Build Thread '83 T-top Coupe - Cliff Notes Edition

[Davedacarpainter]

This is a "cliff notes" version of the full thread. It just contains the pictures of when I actually did something without all the bs-ing me and the guys do as I go along with building Booger.

If you post on this thread, I WILL delete your comments, this is just for y'all to catch up on the full thread without going through all the extras.

To give you an idea how much this cuts back on the page count, the first twenty five pages of the full thread fit into just slightly more than two here!

Here's a link to the full thread if you're interested or want to comment on what's going on. I'd love to here from you! https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/83-t-top-coupe-a-little-support-here.892774/

Ok, I think it's time to start my progress thread on Robby.

Where to start.... Pictures to refresh our memories.

Robby (Rusty Old Blue Bastard) as he sits right now in the salvage yard still.

First purchase. Two "new" doors. I'm only going to work on the passenger door for now and put the driver's door into storage in case it's needed. This is the door after tear down, obviously. Notice the mouldings, they're in great condition. These mouldings are just about impossible to come by, it's like gold. Nice mouldings.......my precious.......my precious....

BTW, this is the second set of hinges that I've had to take apart. Both times I've had the door off. I will drink one tonight for you guys that have done this on the vehicle. I don't even want to know what a pita this is doing it on the car. That hinge pin must be a monster to remove in that tight crevice!

I will drop the door off with a good media blaster here in Broken Arrow (suburb of Tulsa). I'll have the front side blasted with ground up walnut shells and the back with sand. I will be using this company quite a bit in the next month, they are very reasonable in their pricing ($50 for the door).

Next Monday I'm going to pull out all of the door dings prior to taking it to being blasted. I'll get a couple pictures of the equipment I'll be using to pull those dents. If one is patient enough, one could do all of one's bodywork without bondo. This one will try to be that patient, One shall self medicate in effort to increase one's virtue in this area! Though I'm just going to glaze the bottom of the door to get rid of that factory wave that seems to be on all fox doors.

I'll actually pick up the car in about two weeks and have it towed to a storage unit where I can do the work.

Final note. Robby will be painted Kona Blue (sorry Allen). It's close to the original color, just modernized with pearls and cleaner blue toners. I will go ahead and paint these panels I'm getting blasted. Hopefully the door will be shot by next Friday. Obviously, pictures are to come as I progress or get new boxes on my doorstep.

I almost forgot, the engine bay:

 

[Davedacarpainter]

What's new in Dave's world? I took out the little dings all over the new door. What I'm doing is trying to make it so all I have to do to the door is to primer it and seam seal it before I block it out to paint it.

Except for the lower portion of the door. Ford did this to all fox bodies to pis s me off! I will put a glaze coat of bondo there to smooth it out. Using the tools I did to take out the door dings, I could totally smooth the door without bondo. Yet I would have to come up with enough sht to give to do this. It takes a LOT of time on every panel to come up with a total finish without bondo, huh @TOOLOW91 ?

Your buddies car is amazing to me, I would have to lose the wife, children and grandchildren to duplicate that feat!

Anywho.... Here's some pictures of the equipment I used to take out the dents. This little machine is wonderful, it's anode tack welds to the bare metal of the dent and has a small slide hammer weight to pop out the dent. There is also the lever that you can use to be more gentle pulling out dents. I didn't use it too much, I just want them out enough to primer over and block them out. It has a magnetic ground, btw. You just need bare metal to have it stick to.

So, pictures: I circled all the dents with a marker

started to sand the dents to the metal so the electrode would attach

You can see I didn't try to pull every dent. Several of them are small enough that primer will cover them up.

then I sprayed the areas with rattle can etch so I could see if the dents pulled out properly while the primer was still wet and shiny, I got a few more after this photo. Tomorrow, at lunch, I'll drop the door off to be media blasted.

I'll be getting the hood and deck lid off of Robby this week so I can do the same thing to them, and then drop them off to be media blasted too. I'll pluck the carburetor off of him too and tear it down and let it soak for a couple days.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Got a box today! First of many to come. My new mass back carpet.

So Robby's got a rug now.

I got the passenger door to the media blasters today, I'll pick it up in a couple days and get it in etch primer at least. Then I'll smooth out the bottom of the door and primer the whole thing. I'll probably let it sit over the weekend, then seam seal it and hopefully have it painted by mid week next week. We have another new clear at work that is absolutely stunning. I can't wait to try it out on the door.

Friday I'll be able to get back into the yard and I'll try to get as many panels as I can. Hood, fenders, deck lid, bumpers. BTW! The media blasters say they can clean up the bumpers! Yay! I didn't want to have to strip the paint off by sanding it. Wheh! Oh yeah, I'll be taking the carburetor with me as well. I'm thinking it may need to soak for a little bit of time before I clean it and rebuild it.

That's today's happenings, nothing more for a couple days, unless I get more boxes tomorrow (which I should).

 

[Davedacarpainter]

So I opened the box from yesterday and got a new one today. In with the carpet is the right t-top to body seal. The new itty bitty box has my new hinge pin kits and a new ignition switch.

