68' Project With Son

So what is the best method for stripping, sandblasting, and restoring? Should I start with simple, easily removable items like trunk lid, doors, hood, etc, and then work my way up to quarter panels, fenders, and remove motor\tranny? Just trying to plan this process without turning my car into a pile of parts. What is typical with this level of restoration? Also, after sandblasting I would assume it would be best to immediately apply a primer right? Any recommendations?
well you will wind up with a pile of parts no mater what ,just depends on how organized the pile can be kept:rlaugh:.i would remove the easy parts first ,doors ,fenders ,glass ,interior. then pull the motor and trany .you should primer as soon as possible after blasting it will rust quickly
 
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Thats pretty much what i expected lol. It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to remove a piece, repair, and replace it again...I guess you could but that would take forever as often as you would have to remove and replace. Any recomendations on primer?
 
I would start by pulling out the interior. You will never know what you have until you can really see it. Try to keep it as a roller until you are sure it is somewhere where it is going to stay for a while. I had mine pulled apart and had to put it back together to take it to a sand blaster and then take it back apart when I got home :). I liked the sand blasting because it exposed the weak metal. You can remove a lot of surface rust and have a weak spot. You will need to prime it within 24 to 48 hours. Just remember that when your hands touch bare metal it leaves oils and it starts to rust. If you just paint over it without cleaning it again the base for the paint is flawed. From everything I hear from the guys that restore these cars for a living is that Souther Polyurethanes (http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com) is the thing to use. When it comes time to paint I will certainly be using it for final primer.
 
Lol, i know that will probably happen to me. I wish i had a rotisserrie, not just becauase it would make life easier but because i could store my car on its side and be able to walk through my garage lol. Ok, so start with the interior, bag up all of the parts, start removing panels, buy a sandblaster, sandblast, and then use southernpolyerethane. got it! I sure make this sound easy! I really need to get over to harbor freight and spend some money. I really like the products at southernpoly, great reviews and decent prices. I wonder how many gallons I'll need for this project?
 
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I finally got a little time to get into this project. This weekend we started pulling out the ineterior. Driver side door wouldn't open from the outside so I took the panel off and greased it up real good...opens just fine now. The mustang didn't come with a trunk key but I was told that the inside of it was amazing, mint condition, like it had never been opened before...ha not necessarily the case but the trunk lid does look spectacular! Ended up driling out the lock and purchased a new cylinder for it. We haven't pulled up all of the carpet yet but I did pull it back enough to see that the rear passenger side floorboard is rotted out completely. There goes my "rose colored glasses" =( I did check with Dallas Mustang and I am happy to see that floor pans are very cheap! Time to get a mig welder lol. New pictures being uploaded into my album but here are a few of the better ones. @Falcon79, whats your evening looking like today? I'll probably have an opportunity to get that carpet out if your interested in coming by to give your opinion?
 

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Looks like a Mustang! It is great to see your kids "helping"! Patch panels are great but keep in mind that they stamp them for a range of years. You will need to do some trimming and some gentle persuading with a hammer.

That is great that Dallas Mustang is close by. I am up near Denton, just make sure you call ahead to see if the part is in stock. I have made a few trips to Garland to come home with half the stuff I went for!!
 
Sound advice Jackson, thanks! I guess theres a reason patch panels are so inexpensive lol. I do have a question though regarding floor pans. The price of an entire floor pan is insane, something like 2k but a left side long pan and right side long pan is only around $50 each but it looks like the long pan is the entire pan front to back. What is the difference aside from not having the transmission hump?
 
Mustangs Unlimited has full floor pans listed for around $500 .i would rater go this rout .there will not be any long seams when done .it will look a whole lot better .and will be a lot safer .just the time and trouble saved going with the full floor is worth the cost .
 
I got lucky with mine and the rust was only on the drivers side floor and toe board and a small part of the passenger side. If suspect any rust on the tunnel save you money, do it right and repave the entire floor. If you do not get it all you will be pulling it back apart and redoing it. This is a long and expensive road. It will take longer than you think and cost 3 times what you are planning. In the end it will be great and you will have done it all yourself.

Oh and I think I have bought at least 3 toe boards and 4 pans. I screwed them up a couple of times and once I got a set in I did not like the way it looked and cut them back out :) I would have saved money just buying the dang full floor!
 
