Underdash

[mikes68]

Originally posted by ozbilt

Originally posted by mikes68

Originally posted by tim_morrison82
the more you pull yours apart, the better i feel....

however, i just hope i can get mine done before the rust turns into something similar to yours..

I'm not so fussed by it all... I pretty much expected most of it so there are no real surprises. I think I made some reasonably well educated guesses on what parts I would need and the only thing(s) I should have ordered up front as well were the rockers - oh well!!!

They are really simple to get folded up. Any good sheet metal shop could do that real quick & way less than importing some. The fronts & rear of the inners rarely are rusted, just the underside. 14 guage steel.

Hmmm, well that's food for thought then.

The rear of the inner right hand rocker is quite bad underneath and the top rear end of the outer rocker is rusted through from inside the qtr window area...

[non member]

Originally posted by mikes68

Originally posted by ozbilt

Originally posted by mikes68

Originally posted by tim_morrison82
the more you pull yours apart, the better i feel....

however, i just hope i can get mine done before the rust turns into something similar to yours..

I'm not so fussed by it all... I pretty much expected most of it so there are no real surprises. I think I made some reasonably well educated guesses on what parts I would need and the only thing(s) I should have ordered up front as well were the rockers - oh well!!!

They are really simple to get folded up. Any good sheet metal shop could do that real quick & way less than importing some. The fronts & rear of the inners rarely are rusted, just the underside. 14 guage steel.

Hmmm, well that's food for thought then.

The rear of the inner right hand rocker is quite bad underneath and the top rear end of the outer rocker is rusted through from inside the qtr window area...

Get them folded up then, very easy. You could just get a "Z" piece folded up so you kept the upper inner rocker with the seat belt mounts etc.

That section of the outer rocker, when you remove it you will find an inner bracing that is directly under the door striker pillar (B pillar). If you look underneath you can see the spot welds. That section will have to be fitted before you replace that section.

[mikes68]

Originally posted by ozbilt
Get them folded up then, very easy. You could just get a "Z" piece folded up so you kept the upper inner rocker with the seat belt mounts etc.

I'm trying to picture what you mean here Kerry... do mean if the top and inner side of the inner rocker is good, then slice it along the lower hozontal line and patch it in there with some new stuff? This would retain the chamfered edge and inside form of the original...

[non member]

Originally posted by mikes68
I'm trying to picture what you mean here Kerry... do mean if the top and inner side of the inner rocker is good, then slice it along the lower hozontal line and patch it in there with some new stuff? This would retain the chamfered edge and inside form of the original...

Yep, just the bottom where it is rusted. So the lip where it joins the outer rocker, the bottom & some of the vertical inner to where it is solid metal. Long as it is solid, looks not important.

[mikes68]

Originally posted by ozbilt

Originally posted by mikes68
I'm trying to picture what you mean here Kerry... do mean if the top and inner side of the inner rocker is good, then slice it along the lower hozontal line and patch it in there with some new stuff? This would retain the chamfered edge and inside form of the original...

Yep, just the bottom where it is rusted. So the lip where it joins the outer rocker, the bottom & some of the vertical inner to where it is solid metal. Long as it is solid, looks not important.

Goodo... I had a closer look at the rockers last night and the right hand is a definate candidate for the patch. The left maybe alright so maybe not as much work in it there. I do still have an entire floor to replace so will have to consider the "flex" option Tim and others wrote of earlier as there is a good chance the inner rockers will not be pulled out now.

Thanks

[mikes68]

Originally posted by ozbilt
Check out the pistons, if they are the originals, they needed replacing anyway. Esp if they were TRW

Agreed - I'm told the 302 Windsor was notorious for the pistons to "drop their skirt" so you just wouldn't waste your time rebuilding one of these without putting in new pistons.

I am planning to put a kit over the engine in any case which will include the pistons... I have a good friend (gotta name-drop here: Allan Greene of "The Greene Machine" Nitro Funny car fame here in Perth) who is completely kitted up to bore, hone, grind, press bearings etc. We are just not fitted out with all the gear to machine the engine parts as will be needed. He can also supply all the parts required for the rebuild and hand it all back to my Dad to reassemble. It's great to have that old Father / Son thing going... nothing quite beats it.

[mikes68]

I have finished removing all the bits and pieces from the dash now. The wiring was a little bit of a pain in the a#se to "unthread" and pull through the firewall although there was probably really no need as I should have just cut it either side of the firewall as it would have been so much quicker. The harness has aged too much to bother about reusing with many cracks and splits in the deteriorated insulation that it would just be a fire hazard waiting to go off...

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Intoweek3-day2005.jpg[/IMG]

Removing the light switch ("ahhh yes" I hear the experienced ones say) was a little challenging... until I remembered Alex's blog (http://68vert.blogspot.com/search?q=light+switch) which shows it very clearly. I borrowed the next 2 pics from his site and added the textual explanations.

[IMG=700x525]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Lightswitch-1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG=700x525]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Lightswitch-2.jpg[/IMG]

So this is what the "project" looks like now...

