do have some of the rust repair on the corner of one of the passenger's side doors.

Like many cars from this era, the dew wipes gave up years (decades?) ago, and contaminants and water made their way into the door. They formed a mud at the bottom, blocking the drains and eventually rotting the corner of the door from the inside out.

I don't have a picture showing the rust, but I did get one right after cutting away the rust.

I tried to keep away from the edge of the door and out of the body line. I also tried to keep it as small as possible. Once the hole was cut and everything cleaned up, I cut a patch to weld in place. It got a pretty nice fit.

I have a copper bar with magnets in it that I used to help hold the patch in place from the backside.

My welding could be better, but it got the job done.

A minute or two with the grinder, and it is ready for a little filler to clean it up. I'm giving the Eastwood filler a try, but so far, I'm not thrilled. It's green with a blue hardener making mixing by color almost impossible relative to Bondo. It also doesn't sand as easily.

Sand, and one more coat and it should be just about ready for primer!

Back to Work!

After a miserable Michigan Winter (one of the worst on record) I am back to work! Not a lot of time to work on it today, just enough to solve the mystery of the gasoline shooting out of the secondaries vent.

From my initial research, it had to be one of two things: bad/dirty needle/seat or leaky float. Either are fixed easily enough, but less to disassemble to replace the needle valve. So I pulled the assembly, cleaned and inspected it. It look as new as it did when I installed it when I rebuilt the carb, but you never know. I replaced it in the carb, turned on the fuel pump, and...fountain of gas.

Must be the float.

So I pulled the rear bowl (I used the reusable gaskets -- yes!), disassembled the float, replace it with the new one, reassembled everything, and...fountain of gas. CRAP!

Must be the needle valve. So I did a little looking online first. Maybe I missed something. Not a whole lot to the system to mess up. Apparently I used a different set of terms for my search today, because I round option #3 that hadn't been previously discussed: on some carbs, the secondary float needs to be plastic, not brass or it will hang on the metering block off plate. Really?

Back to the carb one more time. I pulled the float adjustment screw, and with a jewelers screwdriver I tried to move the float. It was wedged in place.

One more trip to the local speed shop, Diversified Creations, for a not-so-shiney new plastic float. Repeat step #2. Brass float out, plastic float in. The plastic float is well over 1/4" less deep than the brass float was. After reattaching the rear bowl I checked the float and it moved freely.

I turned the gas on, no fountain. Mission accomplished!

Next post will hopefully cover work on the new used doors I picked up...

Not Much to Report...

Between the passing of the holidays and an abnormally severe Michigan Winter, there isn't much to report. Too cold. Too busy. And, WAY too much snow. Maybe this coming weekend I can get out into the garage when it isn't below zero out...