Hello Stangnet - Newbie here!

[zehnderm]

Hello all, I'm a new owner and new to this forum so I'm going to need a lot of help! Here's the story of my car:

My father recently passed away and I inherited his 65 coupe that had been sitting up on blocks in his garage in California for the past 25 years. It was my dad's bachelor car, mom and dad's car on their honeymoon and the car my brother and I rode around in as kids. Its an inline 6 with a 3 speed manual transmission and is 100% stock. Its not the biggest, baddest mustang but it has a LOT of good memories to me and in reverence to my father I want to get it running/looking like it did when he had it new.

I hauled it to the Midwest and had a very trusted semi-retired mechanic get it running again for me. He replaced virtually every plastic/rubber part, put in new brakes, added a brake booster, new battery, rebuilt the cylinder head and valve seats, did a ton of other work on the engine, new fuel tank and lines, fuel pump, tires, etc, etc, etc. I runs wonderfully now (it still could use some new shocks and have some transmission work done) and brings a massive smile to my face when I drive it around the neighborhood.

So, here's my question: Now that it runs, I'd like to get it painted before I tackle the interior. The body is in fantastic shape with only one rust spot on the driver door, but it has lots of surface rust where the paint wore away all lover the car. All of the original chrome is intact with some pitting on some parts but otherwise its just very tarnished. What do I do next? Any guidelines that I should follow when I shop it around to various body shops to get quotes? Should I start pulling the chrome off myself or have them do it? Should I just polish some of the chrome in place? I'm a newbie when it comes to working on cars, but I'm very good with my hands. I'll probably leave the major mechanical work to the pros, but I’d like to do some of the small stuff. Any advice would be MUCH appreciated!

Sorry about the long post, but I want to do this right.

 

[ron67fb]

Welcome.

I want to do this right.

Then I'd suggest spending a few hours with the search feature. Or just hang out a while and the lazy non-searchers will ask the same question that was asked the day before. Eventually you'll learn that on Stangnet you don't need to type at all - your topic of choice will come up again within a week.

 

[mustangdave]

Welcome aboard. When shopping for piant shops, look for someone that specializes in classic cars. The average paint shop will not take the time to do your car justice. I'd ask for a quote on rust repair and removing all the trim, rubber seals, and windows for a thorough job.
I mention windows (frt. and rear) because I'm sure you will need new rubber seals. This is also the proper time to replace the headliner.
A common leak/problem for these cars is a leaking cowl area, so have that checked out before painting as the repair involves welding. This repair alone can cost a couple of thousand if you pay a professional.

 

[suki243]

In my opinion, you should do the interior before the exterior. When you pull up the carpet look at the floor pans, often they have rust under there. If you want to do it right, most of the time it has to be replaced.
As for body work, I'd also recommend taking it to a classic shop, most other body shops will try to cut corners, unless you know the owner personally or you're there for every step of the way. Body does take a while to do, especially cause your car isn't gonna be going through insurance. Another reason why I'd suggest you to do the interior first is because when you take it for paint you can also ask them to spray the interior as well. What i did was take everything from the interior out except for 1 seat and 1 pair of seat belts, and drive it over to the painter and let him paint it. I took out carpet and all.
As for chrome pitting... I haven't heard any other way to fix other than replace it. things such as instrument gauges, and badges you can easily get from places like mustangsplus or some other retailer.
You'd also might wanna look at the wiring harness, sometimes the 40+ year old wires can start to become exposed and spark in some cases. Check especially the ignition wires.
Also, heatercore, most of the time you'll know when it's leaking, but the previous owner of my car... didn't know... and I found out about 2 months after i got my car, cause i look down and there's fluid dripping. That ended up rusting the passenger side of the floor pan. It was pretty bad.

Sorry for the long post

 

[my72mach1]

I agree with suki on this, I would do the interior first. Being in this process a little further down the road, pulling all of those components out of the interior right after a new paint job and then reinstalling seems a bit risky to me. Don't want to scratch the new paint!

 

[danny clemens]

You need to decide what kind of paint job that you want so you can let the body shop/painter know what you want. If a painter has to take the chrome and sheet metal off to paint it he will charge you more. You want to do anything you can to save money. That is unless you have plenty of money. You can take the fenders, hood, doors and decklid off and clean them up for the painter and then let him put them back on so he can get them aligned unless you think you can do it yourself.

If you just want the surface rust cleaned up and painted with all of the sheet metal on disregard the first paragraph. You might want to just take the chrome off yourself if you don't want any other parts removed.

BTW, congrats on your Mustang.