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Intoweek3-day2009.jpg[/IMG]

I'm just waiting on the arrival of the steel to make the full body jig and I will rip into the floor pan and rockers.

I'm also trying to find a decent quality and sized spot weld removal tool here locally so I can get into the front seat riser and upper / lower cowel removal. If anyone knows where in Perth they are available then sing out...

[nassi]

Mike just grind up an appropriate size drill bit.

[mikes68]

Originally posted by nassi
Mike just grind up an appropriate size drill bit.

Just a flat face....??? Won't that skip around a bit?

[non member]

No nassi means grinding them into a spot weld drill.

easy way for you is to get a packet of double ended "jobber" drills 1/8" They will be the initial drill for going through the center of the welds & you will break a few, OK a lot.

Then chase them through with an appropriate sized drill, probably up to 5/16" Big job & lots of patience needed.

[nassi]

I'll grind one up tomorrow and take a pic.
cheers

[Rock65]

Wow mike not much left of it!

[mikes68]

Originally posted by ozbilt
No nassi means grinding them into a spot weld drill.

easy way for you is to get a packet of double ended "jobber" drills 1/8" They will be the initial drill for going through the center of the welds & you will break a few, OK a lot.

Then chase them through with an appropriate sized drill, probably up to 5/16" Big job & lots of patience needed.

Okey doke...

Originally posted by nassi
I'll grind one up tomorrow and take a pic.

Thanks nassi...

[mikes68]

Originally posted by Rock65
Wow mike not much left of it!

Hey Rock...

Yeah it's taken me around 36 man-hours to do all of that.

About all I have left to do before I start ripping out the front seat riser and cowel is:

Remove wheels
Remove suspension - front and rear
Engine mounts
Brake lines
Fuel lines
The false air scoop trim
Some other little nuts and bolts sticking in here and there

I am collecting the steel for the "Ozjig" (mkI) this weekend. Gotta pick up a welder and I'll get cracking with that although I may start ripping the front seat riser and cowel before then...

[nassi]

  Try this Mike. http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s237/1nassi/?action=view&current=IMG_1964.jpg

[mikes68]

Originally posted by nassi
  Try this Mike. http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s237/1nassi/?action=view&current=IMG_1964.jpg

Yeah gotchya... thanks Nassi

[mikes68]

Dropping the front end off...

Got the front end off yesterday. I couldn't wait for my spring compressor to arrive (about 4 weeks away) so I decided to fashion one up myself. You can see here that I chopped the lower mount off one of the old front shocks, got a length of 10mm threaded rod and locked it on the mount with a nut either side.

[IMG=384x512]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek5007.jpg[/IMG]

It obviously bolts on nicely to it's orginal mounting point on the upper control arm.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek5002.jpg[/IMG]

I couldn't find a piece of steel plate so I figured that a block of wood (already had the hole drilled and all) should suffice. These springs do have a lot of strength in them but... :+

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek5003.jpg[/IMG]

So more than a few turns on the spanner and you really only need to take the weight of the spring here. No need to compress it up completely so you can undo the nuts holding the base spring plate (what ever that is really called) onto the upper control arm.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek5001.jpg[/IMG]

Once the two have separated, you may just need to tension up the spring a little more to pull it high enough to allow the bolts to clear the plate.

I undid the upper ball joint and dropped the lower control arm with the stub, drum etc then undid the upper control arm bolts and slipped that out from under the spring.

Then just wound down the tension on the spring and voila... the front end is off.

Mount it up on the jig...

I spent most of today getting the jig ready to take the weight of the remants of the car...

I'm quite pleased that I got this done as it was just sitting (teatering) on bricks and some jack stands :* which kinda made me a little nervous - oh to have a fully kitted out workshop with hoists and all that good gear.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek5008-Copy.jpg[/IMG]

There was about 8mm sag in the middle - I may get a 3rd set of wheels ($30.00 each) to prop that up.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek5007-Copy.jpg[/IMG]

I still have the forward and rear props to put in but the actual load bearing is done on the original factory jig points - thanks Kerry for the original pics which this is based on.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek5005-Copy.jpg[/IMG]

These wheels are rated up to 300kg each and are 100mm wheels. I must admit that I did not expect this to be so damned easy to push around. Very little effort indeed.

I suggested to my wife that I liked it across the middle of the garage and that her car may have to stay outside for the night - to which she replied "that's okay, just move your sleeping bag out there next to it as well then..." :w

She is such a comedian...

[scott66stang]

Want to borrow a swag then ????:w

[EXHAUSTED]

If you need the correct spring compressor I have one that you could borrow.
Cheers  -- Peter

[mikes68]

Originally posted by scott66stang
Want to borrow a swag then ????:w

No need thanks Scott... I conceded and pushed her (the car that is) back into the corner, even gave the garage a good sweep out so I get to sleep inside - tonight!

Originally posted by EXHAUSTED
If you need the correct spring compressor I have one that you could borrow.
Cheers  -- Peter

Thanks for the offer Peter - I should have my proper one here in a few weeks - I was just getting impatient and it actually worked an absolute treat. I don't think I will be needing a compressor again for some time yet -  I can't work that quickly :+.

