What are you doing today? 2017

[UGLY OLDS]

I see what's wrong Dave, it should be a Chevy under there!

 Be careful Kenny... You never know who may be watching .....  

Bob..

[purplepickup]

Ah, a portable bidet..

[idrivejunk]

The one early Mustang that I've seen with a 390 in it had a factory tubing brace over the top of the engine from inner fender to inner fender ( coil spring, shock towers ) to help the front end from "giving" due to the extra weight. Is this Mustang ditting on a after-market front suspension so that it could have smooth inner fenders? GPster

Yes it has a Mustang II front end. But if you ask me, it still needs a brace of some sort.

[kb426]

^^^^^^
I'm with ya, George.
LOL

[idrivejunk]

Ah, a portable bidet..

Dang, what kinda ladies you hang out with?     Mud wrestlers, perhaps?

[idrivejunk]

I made an attachment for my pressure washer wand a long time ago.  It is used to wash the bottom of vehicles and remove oil, grease, mud, and other crud.  As I age, I prefer to work on clean stuff.  Today I adapted it further and added wheels.  Someone probably manufactures these but I have not seen them.

John

That is nifty.

[idrivejunk]

Whew, this Ford is wearing me out. Another day spent and I finally fixed enough issues to get front end gaps I can accept. Gap at the cowl is over a quarter inch but hood sides are that big only at the widest spot. I threw my whole bag o trix at it so now you are free to critique at the risk of prompting an explanation that sounds like Major Nelson talking to Dr Bellows. Gonna give my best shot at doing the firewall shave in half a day so's I can be shed of the job. Caught the masking paper skirt on fire doing the little door and fender corner trim so that added a brief shot of adrenaline. I went in thinking this was just a hinge swap and adjust gaps thing so my mental prep was inadequate. Fortunately my boss knows gaps can be a pain and that this was a challenge. And I know it ain't perfect. But when it came in it was a mess. Now its less of a mess.

[kb426]

Matt, is the reason your shop ended up with this is because the owner wasn't happy with whoever worked on it before?

[idrivejunk]

It was a coupe body bought from some place that cranks out fastback conversions. All new skins I guess. As far as I can decipher... owner bought parts and did his own M2 suspension swap and related front end surgery. Took it all to be painted, paint turned out crummy plus nothing fit. Owner made noble efforts but probably fell short on body panel mock up after the front structure work. He may not have had a hood at the time. We did a couple jobs for him before and he knows the drill but for lack of a better way to put it, he cried uncle. There were further improvements he wished to make by that time as well. So... to answer your question... the paint job he got looks to be bargain crash shop quality but he may have tried for a win with non-top-notch materials. Theres not much paint or anything on it and in places under the hood, paint comes off on the tape a little. That won't fly since it is a show car.

[UGLY OLDS]

Just thinkin' & got a crazy question .....If the front end was bent in such a way that you were able to push the damaged area back to straight, what happens after he hits a bump or three with the front end  :?:  :?  

Bob...

[idrivejunk]

Uh oh, just remembered... theres one bolt missing from each Mustang door hinge. Officially frantic now, about that. If each of you mail me a bolt, I can try working the ratchet and holding the light with the other hand but might get smoke in my eye and have to start over.

[idrivejunk]

Just thinkin' & got a crazy question .....If the front end was bent in such a way that you were able to push the damaged area back to straight, what happens after he hits a bump or three with the front end  :?:  :?  

Bob...

Howdy Bob. I don't know who's kit    it is, but it does have substantial frame rails that extend back under the car. Obviously, if it had a crash rating that would be out the window. The upper front structure is much weaker than stock, but the lower is much stronger. Some down tubes would not bother me a bit. I could murder the stock aprons or these with my li'l pry tool, and did bend them up without mercy... but your concern is the same that I had. Thats why instead of just putting fender nuts on the aprons, I made the thicker strip as a brace with preload built in. The apron edges can be moved a little by hand and while most of the guys agreed that the integrity might be sufficient without that, everybody was right on board with the strip being enough added support to hold the fender gap. But as you probably already know, you can walk up to anything built with 1 mil aftermarket panels and mess up gaps with your hand. The sturdiness built into fender mounting on Mustangs this era is very weak design point plus these will dent with a thumb. Our hero swears he just wants to go on and off a trailer with it so fortunately its just a display case for detailing abilities as is the norm these days.   I'd make an engine bay brace if they asked, but the suspension does not need it like a stocker would, in my opinion.

Jeannie? Jeannie?!

[58 Yeoman]

Well, the cars built back then weren't known for the fit and finish, were they?  After watching you tackle all these gaps, I've started looking at the new cars on the roads today. Wow...They do have even gaps.

[idrivejunk]

Well, the cars built back then weren't known for the fit and finish, were they?  After watching you tackle all these gaps, I've started looking at the new cars on the roads today. Wow...They do have even gaps.

Assembly manuals I have read often place trim fit above panel fit, and that makes sense somewhat. A place where the panel gap spec is 1/4" might be 1/8" for trim in the same area. But yeah. The same manfacturing developments that have us expecting 200K miles with no oil consumption from new engines took ahold of bodywork too.

What I learned in ICAR and Shark measuring system training is that body on frame structural dimension variance (mostly trucks by then) is a cumulative 5-7 mm. Unibody is 3. Thats any combination of mms in any directions... can only total 3. A new BMW will have you hack off the entire aluminum front structure at the firewall and glue on another if it is out by 1 mm. What I learned about how they do it is what they call mill and drill. The unibody is assembled and welded... THEN they make the holes for everything. Unlike a Nova or Chevelle fender for example, which are made from pieces with holes already in them when welded. The flappy 20 gauge skins on most stuff now will comply with wherever the bolt holes are. Now, consider that the original 18 gauge is about all gone from the Mustang, then factor in classic manufacturing woes and you have what I do here. Which honestly might not be too shabby fit-wise but the hood holds it back. Talk of another hood arose and subsided. As usual, the solution is somewhere in the mddle.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Cuttin, fittin cage  tubes on the Morris Minor 1000.  Lots of mig welding this evening on re-fitted tubes, old tubes that were never fully welded 10 yrs ago

Some welding on the relocated 4 link mounts too.

Slow work at Old n Sloppy here in the southwest of the USA