BTW, the yard owner is going to give me a tilt steering colum from another 4i he has in the yard!

Here's a picture

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I just discovered a little hickie about my new door. the trim piece across the top of the door isn't on Robby. Guess I'll weld up some little holes.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

There we go, one media blasted door. Before

And after

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Here it is on the tree stand after a quick sanding.

Here it is with a couple coats of etch primer.

And finally, here it is with four coats of primer.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Got the trim holes welded up, the door is officially a t-top door now!

Tomorrow I start the bodywork on it. I want to be finished straightening it by Friday and reprimer it. Next week.....kona blue!

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Here's the door after the initial blocking, you can see the bottom of the door is as ugly as I thought it would be. The other area to really fix is around the door handle, I'll push it out from underneath while tapping around the dented area to shrink up the metal a little and bring it up to even with the rest of the door.

The bottom? I'll pull out the larger dents, tap down the high spots and bend up the rear lower edge (it got smacked inboard a little at some point in it's life). Then I'll put a coat of glaze over it. It shouldn't need regular bondo after I'm done with the metal work.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I got a little bit done on the door today. This is payday, so when the dealership owner hands out paychecks, it becomes a ghost town. I ghosted as well!

Anyhow, I got the dents pushed out and the door handle area pushed out fairly easy. I then glazed it. I didn't show a picture with the mud on it because my boss handed out checks as I was slinging the mud. Once that paycheck was in hand, you could actually hear a pop from the vacuum of me moving so fast to get to my truck that it created a mini sonic boom.

So, here's a door ground down, woohoo I guess

I'll show a picture of the mudded door tomorrow, I'll block the bondo in the morning and hopefully reprimer it on Friday.

I have to go to the yard tomorrow night, the owner is a fireman and he has to work Friday. So no late night working on the door tomorrow. I'm going to try to get as much of Robby tomorrow as I can.

I feel like Johnny Cash, I got it one piece at a time.....

 

[Davedacarpainter]

There's the mud on the bottom of the door, I know it looks like a lot, but it's not. It's a very thin coat. And boy is it straight now! No ripples, no nothing!

I still have to put a little glaze across the top of the door where I welded up the trim holes.

Almost ready for primer, not today though. The yard owner will be up with Robby today, so it's time to go fetch more parts.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Got out to the yard today, the owner had to leave in an hour, so all I got was this. The fender is straight as can be!
I also got my new dash pad in as well!

Next Wednesday after work I'll be getting more panels, deck lid, right fender and the bumpers.

Off to the blaster tomorrow for the fender though.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

BTW, for those that don't already know this.

To make your mouldings lay flat, remove the metal strip off the back, use a small torch or heat gun to soften the glue and take a pair of pliers and pull that off.

The picture shows the rear fender moulding with the strip already off and it shows the front fender moulding that still has it on. The rear was by far worse than the front one.

You'll want to use an adhesion promoter on the moulding before you put new two sided tape on it. 3M sells little packets with wipes in them that are perfect for that.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Btw, I got my door in it's final primer. It's nice and straight. Kona blue next week!

The second photo is my free gallon of kona blue from our jobber, woohoo!

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Got the fender back from the media blasters today, same routine as the door, sand, etch and primer.

Holy smoke! I have a bit of work to do across the top side of that fender. Those waves weren't nearly as noticeable when covered with rust and peeling paint!

Anyhow, pics

You can't really see it too much in this picture, but that top made me feel a little ill with so many waves! Oh well, I'll fix 'er up in no time.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

So the door is now kona blue. It looks dark in the booth, I'll get a picture in the sun later on.

So, from red, to bare metal to blue:

I'm dying to see how it looks in the sunlight!

I just noticed how patriotic that looks, I am so cool.

One other thing, the body lines are just sooo freaking straight! It almost will be a shame to put the mouldings back on. Almost....

 

[Davedacarpainter]

BTW, those pictures of the door in blue look orange peely. That was taken right after I shot the clear, it flowed out nicely after that. I'll try to show it tomorrow with the sunlight picture.

I did get the left fender's main blocking after the bodywork done. I will reprimer it in the morning, it'll probably be Thursday before I shoot it.

I was supposed to go out to the sy today and get the rear bumper and hood today, I baled on that. The media blasters called to tell me I could pick up the right fender and deck lid tomorrow morning. Those two panels will keep me tied up till next week, I don't need more right now.

I will drop off the front bumper with the blasters tomorrow though. I got it torn down today. Aluminum rivets are a really nice thing when drilling them out of a plastic part.

Finally got my headliner in today as well. I'll show it later, but I will include a picture of the box, just to have a picture for this post.

I know what you're thinking, with the condition of that garage, you're thinking, "wait, is that Scott's garage?". Huh @RacEoHolic330 ?

 

[Davedacarpainter]

In the sun

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I picked up my right fender and deck lid from the media blasters today. So, before and after

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I finished stripping the paint off of the deck lid. That sucker had been painted five times. I sanded down the jamb side and the fender also and went through the etch/primer routine to get them safe from rust and prepare for their repairs.

This fender is a little bit better than the left fender as a starting point. It'll still need to be mudded across the top though.