[Rock65]

Mike you would be better off with a swag. It has a matress in it. Sleep tight mate.

[jusTANG]

going great guns there Mike well done, keep us posted

[mikes68]

There is / was so much bondo, rivets and brazing done to this in some half a@rsed attempt at an earlier restoration that there was no way I was going to even consider salvaging this area of the car. The driver's vent had completely rusted out and the upper cowl had been stitched in place with braze and filled up with bondo all around the outer folds - no, not the actual seams but the final folds going out to the seams. I took to the brazing with a grinder (both cutting and grinding wheels at various times). Of the probably 150 to 200 original spot welds that actually hold these in place there was perhaps 1 third of that number in brazing welds so the removal of the top cowl was relatively pain free.

Although the actual top edge of the cowl is spot welded to the lower part of the windscreen you can see in the picture below that I have cut along the lower fold. This was actually already done and stitched in with bronze welding so it was very quick to slice it open along there again. I will of course have to set about grinding back and removing that lower windscreen sill at a later stage.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Week6-cowlremoval001-Copy.jpg[/IMG]

You can see how badly the driver's cowl is rusted out in the picture below. Maybe if that was all that was wrong I would consider a patch. The centre and passenger side sections are reasonably good however it is all the crap stitching that was done around the edges that really has me happy with the decision to do a complete replacement. That was another item I took a punt on when ordering a bunch of parts so the upper and lower cowl assemblies should arrive in about 4 weeks.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Week6-cowlremoval005.jpg[/IMG]

I took much the same approach with the removal of the lower cowl as was done with the upper section. Again it was difficult to discriminate what was the lower cowl and what was either the top of the firewall or cowl side panel and it was again mostly bronze welded in place with an enormous amount of bondo filling the gaps.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Week6-cowlremoval007.jpg[/IMG]

It may be a little difficult to see in the picture below but I ended up cutting inside the folded lip of the lower cowl (just inside the top of the firewall). It was easier than competing with the spot welds and the brazing so I will take to that 2 foot strip with a grinder later to tidy that up.

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Week6-cowlremoval008.jpg[/IMG]

Here's the left overs.. waiting for the scrap heap. I will probably keep them around to completion as there would be some good clean metal that may be used in some patches elsewhere later on...

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Week6-cowlremoval011.jpg[/IMG]


Well, it has been a busy Easter weekend.

I'm into my 6th week now and it hardly looks anything like it originally did when first landed here on Australian soil...

[mikes68]

I've been a little quiet on the updates here...

Although not "directly" related to the resto, I felt it was time to install a small sink in the garage. My wife was just a little more than raising and eyebrow at me each time I walked into the kitchen off the garage and started washing my hands in the kitchen sink:*

I found this little sink in the "pile" out the back of my Dad's garage so I mounted it next to the door into the kitchen - of course so that I would be more inclined to use it... :+

[IMG=512x384]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek7001-Copy.jpg[/IMG]

I started cutting out the quarter skins as these are to be replaced anyway so I wanted them out of the way ready for when I go to the blast booth. Under advice (from the forum of course) I have left the leading 25mm edge of the skin on to help keep the 'B' pillar where it is until the doors go back on. At this stage I've also left the top and rear sections of the skin in place. I have some new skins coming in a few weeks however I don't think they have the recesses for the early model 68 reflectors so leaving them in here will give me good reference points if I need to graft them into the new skins whilst giving me plenty of access when blasting...

[IMG=512x386]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek10001.jpg[/IMG]

I've also put in some door braces. These are not complete as yet with 1 or 2 vertical struts to be put in place - although I don't think it really needs it as the 1" RHS will provide plenty of rigidity...

[IMG=512x386]http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy353/pyer8s/Endofweek10002.jpg[/IMG]

I am now in the process of building a rotisserie with the 2 main frames constructed. Today I picked up some steel pipe for the actual axis points so hopefully I will get into that this weekend. I've got some drawings and other specs from a few sources but am kinda also doing it on the fly. Still trying to decide whether or not I will have this a simple fixed height or maybe an adjustable height. If I can get some "lower priced" (that ones for your benefit Kerry :+) hydraulic rams then I will go the adjustable. Will post some pics of the rotisserie some time over the weekend if I remember...

[non member]

If you are building a rotisserie that is dedicated for Mustangs, then no ram is needed. To get the height of the center of the axle, you measure from the center point of the car up 100mm from the top of the front rails (that is the C of G of all early Mustangs, regardless of body type), then pull the tape out on the diagonal until you can see that you are on the outer extremity of the top of the windshield post. That will allow the car body to swing.

If you are going to on-sell the rotisserie, then add the rams as the market will be increased for the sale.

You can get some long rams (same as what is in an engine lift) for about AU$80 each. I put one on a tilt trailer I built for Sean (BossKraft).



Rest of album here..

http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww284/Downresto/Misc%20Mustang%20stuff/Home/

I build rotisseries & trailers when people want them. I enjoy the work, it's like being at the factory in China, I love creating useful equipment. It is what you do when not playing with Mustangs....