Keep in mind when you get to the priming stage, the stuff is toxic, you need a quality respirator, better yet a fresh airs system if you're not spraying in a proper booth. If you're spraying in your garage you want it sealed so you're not getting vapours into the house. SPI primer is good but so is any name brand primer, PPG, Dupont, etc. Also keep in mind that you want to use an epoxy primer first for rust protection before you apply a high build or poly primer. Most re-pop panels are cheap and tend to fit like crap so prepare for the worst, my floor pans were actually pretty good but almost all other pieces were tragic.
 
Thats worth considering. $500 to just get it and be done with it all at once sounds nice. Money is SO tight though. I guess I have nothing but time to sit it out and do things right though. As for paint and primer I haven't really given that enough thought yet. I was thinking a brush on where I do any rust repair and if it will be too much to spray in my garage i may end up taking it somewhere to have it done.
 
Don't get discouraged, these are almost 50 year old cars and Ford did not build them to last that long. They did not spray anything in a lot of areas of the car so you see the same rust all the time.
 
Yeah no kidding, at least there are a lot of places to get parts for it so that this project can be a little less difficult. I'm well overdue for some work on the stang so tonight I'm going to get into it! I'll post an update!
 
Ok, got the carpet out of the back half. It looks like floor pans will be a must! The passenger side back seat has rotted through. The Driver side back seat has had a crappy patch plate installed in the past. Thats gotta go. The transmission tunnel looks to be in good shape though. Does anyone see anything else that should be of concern? That carpet padding was a mess! I sure hope that wasn't asbestos insulation because that stuff went flying EVERYWHERE. I couldn't get the set screw out of the shifter so that I could remove the front carpet. I could only get the set screw to turn a few turns and then it feels like its stripped out when I go farther. I'll figure something out though.

http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/gallery/albums/interior-work.1766/
 
Congrats on getting the car!

The thing with this is you have to have a plan of attack before going in or it will get overwhelming.
I would start with the rust, getting the floor pans (partial or full), rear seat area, trunk sides done first. You have to have a solid foundation before anything else. From there people usually do the suspension or engine bay, body/paint and finally interior. Dont get discouraged if something takes longer than you think, it has taken me over a year to get my engine bay stripped, painted and everything installed back again and I am still not quite done with it.

Wire brushes on a drill or on an angle grinder do wonders but please get a quality respirator from Lowes or Home Depot. Also get ear plugs, and at minimum goggles or even better a face shield.

CJ Pony Parts should be having a Black Friday sale next week, they always have free shipping and no tax for us Texas guys. I would look there for sheet metal. Pay a bit more for the Dynacorn stuff, its thicker and generally fits better. I know it might be a bit soon to start ordering but they will have another sale closer to Christmas and right before the new year.
 
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Thanks @afast93stang, that is pretty much my plan of attack at the moment. I'm waiting until tomorrow to order the floor pans when black friday sales start =) I'm leaning toward CJ becuase of the disount for buying both pans, free shipping, and the tax free break! I need to figure out what part that is I need to order for the trunk. I know the wheel house is rusted but I haven't figured out for sure what that drop down part in the trunk is called. Its visible in my pictures I think but you can see straight down into my wheel well. For all of you veteran restorers...what is your opinion on fiberglass body work repair? I intend to buy sheet metal but the guy at O'reileys (not the best place for advice) brought up a good point that you can mold and repair just about any body work with fiberglass and resin so long as you cut out the rust and prime/treat the surrounding areas. I know its a cheap fix but is this idea uncommon and downright crazy? Bah...I need money...and a mig...and more time off work lol.
 
You will hear the same mantra from most on here, do it right the first time and it will be a long time before you do it again! Most pieces and parts are not expensive but when you need one of everything it is a long list!
 
Thanks @afast93stang, that is pretty much my plan of attack at the moment. I'm waiting until tomorrow to order the floor pans when black friday sales start =) I'm leaning toward CJ becuase of the disount for buying both pans, free shipping, and the tax free break! I need to figure out what part that is I need to order for the trunk. I know the wheel house is rusted but I haven't figured out for sure what that drop down part in the trunk is called. Its visible in my pictures I think but you can see straight down into my wheel well. For all of you veteran restorers...what is your opinion on fiberglass body work repair? I intend to buy sheet metal but the guy at O'reileys (not the best place for advice) brought up a good point that you can mold and repair just about any body work with fiberglass and resin so long as you cut out the rust and prime/treat the surrounding areas. I know its a cheap fix but is this idea uncommon and downright crazy? Bah...I need money...and a mig...and more time off work lol.
dont do the repairs with fiberglass ,it will not last and it is a total mess to fix later .do it with metal . the side of the trunk floor that goes down into the rear quarter is called the trunk drop off it is part of the trunk floor.